Alright guys, here comes the story. When I was looking for a 360 there weren't that many manual cars on the market, and even less with a nice color combo, the right price tag, right conditions and so on. You know, when you are looking for a second hand car there are a lot of things that should come together, especially if it's a car like that. The problem is that when I was looking for my car was the period when prices where skyrocketing, going up almost every 2-3 months. So I was feeling a little… “pressure” as you can imagine. Given all that, even if I really wanted a manual car, I found a very nice deal on a F1. The car itself was in nearly immaculate conditions, all the leather upholstery was like brand new, the most classic color combo of red on tan, 4 new Bridgestone tyres, complete service history and complete service before delivery, all three original FOBs and, most important, was a very late model. This meaning it had all the updates available and the very last TCU. So considering the car itself was a winner I decided to buy it, even with the F1 transmission. In three years of ownership I enjoyed it, during spirited drives and on mountain passes the F1 transmission set on Sport mode has been absolutely fantastic. The downshifts with the automatic heel and toe were awesome, the upshifts at the red line with the brutal kick in your back were awesome too. But we are not driving these cars like that every time. We also enjoy relaxed driving, maybe on a gentle winding road beside a lake or in the countryside. The sound of the 5 valve V8 in a rev-match downshift is intoxicating.. but to hear that with the F1 you need to be in Sport mode and above 5000 rpm. That means if you wanna hear it for example approaching a roundabout in a residential area you must be… a sort of ********* approaching the roundabout in a low gear with the engine screaming at least at 5000 rpm. That's not for me. I know how to heel and toe, and I felt the need to be able to do that myself, even at 2000 rpm, just to enjoy my drive. I don’t have a lot of time to enjoy my cars, so when I go out for a drive I want that drive to be special. Unfortunately the F1 system for me is all but special if you don't redline every time. Don't get me wrong, it's really a BRILLIANT piece of engineering and it works really well. But, in my humble opinion, only on a race track. If my 360 would have been a track day car only, no questions, the F1 transmission would have been my n°1 choice. Knowing how the system works I already knew that a manual conversion would have been quite an easy task on the 360, provided you are able to source the parts second hand. Otherwise economically will be a nonsense. So I had basically two options: 1 - sell my car and look for a manual one 2 - try to source the parts and convert the one I already had. Option 1 is somehow tricky and too many things has to come together again and at the right time. Sell my car for the right price, and find a manual car as good as mine. Impossible? No, but definitely not easy and, from a certain point of view, can be a sort of gamble. If my car would have been, let's say, in “average shape” maybe I would have considered this option, but how can you sell a car that you know is perfect? And anyway manual cars are priced higher than F1, so in any case I would have had to spend some money to have a manual gearbox. In the end maybe more money for option number one than for number two, with the added risk to sell a perfect 360 for a car that could have just looked perfect.. if you know what I mean. When I found a wrecked manual 360 was a no brainer.. I immediately decided to buy all the parts for the conversion. To summarise, this is what I bought: all the mechanical parts for the manual transmission from a wrecked US car Bosch Motronics ECUs from a wrecked German car (this to have the right spec ones, as my car is European) Al the bits and pieces like seals, washers, screws and so on where sourced new from official Ferrari dealers, including a new clutch (as you have to remove the gearbox to change the throw out bearing, would be stupid not to install a new clutch straight away). I know it's quite a long intro, but I think was necessary. Anyway let's now start the journey to the conversion.
First thing is to remove the undertray, as you want access from below to install the Bowden cables. Then it's time to take the interior apart: Image Unavailable, Please Login Before install the gearbox turret/lever I swapped the original gear lever plastic bushing with the improved aluminium version from Hill Engineering. Interesting how I found that mine was actually broken: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Gearbox turret and Bowdens are in: Image Unavailable, Please Login
Now comes the pedals. The pedal mount is exactly the same for both transmissions, on the F1 you just have a larger brake pedal and a plastic spacer replacing the clutch pedal. It's quite a simple task as you only need to unlock and slide the metal rod that is actually the pedals pivot: Image Unavailable, Please Login Here is the F1 brake pedal with the plastic spacer: Image Unavailable, Please Login And these are the manual pedals, cleaned and ready to be installed: Image Unavailable, Please Login Looks good: Image Unavailable, Please Login
Fantastic. You are doing no what I would have done if I would have waited and educated myself a bit more before purchasing. I love my car but would have loved to have more control over options, miles, color, history, etc. Following thread for sure.
I can show you boys how to reduce the costs quite a bit by reflash of your existing ECUs from F1 to manual if your interested. Ofcourse you keep a backup of your original firmware too so you can easily revert.
I have already done this and sooooo recognice what OP means. I did the manual conversion a couple of months ago and just had my instrument cluster and ECU’s fixed by Rod at FoA. They got back today. I hope everything will work as I had him reflash to CS maps... Now I’m just waiting for my new exhaust headers and racing cats. Good man! Good work! Subscribed!
I converted mine a couple years ago and it was the best decision I ever made. Almost same reasoning as yours. My car is already customized to my liking and I know is in pretty good condition. Didn't want to buy another 360 and risk getting a bad one. No more unexpected issues, restlessness and worries if an F1 component (e.g. fuse, brake sensor, etc.).will decide to act-up when I go for a drive. Goodluck, it's a no brainer move.
