Sorry, but need some 348 info

Ok, I'm getting my 348 in less than two weeks and it's my first f-car. I've been searching the board and haven't found exact answers to my questions so here goes....

1. Is it true that you should drive the car normally around 3k rpm?

2. When washing the car....will the engine get hurt by spaying water on the back deck?

3. Does a Tubi exhaust add extra HP to the car?

Thanks!

 

You'll probably get a range of responses. My own personal opinions:

1) I normally drive my 348 WAY above 3,000 rpm. I don't think you can hurt it at all by revving it anywhere below the redline. It's a matter of how you feel comfortable.

2) I never wash the engine lid with a hose because it never gets really dirty. I use a damp towel on the engine lid. I use the regular bucket and wash mitt on the front, rear, and sides of the car. In five years I've never washed it with the targa top on. I suppose if you want to hose off the engine lid it might be a good idea to cover the engine with a plastic garbage bag first, and if possible, to blow off the engine with compressed air afterwards.

3) You couldn't GIVE me a Tubi, whether it makes more horsepower or not. I'm afraid I don't understand why people want to intentionally make a lot of noise (not a popular opinion, I guess).

Congratulations on your "new" 348, I hope it gives you many miles of pleasure!

 

348's have dual personalities. For the first 10 minutes of driving, i.e. when the engine, oil, water, transmission, and gear oil are all still "cold," you don't want to exceed 4k rpms.

Once 348's get up to operating temperature, then they demand to be driven hard, and driven often. You won't blow the soot/carbon out of the engine/exhaust if you aren't occassionally hitting 7.5k rpms.

Moreover, the longer that you store your 348 unused, the more maintenance you'll have. 3 weeks without driving and your seals, belts, and gaskets will start drying out, becoming brittle. Your tires will start to grow flat spots. You'll get rust (ssshhhhh...it's a Ferrari secret) in odd places. Your radiators *will* both corrode and your system will catch electrolysis, a condition that causes a wide variety of analog and digital electrical gremlins until you get around to flushing and filling your coolant.

You've got to get out and *drive* 348's to lubricate and exercise all of the systems. The more you drive, the less maintenance you'll have.

This fact, however, runs against the epidemic auto disease known locally as "Ferrari Anxiety." People who catch FA become too frightened to drive their cars. They start bragging about "how few miles" their cars have.

Plan on replacing a bunch of brittle, non-lubricated, non-exercised, corroded parts when buying any such low mileage Ferrari.

For all but the largest of maintenance items, however, 348's are easy and reasonably inexpensive to work on...if you pay attention to the deals that are available. For instance, your anti-lock braking ECU can be rebuilt for $350, if you know where to look...whereas if you simply buy a new ABS ECU from Ferrari, it will cost you $3,200.00.

Same thing for your Ferrari 348's 2 MAF's. They can be rebuilt by yourself for $90; rebuilt by a professional for $190, or purchased new for $500 or more.

But, for the basics...remember to *only* check your 348's oil level when the engine is hot. You have a dry sump oil system. If you check it when the engine is cold, it will show little or no oil...that's not a worthwhile reading.

Several of the 348 owners have decent homepages that will tell you more about this car, what it costs, and how to maintain it. Click on their screen name and then click on their web page option on any thread on this forum that you find them on.

348's are *great* cars. They are for drivers, however. They don't have power steering. Many 348's haven't been setup to be able to shift into 2nd gear when cold. They have manual tops for the Spider variant.

But they are perfectly balanced for their level of horsepower. They have fantastic handling at speed, and good feedback in the steering wheel and from the transmission.

They look great, too!

 

Thanks guys. One more question.

Should I start the car and let it run for about 10 minutes so it gets warm, or should I get in and start driving right away?

 

I let my 348 warm up for at least five minutes (usually more) before I leave the driveway. With the dry sump system, all that oil (more than 10 quarts) is remote from the engine, and it doesn't warm up particularly quickly. All of the oil goes from the engine, to the cooler, to the sump tank, before it gets pumped back into the engine. I've never heard that it hurts anything to drive with the oil cold, but it seems a good precaution to give it a chance to warm up before pressing the car.

In my case, I live on a dead end road with no "drive by" traffic, so I don't worry too much about security while the car is warming up.

 

With the 2 cats and two mufflers you definitely lose HP in the 348 motor by restricting the flow of exhaust gasses. I don't know much about Tubi's, but if you know someone with a muffler shop, and you could spend a day with him in his shop, I think you could come up with a less restrictive exhaust system. Plus you could experiment with noise levels on different mufflers, and at a much cheaper price than a Tubi.

"No Doubt" was right on with his analogy of the 348's in that you have to drive them to keep your maintenance costs down.(sounds funny, but true)

My 348 has been more dependable than any auto I've owned in the last 10 years or so.

 

1. General tootling around is ok between 3-4k rpm... but you see, I have a de-catted Tubi and although some, (but not many) people don't understand the need for an F1 type howl, mine tends to be driven between 5-7500 rpm just because it sounds so good. Also adding a Tubi and de-catting it adds about 20bhp and the whole engine feels freeer and more lively.

2. Never had any probs with spraying the engine cover. Mine gets washed every week as it does quite a lot of miles and I simply go over the slats with the sponge and then lightly rinse them off, spraying along them rather than at an angle to go directly into the engine. No probs so far. I used to put a towel underneath on top the engine before I did this, but I kept forgetting the damn thing was in there and a couple of times ended up with a nice hot face towel!

On the engine warming side - the oil will get around the engine a lot faster when it is actually driving. The only time I pre-run it is if there's a crowd of us and I know it's going to get some stick from the word go. Rule of thumb is keep to 3k rpm until the OIL temp guage starts moving. This can take between 5 and 10 mins depending on ambient air temperature.

