have a little oil by one of my plugs .......help

I also see a little oil at the front of the cam cover and on the timing belt cover. Looks like that blow by hose is leaking. Yours looks to have already been repaired once before because the connection of the rubber hose to the pipe isn't a band clamp when new.

 

That is my guess too. Mine leaked as well. I would cut the head off the blow by pipe to get a better fit.

Do you smell burning oil? That’s a sure sign.

 

Looks like that may be the issue, regarding the leak, per above posts
In addition, the plastic cracked rails are beauty clips to hold the wires in place, you can toss them, they are NLA. Able to just use standard wire clips, look fine
Had the same issue...

 

The ignition wire covers are still available, but you won't like the price!! Available only as a complete assy with the ignition wires. I just replaced mine, ordered them over the winter.

 

Looks minor Bill. Have your guys in Vegas look at it the next time you are there. Keep driving!

 

what kind of tool require to pull those rubber boots out, picture please if available.

 

There’s a tool? I just use my hands, they pop out pretty easily.

 

If they pop out easily they are not fully snapped on the top of the spark plug. They should be difficult to remove.

 

Sticky RX makes a nice tool to remove the spark plug boots: https://www.**********.com/ferrari-355-spark-plug-boot-removal-tool/

 

I’lI rephrase. I find they come off easily enough that I didn’t think I needed a tool to remove them.

 

The spark plug connectors are usually on so tight that you need some kind of mechanical assistance in order to remove them, or they were not fully snapped onto the spark plugs, as mentioned by Rifledriver in post #10. I often find the plastic portion of the connector broken inside the rubber boot from a previous mechanics incorrect removal.

I lubricate the mechanical portion of the connector (clip down inside the boot) during re-installation in order to ease removal the next time they have to come off. You cannot purchase the sparkplug connectors separately from Ferrari or Beru, so if you find a broken one, you have to purchase an entire harness or rob one from a used harness that you have in the shop.

 

Bill,

If you have a working OEM system unbroken they continue to use it. But if you got broken parts and don't want to spend your child's inheritance but the COP system from Cribj. John's system is a fraction of the cost and replacement parts are Hayabusa motorcycle COP cheap. I have run his system flawlessly for 5 years on track too! The engine bay is much more tidy as well. Everything is better on John's system, lighter, tidy, better spark, cheaper parts, OEM reliability or better. I think this retrofit is part of the MSW family of maranello improvements. I think the only reason to still run OEM wires is if they are still serviceable. The minute the 1st wire fails or something breaks dump the OEM for John's system. Any mechanic can install and you don't need any special tools. COP is the 575 way by the way too. You will not be disappointed!

 

Right up until he wants to sell it. Most, myself included will never put a customer in a modified car.

 

Simple bolt on. Want OEM go for it. Certain modifications have proven superior to OEM like Hill tensioner bearings or Hill timing cover bearing. I doubt you are using the Ferrari OEM 170787 timing cover bearing are you?

Every msw product is proven

 

Don't care. When I see a modified car I have no idea where it starts and stops. I look elsewhere. The market rewards stock Ferraris. Period. The vast majority of people in this industry are on this side of it.
I help people from coast to coast shop for the right car. When I see that I walk away.
To not warn anyone so tempted is a terrible disservice to them.

 

Use of an alternate but standard bearing hardly rises to the level of modified in anyones book. You know better.

 

Well actually we each have our own standards based on our experience and learned knowledge. Those non Ferrari bearings are a problem...for FNA. What will happen with the new "classiche light" program? My understanding is FNA will not use a known proven superior Hill bearing in an FNA shop because Ferrari did not supply it. Has FNA relaxed those rules and still provide the required warranty?

And we are talking about MSW proven stuff like the 550 shock mounts that prevent junk in the trunk and spinning actuators where everything MSW has made is reversible. We are not talking about a bolt on supercharger or straumann Testarossa convertible conversion.

 

Bill,

Ask your technician if he can repair the cracked plastic rails. He did well with your undertray louver panel replacement.

Barry

 

I tried an epoxy plastic welder with no sucess. I'd be interested in finding something that would bind to that plastic. I have a complete set, wires, connectors and covers but one cover is in two pieces.

 

It seems to resist any glue known to man. Plastic parts don't bother me if designed to survive their environment but the plastic chosen is far less heat tolerant than the rubber wires..

Someone should make copies for those and TR512's as well. The demand is there.

 

I've tried 4-5 adhesives with no success. That coupled with Dave's failed attempts at fusing them together is partially the reason I came up with the COP solution.

I agree that stock Ferraris, like most classic cars, fetch better prices on the market than modified, or "molested" as some people prefer to call them, even if the modifications are an improvement over the original engineering. Illogical, but it is what it is. Buyers would prefer to pay a premium for poor engineering and manufacturing, if that's the way it came from the factory.

 

The problem is the unknown. Once it is out of your hands the quality, engineering or reasoning behind the modifications is a mystery. It is also unknown how many other systems have been modified or why. Were you improving the car or were you being cheap and bandaiding the car? Simple fact is reason B is far more common than reason A.

If it comes into my shop and it is stock and needing service or repair I know how to proceed. If it is modified, at the very least now I need to figure it out, a process and expense for which I am unlikely to be able to recover. Next, is the car broken or are your modifications causing the issue? The likely next step is to remove it all and make it into something we know about.

During the 70's all nature of "improved" ignition devices were being marketed and a great many found their way onto Ferrari's. Some were OK, most were junk. Some supplemented what was there and some replace factory installed equipment. It was a cluster **** and most of us ripped it all out whenever problems arose as the most direct and simple way to get a car running correctly because we saw so many that were poorly made, poorly engineered and or poorly installed.It turned into a monumental waste of time trying to sort out which this particular case was. Hate to see us going back to those dark days.

If you want to modify the car, fine but my strong suggestion in support of everyone who will be involved with the car after your ownership is to put it back stock when you are done with it.

Like I said earlier, for a lot of very good reasons backed up by decades of experience when I am helping find someone a car and I get a glace at something like that I stop dead in my tracks and go on to the next car.

 

Agreed! I cut my teeth on those wonky 70's optical triggers and set up on those antique Sun Distributor machines.

That's why you need to know where the modification comes from and, when you choose them do they make sense? Over two 550's I have had zero issues with any of the MSW modifications and they are all reversible to stock configuration and all mods came with instructions so a newbie can just read the documents and not have to figure things out.

In this situation doing anything on the MSW COP system is easier and faster and more reliable than any of the OEM stuff. A single Stock ignition wire is like $200 bucks 10 years a go hence the numerous threads on rebuilding the system via the Beru parts chain to make things stock. When we replace a GM wireset for 20 bucks we don't think about it but just replace it. I think there are a lot of marginal 550 ignition systems because parts are stupid costly and at 200 a wire people do things like replace 1 wire instead of a whole set. All those problems are solved with the MSW COP system which should not cause any head scratching as the COP found its way into the next generation 575. Even your FNA counterpart Shermerhorn (DeltaVee) became the MSW shock part retrofitter/distributor getting on board with that modification. MSW has been very selective in what they have produced and are a go to source like Hill...reliable and effective.

Finally, while we all love Ferrari we also know of their failures. It often isn't too complicated to fix their engineering/bean counting. Their silliness knows no limits. 30 years of the same SDECU's and sticky interiors? Someone should give them the memo...definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result.