NiftyFiveFifty's Guide to Preparing a 550 Maranello for Reliable & High Performance Daily Driving

Recently my 550 Maranello found its way to a new and loving home, and one of the things I will miss the most about the ownership experience is the community both here and on Instagram. Over the 26,000 miles during 2 1/2 years of ownership, I learned a lot about what makes these cars so special, as well as what they need to perform at their full potential. Throughout this time I compiled a list of items that helped make the car a reliable daily driver I could depend on every single day (in addition to having a wonderful mechanic!).

Though this list is built from my own experience, I welcome anyone to add their thoughts and tips as much of the information below was actually assembled from many of you here in the community. I hope this list helps existing owners find more enjoyment in their cars, and I hope it helps convince potential new owners that a 550 Maranello, or any Ferrari, isn't as scary as many people are led to believe. Many of the items below apply to just about any Ferrari built before the 360/599, especially the electrical and cooling upgrades. Thanks again for being such a great community and I look forward to seeing more people choose the 550 Maranello as their first Ferrari.

NiftyFiveFifty’s daily driven 550 Maranello recommendations:


Major service:

• Leakdown test
• Compression test
• Timing Belts: Ferrari Part # 187744
• Timing Belt Tensioner Pulleys: Hill Engineering Part # PT-550
• Timing cover cam drive bearings: Hill Engineering Part # 170787
• Block cam drive bearings: Ferrari Part #171177
• Accessory Belt Tensioner Pulley: Ferrari Part # 123350
• Alternator and AC Compressor belt: Ferrari Part # 201444
• Replace intake manifold gaskets, valve cover gaskets, timing cover main seal, and all o-rings.
• Rebuild or replace water pump. Upgrade if found to be the older style.
• Check camshaft position sensor for bent rod, replace if necessary.
• Check and replace valve tappets (lifters) as necessary: Ferrari Part # 166572
• Check motor mounts, replace with 575 motor mounts if not done already: Ferrari Part # 192022
• Check Front Torsion Damper, rebuild if necessary
• Replace O2 sensors:
  • Left Front: Bosch 0258003819
  • Right Front: Bosch 0258986507
  • Rear O2 Sensors: Bosch 0258986505
• Replace air filters. Ferrari Part # 152578.
• Replace pollen filter. Ferrari Part # 64241800.
• Clean and calibrate throttle bodies
• Check shocks for leaks and rebuild as needed.
• Clean MAF sensors (aka Throttle Valve Potentiometer) Ferrari Part # 172750 (Right) and # 158170 (Left)
• Clean Idle Air Control valves Ferrari Part # 142432

Cooling System:

• Full coolant flush, including deep cleaning of the radiator (the base of the radiator likes to collect debris which blocks flow and it will likely need a full flush).
• Check radiator and AC condenser fins for debris, remove as needed.
• 575M fan shroud. Ferrari Part # 181601.
• Higher power SPAL fans, part # 30102113
• Cooling fans should be wired directly to the battery on 40amp relays and signaled with the old relay connection on the fuse board. SPAL 40amp relay kits can be found here.
• Replace all coolant hoses with silicone hoses from AW Italian
• Rebuild or replace water pump.
• Replace 3 coolant sensors: Ferrari Part # 125769 (Bosch Part # 0280130026), # 148677 (x2) (Jaeger part, number unknown)
• Replace thermostat: Ferrari Part # 183758

Electrical:

• Replace factory fuse board with 7 Lakes Auto Repair upgraded PCB/copper/gold board. Mark Glenwood is the owner and the board will cost much less than a factory board. https://www.facebook.com/7Lakesautorepair/
• Replace all relays. Cross reference:
  • Ferrari Part # 175318 (fuel pumps, injection devices)
    • Bosch Part # 0332019151
  • Ferrari Part # 157802 (emergency fan control, external lights)
    • Bosch Part # 0332015006
  • Ferrari Part # 157991 (everything else)
    • Bosch Part # 0332019103
• Bonus Points: Replace Battery/Alternator power cable part # 169774 with larger 0 ga. Unit, custom build with 100% OFC copper.
• Install small computer cooling fans to create airflow for the fuse board and relays, if needed.
• Upgrade wire between battery and fuse board to single 0 gauge, bolster primary connections at the fuse board.
• Check and clean all grounds.
• Check all harness connections for damaged or burnt wires, repair wires and pins as necessary.
• Check all relay/ECU connections and clean contacts (suspension ECU, emergency/direction lights relay, steering ECU, ASR ECU, window ECU, FCS ECU, etc.)
• Dry the catalytic converter temperature ECUs and seal with silicone
• Test alternator output at operating temperature. Replace stator or buy new alternator if out of spec.
• Rewire alternator for 280amps output

Fuel System:

• Drain fuel tank, remove fuel pumps.
• Replace fuel pump motors:
  • Bosch part # Bosch 0580453427
• Remove black foam gaskets from fuel pump assemblies and discard. Replace with this gasket.
• Or use Fabio’s pump support made from PTFE.
• Replace fuel filters:
  • Bosch part # 0450905087
• Flush/clean fuel system.
• Clean and flow test injectors. Check resistances both hot and cold.
• Wire fuel pumps on direct 40amp relays from the battery, use old fuel relay connection on fuse board for signal. Use 8ga. Wire. The same SPAL 40amp fan relay kit can be used for the fuel pumps.

