Ferrari engine life

How long for a Ford motor?

Model T's don't go too far. The new one do a little better.


Your question is not near specific enough.

 

I had a 308 GTS QV for ten years.
Drove it to work every day. It got bumper to bumper @ 40 degrees celsius, motorway traffic and the odd thrashing.
I bought it @ 39,000 km and sold it ten years later @ 110,000 km.
Still ran like a dream, same clutch, engine etc. The only thing that broke in that time was one of the drop gears.

Steve

 

just recently one was sold over ghere with 250.000 on the odo
Looking at the design there pretty straight forward and nothing really fancy or racey (=fragile)
With normal driving 200.000 km before rebuild seems pretty reasonable.


HOWEVER....... although even if all maintenance records are present you'll almost never know how "normal" the previous owners did drive. (one of the reasons i truly think maintance records are highly overrated)
Esspecially with a ferrari, what's "normal"?

Therefore this question will only generate an answer for the purest form of the question. It will not tell any story about the avarege car on the block

 

Way too many variables to make any kind of guess.

 

It should last you 132,643.7 km

 

Hey Serpent, take you car out and run the hell out of it til it gives up the ghost, then report back with your findings!
John

 

In all honesty I had more problems with the under 50K miles Ferraris than the over 100K miles Fcars. I have owned 4 over 100K Fcars and they were all solid and all are still running strong. It really depends on how they were maintained. The engines are solid and the Nikasil in the QVs I think really can extend their life.

 

Very few Ferraris get driven enough to get a good average. Most are driven so hard they never have a chance to get worn out, they break or blow up. We do have a local with a TR that is a daily driver with over 225,000 miles. Is is just now getting it's 3rd clutch. It has never had a head off or transmission repair. I know of many 4 valve motors with way over 100,000 miles and I have a 360 client with over 125,000 miles.


The lives of these cars, the ones that are driven often are usuallly cut short by service short cutting, bad quality service or driver abuse. On average the best day in the life of most Ferraris is more strenuous than the worst day of most other cars.

 

From what I have seen it is the engines/cars which are driven more at the beginning of their lives which last the longest. My car for instance was driven 30k miles the first 3 years of its life ('76-'79). It has been driven 52k miles more since then and still provides compression numbers close to that of a new engine. Heads have never been off and the engine burns the amount of oil the manual says it is supposed to on average (1 quart per 600 mi). I don't see why any Ferrari engine cannot do the same thing so long as it is serviced regularly and warmed properly.

On the other spectrum of engine building. I had a client call me last Friday to tell me their daughter's '09 Toyota Corolla crankshaft just seized. The dealer has since advised them they are having problems with these engines and their rings. Engine did not yet have 4k miles on it yet.

 

This question is very similar to the clutch wear question. You will get stories of cars with low miles and engine failure as well as high mileage cars without any issues. Those are the extreme ends of the spectrum. Even a detailed PPI with compress check, leak down test, borescoped, carfaxed, and detail maintenance records will failed to reveal critical engine problems. It's all a matter of your comfort level and laws of probability. Go with what feels "right" and hope for the best. It's all a crap shoot sometimes.

Ace

 

It is a vehicle of performance so don't worry.

 

can we expect a longer life on the fcars if we drive like sissies?

 

As others have said, it's pretty impossible to make generalizations here. There are lots of V8 f-car engines that seized/blew up/lost compression at sub-50,000 miles and, similarly, lots of 100,000+ milers with good compression and no issues without ever having a head off. However, in my personal experience you'll get longer service life out of a porsche 911sc engine or a dodge slant six or a chev 350 than a V8 f-car engine given equivalent levels of service (which is pretty tough because an f-car engine requires significantly more service/maintenance relatively speaking).

One thing I'll say, you might be able to get away with just a proper valve job at 100,000 miles (and leave the bottom end alone provided everything is generally w/in spec). A good three angle valve job with the valves properly lapped in will usually bring compression back to pretty close to new levels. And, provided the valve clearances are properly set you're may be good for another 30,000-50,000 miles. In any case, a compression/leakdown check will go a long way to helping decide what's the next step. And, watch your cold and hot oil pressures and keep an eye out for excessive blue smoke on start up.

 

I would agree with the 911sc or 3.2 comment if it weren't for their pesky head studs and valve guides. Still great engines though

 

Some good information here. I was wondering about this as well. I am new to Ferrari and a few of the cars I have looked at have had "engine out" service performed at fairly low milage. I guess they must have been blown up and not normal wear and tear.

 

Rick,

Not really. It was more than likely just time for the car's maintanance service to be done. Although most shops do not remove the engine for a major service, some (although rare) do. You need to maintain your car at agreed time intervals versus how many miles.

 

Because most of the modern cars require the engine to be removed for routine service. Has nothing to do with a broken or worn out motor.

 

Brian:

It's most of the recent cars. From 2005 on, they haven't required that. Just the 348, 355 & 360 required removal, and the 360 really didn't need it, had a bulkhead to do the service.

Art

 

Everything from Mondial,288, TR, 348 through 355 required it. Those probably account for 1/3 of total Ferrari production and account for about 40% the discussion here. I would consider those recent cars and based on the wording of his statement seems to be the cars that brought about his question. I am well aware 360, 550, 456 , 430 etc do not require that. Again based on the wording of his question the cars I spoke of must be the ones that brought about his question, the only other answer is that his entire understanding is just flat out wrong.

If you want to make it an issue of semantics I'll give you the point. I don't care. I was more interested in his lack of understanding of service procedures.