85 308 replace parts w/ factory or upgrades.

The parts offered at the dealer are generally of very high quality with an equally high price to match. Quality aftermarket parts can give you advantages over OEM if you know exactly what you are buying. In addition there are savings to be had in most instances. You need to know that most of the parts the dealer sells are not the same spec as when your car was made. Over 30+ years many Ferrari suppliers are either not in business or no longer make parts for the 308. Ferrari themselves source from the aftermarket for their own dealers from time to time so don't fall in love with the 'yellow box' too much. As far as consumable service items go, as long as it looks like original and is of high quality you will not be affecting the value of your car by going aftermarket.

 

Be sure to check out the cross reference parts page at the top of the 308/328 section.

 

Well, specifically:

Ricambi is selling specific Hose Kits, that have specially fabricated hoses for modern fuel blends.

They also offer a similar kit for the coolant lines, extra heavy duty (I am unsure if it has the long ones you'd need between the head nipple and the heater core in front, so check that)..

On the subject of the heater hose head nipple, the OEM one is cast aluminum, and will be weak from corrosion, so go instead with the Hill Engineering machined stainless steel replacement (Ricambi has that too!)

Brake calipers lines...for sure replace, your call about an outer braid covering, some folks swear a stainless braid gives "harder feel".....they have sensitive feet! But going with some nice slotted discs (Brembo or others), some Porterfield pads, and new rubber lines and brake fliud WILL make a nice difference. new fluid is actually good annual maintenance.

So off the top of my head there's four areas you actually would NOT want to stand at a Ferrari counter and order, as modern replacements are better.

The modern gas is VERY hard on any rubber components, fuel pumps and carbs are dying daily.

 

Belts and gaskets I would go with Factory parts, but TRutlands is having a Spring Sale right now on "Service kits"...
Hill Engineering tensioner bearings (Ricambi again!) are better than Factory ones, at this point...

Some aftermarket knock off gaskets and seals will bring you trouble, AVOID!

 

Amen. I think I owe The Carreaper about $2000 for starting the cross reference thread....

 

The other factor to consider is that a lot of the things in the little yellow boxes MAY have been sitting for years as NOS which leads to their own breakdown and failure almost right out of the box - ask me how I know.





PDG

 

Keep in mind that the factory only manufatured the engine, tranny and body and frame. For the rest of it they dug into the Fiat parts bin or bought bits from the same suppliers that produced parts for VW, BMW, Porsche and others. The cross reference thread is a great way to save a few bucks and get the same or better quality. In general, I've found that the major parts houses like Ricambi, TRutlands, etc are cheaper to buy direct than from independant shops. In retaliation the indepents can give you some crap about "we can't warantee the work because you didn't buy the parts from us". Sorta can't blame them as they may have a big investment in parts on hand but that's no excuse for "predatory" pricing