Bad Exhaust Manifolds......Who said this was primarily a 355 issue????

Thats very interesting.....it seems like a repeat of the 355 episode.
I have never heard of another car company having so many problems with their exhaust manifolds.
I guess with the desire to make everything as light as possible this leads to a weak design which just can't handle the heat.
I do recall reading somewhere however that Ferrari considers exhaust manifolds a normal wear and tear maintenance item.
But at $5100.00 each? Thats quite the gouge.

 

Ferrari having not solved the 18 year old sticky parts problem yet, makes me the least surprised that they have not resolved the manifold issue!

 

+1

 

Crap after 20 years of owning these cars maybe its time to move on to something that is designed better. I let it go on my 355 and chalked it up as one of those quirks you fix with an after market piece and your done. Ferrari just plain doesn't give a **** about their customers or their quality. I moved away from corvettes in the late 70's because chevy handled things the same way back then, they could sell everything the made. All most every car that was delivered had to repainted by the dealer and that was only one of the problems. They had waiting lists for corvettes if you can believe that, Ferrari's situation sounds way to familiar to me.

 

So what's your theory goth? All 5 valve heads...

 

IMO we are not talking about a family sedan here, a high performance engine that revs ~8k rpm will require regular maintenance and the exhaust will get super hot by the nature of the engine. When these things fail a replacement part is easily available and most (all?) aftermarket replacement headers have a life time warranty. Fix it once and fix it right and the problem is a part of history.

It really isn't that much of a big deal. Ferrari's are awesome and full of passion, no one said anything about reliable.

 

Would HAVE to be!! Cutting costs etc.....Nothing else would explain the reason they crack.

I have never heard of the aftermarket 355 headers cracking.

 

I have to say, I think things can get overblown on the internet too. I am just as guilty as anybody, having sold a 512TR because I just couldn't enjoy waiting for the "inevitable" differential failure.

How many 360 manifold cracks have people heard of? This is the first for me. And now all of a sudden all 360s are going to have cracked manifolds? I don't think I'd be too concerned if I owned one.


EDIT: HA! I thought this was the thread about the 360 with a cracked manifold, didn't follow the link. Looks like the sky really is falling!

 

The 360 & 430 have 4v heads. In fact the 355 was the only 5V road car application for Ferrari

 

Don't forget the F50.





It really is a shame that a company that makes high end products , cannot get them right. How hard is it for them to simply use a slightly thicker SS for the exhaust? Seems quite simple to me.


Darrell.

 

Amazing. Although the balky 2nd gear problem (on the five speeds) went on for at least 15 years, so Italian quality control seems to be holding steady.

 

Oh, it probably is a simple fix making the headers from thicker or better quality SS. No doubt.

But, as mentioned, they try to make these cars as cheap as possible. This is a business. Lower costs means bigger profits. Same goes for any car manufacture, not only Ferrari.

Also, when you headers fail. Ferrari will glady sell you more Ferrari headers, which will probably fail again and again. This way, they keep selling their product too. Win win........for Ferrari!

Thats my take on it all anyways. Right or wrong, so be it.

 

The good news is that Ferrari will NEVER sell another F355 header to anyone with a working brain. They DOUBLED (yes, I'm serious) the price of them within the last 45 days. $3500/ea. Honestly, I think we should ask the DEA to investigate the grow-lamps in the Ferrari basement.


p.s. Pap, the DEA is a government agency here in the US.

 

But the fix for the balky 2nd gear in the 348 is a simple $40 fix. Just like Rifledriver said, Redline MTL does the trick, but only should be used on transmissions without medium or high offset hypoid gears (whatever that means). It makes the trans super duper good.
BT

 

Wow!! Amazing!!

You know the sad part about all this Daniel?? There will still be some Ferrari owners that will ALWAYS use genuine replacement parts, no matter what the cost. I know of a few in the Aussie Ferrarichat section that always insist on using genuine Ferrari parts, so I can only safely assume that they will replace their cracked headers (if it ever happens) with a Ferrari header again. These guys have brains too, just more money.

 

I'd imagine you'd have a good case with the Air Resources Board that a cracked exhaust manifold would have to fall under the emissions warranty of the vehince (which is quite a bit longer than the powertrain warranty). Especially since it is ahead of the catalytic converters.

http://www.epa.gov/obd/warranties.htm

 

It does. That's why Ferrari installed new headers, free of charge, on my 355. I would have gone to something else, but free is free.



Darrell.

 

This would mean the 355 now has to be the undisputed "best car in the world..........EVER"!!!!!!!

Interesting though, in all seriousness, I wonder if we will start to hear of "valve guide issues" in the later cars from running lean due to leaking headers...........

 

Well if you can get them to do that you should take them off ASAP, sell them on e-bay and get some after markets!

 

As Dave Honda said in the thread, didn't ANSA make all of these?

 

Pardon my ignorance, but why can't one just weld the crack? Isn't this a lot cheaper than $3500/header?