Good morning. New to the forum Looking to become a proud owner of a Ferrari. F355 seems to be the most desirable for me. I love the styling. If I may, a little of my back ground. I live in Vancouver BC. Have been a car guy all my life. Dad was a well know hot rodder. I inherited his gearhead genes. I currently have a small car collection. Dad's 32 Ford roadster hot rod. The car I help rebuild several times and grew up with. My 1977 Oldsmobile CS I bought in 1979 from Dad. I did a 100% restoration on It a few years ago. Even won a few trophies. Purely sentimental reason because it isn't worth much. And my 1990 corvette convertible. Only 30K miles on it because the clutch went and it took me 12 years to get around to it. She's 100% showroom now. Been a Kart racer for 20 years with Italian Motors. High-end stuff. 100mile an hour kind with 6 speed transmission. Traveled all over North America racing. Even raced with Michael Schumacker at the Las Vegas Super Nationals once. Now my passion is finally getting a Ferrari. Been my dream for many years. The F355 interest me for a few reasons. I love the styling. I am fascinated by the engineering. I love working on cars and I think these years are still doable for an average mechanic without getting into a lot of computer servicing equipment. I think it's within my budget without getting a divorce!! My main question are what to look for in a purchase. I read a bunch. I see some mechanical issues with F355 about exhaust manifold, valve guide seals, sticky plastic, soft pistons, ring issues, cam seals, clutch and out of engine service. How big of a concern are these issues. Can a good mechanic like myself do these repairs if required. Taking the engine out would be doable for me. However would setting the cam timing, ECM and other stuff require specialty tools? How concerned should I be about constant repairs. Are parts obtainable? Getting the "right" car is the key. More mileage less price. Less mileage more price. What's a good middle ground? Love a spider, but maybe a coupe is better for less body flexing. Looking for some advise from the people who own them and drive them. Thanks in advance for your help. Sincerely Mike McGowan
Welcome and no offence but maybe not enough to notice your question already has multiple existing answers here - worth looking at some
Welcome. Lots of details on here in the technical bits you raised. As to parts, a mix of very easy to non existent have to find salvage. There is a very good parts comparison on here for equivalent parts so you don’t pay the Ferrari tax (yellow boxes with black horses on them are expensive)! As a starter look on superformance.co.uk to give you a starter idea. As to your ability to do an engine out; there are a few threads on here of doing this diy. Have a look and that will tell you. Good luck in your search.
I don't own an F355 but I might someday so this forum is of great interest to me. When I first started looking at this model I thought it was a deep dark mysterious complexity that only a specially trained technician with a shop full of super expensive tools could even begin to service. But reading the forum I've been pleasantly surprised at the amount of DIY projects many owners take on, apparently with success. In a lot of cases very helpful step by step instructions with pics/graphics and parts sources are posted here. It probably would help to have some mid-engine background, but not really necessary. So FWIW it seems to me the F355 is a perfectly viable candidate for a reasonably equipped, competent, and experienced DIY'er. Probably should add careful, methodical, and patient to that description. Not easy or especially cheap, but doable.
Thanks for the replies. I have read a number of articles here for PPI, DYI repairs and the like. I guess I have a bit of nervousness about getting into a F355 mechanical money pit. When I go onto most car forums whether it be Corvettes, Oldsmobile's or others there are always so many people discussing "problems" with their cars. It's the natural place to go for help. It then looks like all these car are nothing but problems. Based on reading car forums, I would never buy ANY car because it seem like they are nothing but "problem". I know that's not the case. Some real world ownership experiences from the members here is was I was interested in. I guess I am looking for some reassurance before jumping into the pool! Thanks for the kind greetings. Look forward to future chats.
The biggest thing to consider is the engine out service. If you are used to working on cars, this is not a particularly difficult thing to do. Ferrari designed the engine to come out for the service and its a very straight forward process. Its not that difficult.
I don't know how technical the 90 Corvette is, but the F355 is not exactly a Model T, with ABS, adaptive suspension, airbags (on most years), electronic engine management (with integrated immobiliser on later models), climate control, ECU-controlled droptop (on spider), etc. You certainly need to know your way around a multimeter (perhaps more than a spanner) and you will at some point need a Ferrari technician with specialist Ferrari tools to help you out. An OBD2 reader can only get you so far on a later model F355. There are probably workarounds for GM stuff, but Ferrari likes to keep its secrets close to its chest. I wouldn't want to live too far away from a service centre. I had an '89 Lotus Esprit which was probably similar in complexity to your Corvette, but the Ferrari is probably one step up from these. You can throw parts, time and money on these cars chasing down problems, but sometime it's a whole lot easier going to a specialist with a Ferrari SD tool and he can pinpoint a problem in minutes. Like all types of cars, there will always be those who have never had a problem and those who have had horror stories to tell. My horror story was a +U$20k gearbox problem (which seems to be very rare as far as I can tell). There have been a few stories of those with slipped/broken cambelts which have resulted in expensive engine rebuilds. . Even expensive PPIs don't always pick up these impending catastrophes. And there are other things which we have no control over... like local councils doing road repairs/modifications which have made the streets impassible to our cars. If you do get a coupe, be sure to check for buttress cracks. They all flex to some degree.
