Have we destroyed the 355?

+1

And, I can't give much credit to a nameless, locationless screen name that I don't know what he does for a living...just say'in.

 

You guys tell me? What is the axe I am grinding? What was negative about my last post? Some guys are so sensitive you only see negative. I can't help that. I always try to be helpful and present facts where ever I am discussing. Find facts where I am wrong and I will gladly admit. I post a Ferrari TSB and Bob calls me a "fear monger." All cars have bad luck even 328's. Daniels grenade was nothing special. IIRC broke belt bent valves. Could of happened to anyone. Was Daniel's problem a design flaw? Does not sound like it to me. I don't remember that 3+ year old story. Does casting dispersions on other models somehow up lift the 355 reputation? That is like telling the cop, "well everybody speeds." I don't remember how much his incident cost. You say $40K OK and people here say a 355 should not cost that much for it's heads? The 355 has 8 more valves and more difficult machining. Is that fact? Of am I bashing the 355 again? I don't know where some guys get the idea that I am the enemy of the 355. Some are so sensitive that on this thread ( http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355/433858-metalurgy-chemistry-vendors-asnwer-slew-threads-questions.html ) instead of a discussion about the topic from a science point of view we got presumably 355 owners ragging on the professional's spelling! Why not have an intelligent discussion on causes and solutions like adults?

 

His axe to grind is he wishes he had a 355...just kidding billy bob.

 

Oh such negativity...

 

I seem to recall a thread regarding the GCK and folks trying to do just that where you dismissed anything that you did not agree with when many good view points where presented...

 

I'm not being negative at all. It's just my take. Why should I listen to someone without a name that I have no idea of there background?

I run a very technical business and I would not expect anyone to put trust in me without the credentials to back it up.

 

Ah...is that the thread where some ganged up on the GCK for not doing it's job before having all the facts. Then I posted pictures of the connector pins on this 355 with owner installed mangled gold connector pins? Who thinks the gold pins have so much magic that this is acceptable? I just seem to remember it differently. Some want to turn discussions into a Gold connector kit holy war. That is just not productive.

Picture is the day we were having a Bar-Be-Que. The owner of this 355 I just met. I must hate 355's because I only fixed half of this owner's problems for free. Shame on me for not fixing all of them.
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When you have been here longer or read more past posts you will understand who makes sense and who does not. If I don't make sense to you that's fine please ignore me and do not reply to my posts.

 

+1

So if you have been here for a decade your opinion is valid, if you have only been on the forum a short time, then nothing one says is valued, considered or worthy of a straight answer.

 

FBB. A picture is worth a thousand words. The discussion on that thread revolved around header issues. You post a picture of a basket of twisted pipes and state that these are what 355 headers look like. Really.

What kind of owner drove his car that long to allow that level of break down to occur without becoming concerned that something was amiss. Did he think hall of thst ticking and clacking was just more of the normal sounds from the engine?

Was that an abused track cars manifold?

I replaced mine on first sign of a ticking and they didn't look like that


The fear mongering comes in fbb because you said 430 issues are no big deal because there's a tsb out on them and it's brackets and welds but omg 355 issues are way more serious and involve heat blah blah blah and look what happens. (Picture of twisted burnt pipes)

Give me a break Fbb. You have some kind of agenda in besmirching this model of Ferrari. Did you own a lemon fbb and get you ass kicked in repairs? Just what happened in your life with a 355? Inquiring minds want to know.

And as far as pros go fbb. Before I bought my car I spoke with Dave helms, jack at NJB , Tony at Algar. None of this men who actually fix 355s for customers tried to dissuade me from buying one. They all offered constructive advise on what to look for etc without showing me pictures of some melted headers.

I have undying respect for the pros who speak on here. Btw FBB, what is the name and location of your repair facility where you service customers cars at?

 

Like above posts, I bought mine from ferrari dealer with no service history, the dealer did a major as part of my purchase. I had never visited Fchat or this section prior to purchase. I found it right after my purchase. Had I hound it before I never would have purchased the car. I drove the car 7000 miles in the 2 years I owned it with not one issue. After my introduction to this site I never drove the car without worrying and hearing ghost noises. The primary reason I sold the car was the concern I could never shake due to this site. I miss the car and wish I did not sell it.

