A 348s engine-out service, some refurb, and some tasty mods

This thread is a live journal for the engine-out major service on the 348... I started into the project back at the end of May, and have kept a journal logging tasks, hours, and photos. Figure I'd throw it up here for posterity.


Backstory: Purchased 1992 348 TS # 92607 Dec 2015/Jan 2016 via McLaren Boston, at 37k mi. Very clean and well-kept car. It came with a nice binder full of documentation, plus I was able to source a a good chunk of the car's later 90s service history from Algar. Now missing only the first couple of years of receipts (pre-1996) through Continental Motors and Sportiva (evidenced through warranty book / first service stamp). Last documented cam belt service in 2004 at Ferrari of NE.

Planned maint: Cam belt, tensioner/idler bearings, F/R chain sprocket bearings, cam timing, valve adjustment, H2O pump, oil pump chain tensioner pad and cam chain tensioner pad replacement, acc belts, coolant hoses, misc worn/degraded parts replaced or refinished.

Planned mods: Tubi test pipes, Capristo exhaust, SoCal's modified Challenge chips, Euro/Challenge cam timing in conjunction with appropriate valve adjustment.

Refurb: Refinish fender liners, airbox, oil tank, intake hoses, header clamshells, intake mani, valve covers, coolant expansion tank, general cleaning, and replacing all of the readily visible nuts, bolts, clamps, etc to new.

So far, I'd like to thank Daniel at Ricambi, Eurospares, SRI, and Yellow Compass for all of the help with parts for this project. Great assets to the community. Also a thank you to maxvdh and vjlax18 for their help with some specialty tools and advice with a few of the oddball bits. A community like the one here is a good portion of why these cars are so fun.

I've been having some great fun with the project and getting to know the car, and know that everything has been done thoroughly and to a standard. It's also been therapeutic zen-time to just tinker away with the nuts and bolts in the garage after a day at the office, with just the sound of a ratchet against some good tunes filling the air.



First, some backfilling of work done to-date:


5/10: First of many boxes of goodies start arriving... 30k service kit from Ricambi, Tubi pipes, Capristo Level 3.
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Sunday 5/22: 1.5hrs

- Removed engine cover, set the car up on the lift
- Changed out the brake pads.... easiest pad change ever

Monday 5/23: 2hrs

- Removed fender well liners, rear bumper, airbox assembly, heat shielding
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Sat 5/28: 3.5hr

- Assembled engine cradle dolly.

Since a portion of the items on the to-do list require removal of the front engine cover to expose the oil pump and cam drive sprocket chain tensioners, which requires removal of the oil sump pan on the underside of the motor, a normal jack table or dolly would not work. A cart to support the engine cradle, but leave the critical access to the underside of the engine was necessary.

I went to Home Depot, picked up some 4x4, 2x4 and 1x6 stock, 4 2-ton mini bottle jacks from Sears, and 4 500lb rated swivel casters from McMaster-Carr. The 4 bottle jacks should prove very handy in evenly contacting and supporting the engine cradle in a gentle manner during removal from the car, as well as give plenty of precise adjustment to help alignment of the cradle back into the engine bay. One concern is that over-stressing the rear of the car, since it is very fragile without the stuctural engine/cradle bolted in, results in many of the paint/body cracks found along the base of the rear buttresses, where they meet the quarter panel. A phenomenon consistent from 206/246 Dinos, through 308/328 and 348/F355.
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Sun 5/29: 2hr

- Scrubbed and degreased all major removed components; underbody paneling, fender liner panels, airbox, intake hoses, heat shields. These will all be getting prepped and painted back to new condition through the process.


Mon 5/29: 5hr

Disconnected:
- fuel filters/fuel return lines
- throttle cable and rear throttle cable retainer (huge PITA for the retainer clip at the front of the engine. Took forever, with no success until I remembered that I had a small 3 step ladder thing to give me a better vantage point over the bay. Once I was on that, instead of fishing my arm through the wheel well, or reaching blindly between/over the intake manifolds, it was off in 2 min)
- oil cooler, sump, reservoir lines
- clutch and brake lines
- coolant hoses
- charcoal canister/lines


Wed 6/1: 3hr

- Removed shift cables, hung for lubrication
- Removed AC compressor/mount from engine
- Painted central longitudinal plastic underbody panel in satin black plastic paint
- Painted heat shielding high-temp silver
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You can see how the top side of the air filter housing is a bit faded as compared to the underside. Typical on 348s, and this one is in pretty good shape as compared to others. It (along with the heat shields and intake hoses) is one of the primary items seen underhood, and bugs the hell out of me to see it faded/oxidized instead of fresh and pristine on any 348.

