97 355, Ready for Liftoff

Just waiting for another pair of eyes to watch this magnificent feat .. Thanks to Ernie for rough draft and 355 major, part 1. How to drop the engine... - FerrariChat.com for the wonderfully detailed explanation.. removed the last sub frame bolt today, the ones above the shock, gee I was a little concerned when I got to this stage as the self-guiding bolts are a bit tricky to access. But, now i'm ready to push the button on my scissor lift 1 inch at a time. Once I get it off I will have questions, like "Hey, my alternator looks bad but it works ok, what should I do?" Yayes!!
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

yep, watching....

 

Take a video if you can!

IIRC dont think I've ever seen a video of the "seperation"

 

Sorry on the vidy, didn't get your message soon enough. We have lift off! I just about missed the electrical and ground wires on the bottom of the oil res, and about missed the fact I had to remove the big metal vacuum line at the back, caught those on the way up. Also, the power steering line so many people have trouble with, I did too, but I was able to lift car up some then I could get to it better with a 17 line wrench and 22 regular. Been thinking bout this moment for the last 2.5 years, it has come to pass.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I have all the nuts to the water pump off and the pump wiggles around put won't pull off by hand, should I gently pry off with screw drivers?

 

Yes, just gently pry off - it's the o-ring seal that's holding it on.

 

Thanks ronron, I read somewhere about using a little Easy Off oven cleaner so I tried that and it did wonders. Got it shipped off today to Dick Jordon down in Miss.

 

Oh I forgot to mention, item 37 is where my coolant leak was, oh well i'm having fun .. In retrospect, I could have done a test I thought about in order to isolate if the leak were coming from the front of the engine or above/back. 1) Park nose down, if leak stays where it was, leak is in front of engine. 2) Park a$$ down, note if puddle shifts to the back area.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Sorry I'm late to the party, and thanks for the acknowledgment. I'm glad the info was some help. Way to MAN UP and gitterdun!!! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

I can't figure out how to compress the hydraulic tensioners .. the manual says to rotate [something?] toward the inner side of the engine until the catch is free to slide in its housing. I first thought this was talking about the pully itself using my new 90 dollar bearing socket but it don't budge .. so does this mean to rotate the small hydraulic shaft itself while putting some pressure on the pulley until it starts to move? thanks for any help!

 

Figured it out, first position the belt with the tensioner bearing off, then position the tb and then tighten, then lock down the tb. I'm doing this with the old belts for practice, thanks for your patience.

 

The WSM if I read correctly says 25nm or 18ft/lbs for the nuts that hold the water pump front half to the main body. It seems too much to me, I only have them at 10 ft/lbs now, is 18 ft/lbs right? It says the size is 8mm also but the stud diameters show only 6mm on my caliper, it's a 10mm socket. HELP!

 

Are you referring to the six nuts that secure the water pump cover to the water pump body? If so, just tighten them firmly with a well fitting normal wrench on the nuts. I suspect that your torque wrench might be giving you the wrong readings. A firmish push with the heel of your hand on the extreme end of the wrench will do the job. Studs that are lubricated (particularly small diameter ones) can be easily stripped.
IMO, the nut to worry about on the water pump is the one securing the impeller to end of the bearing shaft. Use loctite on that one! (nut 100436 to shaft on bearing assembly 143742).

 

Thanks!! Yes the 6 nuts, i will leave those where they are because they are firm as is. Yayeh!

 

I just found your thread.
Oh the memories, I did my engine out service a little over a year ago. It was a wonderful adventure.
May the force be with you.

 

I am new here and I have been wondering on if doing the services on your own (Ford trained technician speaking) would hurt the value of the car being it is not done by a Ferrari Service center?

Work looks great, keep it up!

 

I think most buyers want all the service done by an authorized Ferrari technician, It just makes most feel better. I don't agree with it I'm just going off all the "wanted ads" I've read.

 

Thanks for the response. Just trying to figure out if I do the work (because I know that Ferrari Tech guys are also trying to get work done fast for many reasons) if it will actually hurt the value of the car, or if documentation by me with receipts, photos, along with mileage, and why the work was done would be sufficient for some buyers.

 

I personally don't care about what it does to the value of the car .. who cares on a 85k mile f355? Let me ask another question off subject, who here has removed totally (decommissioned) the a/c compressor? Who needs it? When it's real hot, I'm not driving the Ferrari, i'm in my dodge truck. Plus, when I need a/c in the Ferrari, it hasn't worked that great in the nearly 3 years I've owned it and I haven't missed it .. what choo think?

 

Let me restate my last thoughts more .. if I can work on it, I can keep it. If I have to let someone else charge me more than I want to/ can afford, I can't keep it.

 

And let me further state, the f355 is far more easy to work on than I would have ever thought, hats off to the engineers!

 

Keep the A/C intact, other than a minor weight savings there is no real reason to remove the system. The HVAC system is pretty integrated and I think you might create more issues than you solve/prevent.

 

Jeff, Thanks for the response. That's kinda the mindset I am having right now.

 

Got it back together and made a few 'proving' runs today sans rear bumper and rear wheel guards, license in the rear window, gear oil change in the midst. Feeling like a dominecker rooster. Will post final post thoughts next.

 

Well, another noob engine out experience comes to an end. 2 months total and less than 3300 USD in parts and new tools later including engine mounts (the forward 2), timing belt tensioners, rear shock hyper blocks, throttle cable, water pump send off and rebuild, thermostat, 1200lb impact wrench, parts washer, 2 torque wrenches, endoscope (pre major to try to find water leak), timing belt tensioner socket and more. Thanks to all! Let me contribute something that really helped .. I'll upload my picture of the 4 pins and washers I used to set my timing. The washers and pins go into the upper two pullies attached to each cam. These are just temporary of course, while setting timing. The washers are smaller in diameter and the pins fashioned from bolts are longer of course, in order to be able to pull them out and fine tune the position. When you pull one out, simply turn the crank and the cam stays in position while the holes align to the next slot. Thanks FBB for the degreeing cam write up, I did follow but just on my intake 1-4 cam to verify factory marks were aligned, and they were.