Valve Cover Gasket replacement

I do agree for the most part. I guess it really depends on what your replacing I wouldn’t be worried about a 24 month warranty on a gasket but something mechanical I can see. It just seems like a lot of people are getting gauged in parts prices which I don’t believe is a good relationship with a dealer. A good relationship goes both ways not just one side getting raked over the coals and having to take it. For example the parts prices listed above were $200 dealer supplied while in reality I bought all the parts my self for under $50. I have a good relationship with my shop and they don’t gauge me on parts prices. Only reason I had the parts this time was because I planned on doing it myself but got too busy and just had them do it. Now the majority of the people on this board a couple hundred or thousand doesn’t really matter to them. I just don’t like significantly over paying for things when I don’t have too.


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Hey Dan, my mechanic just said I will have to replace my valve cover gaskets also...what did you end up doing?

 

When I purchased my 2004 360 Spider last year, I had the major done and during the course of this FoA called to let me know both the cam seals and valve cover seals were weeping. Cost to fix while they were in there: $3500 which to dealer I was buying the car from declined to cover and since they were only weeping I declined as well. The service manager did state that if they did it separately I would be looking at $4-4500 which I think is a bit extreme. Just an FYI for those seeking metrics data.

 

I just did mine on my 360 and they were paper and the only thing I had to remove to do it was the fuel rail, other then the coil packs and what not. I unbolted it and zip tied it to the cross member. Wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was doing the 30k service and was doing the belts and cam seals at the same time. That made the job a lot easier. Didn't like how you have the center bolt and have to cut that piece out to put it on.

 

That is exactly how I would do it.

 

I’ll have to see what he quotes since he’ll be in there doing the headers anyway. I apparently did a bad job finding the maintenance history of my car and the ppi guy did a rather lousy job identifying a lot of the issues that should have been caught...so I’m wondering if I should take advantage of the car being opened up anyway. What a dilemma.

You don’t remove anything when you wash the engine, rt? Just spray, set and flush?

 

But isn´t the variator solenoid valve leaking internally? They are known to do that.

 

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Just did my cover gaskets on the 360.They are not to bad but time consuming and parts are about $180 Australian dollars.The best way remove the inner guards and front engine cover which are behind the seats.

Ps check the breather hose on top of the valve covers the clap comes loose.
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A lot of the oil comes through the breather hoses from overfilling or expected venting. These short hoses harden and leak regardless of tightness. For the breather hoses, get new hose and oetiker clamps and it should hold the leaking for a while.

Cam end covers, warp rapidly, you can use sandpaper on calibrated flat surface to deck them a bit. I have chosen to re-buy these from time to time because they are only 33 dollars a piece.

Both Cam end and valve cover gaskets (which are paper, no rubber seal) need a little 1211 in key areas, especially on the cut-out (cam sprocket side). A thin dab, assemble lightly, let it dry a bit then tighten to prescribed torque.

In terms of cleaning, I'm not familiar with scrubbing bubbles and what it can or cannot react with. When cleaning engine parts, I have been using dawn power dissolver. It's a gel degreaser and it has been fairly safe to use while removing baked on oil fairly easily. Hope any of this helps.

 

My ferrari 458 is in the shop. They said the valve gaskets are leaking. $7,000. They also said I cannot purchase another year warranty without replacing them. I said ok replace them. Then a few days later they emailed me saying they were having trouble setting a bolt out and wanted to remove the engine. $20,000+ I said no. Two days later they were able to get the bolt out. It seems fishy to me. The service manager told me on two different occasions that he has been disappointed that the Ferrari’s don’t need more repairs. Any thoughts?

 

Is this a dealer or an indy? Either way, run as far as you can. I think a lot of shops see a Ferrari and automatically assume "rich sucker".

 

Yes, if they are loose, however be careful, since these are rubber gaskets my experience, with other vehicles I work on that have rubber gaskets, if you over-tighten them the gaskets can begin to pop out as they flatten (you can see this when the gasket is not flush with cylinder head, which can cause them to leak even more, that is my two cents.

 

I also wanted to add that torquing sequence is extremely important in order that all the bolts have an even pressure on the gasket, areas where is less pressure on the gasket will potentially be areas that will leak in the future. Rubber shrinks over time, so I imagine some tightening may be possible, but unless they are extremly loose be careful. FYI, the general rule if you do not have a tightening sequence available is to first tighten in a cross pattern from the inside out. For example, if you make the mistake of tightening the ends first, there may be a bow in the middle of the valve cover, but if you tighten from the inside out in a cross patter the valve cover will settle down and squeeze out towards the ends. I recommend you follow manufacture tightening sequence. Also, often when I am tightening such things I will do it in a few passes so the gasket slowly seats itself evenly.

 

one of the lessons I learned is that this job requires utter carefulness. it damages paints on the side of the car easily , even if you have covers on the sides.
Jim Nastic body positions are a norm in this job.

 

I just did my 360 cover on the drivers side with some great advice from this forum!
I have a spider and found it easier to remove the inner fender well - a bit more work but made lots of room to work.
Spiders have the top well that covers the front section of the motor reducing access and room to work from the top.
Another suggestion for a 360 was to remove the front bearing cover this give easier access to the small piece of gasket required between the cams
Don't forget to get the spark plug 'O' Rings I used some grease to hold them in place
ThreeBond 1211 was recommend to help seal the gaskets
Use lots of blankets to cover the painted surfaces.
Take your time it not hard just time consuming !

 

Quote is $3431 to change at local dealer plus 10 percent sales tax.

 

Ferrari book time is 30 minutes to change each gasket - @ 150.00 / hour that is less than $500.00 even if you include the gasket at $100

 

That can't be right. I would have paid double that to do it. The job (at least for me) was very time consuming. For the record, I used the threebond 1211 adhesive in addition to the gasket and after about 1,000 miles they are still bone dry (fingers crossed). Using the sealant in the channel of the cover, before you insert the gasket into that channel, also helps keep it in place as you go to install (without sealant that gasket will want to fall out/slip out given all the jostling and repositioning that is required to get everything into place).

 

you can follow this thread on replacing the cam covers - I agree having done the drivers side it took me several hours and was very tedious. It is even more difficult on a spider than a coup.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/360-cam-cover-gasket-replacement.614412/#post-146968898

But that does not change the time allowance that Ferrari sets. They set the rules

 

Ferrari assumes the engine is on a stand when you do a cam cover gasket change. There is no way in hell anybody can change the 360 Cam cover gasket in 30 minutes with the engine in the car. Spider is MUCH more difficult.