jerbear27's F430 journey

So much great information on this site. A few threads like this out there that I have found interesting and have benefited from. I Figured I would share what I have been learning while working on my 2008 F430 and hopefully return the favor.

Headers, 100 Cell Sport Cats and Exhaust
I've already done some work, unfortunately I didn't take all of the pictures i should have when replacing my headers, cats and exhaust. I went with Kline SS headers with heat protection, Kline SS 100 cell sport cats and a Kline SS valved exhaust. I didn't do this work all at once. I started with the exhaust, then went to the headers and then finally the cats. I did have a CEL after installing the headers

Before even starting the header replacement, I soaked the header nuts and studs with Kroil penetrating oil. I have yet to find anything better than this stuff. I would come by a few times a day for a few days and spray the nuts and studs. All the studs came out with the nuts, except 1. I had to use a stud extractor to get that one out. I replaced the the studs, nuts and gaskets with brand new, Ferrari hardware.

I also took the time to replace the donut gaskets and all hardware (bolts, nuts, springs) connecting the headers to the cats. I'm glad i did this as I snapped one bolt when trying to remove them. They were pretty well seized.

Rear bumper had to come off for the exhaust install. Pretty straight forward. Rear portion of the fender lining has to come out and that gets you access to some of the bolts. The rest of the bolts are accessible from the top and below (with the diffuser off). Keep an eye on the shims and how many are on each side. Taping the edges of the bumper where it meets the rear quarter panels will help prevent you from scratching anything. Two people would be best for removal, but I was able to manage by myself.


Trev360 Tune
Had to get rid of the CEL and rather than go with extenders, I figured I'd go all in and send the ECU's out to Trev360 for a tune. Pretty straight forward. ECU's are behind the seats. Remove the panels, loosen the supporting bracket and remove the connector. Contract Trev, pack and ship the ECU's and wait for them to return. CEL was gone. Throttle response greatly improved. Shifting seemed much more smooth. Very pleased.


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Next up was a new radio. I don't listen to music much in this car, but having the ability to stream some music on occasion was appealing. Trying to keep the OEM look I purchased the A2D-BKR Music streaming Add-on from Discount Car Stereo. Install was straight forward, plug and play, but I did get a "whine" on acceleration through the speakers. This seems like a known issue as they offer an inline noise suppression filter. I decided to give up on the stock unit and looked elsewhere.

I stumbled upon the VDO Continental TR7412UB-OR as a recommendation from others on this forum. This unit is plug and play, offers A2DP and was plug and play. Perfect. I ran this unit without issue for several months. Worked great. Made the stock sound system (Hi-Fi) sound much better than the stock Becker unit (it still doesn't sound great - so if you go this route, don't go in with too high of expectations).

I then found myself wanting something with Carplay, primarily for Navigation and potentially a backup camera in the future. I decided I didn't want anything with a flip up screen as I didn't want my vents blocked. I saw some folks go with the Joying unit. The unit was priced right and the 6.2" unit wouldn't block the window switches and would stay clear of the AC vents. I went for it. I bought the head unit wiring harness from Scuderia Audio and went to work getting it wired to the joying harness. I used solder connectors to make the splices.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Test functions in the car:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

Head unit installed, but I was unhappy with the gap from the side. Other than that, the wireless carplay worked just fine and overall I was happy with the unit. Needed to do something about the gap.

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Ended up finding Ferrari part 70003197 - Ferrari F430 Infotainment Assembly Kit Mounting Kit. This is the mounting surround/bezel used on the optional Ferrari badged Clarion flip-up unit. OEM part, so fit and finish were perfect. Be careful with the window switches if you go this route. The switches move from their current position and get screwed into the back of this bezel.


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

Not sure I'll keep this, but it works for now and I've been relatively happy with it. A single DIN with a small screen would fir the look of the car better. When one of those comes out, I'll go that way. I have to get going on getting the backup camera wired up at some point.

 

Sticking with the interior upgrades, I was looking for a way to get Homelink going in the car so I could get rid of the garage door opener sitting in the center console. I also wanted to mount my OG V1 radar detector.

To solve the Homelink issue, I decided to go with a frameless Homelink mirror from Bobs Mirrors. It has a built in battery, so didn't require any wiring and it should last 10 years. We'll see. I also needed an adapter bracket to get the new mirror to work with the Ferrari mount. Everything worked without issue. Remove the stock mirror, mount the adapter and then add the new mirror. Program the mirror by following the instructions provided and you're all set.