Well done for tackling this. I was in the same boat as you but where I live is a little remote and I gave up after 2 years trying to source the parts from around the world. Then hey presto a manual 430 fell in my lap for the right price. Here's the kicker and I kid you not, an immaculate 360 manual wreck (left side hit wall on track) came up for auction locally the very next day. It sold for circa US$30k. I would have bought it in a heart beat and got all my money back easily selling the rest in parts. But hey it all worked out. Good luck with the rest of your conversion.
This would be awesome! As far as I know there's a little bit more electronics to sort out, but definitely doable. The only problem is the manual F430s are a lot more rare compared to manual 360s. Good luck anyway!
Time to install the clutch master cylinder, and again everything you need is already there. You need to remove a blanking cap held in position by 2 bolts, and then fit 2 studs where previously you had the 2 bolts: Image Unavailable, Please Login There is a switch that senses the clutch pedal position, number 12 in the following diagram: Image Unavailable, Please Login The plug to connect it is there, just beside the brake pedal switch wire. This car was really engineered to be modular in order to be easily built as Manual or F1
And here we go, after some hours of wrenching the gearbox is out of the car. It's a pretty easy job, just time consuming because you have to take out a lot of things that are in the way. But no hidden bolts, no weird engineering.. and a lot of room to work. This car is a joy to work on. Here is my gearbox on a wooden cart that I built to move it around: Image Unavailable, Please Login And now ready to be converted: Image Unavailable, Please Login As you can see I removed the top mounting bush as it was worn. It's not the worst I've seen, but of course as you are there.... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Replace the worn upper gearbox bush with a 430 Scuderia one, its uprated and not expensive. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh1H1B9l8X-/
Thanks for the input, but I've actually already purchased the 360 Challenge bush that is uprated as well
Good job so far! Next step will be a Royal PITA: Getting the clutch pipe in proper place (from the clutch master cylinder to rear of car). There’s three or four rubber ”clamps” in the tunnel holding all pipes and electrical wires in place. The clutch pipe is supposed to be mounted on top of all... There’s a small groove already cut out in the rubber clamps and it’s been left empty due to not being used on a F1. I did it the proper way and I can tell you it’s close to a nightmare getting it in place. I have seen some guys putting next to the cooling pipe as that way of doing it is easier. If you are doing it the hard way, be sure not to tangle the pipe up in the electrical wire closest to the Engine (the one that splits into two electrical wires closest to the engine). It will of course be easier for you if you drain all cooling water and remove those pipes... Good luck.
All the fluids have already been drained BTW, no traces of cross contamination between coolant and gearbox oil, so thankfully the heat exchanger is ok
So guys now it's time to work on this gearbox! First thing to do is remove all the F1 remaining things, that means: - the clutch hydraulic line - the throw out bearing and the clutch position sensor with its cable - the electromagnetic sensor at the back of the gearbox and its cable - pretty much all the studs, as the ones for the manual transmission are in different places or same place but different length The studs are fitted with thread locker, so you need to heat them up with a blow torch: Image Unavailable, Please Login But after that you can proudly look at a clean gearbox ready for the new studs Image Unavailable, Please Login The gearbox case itself is exactly the same for both transmissions, all the threaded holes you need are already there. Let's have a look at the internal actuators: Image Unavailable, Please Login As you can see I removed the studs here as well as on manual cars their length is different. Well... this is true for earlier cars, on late models you have bolts. Being my car a late model I went for the bolts: Image Unavailable, Please Login Funny because they are the only shiny bolts on the gearbox, as all the others have a dull finish. To be honest every bolt used for the engine or the chassis is dull. But these are original parts supplied by an official Ferrari dealer. Note that the longer one has even a different color. New studs fitted with thread locker: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Manual actuators ready to be bolted on: Image Unavailable, Please Login And here we are! Actuators on the gearbox, all sealed with the factory grey paste: Image Unavailable, Please Login I really don't like these shiny bolts... but I think I can live with that
Now it's time to setup the clutch hydraulics. The internal seals of the throw out bearing are different, as are designed to work with different kinds of hydraulic fluids. I bought an uprated manual bearing from Hill Engineering. But while I was in the process I learned something new. Also the 2 small O-Rings sealing the hydraulic line between the gearbox case and the throw out bearing flange are different!! I never heard of that difference before. To be clear I'm talking about number 27 on this table: Image Unavailable, Please Login And to be even more clear.. I'm talking about these two guys here: Image Unavailable, Please Login In this pic you can see the different part numbers: Image Unavailable, Please Login They look exactly the same, I believe the material is different. In the end this is my new manual throw out bearing in place: Image Unavailable, Please Login And a new uprated hydraulic block from Hill Engineering as well: Image Unavailable, Please Login In the process all the seals and O-Rings have been fitted with the ATE Paste, a fantastic product specifically made for the job: Image Unavailable, Please Login The last touch is the cap for the hole where the magnetic sensor was: Image Unavailable, Please Login
The F1 ones look like a thinner cross section diameter to my eye. I wonder if the F1 fluid makes them swell a bit?
I'm simply referring to liquid gasket. Ferrari specifies an Arexons product, but you can use pretty much every brand as long it is grey to retain the factory look. Loctite, Hondabond HT and so on. I used the classic Threebond 1215.
