Apparently Timing Belts should be replaced every 15 years or 31,250 miles ..

LOL!

 

Matt, This is an old discussion topic, I believe Taz responded to this very item on a different thread - the later factory addendum was changed to 5 years and 15,000 miles and he showed a copy of the addendum. The thread may predate your joining the forum. Try doing a search for this information I am sure you will find it.

 

I think your search was too specific, try just timing belts. One of those threads has the info or search for Tazandjam (Terry H Philips) posts on the subject if you really want to find the info on the subject. Terry is kind of the resident technical expert.

 

Many of the tech manuals were being written very early in the production process for Ferraris and never really updated. In this case likely before accelerated wear testing was done on the Kevlar cambelts. Change interval is 50,000 km/32,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first.

In this case the 15 years is a likely typo. 50,000 kms is actually ~31,068 miles, so they rounded up.


Here you go:


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Terry, Thanks for reposting the information.

 

You know, that 15 year replacement standard may not be off at all. My 2003 Harley Deuce turns 17 years old in August. It has 38K miles on it and the drive belt looks fine. Two years ago a buddy of mine changed the drive belt on his 2002 Softail after 15 years and over 80K miles. He said the belt looked great and he only changed it because he was doing other work on the bike and figured he would just do it while stuff was apart.

I would say the the belts on my Harley and his have been regularly subjected to stresses much higher than the timing belts on my 612 OTO. We both do a lot of hard acceleration in the lower gears, and both bikes with riders weigh close to 900 lbs. Now there are two things to consider. One, the Harley belt may be of better strength/quality than the Ferrari belt. And secondly, if a drive belt breaks, well no big deal.

I just did a belt change after 5 years last year. I'll probably change them again 2023, but then maybe I'll test their longevity. Hey, I'm not risk adverse!

 

There is actually no such thing as a major service for any of the 65 degree V12s. People, including pros, tend to lump things together at the 5 year point (all fluids, filters, inspections, adjustments, F1 checks, cambelts), and call it a major. If you have no leaks (you do), the belt change can be done separately without removing the cam covers. If you are confident of cam timing, a lock and swap cambelt change and aux belts change is not that big a deal. There are still things to do annually, every two and three years, etc. Most of us with a new V12 just had everything done so you have a baseline from which to operate.

Now when you have to pull the engine like the Boxers, TRs, 348s, Mondial Ts, F355s, etc to change the cambelts, that pretty much qualifies as a major. Quote from Boxer owners manual "if for any reason you remove the engine, change the cambelts".

 

I actually think changing out the tensioner bearings/pulleys every 5 years with Hill Engineering versions is a good idea. Easy to do when the belts are changed.

 

If they fail, you are liable to hear 24 valves bending followed by a rapid decrease in rpm.

 

Yeah there will be NO QUESTION what has just happened. I’ve had a chain tensioner go in a early 911 and I was real lucky no broken valves but I knew immediately what had happened and just shut it off. But that is a story for a different thread.

 

Are the Hill Engineering replacements just better parts than the OEM or the just much less expensive and same quality?

 

That's a good question. It would be interesting to know if they make the drive belts for Harley. If so, I would buy the Hill version with confidence regardless of price.

 

HE bearings/pulleys are made of better materials, use superior production techniques, and last longer than OEM bearings. They should last 5 years at least, which is all I care about.

HE makes no belts or Harley parts, as far as I know.

 

I agree with this. I am aware of some vehicles with timing chains having problems because the tensioner (some made of plastic) failed.

 

My experience with timing chain tensioners is the plastic rails breakdown and those pieces of plastic contaminate/damage the tensioner causing their failure. So perhaps changing the rails is more important than the tensioner but considering the cost of catastrophic failure changing both would seem prudent.

 

With how they are made these days, the belt isn't the issue. Its the Ferrari bearings. I changed the bearings and belts in my 612 about 8 months ago. They had been replaced 6 years before by the previous owner. The belts were practically in new condition. One of the Ferrari bearings was starting to leak (posted a photo at that time). Replaced them with Hill. No need to discuss modern belt strength, its the bearings that fail first.

 

It’s amazing how Ferrari service shops still insist these engines need 3 year belt changes, despite being shown Taz’s evidence to the contrary. I’m sure that if the Ferrari update had been the other way around, recommending shorter belt change intervals, the paperwork might not have gotten lost in the same way.