Image Unavailable, Please Login



To mount my V1, I decided to go with a mirror mount from Radarmount.com. Straight forward install. To wire this up, I wired it up through the headliner and down the A pillar to the radio. I had tried to wire this up to the air bag activation light in the dome light area (saw this in another thread here) but it didn't work for me. All I got was an airbag light on the dash. The wiring on the 08's must be different. Wiring it back to the radio was easy and it worked with no issue.


Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Next up was getting the engine bay in order. My intake manifold was peeling pretty good and definitely needed to be refinished. I also had a leaky valve cover gasket on the passenger side. While removing the removable rear frame, I noticed my transmission mount was shot. So I started there.

Transmission Mount Replacement
I was absolutely dreading this job. Just seems there's horror story after horror story about the R&R being a nightmare. I was prepping myself for a rough go at it. Like I did for the header studs/nuts, I started soaking outside of the trans mount with Kroil for a few days, coming back to spray it a few times a day.

I purchased the Hill Engineering tool, figuring that was $275 well spent and could potentially save me a ton of time. I also put the new transmission mount in the freezer for a few days hoping that would make the install a little easier.

The Hill Tool was great, but the issue on the removal is that the tool is expecting the transmission mount to be perfectly centered as if it were new. When the mount fails, the rubber goes and the hole for the mount is no longer centered as the mount has collapsed. There are a few ways to solve this issue:
1. Modify the HE tool and widen up the center hole that the rod goes through
2. Do what I did, and swap the small side of the HE tool with a plate from a ball joint press kit

By using the plate from the ball joint press, it gave us enough wiggle room where we could better align the tool to easily press the mount out even though it wasn't centered. You can see from the picture below the "slack" we have with this setup in order to deal with the sagging mount.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

Keep the threads lubricated on the rod for the HE tool. Took a little bit of effort until the mount "released" and then it came out nice and easy. You can see the mount had failed with the rubber pretty well cracked. Old mount on top, new mount on bottom.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Old mount out and ready for the new. I lubricated the mounting hole on the transmission and then got the new mount out of the freezer. I replaced the small side of the HE tool with the proper part (removing the ball joint press part) and lined everything up to go back in.

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Mount when back in smooth and even. It was almost effortless to get it back in. No resistance and the mount went in dead straight. The HE tool was well worth it and with the new mount being perfectly centered, no doubt it made installation a breeze. All-in-all, this job took me about 30 minutes once I understood the "centering" problem and realized I should use the ball joint press piece. Curious to see how much of a difference this makes, if any, once I get it back on the road.



Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Forza Componenti Exhaust Controller Switch in Cabin

Exhaust Controller Switch:
After a ton of research here on the forum, I decided to wire a factory Ferrari switch next to the other 3 switches in the front panel to the left of the steering wheel. I got myself a roof light switch from a 575M, Ferrari Part 183232, a two-position switch. Next, I ordered an "Exhaust" sticker from StickyNoMore. Here's the result:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

I wanted to make the switch as "OEM" as possible, so I also wanted to find a "plug" that fit the 5 pin switch. With some help from @Qavion, he pointed me to a plug/adapter on eBay that would work.

I then "de-pinned" the plug to only keep the two wires (and colors) that I needed to run back to the exhaust controller.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

I then began the process of running the wires from the back of the car where the exhaust controller was, up and into the cabin.

I chose to come in on the passenger side of the car. I removed the cover behind the passenger seat. The grommet is the one at the top, above the ECU's and other relays are. I found it easier to get under the car and take a trim tool to pop the grommet/boot out of the car. From there I was able to use a wooden chopstick to poke a hole through the rubber. From there I took at wire from a piece of romex I had laying around and taped the wires to that and then push it through the boot. I also ran the wire for my backup camera, but first I cut the RCA end off of it to minimize the hole I had to make in the boot. I ran two wires for the exhaust controller, I green for ground (I guess you could ground the switch somewhere at the front of the car if you wanted), and a blue wire for control.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

