Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been over 6 months since my last confession..but I've had great fun ;-)
I have run a Ferrari 360 Modena for the better part of 9 months so I thought I would share my experiences a little more...
On exhausts. I have had some fun and games with the damn exhaust. The car game with the flap valves jammed open. The upside was that it sounded pretty good at idle, the downside was that it wasn't what I wanted. Also the MIL kept on coming on (little did I know that the exhaust and the MIL are connected).
So I found a Novitech exhaust in Holland and promptly bought it. I sort of liked it when I was on the open road, giving the car some stick but on the motorway at 70 ish and around town, the booming made my little son's ears bleed (and mine too). In the interests of not deafening my son or the rabbits who live in the fields near my house, I got the exhaust changed.
I was fortunate to find a F430 exhaust which had be nicely modified to fit a 360. Now this is quite special. It's pain in the bum to do but with patience and a TIG welder, one can almost exactly reproduce a 360 Challenge Straddle exhaust and in the process create the most wonderful symphony of Il Cavallino music. Also the flap valves work so the car is not too loud in traffic.
The MIL is a constant issue, it has been largely down to the old exhaust (s) not creating enough back pressure at idle and therefore creating (I suppose) too much turbulent flow around the rear lamb sensor (s). Changing to the CS system with the flap valves working has cured the MIL issue that related to the Lamba sensors (I hope).
But with Ferraris there is always 'more'. In my case, my car developed misfire. It was diagnosed as being a plug and coil issue. So we replaced the plugs and the problem cleared. I think I will have to replace a coil as well because if one of the plugs was drawing too much current, I am sure it will have seen off a coil too.
Other than that the car has been really good. It's delight to drive and is remarkably comfortable on a trip. It's a shockingly pretty beast it really is - I just wish that the gear box could do 'throttle blips' on the down shifts. I know this is a possible upgrade - just need to find out 'how'.