 

And there you go...

 

You guys are doing a disservice to the 355 by beating up FBB and anyone who actually calls out issues that the cars have had. FBB's picture of the header.. guess what.. that's not the first set of 355 headers that I've seen like that. He's presenting bad work and inattention that has been done on these cars by prior owners. If a guy does his homework and spends a ton of cash, he'll buy a car with all the valve guides taken care of, and headers replaced, serviced by Helms or a reputable shop, etc. etc.

If he doesn't and spends $30k for a 355.. then it's going to have problems, and inattentive past owners, and you're going to see the things that FBB is posting. By pushing him under the rug, it doesn't make any of these issues go away. (Of course you guys then chastise the owner for spending so little on a car..)

Quite frankly you couldn't give me a 355 so I have a bias.. and that was based on my first hand, laid my hands physically on the broken car to try and help diagnose it, no I'm not some guy that never even touched a 355, experiences... but I would never dissuade a guy from buying one if he wanted it. That buyer deserves to know the potential problems and their frequency and cost. If you guys are going to try to wipe it under the rug instead of acknowledging them and fixing them:

1) You're not going to make those issues go away
2) The car will still have it's "reputation" because owners will still have sky high repair bills
3) It's reputation will be worsened bcause owners will go into the experience without access to the pitfalls.

Every model has issues.. I don't think you guys are being fair to FBB.. I will have a 348, but the information about the car being positive and negative doesn't dissuade me from the car. Instead it "purifies" my expectations.

 

I agree with Curt guys, please read everything more carefully before jumping to conclusions about FBB posts.

 

and I totally disagree with you.

430s have header problems that seem at first blush to be more prevalent than 355s. I don't care if they are from cracked welds or brackets, they have issues that need fixing. The 355 header issues are also known and need fixing. You don't own a 355 I do. You didnt just replace your hearers, I did. My headers that I took off my car did not look like the pile of twisted metal that he posted. That picture represents negligent ownership not the standard of 355 produtc, at least by my personal obersvation.

FBB in a recent post made a statement on here insinuating that a certain poster who regards his car as running awesome really doesn't know whether his car is running so well. Really? He is on the other side of the country and reading posts on the internet but he is able to ascertain that this guys car isn't what he thinks it is because he knows better. Give me a break!

Read the last post by the fellow who got rid of his car because of what he read on here. FBB has almost 10000 posts and since I have been on here he has taken the 355 to taks with abandon at every single opportunity making statements and posting as I just described.

You are a surgeon? Do you really think that in what may be the most read journal in your specialty that you would allow a peer to recklessly post pictures and statements like that? I wouldn't allow it and I would speak up against it.

This isnt a refereed journal but it is the closest thing we have to one in this hobby. Posters, especially those who portray themselves as experts, should be prudent in their posting or make full disclosure otherwise.

 

+1. i like fbb's posts. maybe if the problems didn't exist there wouldn't be a discussion. Also, if the problems were occurring on much higher mileage cars , instead of 20k , it would not be an issue.

Jeez , could you imagine the uproar if corvettes , or porsches were known for these problems at such low mileage.

As far as the 348 being "the worst ferrari" remember if there was no 348 there would be no 355.

Seems like us 348 guys whine less and drive more !

 

In fact, there are many studies and anecdoctal observations that get published in journals. And like here, they are debated and refuted/proven.

You see, I've been following this thread as well. Because like the 355.. there are guys that buy a 360 as well who fret every little sound, then barely drive it because they worry all the time. In 360 land its the Variator that causes the most concern.. "will it die today?".

I admit that I have the luxury that my wallet has not stake in this discussion. You put new headers on the car and they didn't look like that. It's YOUR observations and experiences here. I'm happy that your headers didn't look like that. But... your experiences are a sample size of 1. With your friends and this site, it becomes a sample size of what... 20? 40? (active users). I get that owners have the best experience and do have the most cred. I didn't read FBB's posts as attacking the 355. Headers like that represent negligent ownership.. if the owner knows he's being negligent. Some don't and that results. "I've always wanted a 355.. so I hit the buy it now and bought it cheap. How do you do an oil change?"

