My 348 stopped running on the highway

I think that "catastrophic" is a relative term. Rebuilding a 348 top end costs a lot when compared to rebuilding a Chevy 350. I considered my lower 308 cam bearing failure catastrophic, when taking the value of my car into account.

 

Usually just bent valves but that can get to be expensive. Pistons get dinged but not usually to the point they need replacing. Think of it this way, if you are to use all Ferrari parts at retail you will be doing a 30k service at $7-9K + say 30 valves. Those are prob $3-4k alone plus all the other gaskets and whatever is another $2-3k plus labor to R+R the top end and fix the heads. At a dealer it will be close to $20k. Pretty big percentage of the cars value. All that is only if you do not get talked into a full on valve job with guides and all the valves, a clutch, waterpump, brakes etc.

Not really any different than those $15k majors I hear about on 550's, actually it is a relative bargain.

 

Right. OK, so you are typically seeing head damage?

One poster above said that "Catastrophic" was relative. Good point, and the higher percentage of the repair to the value of the car, the more "catastrophic" that surely becomes.

Broken crank, damaged cylinder liners, busted pistons...that's got to cost more than a top-end job.

 

More than what you see here is unusual.

 

Thanks. That's good to know. So I wouldn't be out of line if I labeled TMobileguy's above experience as "typical" damage for a broken/slipped 348 cam belt (be it due to failed tensioners, water pump, pulleys, or belt itself).

 

With the 4 or 5 valve motors. On the 2 valve with the bigger valve lift and hollow valve stems, breaking a valve head off does happen. Not always but it does. In those cases you are usually looking at major head repair or replacement, piston, liner and in extreme cases, a rod.