A wrinkle finish is used from the factory, so the goal is to find a wrinkle paint/technique to replicate the original finish as closely as possible. A pic below is from the underside of the filter housing, towards the front... the area least exposed to sunlight and radiant heat from the nearby mufflers and cats in order to get a better reference towards a finish that is a bit fresher in comparison.

A sample of the VHT wrinkle black (below), in 3 coats on a spare length of pipe I had laying around, versus OE, both zoomed in. I think it is a pretty close match for texture quality, and is probably very close to what the OE finish was when new. Keep in mind that the finish compared against is 25 years old at this point that may have some oxidation on the surface dulling it off of an original satin sheen. Some research has also shown the Harley Davidson wrinkle to be a candidate. I'll grab some as well as the HD texture black (for the oil reservoir) to test out. The key with the VHT was to apply 3 fairly wet coats a few minutes apart, and to do it on a hot day in direct sun... the heat appears to 'tighten' up the wrinkle texture a bit, and is more akin to OE, versus a sample that I did in a 68 deg air conditioned shop space that presented a bit more coarse in wrinkle texture.

I was also able to get a nice match to the texture black on the oil tank, using a satin texture black (not wrinkle... texture), and after a first coat goes on and flashes off, misting from about 12 inches away. Then, after dry, burnishing with a rag to cut the tooth of the texture surface a bit and present a softer more OE texture.
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It is OUT!

Sat 6/4: 4.5hr

- Went to High Octane Harley to pick up the HD Wrinkle Black and Texture Black... over $20 per can, ouch. The wrinkle was garbage, clogged and spat and wouldn't spray clean. The texture can was a bit too fine to match OE on the oil reservoir.

- Disconnected the battery, and grounds from the engine cradle

- Went over the roster of disconnects twice, found one hidden small coolant line at the front of the engine that I had missed.

- Disconnected the ECUs and fed the plugs through the firewall, with string tracers to aid in feeding them back when time to reassemble.

- Removed the 4 rear bolts, 4 shock tower bolts, and 12 bulkhead bolts. Raised the car up off of the engine without issue.

- Gave the assembly a quick degreasing scrub to assess any refinishing. Good news is that it all looks really clean. Valve covers look like they were touched up at the last service, and look very nice, but some small spots starting to flake means a strip and refin is in order. Silver wrinkle paint on the intake manifolds look great as well. Will go over as work goes on with some more focused small brush scrubbing to get any dirt out of the nooks and crannies of the engine and gearbox.

- Removed the stock exhaust from the cradle assembly.
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Thurs 6/9: 2.5hr Small update

- Spent some time wire wheeling the remaining heavy grime and gunk from the fender liners and underbody parts to prep for paint, and started into etch primer.

- Continued with cleaning the engine bits, conditioning the rubber/plastic bits, and taking inventory of fasteners/clips/clamps to replace.

- Pulled the front timing belt coverings off to get a look, and the belt looks to be in great shape. No missing teeth, no cracks.

- Removed the bank 1 valve cover for commencing the valve adjustment process, and get the proper shims ordered.


Road grime left after brush scrubbing on fender liner panel, as well as the underbody panels. Wire wheel took it off easily, so we're finish sanding, final degrease, and starting to prime and paint all of the liner and underbody panels back to a nice satin black.

Ordered a couple cans of Red VHT for the valve covers, which some argue is a slightly more orangey/vibrant shade of red than OE Ferrari for the 348/F40/Testarossa/etc valve covers. Others have said the formulation has changed. We'll see. I'm of the mind that heat, age, and oil film will darken/dull the original color slightly, leading some folks to declare a mis-match when held against a freshly painted piece. That's what I recall from painting Chevy orange engine short block assemblies, anyway. I'm sure it's not a 100% concours correct match, however. I was able to subsequently find the OE supplier of the original paint in Italy, and they just so happen to have recently begun offering it in spray can form... at roughly $100 per can. yikes. Tossing it around in my head. Worth it vs VHT? Not sure. No NA distributor, so not even sure it would be legal or possible to obtain.
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6/13 - 6/16: ~approx 8 hours spread over evenings

- Stripped, wire wheeled, dremeled the lower airbox to get it completely stripped and clean. Painted the hose inlet surfaces satin black, masked off, painted the body in wrinkle black. Came out nice.

