Thanks very much ChampIII for keeping us updated and for your very detailled pictures. First, it's a good relief to read that the distribution chain isn't the issue, neither the chain tensioners. Secondly, I agree with bhelp, it looks like the broken small pieces from the intake are not the root cause of the engine damage. I think that these small bits would have fallen down in the intake base without being sucked in the engine. Something else got sucked in there. On your pictures, the dents were maybe marked by another object that got in there. Maybe a screw with a circular head? It must be something light to able to follow the air flow but hard enough to cause all the damage. If the factory mishandled the intake, the alimunium bits would have broken off immediately and not after 10K miles as alimunium is braking off straight away. Wishing you good luck with the further investigation and cross fingers you'll get support from FNA. Stef
WOW! That sucks! Glad to know it wasn't the tensioner. Thanks for the update, and I REALLY hope you get some help with this.
Also, this is unbelievable! Two failed engines?? SAME issue?? Probably the same guy who built both those engines. I am sure they can find out who did and I hope they clip him behind the ears and "tell him to wake up to himself".
Sorry to hear of your pain. If i ever buy an F430 Ill be pulling the intake cover off to have a looksee!
I'd actually appreciate, as the dust settles, a prescription to take to the ferrari dealer to have my intake examined for signs this could happen. What exactly do I tell them to look for?
Clearly 100% manufacturing defect (unless somebody opened the motor before), so hopefully Ferrari NA will fix it under 'goodwill' warranty. I'd definitely shoot for that. Good luck, and please keep us posted.
So sorry to hear of this problem Champ. All will be well in time and quite possibly at considerable cost but a shame to have damage like this occur in such a random way. Just as regards it being a factory problem I note the orange gasket sealer on the plenum chamber gasket. I would generally interpret that as evidence of the unit having been opened since it left the factory as generally on new assemblies I don't think that kind of sealer tends to be used. Good luck with the repairs. Hopefully she won't be off the road too long and once you clip 8.5 a few times on the way home any inconvenience and cost will begin to fade away.
Even at 4200 rpm there's 7,500 litres of air per minute going through each bank which means a lot of wind. Probably enough to pull in those small pieces no problem. Also the engine damage probably not actually caused so much by the small pieces themselves. More likely the small pieces caused a valve or valves to stick open, then get hit by piston, maybe break off and then........
Champ- That is really just horrible luck. I have a feeling FNA will make good on this one. Ape- Welcome home. Taz Terry Phillips
Ape - you a very popular guy! Thanks for your offer to help me. Regarding the screw idea or some large piece of metal entering the engine: In the attached pictures you will see that the large and small filter screens were undamaged (as were the air filters) so whatever got into the engine did not come from the intake. So if it was a screw, it had to be laying in there - very doubtful - I would have heard it rattling around there at idle when the hood was up and all screws were accounted for when they broke it down. So if it didn't come through the intake, then it had to come through the exhaust manifold - which I find hard to believe. Even with extreme back pressure or a backfire, the material would have to be substantial to make that kind of mark and I just cant fathom a big chunk going up through the exhaust manifold, squeezing through the exhaust valves, then after being battered around, squeezing through the intake valve on the left and then over the plenum to the right bank and taking out the lip of the velocity stack multiple times without making a mark on any of the other velocity stacks - they were all perfect. Lastly, that piece in the picture is only what was left in the cylinder - if you look closely you can see tiny pulverized aluminum bits all over the suction intake (you can see it clearly in the picture around where the oil collected). So there was more in there than that little piece - it was all that survived so far. So I come back to the lip being damaged by the cover upon assembly. Nothing else makes sense to me. Still open to any theories... Thanks again for all the input. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
First, sorry about your troubles. I have my fingers crossed that Ferrari will come to the rescue and save the day! Since you're looking for theories... Check out this post from July 2009. Might Ricambi knows something...? You might want to give them a call. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=138834173 Read steelej's post on this page: http://www.clubscuderia.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=41599 And lastly... Ever have any exhaust work done? I would think that a problem would have surfaced immediately, but who knows? Just throwing out ideas.
Is it a good idea to purchase a higher mileage f430? maybe about 20k miles...if there were debris sucked, it would have toasted the cylinder heads before 20k.