It's good advice on the oil level though. Check it cold and you will have smoke blowing out your exhausts before you can say "but it seemed like it needed some" !

 

A Ferrari should never need a "wash", unless you've been driving it in the rain. And if you have, shame on you!

 

They're for driving for God's sake!

Mind you, I guess in Texas you only have that predicament about 3 times a year

 

Here's what works for me, your mileage may vary:
1. get in car, insert key, turn key to Run (not Start),
2. fasten both seat belts,
3. put gearshift into Neutral, push clutch in,
4. turn key to Start 348,
5. let idle while ABS, BRAKE, Check Engine 1/4 and Check Engine 5/8 lights turn off after automatic pre-check,
6. release parking brake,
7. back out of garage,
8. keep rpms below 4k until oil temp gauge hits the first mark (1/4).


By waiting to start the 348 until step #4, the fuel pumps are guaranteed to have fully pressurized the system. This isn't really necessary, but I like for my car to Start as soon as I turn the key to Start...rather than hearing the starter motor turn for a few seconds. Perhaps it's a personal preference.

The remaining steps insure that I'm not just turning the key and driving instantly as if I'm in a Honda...but also that I'm not just sitting around for any great amount of time. The illussion to your passenger is that you are just taking your time starting and going; in reality you are giving your 348 time to get the oil circulating, fuel pressurized, and all systems fully working before you start moving.

 

Good tip, thanks.

 

Do you notice the extra 20hp when taking off? Is at all more responsive?

 

Feels lots more responsive Matthew straight away. It just seems to rev a lot freer. Though i think that is more to do with the cats being removed than the exhaust... the Tubi just provides the soundtrack

 

I've never driven a 348 with anything other than the stock exhaust system (muffler and cats) so I don't have any first-hand experience with the differences, but here is a quote from "European Car" magazine of June 1994, where they tried out a 348 Serie Speciale and a Challenge car:

"That exhaust system (in the Challenge) supposedly boosts power to 320 bhp, but it does nothing to change the characteristics of the little V8's powerband. Just as in the Speciale, there's a kick in the pants at 3800 rpm that lasts until the rev limiter shuts it down at 7500 rpm. The power advantage of the race car is minimal."

Can you really FEEL a performance difference with the Tubi? Or is it just louder? Who has dyno figures?

 

I have been driving the 348 from the go at around 2500-5000 RPM. when it is warmed up I run it to 6000-7000 RPM. After riding with a friend doing the driving I think I will be kinder to the car during warm up and keep the revs down to 3500 RPM.
I wash the rear deck lid weekly and it is a pain to dry (be careful not to catch the wash mitt / sponge / chamois on the edges of the fins. Also be careful not to catch the edges of the prancing horse on the rear grill when you wash it.
I have only heard rumor that the Tubi adds power, but most people rave about the sound.
BT

 

Assuming 3 weeks without driving the 348 is unavoidable (eg. snowed in, on vacation etc), does it help if you fire up the 348 in the garage for 15 minutes until all the gauges show operating temperatures?

 

Up here in the NorthWest it's drive in the rain or sell. There's some great pic's in the WA state forum of the last club drive I was on - could barely see the Fcar's up the road.

 

I don't know. I'd guess that it would help lubricate your waterpump with antifreeze and your seals with oil. It should also insure that your engine oil keeps that "permanent" thin film on your internals. That's still not going to help your tranny/half-shafts or tires, though.

It would be interesting to hear the long term maintenance issues from people who have done that versus those who haven't.

 

Like i said Jeff - the power increase comes with taking those old heavy stuffed up ceramic cats off - imagine having cotton wool stuffed up your nose then taking them out - it is an immediate and noticeable difference.

The Tubi is much lighter and smaller than the original - but lets face it will probably only give you an extra couple of horses - you buy a Tubi not only because it is louder, but the whole tone changes and at 7000 revs it is really howling

I have a rather interesting video clip of my car going off against a Porsche GT3 (or 2). Anyone wants it just email me your email (don't pm please as it means I have to open up the F.Chat website).

al
[email protected]

 

Fantastic post. The perfect argument for those low miler cars that sellers try and add premiums to. I for one would be more than happy with a 50K miler 348 as long as the service schedule had been adhered to.

 

Extended idling of any engine does more harm than good. There is more blow by around the pistons and oil gets contaminated more quickly. All automobile engines are designed to be under some load for everything to work properly. The best thing to do is start it and drive it, but gently for the first few minutes of operation. For these reasons, i think you are better off NOT starting a car and letting it sit and idle for 5, 10, or 15 minutes. I think it actually does more harm than good. As long as you can take the car out for a ride once a month, you're fine.

Better to get the car dirty and go for a little ride in the rain or in bad weather at least once a month to let the fluids circulate and everything get up to temperature properly rather than let it sit and rot -- or idle excessively and contaminate the oil.

 

Frank is right. I have always been told by people who know more about cars than me that it is better to drive gently while cold than to just let the car sit and idle.

Also, if its winter and you are not driving the car, it is worse for it to start it in the garage and let it idle than to just properly winterize it and wait for spring. You get all kinds of combustion contaminants in the oil that can't burn off without driving and this is BAD BAD BAD! For winter, just put some Stabil in your fuel tank, fill the fuel tank, change the oil, and bait the mousetraps!

Birdman

 

And put Nitrogen in the tires so that you don't get hidden dry rot in your rubber. Ground your frame to help prevent rusting after jacking up the car (to avoid getting flat spots on your tires). Use your battery disconnect switch, etc.

 

You don't live in Seattle. Up here you can't be too concerned about the rain. It's just water, it doesn't hurt the car.

 

it will hurt it if you put it away wet! it helps to drive it after, but if the weather is bad, take a leaf blower to it, engine and wheel wells too.!works great!