- Finished all of the heat shielding.

- Degreased, scrubbed, re-dyed the intake hoses with Forever Black, as the woven hose substrate is rubberized. They were in very good shape to begin with, only minor fading, but in a freshened engine bay, those last little details make the difference. Certainly beats new ones at $250ea.

- Modified 348 Challenge ECU chips arrived. These are faster chips, and based upon the 348 Challenge mapping with modified ignition timing and fueling, and a redline raised to 8,000 rpm.

- Parts arrived from Eurospares, with new oil vapor and radiator hoses, gaskets, fresh clamps, and engine bay decals. Still waiting on the Ricambi parts, which is the rest of the fresh fasteners, clamps, etc.

- Brought the stainless header clamshells back to a clean, bright satin finish from the dirty, stained, brassy color. Worked my way from #0 to #000 pads, and dremel wire polishing wheel for the detail areas. Much better.

- Currently in the midst of refinishing the Oil Tank, Coolant Tank, Upper Intake Box and remainder of the fender liners, so more pics of those as they're done.
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Bringing the clamshells back... from #0 to #000 pads, then a dremel wire polish wheel in the detail areas. First pic shows a good before/after for the bottom half against the top half of the clamshell.
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6/18 & 6/20: 4 hours spread over Sat and Mon evenings.

- Started stripping and wire wheeling the valve covers

- Finished valve clearance measurements

- Dial indicator to find TDC, and confirm/mark off timing for all 4 cams and crank.

- Removed the tensioner pulleys, crank pulley, cam drive pulley, and finally the timing belt. Timing belt was date coded to 2001, so it is original to the engine's 2004 major at FoNE. For 15 years old, and 12 years in service, it didn't look bad at all. It is a little more stiff than the new belt, but no missing teeth or notable degradation to the shoulders. Tensioners both are still smooth and quiet, without any play that indicates wear, but the new Hill ones are the bees knees, so they will be replaced.

- Removed all 4 camshafts and measured shim thicknesses in order to get replacements on order.

Now we're ready to drop the sump pan and take off the front timing cover to get a look at the oil and cam sprocket drive chain tensioner pads, and cam drive sprocket bearings.
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6/21 - 6/23 & 6/26: 13 hours

- Disconnected oil line, alternator, and finally the large oil sump pan, in order to free the front timing drive cover. The engine dolly design worked great with access to get at all of the underside easily.

- Fabbed up a quick puller from some long 3/8" bolts and steel square tube stock to extract the timing cover with pressed bearing and sprocket from the rear bearing that resides in the block. Worked like a charm.

- Removed oil pump sprocket, pulled off the front timing cover

-The tensioner pads inspected. While they were an improved material from earlier versions, The timing drive pad is still junk at 37k. Front timing drive sprocket bearing was good, rear bearing (production update to ball from earlier roller version) was perfect. All will be replaced regardless of perceived condition, since I have all parts on hand and don't want to have to worry about it for a long time, esp with improved tensioner pads from Scuderia Rampante.

- More stripping and wire wheeling for refinishing.

The timing drive pulley went off to a welder to have the fences tacked in place, as a means of delaying belt damage and valvetrain munching in the event of catastrophic failure, giving one a chance to shut it down. The root cause isn't the fence itself, but rather a failure of one of the supporting bearings either in front of or behind, causing the belt to track against a fence, separate the fence, and send it through the belt system.

Unfortunately, after cleaning and grinding the areas to TIG, the welds were popping and fizzling, and blowing through in a few spots... it is a difficult assembly to weld due to the difference in thickness against the pulley body and embedded contaminants, but it unfortunately damaged the piece beyond what I was comfortable with reworking in a critical area... fences warped and blew through, weldment on the pulley teeth. So, a new one it is. A pricey part at roughly $500 from those who actually have it in stock, but I knew the risks going into the gamble. A small hiccup.
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6/27 & 6/28: 5 hours

- Measured out new valve shims and assigned positions for replacing, also swapping about some of the existing (removed) shims... A fortuitous exercise, since it set me to only buy 10 shims instead of 20. They'll go in tonight, along with fresh cam seals, and re-installation of the camshafts. The reason for so many shims is that with the Tubi test pipes, I can time my cams to the european/Challenge spec, described as "without catalytic" in the factory workshop manual. It is basically the intake cams retarded a couple degrees, increasing overlap. With the revised timing, there is a small hp bump and more significantly EGT will be raised slightly, which the US cats were not happy with. This mandates a slightly shifted clearance spec on the exhaust valves (0.30-0.35mm w/ cats to 0.35-0.40mm w/o cats, per the workshop manual) to account for the minute differences in thermal expansion. Coupled with the modified Challenge ECU chips with 8k redline, and it should be a pretty sweetly set up motor.

