Gang, I decided to take advantage of the long holiday weekend -- Happy 237th bday USA! -- to tackle the SRI Gold Connector Kit project on my 5.2 355. Went through the box last night and there was no clear diagram or visual aid to locate all the relevant connectors that need replacement. There was also no step-by-step on what order to go in, etc etc. I read all the previous Fchat posts I could find but nothing came up. Ive got the WSM and the Ricambi links with all the exploded view graphics tables. But, can anyone point me to a resource with clear instructions on where all the relevant connectors are and, hopefully, what order to go in, and when I know I'm done? thanks. ketel
This may be of little value, as I don't know what the differences are in connector lay-out between 348's and 355's, but if you go on Youtube and do a search on "Ferrari 348 Gold Kit" you'll find a 5 part series I did a while back on the installation on my 348....it may help some, or maybe not at all.
Yes, I already found that series of videos and it's very helpful for 348 owners but not relevant in terms of locating all the sensors on a 355.
Here are my notes from when I performed the install on my 97 F355 Spider back in 2010. Sorry that they are a little rough, but the drawing shows the sensor locations and my notes on the left edge of the list identify each sensor by number. I had the crank sensor done during my engine out after I finished all the other connectors. I think the kit has evolved a bit since 2010, so there may be more connectors covered in your kit that were supported in mine. You can ignore the comments about the idle speed. I was trying to debug an idle issue while I was installing the kit. Also, my note about the fuel injector order showing 5 and 6 swapped is because they were actually swapped on my car for some reason. The actual order is 5-6-7-8 not 6-5-7-8. Let me know if you have any questions regarding my notes. Tom Image Unavailable, Please Login
This is helpful. Did you go in any particular order? Also, did you have to remove a lot of items to gain access to certain sensors?
Best wishes on this project. It's on my list of things I will Be doing going forward. Keep this thread alive with updates please
No particular order and I think they were all accessible except the Crank Sensor. I had Brian Crall install it during the engine out major since it was only a week after I installed the kit. It's best to take a photo of each connector before you cut the wires in case you need to refer to it when you reassemble the connector.
Actually, now that I think about it, I think I may have had to take the intake cover off the top of the motor to access some of the sensors. Pretty simple though...
Ok gang, Bad news. I'm going to abort mission and reassess. Would love to hear others' input on this but here's where we are: The hardest part of this project is getting the old wires out of the old connector housings. I tackled the air temp sensor first. Took me 4 hours to get the old wires out of the connector housing. Yes, four hours. One sensor. The air temp sensor connector housing is now so mangled from four hours of tugging and poking with sharp objects to get the dang connector ends out that it is probably totally compromised now. When reinserting the new gold connected wires there was no clear "snap" which means the innards are stripped and I will probably have to redo that sensor again anyway with a new connector plug. So I can't even say mission accomplished on the air temp sensor. Has anyone just gone and purchased all new connector plugs? Why are we killing ourselves to pry out the old wires, clean the connectors, and reuse them? I know Ferrari parts are obsecenely expensive but saving these 16+ year old plastic connector plugs makes no sense to me and having new connector plugs with the kit would make this job SO much easier, and probably enhance performance. Some of these plugs are on their last legs as they are -- gummed up with grease, dirt and corrosion no amount of connector cleaner is really going to remedy. There are simply too many "point of no return" decisions in this project without a back-up set of connector plugs to use if you end up in a jam and can't get the old wires out of the connector plugs. It's that simple. If you clip wires on a plug there's no going back. If you can't get those wires out to re-use the plug for the new wires you can't plug back into that sensor and you're 355 is now immobilized. There go your weekend plans. So, I'm off the project until I can either gain my composure or find a clean set of fresh, new connector plugs. I also need a beer immediately. ketel
If you can get your sensor connected and don't mind driving south a bit, I can help you change a few until you get the hang of it. I'm around tomorrow (Fri) and Sunday. Once you get the hang of it, it should only take a few minutes to disassemble each connector. I cut the wires first, then grabbed them with needlenose pliers, pushed in the contact removal tool, and pulled the wire and contact right out.