Other Stuff:

• Check AC, replace access port O-ring.
• AC compressor can be rebuilt for ~1/10th the cost of new.
• Replace spark plugs with copper Champion RA4HC.
• Replace spark plug wires from this guy on eBay.
• Check all spark plug boots for cracks and replace as needed.
• Check and replace wheel bearings as needed.
• Upgrade brakes to Girodisc lightweight 2-piece rotors and Hawk HPS pads.
• Sticky buttons if needed.
• Leather repair and conditioning as needed.
• Replace wipers. The driver’s side will take a Bosch Icon 24A, but the right side requires OEM or a blade replacement.
  • Bonus points: Replace right arm with 360/F430 arm, Ferrari part # 65409300 and use a Bosch Icon 22A wiper. The 360/F430 arm can often be found used on eBay for less than the cost of an OEM 550 passenger side wiper.
• Inspect all cooling ducts (brakes, alternator, etc.) and repair/replace as needed.
• Inspect/replace trunk gasket as needed. For a cost effective alternative, use a Nissan/Infiniti trunk gasket, part # 84830-9HS0A (about 8-10x less expensive). Requires ~6” of trimming.
• Verify oil cooler lines run over bumper support and not under. Reroute if necessary.
• Check door pins/hinges and adjust doors as necessary.
• Replace trunk and hood struts as needed.
  • Hood: Ferrari Part # 64577300
  • Trunk: Ferrari Part # 63701800
• Check parking brake/calibrate/replace brake shoes as needed.
  • Brake shoes: Ferrari Part # 170701 (x4)
• Flush/clean wiper washer system and nozzles.

Fun Stuff:

• Fabio's equal length headers.
• 200 cell cats (or no cats and flash ECUs with Ferrari’s Go-Flow tune)
• Open x-pipes or h-pipes (both offered by Fabio)
• Supersprint s-pipes
• Heat-coat all exhaust components, such as Jet-Hot coating
• Additional heat shielding between cats and undertray
• LED interior and exterior light conversion
• HID headlight upgrade: D2S 2.5” size with ballasts, and here is a great thread on how to do this.
• Hill Engineering Type 2 1” rear wheel spacers
• Exhaust valve control system using blank switch on dash (US-spec cars).
• 360 Modena steering wheel
• F50 shift knob (stays cool on hot days): Ferrari Part # 165483
• F430 style wireless FOB key
• FOB range extender from Specialized ECU Repair
• Hidden battery charging cable
• FHP steering ECU, Ferrari Part # 175891
• Inspect and repair all cooling ducts (front case, alternator, brakes, transmission cooler)
• Perform alignment.

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Great question, there are a few problems with the fuel pumps which also involves most of the entire electrical system:

• The fuel pump wiring gauge is undersized and the wire can overheat, which then overheats the relays, and this can also overheat the fuel pumps. Even with separate relay circuits, the voltage to the fuel pumps can drop 2v or more at normal temperature. It can dip below 8v when hot! Many owners have reported a change in exhaust tone after extended use and/or on hot days, and this is due to underfueling from the strained pumps.
• The relays and fuse board in general are in a very tight location with minimal airflow. Even worse, only the plastic relays are widely available, and they easily overheat compared to the older metal relays which naturally dissipated heat. But even then, the metal relays are still dissipating heat into a common closed area, and also prone to overheating and early failure.
• The fuse board itself is a problematic design, and with regular long distance driving it is prone to almost certain failure, or even fire. The solder on the board can separate at the temperatures at which the relays fail, and this in turn separates the multi-layer foil fuse board, creating extreme resistance and even higher heat. The board material is much less resilient than PCB and it damages easily.
• The two primary 12v leads in to the fuse board are barely large enough to support all components aside from the fans and pumps, and they can also overheat. The 90 degree connection of the primaries to the board also use very undersized wafer connections which have minimal contact area and can loosen over time, which also adds heat and resistance.

All of these issues can lead to premature failure of just about everything in the electrical system because the fuse board will try to evacuate heat by any means necessary, including dissipation via any connected wire and component. In addition, full load of the car’s electrical system with all accessories turned on, including lights, wipers, rear defrost, HVAC, etc. is approximately 117amps, at idle! This is 84% of the stock alternator’s 140amp peak output under ideal temperature conditions. Now factor in what the car must be drawing under WOT at high rpm with the pumps, fans, ignition, and injection at full bore, and the numbers are only posssible with short bursts of speed. This is without any stereo, too! This only adds to the heat, along with the undersized battery/alternator/starter 12v primary. And now add a hot day plus the intense heat from the V12, and it can only get worse. Again, this doesn’t typically pose a problem unless the car is driven longer distances with more accessories on, but even a factory car will see voltage drops to many components in as little as 30 minutes.

Thank you to everyone for the kind words and again, much of the information was reported by others, and my goal was to organize everything into a single source from the many years of community threads and discussions. I am sure there are more thigs that should be added, and I welcome anyone to add to the list.

A 550 Barchetta would be a fun project!

 

Someone like Terry will know for sure, but I know the 575 corrected quite a few issues, such as the fuel pump assemblies which removed the porous foam material that breaks down from ethanol fuel in the 550.

However, I believe the 575 may use the same fuse board material as the 550, and I believe the wiring is very similar, meaning the 575 would greatly benefit from the wiring size upgrades and separate relay wiring for the fans and fuel pumps. But this is based on my quick glance at the parts.