I then pushed the boot/grommet back in from the underside of the car with a plastic trim tool. Next I had to run all 3 wires (two for the switch and one for the backup camera) up to the front of the car. I removed the drives side seat and the drivers side ECU cover. I pulled the wires through from the passenger side to the drivers side and then unscrewed the center console removing all bolts at the bottom. That gave me enough room to pull out on the console a little bit to run the wires underneath it. Yes, I cleaned the leather before putting the seat back.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Once that was done, I ran the two wires for the switch under the carpet behind the pedals and then up to the area with the switches. I then removed the dummy panel and the vent for better access as I didn't want to have to remove all the switches to take the carbon panel off. This gave me enough access to pull the wires through and get the switch plug wired up to the wires I had run. Once that was done, installed the switch.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Next, I wrapped the wires in expandable braided cable sleeve and applied heat shrink at the ends. I then put that into some split loom tubing and ran those wires up and to the back of the car where I had the exhaust controller. Zip tied things in place as i went. Before mounting the valve controller, I made sure to open the lid and change both switches from the "REM" option to the "MAN" option per the instructions from Forza Componenti.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

(Ignore the bunch of wires at the top, I'll cover that in the next post)

Love having the switch in place. The switch will switch between ECU operation of the valves and valves open. If the switch is up, the ECU has control. If I flip the switch down, the valves are open. The nice thing about this is I can get the remote out of the cabin and I can keep the valves always open by leaving the switch in the down position. Happy with the results.

 

Thank you!

 

Backup Camera Install

See the earlier post about running my exhaust controller switch to the cabin for how I routed the backup camera RCA wire to the front of the car.

Decided I wanted to run a backup camera as I now had a head unit (Joying unit from an earlier post) that could display the video feed. I hopped on the Power Acoustik CP-71W craze and ended up getting one of those units from Walmart. If you haven't read about that, you can get caught up here.

I ripped out the Joying unit and installed the Power Acoustik unit. Single-Din, fits great, CarPlay and it looks way better and more "correct" than the joying unit did.

First thing first was tracking down a camera. I went with this unit from Amazon. From reading some other threads and thanks to a suggestion from @one4torque I decided to purchase a spare rear license plate light, Ferrari Part 186180. The plan was to fit the camera up through the license plate light and mount it that way. I also purchased a 5/16" drill bit designed for drilling plastics. The 5/16" size was the exact diameter I needed for the camera bolt to go through the license plate light. Was this special bit worth it? I'm not sure, but it made quick, clean work of the plastic on the license plate light. I had to bend the contacts for the light bulb a bit as I had to create enough room for the "post" to get through. You can see the stock license plate light and my modified one below.

Original:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

Modified:
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

I then taped up the mounting nut and stud up with electrical tape just to ensure I didn't short the contacts. Then I ran the wire through the grommet that the existing license plate wiring was running through. Once again, pop the grommet out, run the camera cable through and then put the grommet back in place. The plastic trim tool works great here. You can see the grommet looking from inside the engine back looking at the back of the car:

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Next I had to get power to the camera when the car was put in reverse. I didn't want to splice into the factory tail light wiring harness, so I decided to make my own "bridge" harness and wire my camera power and ground into that. I got some weather pack connectors and ordered some 18ga wires that matched the stock coloring scheme (Black/Blue, Blue, Red/Black, Black). Thanks to @Qavion again for confirming I needed the Red/Black for power and Black for ground. The other two wires are still a mystery. I crimped the red wire from the camera to the same pin as the red/black on the bridge harness and then did the same thing for the black wire from the camera to the black wire on the bridge harness. From there I assembled my harness and wrapped it with the expandable mesh, making sure I lined up the wires correctly to match the stock placement and then heat shrunk the ends and put some strain relief boots on there for good measure.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

Plugged the bridge harness in and tested to make sure everything worked. Reverse lights worked, camera turned on (need to make sure the reverse trigger light is connected to the red wire that comes through as part of the yellow RCA cable) and everything works as designed. Bundled the new harness and the excess wires from the camera and zip tied it behind the passenger side tail lights.

Here's the finished product. Pretty clean, completely reversible. I'm sure there are better cameras out there, but this seems to work for now. Some adjustments I need to make around parking guides and image position, but will tackle that as I go.

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Intake Manifold Removal & Refinish

Next up was the removal of the intake manifold so I could get it refinished. The stock paint was chipping pretty bad in the valley of the manifold cover.

Image Unavailable, Please Login


After some research on here, I decided to go with Prismatic Red Wrinkle II for the powder.



The workshop manual came in handy here and it's pretty self explanatory. The hardest part was removing the ball/socket at the front of the manifold.

Remove the 6 bolts on the top of the intake manifold. There are also 4 bolts on the underside of the intake manifold as well that will need to come off. Make note of the length of the bolts as they are different (long bolts in the middle, short bolts on the outside, medium length bolts for the underside).

There are 4 hoses that also need to be removed. You can either open up the Oetiker clamps and try to re-use them or you can cut them off. I chose to cut them off using this tool.

