612 Timing belt - While I am in there questions

My advice: Fix what's broken - nothing more. Don't go looking for problems. If something looks worn, replace. If not, leave it alone.

 

I think you are wise to replace the under-plenum coolant hose (as you plan) during major - I would, and did.

 

What does the guy doing the service say? That answer can give you a clue as to that person's level of service. If the 612 is like previous V-12's there is no definition by Ferrari of "major service."

 

They are owned by a giant company and yep - they won't provided records - they are very strict about it. But, if you call them and are friendly, they will look up what's been done and verbally tell you.

 

You HAVE to do that hose. It is a must do. Trust me, mine blew at 35K after I DIDN'T do it the month before and it required a lot of wasted labor (on my part as I did all the work). That hose sees a lot of pressure and ultimately will just rip, right in the middle, and dump all coolant. I just went with a new OEM after investigating all other available options.

As for water pump, just do the bearings and outer seal. It is fully serviceable if you have the right mechanic.

 

Dave, sorry my experience is like Peter’s. I spent a lot of money with Ferrari of Ft Lauderdale on a PPI and follow up work with the verbal promise they would bend the “rules” and give me the records for my car (they had serviced the car it’s entire life). Forget about it. Not happening.

Tried a second time when I moved the car to California and they wouldn’t even give it to Ferrari of Newport Beach on a professional courtesy basis.

Frankly, a bit of bait and switch by Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale when they were pitching doing work on my car. Not saying they are bad folks, just don’t drink any of their Koolaide. Get it in writing and don’t assume they will deliver no matter what they verbally say. As you said, a giant company and they are not realationship based.

Ron

 

Ron - my experience was the same (as I stated). I brokered a deal for my buddy with them and they still would not give me records for my car. But, I can be a huge PITA so I kept pushing and verbally they told me what was done. I think (would need to check) that I eventually got some really limited stuff on email. I need to be sure the last part I'm not confusing with another - will check tomorrow.

Remember - this all comes down to privacy laws. So, while I don't like it, I get it.

 

Sorry Dave, it has nothing to do with privacy laws. I told them they could redact the name of the prior owner. I just wanted to know what was done by them on the car I owned. Manufacturers like Mercedes provide a national data base on your car repairs and you can get a print out from any dealer. So no privacy issue there.

Ferrari of Ft Lauderdale is simply a big company that doesn’t care what you or I think. Nothing more complicated than that.

Ron

 

The person doing the work on the car should be able to feel the wear on parts (play in waterpump and belt idler bearings), and guide you as to if they should be replaced. The large hose on the thermostat housing was updated by Ferrari to a much better quality silicone hose with more reinforcement after problems with the 456/550. That said, it costs almost nothing in labor to replace it now for piece of mind. The hose that I see more problems with is the small hose that goes from fitting #38 in your diagram to the coolant reservoir. I would recommend inspection/replacement of that hose.

 

Good timing for this thread since I'm also planing to do the same to my car very soon.

What about #18 on this diagram:
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Apparently is might be a potential problem also. It is?

By memory, I believe that there are some aftermarket solutions for it?

 

The connection sleeve hose (#40) is under the plenum - I don't see how this is going to be readily accessible to you if you're just doing a belts service? Doing the water pump isn't a bad should though as its a quick wee job when you're in there. You're also bound to get coolant on your belts whilst removing the pump (which everyone says is a no-no, though as it happens my DuPont chemical compatibility guide would say otherwise), so its handy that you're replacing the pump at the same time as the belts. I just replaced my pump for the Ital-Engineering version; I cant really say whether its better than the original, though it does at least have a cast metal impellor rather than the F-spec plastic one. Ricambi said they've sold hundreds of them without any issues, so it cant be a bad thing. The only piece of advice they gave me was to hold onto the old pump just in case complete new pumps become unavailable at some point in the future. The reason being is that the Ital pump cant be rebuilt, at least not with the same parts as the Ferrari pump.

As for the belt service, just give all the rotating components a good wiggle when you're in there. I picked up a worn aux belt pulley this way, but I failed to check the cam belt drive pulley bearings, which turned out the be the route of all my problems. I wouldn't go changing them out for fun though... the space is very limited and its quite a bit of work to take the cover off the front of the engine.

As an aside, and I'm sure some people will throw up in disgust at this, but I had pretty good results using an iPhone guitar tuning app to measure the frequency of the timing belt tension. Well, its done a few hundred miles so far without issue.

 

Check the date codes on the belts! That will give you the worst case. You'll know the last service could not have been done before then. Its a bit of a mystery of how much time elapses between the date code and installation. I did not have records for my car (360 Modena, Ferrari of Ft. Lauderdale) but I can tell by the date codes that the belts would have been replaced at a reasonably correct date and mileage using dates on carfax report.