355 Neglected car with a rebuild engine

Hi,
I'm in search for my 355 GTS.

I went to see a gated one the other day:

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90 000 km
Very nice interior except the sticky problem.
A few pocs/dings/scratches all around and most shocking to me: the right door sill pannel full of rust.
Not a good sign about the owner. Who's not changing the visible things doesn't change the hidden ones.
Come on, how can you keep obvious rusted parts like this on such a nice car?

I have a nearly full history (just a hole between 2006 and 2010 with the 1st owner)
First owner had the engine fully rebuild at 65000km (rods pistons sleeves valves, everything was changed at Ferrari's).

2nd owner (2010-2018) has a lot of bills but one of them is scary:
It shows there was missing 5 liter of engine oil and 7 liter of cooling when car arrived at the shop.
The max capacity of oil is 9.5 liter but what is the minimum level?
Is it safe to drive with only 4.5l of oil?

Is it enough to run away from this car?
Or a good compression test and an oil analysis result can be reassuring?

3rd owner had a big service (including Tubistyle collectors) done when he bought it in 2018 but no bills since that.

The car is listed for sale for 2 months and I think, regarding its condition, that it is +15 or +20¨% over its real value.

What's your opinion?

 

How many miles on the car since the low-oil incident? I would do an oil analysis, if the engine suffered from low oil pressure and bearings, etc, were damaged, that should show up on the oil analysis. Is there any explanation of why the car was so low on oil?

 

Rust on the door sills is a well known problem with these cars and is hardly indicative of any particular abuse.

Personally, I think I'd be ok with a compression test and oil analysis. That said, I think the car should be priced accordingly and at a discount to a car with a better service history.

 

It was 6000km/10 years ago.
Unfortunately the shop closed definitively in 2019, so I can't ask them, but looking at the bill, the car arrived at the shop on a truck, so maybe the owner didn't drove it with such a low level.

Yes I know about the door sills issue, but I'm shocked to see that the owner doesn't fix it and doesn't mind driving it like that.
That says a lot about how he cares after his car.

For the rest I agree with you but there is not a lot of choice for a manual GTS...

 

If you look at the one shot of the door sills on this $235K GTS, I see what looks like some rust in the middle. It just seems so common and its not trivial to replace them since original parts are NLA.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1995-ferrari-f355-gts-2/

Both sills on my car are rusty and they bother me for sure. Not enough though to not pay a high asking price back in Sept of last year though. The markets are tough like that. I'll be taking care of them next winter.

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for $235K there better be no rust anywhere.

 

And yet...

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I know I mean "I" would not pay that for a car with rust. Not sure that rust though, I have replaced those sills, it looks like the stamped metal edge got squashed more than anything.

 

I'm sorry I didn't take a pic of the sill. It was brown at some places. I mean, not just a couple of bubbles, no.
Large areas covered with rust in plain view when opening the door.

 

dang... Pretty easy fix but still.

 

The fact that it arrived at the shop on a truck does not guarantee that the car was not, prior to that, driven by the owner with so low oil level. Although extreme, I would consider the possibility that: "the engine seized due to low oil and had to be sent to the shop on a truck". It would have been very easy just to top-up the engine oil and drive the car to the shop (unless there was a large oil leak or some other reason for the truck). Or does the 355 have a safety feature that would shut the engine down if the oil pressure gets very low (oil starvation)?

Perhaps listening to the fully warmed-up engine sound and noting the oil pressure can give you initial evaluation of the engine condition. The rust is something you can see and determine how serious, or not serious, it is.

 

It's only surface rust on most underneath, some wetsanding and it's gone, no biggie....

Just replace the sills with carbon sills as they will rust again....

 

All of them have that, it's cheap crappy material they made them of.
If he doesn't buy the car some other guy will at asking, that's what the market is right now.

 

Maybe I wasn't clear enough: the rust on the sill is not the issue for me, the issue is that the owner doesn't fix what is plain sight, so what do you think he's doing with what is hidden?
But you're right, as the market is today, you can't be too picky if you want to get a car someday. Depending on how much he'll lower the price and the compression and oil results, I might take it. I'm waiting his answer.

 

Maybe there's other deferred maintenance, maybe there's not. Just have someone who knows 355's put the car on a lift and check it out. No need for any mysteries or speculation here.

 

A car doesn't end up short 5L of oil and 7L of coolant sitting in a garage.

 

**** my car doesn't even have the door sills installed. Who cares no one sees it but me.

 

Better no sills at all than rusted ones, that's for sure!

 

For me that's worse if I know it's wrong even if others can't see it,, it drives me nuts.

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I like painted sills. I can still lift my leg to get in without hitting it.
Not sure of my race cars even have them I go in through the window doing the limbo rock

 

If I buy this car, what is the best option to fix it?
Original sills will fail again so that's out.
Carbon ones looks nice but not original.
Nobody made a repro in plastic looking like the originals?

 

Hi,
I'm still interested to buy this car, but still worried about the bill showing a miss of oil and coolant.
How come a car is missing 7l of coolant?
Head gasket issue?
What to check?

The car is supposed to have a compression test done next week.
Should I have to add another test to be reassured of engine condition?
If yes, what kind of test?

 

leak down is top of my mind.

 

Head gasket wouldn't result in 7L of coolant loss. Almost certain was a split hose or bad radiator. I would have compression and leakdown tests performed, and it's pretty easy to look in each cylinder with a borescope when the plugs are out.

 

Since the last big service in 2018, there is no invoices.and today the owner told me that nothing has been done to the car since.
Not even an oil change (so I was right about the rusted sill: it tells a lot about the owner).
So the car has the same oil for 4 years, and 3000kms (if the milage is true).

So, this + the 5 liter missing oil incident (and 7 liter coolant)= my head tells me to not buy it.
But my heart tells me to buy it.
Still waiting the compression test, and I nearly want the result to be bad to walk away.

Furthermore, I won't be able to get some oil for analysis has the lab told me it should taken from the oil change plug, and not from the oil tantk.
Definitively won't happen before the sale.