Next you have to remove the ball and socket at the front of the manifold. I used a pair of right angle pliers for this. Put the pliers around the ball side and push toward the front of the car. The socket then worked its way off and no damage was done to the metal.

Image Unavailable, Please Login . Image Unavailable, Please Login


Finally, you'll have to cut or remove the Oetiker clamps that connect the intake manifold cover to the MAF's.

Once I had the cover completely off the car, the powder coater told me he was going to media blast the manifold cover as that would give me the best chance for success. He wanted me to remove the ferrari badge off the manifold and also remove the "intake manifold compensator mechanism" (WSM explanation, not mine). This is the piece that lives down the center portion of the intake manifold. Follow the instructions in the WSM here. 3 bolts need to be removed, but you DO NOT want to take the bolts all the way out of the spring mechanism. I had to pull on this pretty hard to get it out, but it came out without issue. A note on re-installation of the compensator mechanism, I used the tightening of the bolts to "suck in" the compensator back into place.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

I then used a plastic trim tool to pry up the Ferrari badge.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Then it was off to powder coating.

Here's the finished result:
Image Unavailable, Please Login


I'm certainly happy with how the powder came out. It looks great. Is the color and the texture exactly as stock? No, definitely not. If you're looking for a perfect match to factory, this isn't it. The texture isn't as pronounced (some say the stock texture is "worm like") and the color isn't as dark. For this reason, I also had my chipping valve covers refinished as well so it all matches now. The valve covers were off anyway to do the gaskets.

Now "while I was in there" I figured I would replace the lower intake runner gaskets as well, part 322509.

In order to gain access to the bolts to take the intake runners off, you have to remove the fuel rail/injectors. Remove the black cap on the fuel rail and push on the schrader valve with a towel to soak up any extra fuel when you relieve the pressure. Unscrew the fuel line and have some vessel to catch any fuel. Then undo the two bolts on each side to take the rail and injectors out. There's a vacuum hose on the front side that needs to be removed from the actuator. There's also another vacuum hose at the front of the intake on the drivers side that need to come off as well. There are also two ground connections on the back of the intake that also need to be removed. The workshop manual does a great job going through all of this in detail (Section B7.02).

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Replace the gaskets. I'm not sure if the orientation matters, but there is a tab on each gasket. I made sure I put the new ones in in the same orientation.

When it was time to re-assemble, I put the runners back on first, keeping the bolts loose. I then put the new intake manifold gaskets down, part 217471, and then the manifold on top of it. Gettin the gasket to sit correctly took some work. Actually had to stick my hand through the intake manifold to adjust the gasket so I could get the bolts through. Once I had everything aligned, I went back and torqued the runner bolts down (10Nm) and then worked my way up to the intake manifold and torqued those bolts down (10Nm). Reconnect the hoses (don't forget to clamp them), push the socket back on the ball, connect the vacuum line to the actuator, reconnect the grounds and connect the passenger side hose at the front of the intake.

All back together with new gaskets. Missing from this photo in the Ferrari badge for the manifold. I secured that with some black Permatex gasket maker. Seemed to match what was there originally.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

OEM Scuderia Carbon Sill Installation

I know there are aftermarket versions, but I really liked the "Ferrari" plate on the stock, OEM scud sills. Found some used scud carbon sills in a Facebook group, unfortunately the passenger side was damaged. I was able to get them for the right price and a figured I could have these repaired and due to where the damage was located (front, covered mostly by the door), the repair should be mostly unnoticeable.

Here's a photo showing the damage:

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Ended up finding a local place (30min away) that said they would be able to make the repair. I really didn't want to ship these as they are incredible thin and I was worried about having them damaged further in shipping.

Picture of the repair before final clean up, clear and polish:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

Installed the sills on the car - easy enough. Remove the weather stripping which exposed two screws. Remove the two screws. Remove the 3 screws on the back door jamb. This allows you to slide the sill toward the front of the car and out.

The rubber gaskets were shot, so I ordered two new ones (thanks Ricambi). Installed those with the double sided tape already on the gaskets and press into place.

Installed the new sills and buttoned everything back up.

Here's a close up of the repaired side installed:

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

Then went back with my 1" random orbital and polished both sides. I didn't do this when it was out of the car as I felt there's be too much "give" in the material and I was worried I would crack the sill.

Image Unavailable, Please Login . Image Unavailable, Please Login

Happy with the result. Can't even tell the repair was done during normal operations. Can't beat a set of OEM Scud sills for ~$800 all in.