Engine Question?

Everything I have found says the F430 is a 4-valve per cylinder engine. Thus, 32 valve DOHC.

Can't answer about ground clearance.

 

Where did you get that info from Walt?

ALL 430's have 32 valves mate.

Ground clearance is pretty good in the 430. I cant confirm a number for you, but someone should soonn tell you what the clearance is.

 

the 355 had 40

 

All 430's had 4 valve motors. Anything you might have read to the contrary was incorrect.

 

Walt- The 355 and 360 had five valves per cylinder and the 430 (all of them) had four, as did the late model 12 cylinders. Optimum breathing with four valves or simplified mechanicals compared to five valve heads? Who knows? The 430 and 599 did do away with the cam belts, so progress is being made. The last SOHC Ferraris were the 365 GTC/365 GT 2+2. The Dino 206/246 GT and 275 GTB/4 and later cars were DOHC.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I heard PAP had 6 valves. 4 for him, 2 extras for the ladies !

Regards,

Stew

 

Lol! Cheers Stew!

 

I thought just the 355 has 5 valves per cylinder, the 360 has 4, 348 has 4, 430 had 4? That's supposedly one of the reasons the 355 sounds the best out of all, no?

 

that begs to ask, How many for intake and how many for exhaust

 

+1

I've had a 348, 355 and now 360 and for sure, the 355 sounded the best. Your valve counts are correct, and they're all DOHC, so this comment, from a *dealer*, no less, warrants an "outing" IMHO

OK, on re-reading the above, at least it wasn't a "factory" dealer putting out the BS......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Hey guys, the 360 has 5 valves.


5 valves, 3 valves, whatever, has little to do with the noise it makes.

Forgive me for injecting correct info.

I will leave now.

 

You'll have to repave/regrade the driveway....megabuck 430 owners just have to take these issues in stride, maybe renovate the garage also, with about $60K in swank cabinets, epoxy floor paint, and tools....

 

It's not the number of valves that counts, but the fact you don't drop them behind you onto the highway.........

 

Brian- Thanks. You have taken off the heads and seen five valves per cylinder yourself. I just read it in magazines. I did get to look at the weird camshaft profile of a 355 yesterday (assume 360 is similar) when I dropped by my local shop. They had just pulled the engine for a major, including new Hill Engineering tensioner bearings for the belts. Camshaft lobe profiles completely different from anything I had seen before.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Oh ****! Where is the "very embarrassed" icon?..... Crawls under rock and hides.... It seems I don't know how many valves are in the friggin' thing..... I humbly apologize and will now retire to re-read my owners manual. [Again.]

I was sure only the 355 had 5. Sorry!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Its ok Ian. For a Gin and tonic in VC all will be forgiven.

 

Ian- You really cracked me up on that one. The other thing that was funny in this thread is three intake valves changing the exhaust note. Brian has heard this all before multiple times, no doubt.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

naw, not the 3 intake making that noise...it's the two exhaust making that noise

which BTW they all seem to have......

best gin.... junipero serra gin hands down IMO

 

Fortunately, I never made any "claims" as to *why* the 355 sounded the best, just that it did

[I got more "I assume that's a Tubi?" comments on that car than any other - It wasn't btw.]

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Multiple G&T's @ VC should cover the embarrassment. [Junipero Serra it seems - Hopefully stocked in the G.H.H. They did stop carrying draft Guinness last year, which sucks ]

 

You really make an interesting point though. Many don't really ever think about it but a good deal of the noise a motor makes is intake noise especially if the intake isn't muffled. Listen to an F1 car passing you. Some make more noise approaching than leaving. Pretty much all cars employ some sort of muffling on the intake. An air filter alone does a good deal of it. I used to have a Datsun 510 with a 200HP 1800 in it. It had a very free flowing but quiet exhaust on it but the Weber 45's with velocity stacks were loud enough to get me some tickets for excessive noise when measured with a meter. They used to do that on the roads approaching Laguna Seca in the old days and would have a whole line of cars pulled over getting tickets for loud exhaust.

I tried to explain it wasn't the exhaust but they didn't care.

Couldn't hear the radio in that car over the carbs.

 

Brings to mind the Ford Cortina "wagon" (!) my cousin owned - We popped a Lotus twin cam in it for use as a tow bus. Lotus "headers" feeding the stock exhaust. The *only* thing you could hear was those 45's sucking...... [And a lovely sound it was IMHO ]

Cheers,
Ian
PS - It met a sorry end - I figured it's failure to start one morning was due (as always) to Lord Lucas' execrable electrics, but upon opening the hood discovered someone had *stolen* the entire top end - I was looking at piston crowns!

 

Brian, Ian- I am at the other end of the scale with the Novitec exhaust on the 575M. It drowns out most of the lovely intake noise. I just picked up a factory HGTC exhaust (for $399) and should have a good match soon. Nice intake and exhaust sounds. I now have three exhaust systems for the bloody car. Will probably give away the stock system and sell the Novitec.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Makes for very expensive hot rod regrinds! They had to pack 5 pounds of **** in a 3 pound bag there and I suspect it was a major factor in why the 5 valve system was abandoned. The cost to produce a complex design and the ability to make the same power, different ways with the simpler 4v...

Outward appearance, it is quire incredible but mount one on a flow bench with a smoke machine and you can see both the genius and a hint of the short comings of the design. I am still fascinated with the concept and the theory. As soon as I have the finances in place, thin the current crop of projects and get the nod from the boss I will find a project car and start playing with these a bit more.

My camshaft development guy and I have discussed this many times (involved a great deal of moaning on his part) but have some ideas that I believe hold water. I suspect I will end up with the engine cradle Dzus fastened to the car as many times as that engine will come out before a successful combination is attained. My biggest fright is loosing the exhaust note they have.