Ketel I have not done a gold kit, but being a EE major, I have done enough connectors in my life. With the right tool, and instructions, these things just snap out. SO, relax, step back from the beast, grab a beer, and approach it again in an hour. Sometimes, looking at the raw pin outside of the housing will give you an idea of how to remove it from the housing. Good luck. I am down the peninsula if you need help.
Op can you post a pic of the tool you are using specifically the working ends If you bend them wrong it makes pin removal difficult
The purpose of the kit makes good sense to me and I'm not one to walk away on a project but to be honest, this one scares the crap out of me. Screwing around with 150 connectors sound like a recipe to make a great 355 no longer run... :-(
I'll back you up on this issue. You could have 4 pins to remove from a plug, use the exact same method on each, some pop right out, and others fight you to the end for no apparent reason. The other killer on the 348 was often the original wires were JUST long enough as is... once you clipped them and put on the plug you were hard pressed to get them snapped back into the fitting. I was dreading doing the ECU connectors because of the zillion wires involved, but they were easy because new plugs were included so there was no struggling with pin removal tools. That made it almost a walk in the park.
No, there's actually quite a lot in the kit. There's pins, boots, special tools, even bandaids and Qtips, so clearly a lot of thought went into the kit. For which I am grateful. That said, I still have no explanation for why we are reusing these crap connector plugs. After all, they are Bosch parts, not Ferrari. You could probably get them in any Kragen. So, it stands to reason they'd be pretty reasonable to include in the kit. If one didn't have to mess with getting old pins out of old connector plugs, the time involved in this project would be cut in half. ketel
Sorry if I sounded frustrated earlier. I do think this is a worthwhile project and I am NOT walking away (although I did hit a point where I needed a time out) . There is so much flying blind that it gets under my skin at times. I probably spent two hours combing through the WSM and various links to just LOCATE the sensors I needed to address. This could have been accomplished with one sheet of paper in the kit listing ALL the sensors relevant on my 355, where they were, and how to access them. Another poster referenced a CD being included, but there was no CD in my kit. So, I spent 8 hours on this today and got 2 plugs done. That's 4 hours a plug and that's totally unacceptable. I will try again tomorrow but I will focus only on sensors where new connector plugs are included - which means just the O2 sensors and the 2 Motronic units. Anything that involves me cutting wires and *hoping* I can get the old pins out to reuse the connector plug is not something I am comfortable doing unless I have a back-up connector plug handy that I can go to when I'm done cursing and stabbing my hands with the tools provided. Without a back-up plug, you're playing Russian roulette. Make one mistake and you're 355 is a boat anchor. Thanks for all the words of support. I will spend the rest of my 4th inebriated and resting up for tomorrow's battle. ketel
I disagree with you and the OP. Some are surgeons and some are lawyers. Knowing one's personality certainly has an effect on the outcome of the gold kit. It takes seconds to pop a wire out even before the latest version of the extraction tools that are in the kit now. i know this because I was one of the beta testers. If you cut the old plug off and start fresh with a new plug you loose an extra 3/8's-1/2" of wire you report that you don't have. This is not an issue with the ECU plugs because the wire bundle is about a foot long! The plug casings are fine unless damaged. If you do it as instructed you lose the minimal amount of oem wire. To the OP take up Loser on his offer. Once he shows you how to extract you will get it. No disrespect intended but some people cut their steak with the machismo of a cavemen and others with the art of a sushi chef. No force is needed just finesse which anyone can be taught once you see it. The best advice I could give is go slow, enjoy the process, and the results. Measure twice cut once. Leave your cell phone and other distractions in the other room. This is not a process for those on a time clock. The effort is worth it!
still waiting for pictures of the tool head. Sometimes if you use lots of force the tines can be out of position.