- Kept up with the stripping and refin. Finally have a solid finish on the coolant expansion tank, as some very stubborn contamination was putting fisheyes into the fresh paint, as well as a batch of bad high-temp primer which liked to crinkle that had to be stripped.

- Final shipments of parts arriving; all of the nuts, bolts, clamps, gaskets, valve shims, h2o pump, new rear pads to match front, etc. Still waiting on ONE last piece, the timing chain tensioner pad, which was drop-shipping and isn't due until early next week... as luck would have it, it is one of the pieces needed for the first step of re-assembly at the front of the engine. Oh well.

- New timing drive pulley arrived, and to my pleasant surprise, the fences are already welded...

On the left, are the new valve shims that I unpacked, measured, wrapped, and assigned position to... Cyl/Position/Cam, ex: 3LE is Cylinder 3, Left Side Valve, Exhaust Cam.

New timing drive pulley with welded fences... it looks like the manufacturing process to mate the fence to pulley is completely changed from original (pressed-on fence, with the retaining pulley edge rolled with a die around the inner diameter to capture the fence), to pressed and welded.
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6/29 - 7/8: Only 7 hours logged

- The cams have come out, valve shims swapped, cams reinstalled with new seals. Once the belt is back on and rough cam setup complete, I'll rotate and re-measure gaps to verify completed clearances.
- Installed Tubi test pipes
- Refinished all of the underbody paneling, coolant tank, wheel liners
- Stripped upper airbox, oil tank
- Pulled the front timing chain cover to get at the bearings and tensioner pads... bit of a story with this bit.

Right now, I'm at the point of starting reassembly and setup. What is holding me back is the ball bearing at the rear of the timing belt drive sprocket... which is the first part to assemble back together. To keep it somewhat short, the factory updated to a 42mm OD / 15mm ID ball bearing, from a roller bearing late in production. As a later 348, I have this update from new. Since I'm in there, I am replacing it to new. It's a $10 part, so why not.

Per the factory TSB, there are 2 OD sizes of ball bearings that can go in, depending on the production # of the engine. I ordered what was specified to mine, and as it turns out, it would not fit, being too small for the cavity in the block and too large in ID for the sprocket shaft. Naturally, I assumed it must be the other bearing, so ordered that one up. That one fit the shaft at 15mm ID, but was even smaller against the cavity in the block. Bizarre. Broke out the calipers and started measuring. As the TSB specifies a 42mm bearing for late cars, I confirmed my block cavity measured 42mm. The first bearing measured 40mm OD. Checked the p/n on that bearing, and it reads SKF 6203, a 40mm bearing. Researching the original and current superseding Ferrari part #, and it should be an SKF 6302... which is the correct 42mm OD and 15mm ID. Coincidentally, the very same part number as was on the original bearing pulled from the car. Very strange, currently working with the supplier to figure the hiccup out. We'll get it licked, just a bit of a bummer that has put me about 2wks behind, and a big italian car show at the start of Aug coming up.

The infamous sprocket bearing line-up below... T to B: new (early), new (late), original (late)

Also, finally finished all of the fender liners with satin engine-side, and a matte coated wheel-side. Coolant expansion tank complete strip and respray, new cap, and a reproduced temp spec sticker due in for it.
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Beautiful work.
.
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Great write up!!! Will be following for updates.

 

WOW! Im following this as a mouse on cheese!

 

Outstanding

 

Nice progress. Engine out done with that extra TLC. Great documentation.

 

Wow, what a write up! You are one meticulous owner. Sorry about the pulley. I bet it will all come back together quick when your new bearing comes in.

 

Great work! Subscribed.

 

Nice work.
3.4's are fun!

 

I love this thread, Matt. Not only is your car the right color, you seem to be committed to doing things the right way. Thanks for writing it up.

Keep the pics and text coming-- my car needs a major service so I'm looking for all the inspiration I can get.

 

Absolutely incredible.


Absolutely incredible. Thank you for all your work in preparing the posts. Please keep them coming.

 

excellent thread.
keep up the great work

 

Incredible thread - thank you for the read. Can't wait to see more!