Help, Does this repair estimate sound right? Leaking Oil

Holy crap you might as well get a crank grind and new pistons and rings while you're at it. That's a lot of work for 1 oil leak. I don't know much about the Cali T engine or more specifically how the oil gets up to the top. Does the oil actually go through the head gaskets? I would take the car to Brian Crall in Austin. Hill Country Ferrari, seeing as you are close. I don't know the guy but he is highly regarded on this forum.

 

Brian Crall in Houston is excellent but if he is booked up, try Norwood Auto Italia in Dallas area. I recently had work done there and was very pleased with service and reasonable charges.

 

You need to find another mechanic, you do know that owning a Ferrari , means a license to steel for a lot of shops, or you can sell the car , I dont know how the hell you need a head gasket on such a new car, seems like a joke to me. Such poor build quality, its shame thats for sure. Buy some gasket leak fix stuff and sell the thing and buy a Ferrari with a warranty, good grief, before something else breaks on it. FYI, not to be repetitive , my 89 has a 104,000 miles on it, and so far, the head gaskets are not leaking , so far the last 22 years, like I said, its a shame new Ferraris are now becoming pieces of s****.I can only imagine how soon these new Ferraris are going to fall apart when someone drives them the way they were intended, which we all know, happens with about 1 % of owners, its scary, thats for sure. Good luck to you .

Thank you

 

I did the side head gasket job myself - time-consuming yes - but not hard in any way. (about 5 hours give or take)

I can't speak to the front timing cover gasket - I suspect that's the tougher job.

Good luck!

 

I don't get how people are so terrified of out of warranty repair bills. Compared to taking the hit on a car that needs work coupled with the eye watering depreciation of a new car the $12k (which is clearly way over the top) is super cheap. But hey you'll have a new Ferrari.

 

Personally I would get a second opinion. Head gaskets can fail in weird ways, but its a very strange one on such a new and modern car.

What are the symptoms?

I.e smoke in the exhaust?
Low compression?
Physical oil leak to outside of the engine?

 

They must be out of their tinyvminds. Ask them how much time each thing will take. Don't tell them why, just ask for a time estimatd. I know for a fact that header gaskets at a certified dealer who is acquainted with the car, can do that in less than two hours. I don't know what they charge hourly, but that seems like they are charging almost for 100 hours. Ask them to go spin. I doubt the front cover is more than 10 hours. It's not exactly an engine-out proceedure. If all of it is 20 hours, they are charging 500 an hour. Yeah right. They are full of it.

Sent from my SM-G930F using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

That seems absurdly high but I’m no expert mechanic. Remove and replace engine is probably what, $3-4k? Where’s the other $8-9k coming from? $12,101 is a very specific number so how did that break down between parts and labor?

 

Head gasket is not header gasket.

 

You’re right! I miss read! Disregard my earlier comment , and appreciate you correcting me!

 

Cheers!

 

Since this shop is very into the intensive needs of your car, you might want to ask them for estimates to replace your muffler bearings and adjust the idler jets on the alternator.

 

How often does a head gasket result in an external oil leak. Sure it's not the valve cover gasket and they're substituting head gasket? Generally speaking a blown head gasket you'll get oil in the water, or water in the oil, or both, but not generally oil leaking externally. Could happen I suppose but I think that would be a pretty rare case.

 

^^^ and if a failed head gasket is suspected I would want a leak down check to confirm

 

My old twin cam Fiat had a small oil leak from the head gasket. It was very common. There was an oil gallery that went through the head gasket and head for the up top lube. So if the Cali has a similar system it could leak oil here. If not then it can't. I don't know how the oil gets to the top.

 

It seems that if you own an F-car, everyone thinks you are rich! We know that that is not always the case! Hope you can get a more reasonable estimate to fix the problem!

 

We have a 2016 California T , cam cover gaskets leaking . Is this an engine out job ? the cam covers hold the cam shafts in and it looks pretty tight to deal with this . HELP !

 

My newly acquired 1970 365GT 2+2 had a noticeable oil drip when the engine was running. Diagnosed as head gasket leak, quite common for this engine. Among other things they have pull the engine and drop the oil pan to loosen the timing chain so the camshaft sels can be replaced. My estimate is not as bad as yours, but it's up there. While it was there it refused to turn over, so I got a new starter and a $30 ground strap. I still don't have a total but it looks close to $18K for the car's first visit to Tony's (honest to god - the proprietor is Tony and he included it the shop name).
Hope your ride goes a year without significant work.

 

Everything costs way more now than even 2-3 years ago. If you thought $7k would've been reasonable for the job a couple years back, then $10-12k is probably high but not too far off. Labor rates way up. I got quoted $8-10k on a head gasket job for a toyota at 2 dealers and 3 independents this time last year. Same job was $3-5k the year before according to everyone on the forums, but their info was outdated

 

It's a V8, not a V12, so I really don't know, but I suspect that replacing cam covers on a V8 might require pulling the engine for a different reason. Only your mechanic knows for sure.

 

The Turbo Charged Ferrari's..require a TON of extra work and the potential for extra parts increases by double compared to any N/A engine. It is what it is. I wouldn't want to.be the tech doing that job. 12k..seems right in the ball park.

Cam cover leaks are NOT uncommon on these turbo engines. As these car get older maintenance is going to be an awful thing to contend with.

 

It would seem that *historically* Ferrari's engine designs all tend to leak oil at the heads.

 

I was made aware of this by a dealer in 2017 that all the turbo cars are going to have expensive oil leak problems coming from the front cover or heads. Hadn't really heard much until now. But I guess now it's finally getting out there.