348 Brotherhood I would like to hear from anyone who has done the 348 cambelt change themselves. I'm planning to do my own 30k. I have the factory manuals, I've built plenty of race engines in my time, I've got access to the proper hoist to lower the power pack out of the car, etc. I'm planning to replace water pump and tensioner bearings. For those of you who have done it before what are the things that may be an unforeseen challenge for the first time D-I-Y belt changer? Thx. 4MARIO
Use the Hill Engineering tensioner Bearings, much better quality. As far a doing it yourself, with your experience it should be no problem Good luck and take pictures and keep us posted on how its going
I think you'll find lot's of useful information here: http://www.my348.com/ and here: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166877 Please post your progress and pics along the way. We love to see these things take shape, especially when an owner does this sort of work himself.
2 nuggets: 1. After all subframe bolts are removed and it's time to lower the lump it will stick. Main sticking point is between top of shock tower braces - rust, tension and metal seating. Prying is essential and you will hear a scary 'snap' when they let go. 2. You don't have to remove the aircon to get the lump out. Good luck.
+1 on the Hill Bearings/Tensioners. Also, I would get the 30K Major Kit from Ricambi that contains the silicone hose upgrade for about $30 more. And if you REALLY want to go balls out, and have an extra $1800 or so, get the entire silicone hose kit and the Gold Connector Kit (by David Helms' Scuderia Rampante)...the hose kit is available through Ricambi, but the GCK I believe has not yet made it to Ricambi and is available directly from Scuderia Rampante http://www.****************.com/ --
Couple of tips. When you have the engine finally out, and you are checking the valve clearances, before you do make a chart with all 32 valves. The what you will want to do is check the gaps with a feeler gauge, write them down in the related spot. The pull the cams, and mic EVERY single shim. DO NOT go by what is printed on the shim. Then write down the measurement you got for each shim for it's related valve, on the chart you made. You will find that you will need to make adjustments, so the reason for mic'ing each shims is so that you can swap them around if needed. This will reduce the amount of shims you will need to buy. The other tip is when you go to put the engine back in. The 12 bolts (6 on each side) that bolt to the body are a pain to get to line up perfectly. And the bolts will only go in "just so". If you can, fab an engine cradle that has adjusting capabilities. Like a big bolt that you can turn to move the frame up little by little. If you can't do that, a trick I learned from Plugzit is to use a long drift punch in one of the holes to help get the threads lined up. Just be careful when doing this not to damage the threads, and make sure you thread up the bolts by hand. If they won't thread up by hand they aren't lined up correctly.
..spend a little time doing a search and you will get every last detail on the procedure including how to build the right cradle for the engine. I think you will be glad you did the work yourself. (Don't forget to get your waterpump rebuilt - the "recommended" guy does an outstanding job and very reasonable)
Do a lot of research, be patient and methodical during the procedure, don't leave any of your questions unanswered and you can do it successfulyl !
