355 Cam phase sensor malfunction

Grant, make sure you have all the intake tappets tested. When the valves hit the pistons and the cam keeps rotating something has to give. The tappets collapse, the cam stops momentarily and the belt stretches. So while only several tappets appear damages they may all not seal properly. Also, you cam damage is probably do to the excessive load on the cam causing the oil film to break down leaving metal to metal contact between tappet and lobe.

 

You did not say anything about cam lobes before, it is not the best news. Remove that cam and have them inspected and cleaned up by a Cam grinder. You might think about replacing the affected valve lifters or rebuild them. Somewhere on fchat, Socal1 did a rebuild procedure. Scuderia Rampante has rebuilt lifters but I don't think he sells them to non-customers.

 

Grant,

So sorry this happened to you. This is maximum suckage and really ruins the Ferrari experience. My advice is to make lemonade out of lemons. Since you have to rebuild one head anyway do it right and cut no corners. While the zombie apocalypse is on I would be researching things like lighter valves, the final word on guide material, performance gains from head work from reliable builders (if there is such a person). Sometimes there are a few gains in HP for simple stuff like port matching, lighter components etc without the risk of some guy flow porting your heads and destroying them or not being able to pass smog tests. That of course means doing both heads. I figure if you are going to spend a bunch of money you may as well get some horsepower for it. I would not be trying to reuse what looks OK because doing the heads a second time sucks more than the 1st time. You may want to see if you can sends the heads to dave helms. He has a full lifter rebuild program and is the only guy I have seen in 40 years to produce the right tools for the job such as the Ferrari line hone tools etc. If I had your problem he would be my 1st call and I'm in socal where there are supposed to be great guys all over the place.

Funny story, visiting my Bro in Boulder Colorado I have some free time and go see Dave Helms just to say HI. He was on Fchat back in the early days and that is how I knew of him. He was rebuilding the motor on the 348 Flagcar (a super hot 348 racecar with everything a racecar guy like me would want). I asked him if that tool on the bench was genuine Ferrari block line hone tool? He had a smile on his face, "yes it is!" He got my instant credibility score since I have only seen that in pictures and not only been in zillions of Ferrari shops including FNA shops but apprenticed as a Ferrari mechanic in my early days. Dave really puts his money where his mouth is. I think I got instant credibility because I actually knew what he had. We instantly hit it off. He had an amazing shop back then. Dave's Scuderia Rampante has grown into a new larger shop and he is quietly making many many happy owners. There are a few guys in socal who ship there cars to him and bypass all the guys we have here.

 

Just a general question - if there is a crank position sensor that tells the ECU when cylinder #1 is is at TDC and a cam phase sensor that tells the ECU if the cylinder is at the ignition phase, why does the engine operate on a wasted spark system?
All of the information is there to properly sequence the spark and not over work the coils, cables and spark plugs.

 

Doesn't the wasted spark system cut down on components and wiring? One coilpack per bank, two coils per coilpack (instead of 4), only 2 trigger wires to each coil pack (instead of 4).

 

You sound like you are up on me a bit as to these components but it still sounds like a waste to me - no pun intended. Firing a spark plug when it's not needed and working a Coil more often than required just seems wrong somehow. My 355 is modified to have an 8 "coil near plug" arrangement but still maintains the wasted spark system. I'm not smart enough to be able to modify the ecu and my cam phase sensor has been removed. My ecu was established using a PROEFI system before I purchased the car.