The Month-long Annual Service

"Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever" (superchan7) 01/22/2017 at 03:48 • Filed to: Ferrari, F355, 355, 355F1, Maintenance, Fabspeed, headers, Exhaust

13

12

Sorry for the click-bait title. My car is finally back. It had been gone for just over 5 weeks.

The actual annual service is supposed to take less than a day, but if you’ve read my thermostat article I mentioned that my exhaust headers’ ceramic thermal barrier coating was peeling in several visible locations.

So I used this service as an opportunity to remove and repair the headers under Fabspeed’s warranty. Removal requires opening oil cooler lines, so it’s beneficial to do it when the car is drained of its oil.

Shipping from CA to PA took 5 days. Once Fabspeed received it, they carted it over to the industrial coating shop. The shop would need to blast off the old coating on the outside and inside each primary tube (a process that took them 4-5 days...I’m guessing the “warranty coverage” meant I was pretty low on their priority list), then re-coat everything. On top of that, the holidays and people at the shop getting sick caused the loss of 3-4 more days.

Then the finished headers had to be returned to Fabspeed for inspection, then hopped on a 3-day return trip to CA (paid out-of-pocket...mechanic and I split the shipping upgrade cost).

So that took 4 of the 5 weeks. But I have my car back and that’s all that matters.......probably.

E90M3 > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 01/22/2017 at 10:11

1

The real question is how much do you actually get to drive?

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > E90M3 01/22/2017 at 13:08

0

1-2x/week usually

E90M3 > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 01/22/2017 at 13:32

0

That’s not bad, I feel like most of the time I see you post about it is when you get it back after several weeks in the shop.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > E90M3 01/22/2017 at 16:39

0

Yeah, that figure only applies when I actually have the car.

B_dol > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 01/27/2017 at 14:36

0

Pretty sure I saw you on 101-N in the Palo Alto snarl. Car looked immaculate   and sounded phenomenal! Ignore my clearly neglected Z4MC

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > B_dol 01/27/2017 at 15:34

0

When?

B_dol > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 01/27/2017 at 15:54

0

Today - circa 8am. Stalker status

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > B_dol 01/27/2017 at 16:10

0

Hmm, I was driving an SUV today... Escape artist status

But you saw an F355? That is no small feat regardless

B_dol > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 01/27/2017 at 16:25

0

Shame, first nice day in a while. You may know the owner anyhow, had to roll down the windows to let in the glorious exhaust note.

Steven > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 03/26/2017 at 19:39

0

Chan, what other problem areas have you experienced with the 5.2 engine?

I’m about to swap one into a 308 frame. Should I go with the older 2.7 or newer 5.2? Thanks

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Steven 03/27/2017 at 03:34

0

In the F355 community, the 2.7 is the “bro” model. It makes (a few) more horsepower and has the less cumbersome OBD-1 diagnostic system. On FerrariChat, a lot of fanatics will prefer the more “purist” 2.7 generation.

Realistically, the 5.2 is far superior. The updated ECU runs the engine much better. The idle is smoother, and the engine is far less likely to let itself run rich and foul plugs, which then fouls everything else from spark plug wires to headers and cats.

The 2.7 needs a very prescribed exercise programme to stay healthy, whereas the 5.2 is better at regulating itself. Yes, being OBD-2 it requires more sensors and more parameters to pass smog, but keeping it running is much less of a jigsaw puzzle.

Steven > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 03/27/2017 at 08:13

0

Appreciate that Chan.