My point is that when Rifledriver and other mechanics post here... they have experiences of owners as well that are just as valid, even if they only see the broken cars and maintained cars (brought in for oil changes, etc.). To discount them just because of the unpleasant nature of it.. does the 355 disservice.

 

Uh, corvette c6 z06's have valve guide issues at low mileage, go to their forums and look it up. My buddy had to replace them on his 18k mile c6 z06. So no need to imagine it. The difference is, Corvette owners have a Chevy and mechanics don't rape them for a valve job. He spent $1200 to have his heads re-done.

 

So why are you posting in the 355 section then? I sold a 95 vette in 2009 and I don't go on vette forums discussing the car. It's gone and I'm done with it.

 

Nobody here is denying that the 355 has issues. What we are saying is that they are well known and fixable. And once fixed, they're fixed. The guys with bad leakdown results that have had a valve job done need to find where the leakage is. It could be the cylinder liners. Or, it could be that the valve guides were only done on one head previously (as that's the one that had poor numbers). Or it could be that they have some other, unrelated issue.

I feel the same way about the 360 that you feel about the 355. If somebody gave me one I'd take it, but I'd immediately sell it to buy a 355. The difference is, I don't feel the need to go to the 360 forum and bash it for it's pre-cat issues, cam variator issues, portly weight or worse handling. Or for the fact that it's not faster than the 355 yet costs $15k more. And looks like a sucked on jelly bean.

 

I was not aware that FBB is in the same catagory as Brian Crall, a long term professional Ferrari Mechanic. Is he? And what sample size does FBB have? Can he post 100 cases of headers like the one (yes, one) set he did?

 

I do not put Brian Crall in the same sentence as FBB, whatever his name is. Brian Crall would never tell a poster on this site that he has no clue whether his car is running good just because he says it is. You ignore that this is what FBB did. FBB is not Rifledriver or Dave Helms. If you read my posts I give those guys every credit I can and read and pay attention to every word they say. I repeat, FBB is not Brian Crall or Dave Helms.

That picture of 355 manifolds was posted in response to a discussion of 430 header issues and as a rebuttal to 430 issues being of weld and bracket nature and 355s melt. That was inflammatory and not representative of at least my real world experience. There was no description such as they were removed from an abused, ignored driven 355 that had header noise for 10k miles, etc. No they were posted as representative of 355 headers.

If I were a knowledgable professional mechanic or if I were just like FBB, an amateur who seems to know his way around these cars taking the case of the poster with the awesome running car as an example. If I felt that there may be some things this poster should know and understand about 355 valve issues and pay attention in in his ownership going forward I might say to him something like, "Keep an eye on your oil consumption and maybe do a CC every once in awhile because you dont want a bad valve situation to turn in to a mess", rather than as FBB does, "I makes me laugh when guys on here say they have awesome runnings cars". Give me a break. Do you really think that is professional and represnetative of someone that is trying to educate owners and potentila owners? It is someone trying to make a point and fulfill an agenda and inflame. Period.

 

I'm sorry.. I didn't know that there were limits to where I can post on this site.. I'll have to talk to management about that.. I'll also have to stop posting in P+R because I'm not in public office right? (rolls eyes) Oh and I've seen some posters from this thread over in 360/430. It doesn't bother me one bit btw..

I come onto the 348/355 section.. because I will have a 348 in the future with my 360. Threads like this suck me in.

I prefer to think of this as one of its "endearing" qualities.

 

Yes, by all means replace the guides whether the car needs it or not, and heaven forbid that anyone should buy a car not serviced by Mr. Helms. That's the kind of useless BS that we don't need.

Please go play with the other jelly bean owner over at the 360/430 forum.

 

I've subscribed. I like to subscription to good use. *wink wink*

Confirms it.. don't like what's written bury it under the carpet.