When did your early 355 need valve guides and headers

Not sure if by "early" 355 you mean 2.7 only but...

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=271529

Previous owner told me he did not have the valve guides replaced and does not believe they were ever done. No sign of oil burning smoke on start-up or running.
I have not had a leakdown check done.

Header damage is caused by high heat so conservative driving will reduce peak temperatures and therefore should result in longer header life.
So..... IF valve guide damage is caused by bad headers then I guess they would last longer too.

 

You will have to replace the headers at some point, when ??? Mine went at 22k at least the right one. As for valve's, many on here still have the originals (me included) I now have 32k miles with NO sign of smoke and my car does NOT burn oil..

P.S. I have an Oct. '94 build

 

I personally don't think headers or valve guides are inevitable. Possible, yes; likely, maybe; definite, no.

PPI, negotiate price, buy, drive, enjoy, routine mainenance, fix if breaks.

Everything in life is a risk

 

I believe that a large portion of the heat is caused by the catastrophic converters (4 of them). By their nature they get very hot. Obviously getting these removed would get rid of a fair bit of heat (but would not be legal).

You should also get a car with the rear Challenge grille or plan on buying and installing one. In case you're not familiar with the grille it's a screen/mesh and allows for additional air/heat flow out of the engine bay. That can only help.

Just my opinions and I'm not a professional mechanic.

 

I agree and especially if you take pro-active steps to reduce engine bay temperature.

 

ALWAYS a nice thing to have when looking at purchasing an F-Car!

 

+1, many on here have had no header or valve guide issues.

FWIW, I have a late build 355 that already had the upgraded guides from the factory (started in late '98), and one header showed signs of failing when I took it off for inspection at 38k miles.

 

My 95 F355 Spider has 30k miles with original headers and valve guides. Uses no oil, does not smoke, and has challenge grill. Everything else stock.

 

Challenge grill for sure, but mostly because it looks great

Test pipes if you can run them (location). Hyperflows flow faster, but they don't run any cooler. Cats get to like 1200 degrees, that's just the nature of the business. The hyperflows do seem to be better quality, and the older 2.7 motronic won't have any problems with them.

You cannot do anything to coat the factory headers. At some point when you do the engine out, swap headers if you want peace of mind.

I can't prove anything, but running test pipes that stay much cooler and are much lighter have to be better on the headers.

Most of all, enjoy!

 

That's the direction I'm going, test pipes and swap back to cats every 2 yrs for the test.

 

Just to pull the cats is not too bad, I think you can loosen the muffler and rotate it without having to take it completely out. It's the kind of thing that you would get quicker at each time you did it.

I don't think valve guides has anything to do with the heat. It has to do with the material used and possibly abuse - like running the rpms up before everything is up to temperature. There are others here who can answer that better than me.

I will tell you one thing: bad compression or leakdown numbers almost always make people say "bad valve guides" and then all of a sudden the owner is lamenting a huge repair bill. There are other things that will cause valves to not seat completely and decrease compression. One of these is deposits on the valves, especially if the car is not run as regularly (or as hard). I have heard a very well respected mechanic say he was sure many a fine valve guide has been replaced due to some degree of ignorance.

I make sure mine is all warm, and then I run the beegeezes out of it!

 

my personal belief and one that I share with several independant shops is that 95s don't seem to have the valve guide issue...


My personal experience shares this as well. my 95 never has burnt any oil, puffed any smoke regardless of how long it sat and compressioned and leak downed like a champ. Even the headers are perfect. All after 25k miles I drove it pretty damn aggressively but would never ever move the car until it was fully warmed up. I dunno... maybe that helped

Sure, the AC ECU has shorted out, the cat melted, dash leather has very minor shrinkage (its 120 degrees here in the summer) the steering rack also needed to be resealed... but the motor tranny and brakes run like a freaking champ!!!! Just as enzo would have liked it

 

Very good point. There are so many times I have to cringe when I see someone cold start their car and rev the hell out of it.

It dramatically helps the life of the engine to wait until oil temp is up before any high rpm/load is seen.

One thing I wouldn't mind is if performance cars had a rather aggressive rev limiter vs oil temperature.

 

yes...at a meet in Boston area last year the DJ tried to get all the owners to hop in their cars at noon and rev them to hear all the engines. Nice idea...if there was 20 min of warm up time! Maybe 5 guys joined in...not a good idea.

 

Heard the same thing from several shops as well, which included reknown Ferrari shops. I'm sure they didn't say it to make me feel good but my car does not burn oil excessively (2litres in 5000km of hard driving ain't bad) nor blows smoke. No cats on mine and CH grille is a must, I reckon.

 

Follow this link and look at page 6 regarding valve guide problems. http://www.focfloridaregion.com/guides/355.pdf It seems that even most 95's did not have problems. I have one of the earlier 95's sn 099948 build date July 1994, purchased in Nov 1994 in Northern California). This one did have problems (oil consumption) with the valve guide which were replaced at 14,325 miles. At 41,000 miles the compression test showed 190 to 215. Headers were replaced somewhere between 15 and 20,000 miles with a factory upgrade.

Get a good PPI, which usually does not include a compression test and a leakdown, which I would get just to make sure. I think most posts have said that the compression test should be 170 or above and leakdown less than 10%.

It is great to have the support of your significant other, but as I recently read, there is nothing more expensive than a cheap Ferrari, and oh how true it is!!! A well sorted Ferrari is something to really consider. There are several F-chatters that have beautiful cars at a very reasonable price. Good Luck and enjoyyyyyyyyy!

 

I had an issue on my 96 5.2 with the headers at 47,000 miles,now I have 84,000 miles on and one cylinder maybe has problems,I dont know if its the guides because of the high mileage or the spark cables.The engine doesnt need any oil though and compression is in tolerance with 2 cylinders a bit lower than the others.
I am very confused of what should I do,should I open the engine for 10000$ or should I just change the cables?

Themis

 

I agree with what most people said and recommended, but I definitely agree with this post. Get it and enjoy

I replaced 3 manifolds with OE junk, and then replaced them with QV London stuff and haven't had trouble in 23k miles. I had my valve guides replaced at 22k miles but it was just precautionary, because I was getting other engine work done too and it was cheaper that waiting.

 

The bronze guides are still in my car at 58K miles and 5K track miles.
I have gone through one set of headers (at 35K miles 1K track miles) and I expect to be eating a second set some time soon.

It is my contention that its not the "heat" that gets the guides, its "not letting the oil get up to temp before getting it on" that eats the guides. If it were simply heat, the 5K track miles in Texas sumers would have eaten several sets of guides by now. Yet, I still have nice leak down numbers, and zero oil consumption. I make a habit of nothing over 3,500 RPMs until the oil is above 140dF.

{Side note: I have about 20 minutes over redline in 1-2 second intervals, each, culmulative, and have several hours (5-ish) of 285dF oil temperatuers, and have used oil as thin as 10W-30 in 103dF ambient temps on the track.}