OP, at this point when the newest 355 rolled off the assembly line 22 years ago, all the problems and their solutions are pretty well known. And there are definitely problems, lots of them. They're also all fixable. Do a bunch of reading in the archives and try to find a car that someone else recently sank a bunch of money into. Or get it for cheap enough that you won't be underwater when you have to sink some dough into it.
Thanks again. some great points you made. I think I am going to start visiting some local Ferrari service shops and ask some questions. I found a few private ones that have good reviews. There are also a couple of Factory Ferrari dealers near by. Some other comments I read also made a good point. Some Ferrari shop don't have mechanics experienced on the older cars. Great tip on the Buttress. One of the reasons I like the 355, a higher standard of engineering and some new challenges servicing. It is like that with the Vette too, the electronics are hard to find. ECU are unobtainable, Ride control modules don't exist, etc, etc. All part of the vintage car experience. I am lucky to have experience with electronics. I am a certified electrical controls service tech for the HVAC industry. Those skills transfer well to the automotive industry. Interesting side note on the vette, Didn't know it for 25years but the ABS failure indicator light had failed. The light did come on when engine start. Did know it was suppose to until I was reading the Service manual one day. Traced circuit wiring for a few day, had the electronics manual. Of all the crazy things, a "tail" from a pop rivet was under the large 25pin connector to the ABS module and short across two pins. Fried the wires. That was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. I can only assume it happened at assembly because the car only had less than 5K when I bought it in 92. Nothing on the car had ever been apart.
One of my discoveries as a new 355 owner was that those two statements are true but also contradictory in some ways...there's some engineering on the 355 that makes you scratch your head. In place it's so bad it almost seems intentional.
Sounds like just the man we need in the "brotherhood" If you have a good selection of cars to choose from, your next decisions (after choosing a Spider, GTS or GTB) would seem to be 2.7 or 5.2 engine management Teves or Bosch ABS Airbag/no airbag Catted/straight pipes (where government regs allow) F1/gated gear selection The rest is basically the same.
Good info above. Thanks Qavion. Going to give me some good reading about those options. My ideal wish list for a F355 would be red, spider, black interior, manual shift. We will have to see how that work out. I am I looking for a unicorn? If I ever get to point were I know what I am talking about with a 355 I would gladly help out. I am a long ways from that. Now if you have a C4 Corvette.......I can help Hi Taratime I see the words Karting on your info header. You a kart racer?
It's a forum thing. It's related to the number of posts you've made. You're a "Rookie". Perhaps more than 50 posts is "Karting. I see a few F1 World Champs in this thread.
Hey Mike, Welcome to the forum. I'm also in Vancouver and have dealt with most of the indie shops that work on classic Ferraris in town. Feel free to message me if you need any local help. Also, I can also assist in finding you the right car within your budget. I'm fairly well aware of most cars for sale in the world and roughly where market value is on them. Plus side is, spiders are relatively abundant. And finding a red one with a stick shouldn't be too difficult assume your budget is realistic. Cheers
I was looking at a 355 for sale in Montreal.1997 red/tan 5K miles. Was on BaT in Dec. a no sell @$63K. It has had a few issues for only 5kmiles, some nose damage, pilot bearing, a few fluid leaks. An engine out belt service at 4K in 2014. My assumption is a belt service is due again based on time. New tires would be needed. Any one familiar with this car. Originally a New Jersey purchase. He's asking $120K Cnd. Thanks Mike
I had a few conversations with the gentleman. He direct me to the Bring a Trailer web site. I had some concerns with the mile too. It was the throw out bearing that was replaced. Kind of odd at 5K miles. Service will be due for the belt and the tire are a bit dated. Am I correct to be concerned with the low mileage the valve guide seals could be an issue. Car that are not driven much tend to have a lot of rubber failure, seal leaks, radiator problems, etc. . I should know I have a few of those problems with my other classics. I believe during my 355 research I read the seals tend to be a bit soft and possible problematic. Is that correct? At the Asking price I don't think I would be comfortable in that range. Plus my preference is a manual, black or should I say Nero interior. The search continues.
No more or no less correct than any other well engineered car of the same age....... Any car does not like sitting around not being used, seals dry up and crack, gears which are not sitting in oil get surface rust and so forth....... I'd suggest getting a car with reasonable miles on it as it would have been maintained and any issues sorted.....
Looks like I am still hunting. My offer was turned down. The hunt continues. Red /Black/3 pedal. Really liking the blue one for sale on Bring a trailer. Looks like the guy went off roading from the looks of the under chassis. Wife says it look like my Vette. Same colours. I told her if I say that on a Ferrari forum I might get band!
