Hi - I am a new 360 owner and am a bit perplexed about checking the oil level. First of all, is there some reason Ferrari set up a system where you check the oil level with the engine running. This seems very stupid - hard to get an accurate reading with the oil moving and easy to burn your hands on the hot dip stick. Is it just too logical for modern sciend to check the oil when the car is dead cold and you get a super accurate - repeatable reading? Second, since this is the first car with such a system I have owned, I am not sure if it is normal for bubbles to show in the oil on the dip stick when I check it (engine running). Is this normal?? As always, thanks to anyone for their advice. This site is a God send. JohnBoy
There is nothing 'stupid' about the design. The ferrari has a dry sump motor. When the motor is shut down the oil drains from the resevoir back into the motor. Checking the level 'cold' will result in a false low reading and overfilling the motor is not a good thing to do (you can check the oil level immediately after the motor is shut down and you will get an accurate reading but you gotta be quick). If you have bubbles in the oil you likely are using an OE motor oil......there are plenty of alternative oils that do not foam such as royal purple, mobil one 0w40 euro formula, ect. Switch your brand of oil and the foaming will be history. Regarding the hot disptick.......yes it will get hot but I wear a dollar store pair of gloves when I remove the dipstick and the problem is solved.
Go to bed bath and beyond and get a great set of oven gloves--they are actual gloves that are thin so you can actually use your fingers to grip, etc. They work great and yes, always check when engine is at temp or else you risk a "off" reading and may overfill, etc, which is no good.
I used to change cams in my hotrod in highschool, adjust valves, change carb jets weekly but today have no friggin' idea where the dipstick even is on my 360. 3000 miles a year, oil change every year, who cares.
There is nothing to complain about here... It's an oil reservoir and a nice Ferrari screw-on cap with a dipstick. All you have to do is put on some mechanic gloves and check your car oil level while engine is hot and running... A more important question is - which oil to use? There has been a lot of discussion about this on this forum. Just search for it. Cheers.
A tip for checking the oil- some brands/oils get foamy which makes reading the level difficult (I think the factory used Shell oil does this)- anyway, the tip is to have the car fully warmed up (like after a nice 20+ minute drive) on level ground and to shut the car off for a few minutes, then re-start and check the oil with the car at idle/level ground. The oil doesn't cool off enough in 3 minutes to make a reading difference, but the bubbles do go away which makes it much easier. I thought my car was way overfilled, but after doing this the re-reading had it perfect. For the record, my car was 1 quart overfilled when I first got it- the mechanic from the prior owner probably didn't wait until the oil was fully warmed up- there is a noticable difference in readings with full temperature oil and oil that is cold. I had to take the extra oil out with a turkey baster- forget the pain of checking the dipstick with a hot running motor, how about sucking up a little oil at a time while reaching over a hot tubi and running motor, while trying not to spill a drop on the motor! One more somewhat obvious thing but worth re-stating here- don't forget to be very careful of the hot exhaust tips by your legs, especially when wearing shorts!
