It’s much less likely to fail as the coolant change is enforced with the engine out service at a minimum. So the coolant doesn’t have as much time to break down and corrode the heat exchanger like in the 360. Leave it well alone if it’s not broken. Inspect coolant and gear oil at the service intervals and it should be fine. I replaced a known working heat exchanger as a preventative measure during engine out, with a brand new OEM Ferrari part only for it to fail right away. It was defective from new! Sometimes you really can kill these things with kindness.
Mine failed (original part, circa 1995) last year and it sucked flushing gear oil out of the coolant system and coolant out of the gear box. This is what it will look like. If you have an original, I would get a new one on the next major. Image Unavailable, Please Login
This is one part I’m almost tempted to delete. I wonder how much worse cold shifting would be with Redline MTL in the gearbox.
If mine fails I'm deleting it. $2k+ to replace it?!? And all it does is warm up the gearbox oil? No thanks.
I have to say, this hadn’t occurred to me before, but it’s not a bad idea at all. I live in a warm place and only use the car in summer. I doubt I’ll have trouble warming the gearbox oil considering the radiated heat in the engine bay from the exhaust system, warm ambient temps etc. At the other end of the scale, I don’t track or race the car so I doubt I’ll overheat the oil, either. I’ve just done the major on mine and the engine is back in, but I am going to try this at the next engine out. I’m already thinking about potential solutions...
I changed mine at 20 years old and the original looks new Probably should have left it alone as it fits a little better than the upgraded one
I'm in the middle of a major right now and this is what mine looks like after removing the front boot. I've replaced the coolant every 2 years but only from the radiators. I'm replacing it as a precaution. Image Unavailable, Please Login