Hej, I'm performing a major overhaul of the engine including changing leaking gaskets and the oil pump chain (yes it is sloppy and rattly). Having removed all the external bolt/nuts and wheels and belts I'm having a major problem removing the cover itself, it just do not want to let go. It looks like it's the timing gear axis that holds it together on the bearings (axis glued to the bearing?). I have looked at all the drawings http://www.eurospares.co.uk/userImages/010/Large/010_002.gif and http://www.eurospares.co.uk/userImages/010/Large/010_006.gif and it really looks like it should be possible just to pull it outwards, in other words I have no idea what is holding it??? The ferrari manual do not even mention this cover which I find is really strange as it is a major part of the engine. Any suggestions? //joakim
Hej, just got it confirmed, the bearings that holds the driving gear needs to be dismanteled, I just got it confirmed from ferrari that it is the same for all 456 and 355 series engines when dismantling the front engine cover..
I'm not sure I understand why you are having trouble. Why not post a picture of exactly where you are having issues. Pulling a bearing is pretty straight forward. Some case halves are glued and sometimes it is hard to get the right force on it to separate the parts but in reality very little overall force in the right spots it comes right off.
Sorry, here's a picture. The problem is that the bearing are glued by ferrari on the rods to hinder oil leakage which is nice but usesless if you wanna disassemble it. So you can either: 1. Just try to rip out the bearing by dragging the cover itself. The downside is that this is likely to break the cover at an expense of 700 euros. 2. You can probably heat the rod to burn of the glue but this wil most likely destroy the bearings and perhaps some hardening of the rods. 3. You can disassemble the bearing by removing the ball fixture within the bearing and move all balls to one side and with a little luck be able to remove the cover by yanking it back and forth. However this could be a tight squeeze and you probably need to remove all studs for the cover as well which is not nice. 4. you can grind hollow/space in the bearing shell so it'll be possible to remove the balls within the bearing one by one and the just remove the cover as you would normally do by just pulling it outwards. The picture illustrates me grinding a hollow in the bearing for the least amount of strain on the engine, it doesn't even take that long time if you have the correct tools but it does feel a little strange on a 15k euro motor. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The two shafts are meant to be removed with the cover. The shafts are part of the driven gears (Table 2, Ref.11). The shafts/gears slip into two smaller roller bearing that are press fit into the engine block. There are 2 bearings for each shaft. The bearings you see are the main bearings and carry most of the load. They are secured in the cover, on each side with a snap-ring. Behind these bearings are the driven gears and then another bearing that stabilizes the shafts/gears. Careful tapping with a mallet should convince the cover, including the two shafts/gears to separate from the block. It is likely that the shafts have a tight fit into the inner race of the rear bearings. You may have to use a puller to put pressure on the two shafts. You may ruin the bearings, but you should not consider reusing these bearings anyway! Can you tell whether this cover been removed before? Please study the drawings carefully. See Table 2 See Table 6 Best of luck! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
If it were mine I would find a threaded hole in the cover near the two shafts; I see a few in the above picture. Thread a long bolt into it and use it in combination with a wrench or some other small weighted object to fashion a simple slide hammer. You have to make sure you use as much thread as possible and apply the force gently. A few taps at a couple of the threaded holes - it should not take much to pop the cover and then you are on your way...
I agree with sierra FT. I would slid a blade between the covers and tap in in around the case then use a slide hammer and pop it off. You will be swearing after you cut the bearing up only to find the case still firmly attached. Also when unbolted a little heat on the case edges help to break up some of the stichion too.
The acctual case/cover is already loose, it is only hung by the rods on the bearings so that's fine. So basically what you are saying is that the rods should just pulled out together with the cover if I understand you correctly??, I'm not really sure this is a good idea because you still have the oil pump drive gear and chain sitting in front on the crank and I have no idea in which order they should be removed. I'll try to finnish off this later today and update with some pictures. And yes I can't imagine that this cover have ever come off, the local ferrari dealer that has been servicing the car since 2000 has never done it atleast. They told me it was a hassle to remove it and it was VERY costly due to the fact that the cover is almost always stuck on the rods. The part about the glue is because ferrari (or someone) has applied something to stop oil leakage between the rod and the bearings hence glue. //joakim
First off, this whole assembly is a poor design and has several shortcomings, one is the use of a "bicycle chain" to drive the oil pump. Also, the fact that it does not use an active chain tensioner, causing the chain to clatter like a Model A. I agree about the glue on the front main bearings. The outer race of the rear bearings should be press fit into the block, but the shafts/gears should slide out of the rear inner races. If they used helilock or some other adhesive on this, it could be very difficult to remove the shaft/gears from the race. A puller or a slide hammer attached to the shafts, may be your best solution. I would not pry or otherwise molest the case anymore than necessary, since you already have it released from the crankcase. You are correct, this is a complicated assembly because the oil pump chain sprocket and chain come off with the cover, bearings and shafts/gears.
Hej, the cover is now off the motor, I followed ferrari ideas and added one myself just because I didn't want to put any strain on either the cover or the shafts. What I did was first to grind away the rivets that hold the two part bearing holder together, after that it was just a simple case of removing the outer part of the holder (all in all around 10min). After that I used a diamond grinder on my dremmel (acctually 8 in the end) tool to cut a half moon on both the inner and outer shells of the bearings (first picture shows a half moon on the inner shell). I then just slide the balls out through the grinded hole and removed the cover without applying any destructive force at all. I have also added a two more pictures that shows the flow of events. In the last picture it can be seen that both tensioners are worn, this creates extra play for the chain to rattle about hence horrible sound. In middle picture it can be seen the the gasket has been badly assembled and have been grinded on one of the gears (to right in the pic). By looking at the design it should be possible to use a slide hammer connected to the shafts but before doing that the chain must first come of its sprocket, this can be done by either break the chain of dissemble the sprocket from the oil pump shaft. joakim PS; In the parts list the oil pump sprocket and chain were different from the 456 GTA onwards (same for all 550, 575 and 612), to me this says that the early design for the GT was weak?? or did they change the gearing??, do anybody know what they changed? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ordinarily you would remove the bolt on the oil pump sprocket and remove all the gears with the cover.
have the same problem Oil leak from gasket cover.. car with only 52000 km will post soon pictures of the repair method. for clean and safe job you've to pull the two bearings out of the cover with a extract tool.(beta) greetings, gianfilippo
here the link of my video pulling out one of the two bearing. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpHrxurQR6E[/ame] Ask me if you need information. greetings, gianfilippo
Gianfilippo, Very nice work using that Draper style internal bearing puller! Grazie! Just remember to MAKE SURE you put a thin layer of silicone gasket maker on both sides of the new gasket prior to applying! The WSM doesn't say to do this but even with a new gasket mine leaked shortly afterwards.
thanks for your advice. i always put silicon gasket maker on new gaskets.. For security. ciao, gianfilippo
I am about to order an internal bearing puller kit such as the one used by @gianfilippo in the very explanatory video he posted earlier, but I need to know the size of the adapters that will work with the lower drive bearing as I am not able to find its dimensions online. It seems the usual puller kit comes with 5.5, 6 and 8mm adapters. Will these work? Thanks in advance.
To answer my own question above the bearings in the front cover need 8mm adapters and the ones in the block 6mm adapters. I am just done with a successful "front engine bearings" replacement.
