First outing for 2014

What do you do after you spend all that time cleaning the car? You go out and drive it and get it all dirty again of course. As I have said before, I bought this car to drive not to hide away all polished up in the garage.

The weather looked fine when I started out so I took the top off. Unfortunately, there was one cloud at the midway point of the trip that decided that it couldn’t hold its water. While travelling at speed the car didn’t get much rain from the sky inside but the water from the windscreen travels to the top of the windscreen and then has nowhere else to go but into the car and onto the driver. The heavier the rain the more the flow of water at the edge of the windscreen grew.

Knowing full well that as soon as I put the top up it would stop raining, I did so anyway in an underpass. Would be much easier and quicker with two people, but alas no one else wanted to come with me this early morning.

Withe roof back in place and returning back I turned off the freeway at Brooklyn and headed up the old Pacific Highway to Hornsby. In my continued experimentations with dual Go Pro cameras I produced the above video.

This time both cameras worked as expected in tandem capturing exactly the same shots. This was after ensuring both had the same configuration settings and were full charged before taking off.

The reason there are no engine sounds is that the only thing the Go Pros capture audio-wise is the wind rushing by. I’m looking into getting a microphone I can plug into them and attached to the exhaust pipes. Only problem with is that the exhaust pipes get pretty hot so I’ll have to see if there is a way to get the microphone close but not cooked. Some work to be done there.

With the car all refuelled and back home I kinda have my eye on a longer trip next weekend. Not 100% sure given ‘returning from holidays traffic’ which is going to be a mess given what I saw heading out around Christmas.

Something to ponder this week.

Stereoscope

Here’s another video I have uploaded to YouTube. In this one I have 2 x Go Pro Hero Black Editions connected on either side of the car.

Interestingly, I was able to get a single camera remote controller to operate both cameras together but at some down towards the end of the drive the left hand side one stopped recording and I haven’t been able to work out why. That means that towards the end of the video you’ll only get the aspect from the drivers side. Still, I hope you enjoy that.

Piecing the two sequences together proved much more challenging than I figured. I think I am approaching the limit of using Windows Movie Maker for the video production. I’ll have to start doing some research to see what else is out there.

I also think that the swapping between the two sides is a little jarring and I could have perhaps extended the fade out between these. I’ll try that in the next video. I also noted that what I probably need to do during the cut overs is allow a bit of duplication from one side to the other. That will allow the viewer to appreciate that the location is the same only the camera angle is changing. I tended to, in this video, try and cut exactly at a single point from one side to the other. Doing so, to me anyway, make it lose some continuity. Thus, duplicating some of the leading footage just after the switch (so after the cut over you see some of what you have already seen travelling by) rather than trying to get the precise moment I think will work much better.

Anyway, see what you think and let me know how you think it could be improved. I’ve still got a lot to learn about this video editing stuff!

Eighteen

The car passed two important milestones over the weekend. The first was that it turned 18. Delivered in December 1995 it is still going strong and looking better than ever I reckon. Some may say that it is only now reaching its prime. Well I certainly would.
Given its new found maturity here is what it would vote for if it could:
1. Drivers MUST keep left. Overtaking is fine but once you have done that don’t sit in the right hand lane like a boob. It’s dangerous and it is actually illegal. Don’t believe me? Here you go, from:
http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/usingroads/downloads/top_10_misunderstood_road_rules.pdf
and I quote:
On multi-lane roads with a speed limit of more than 80km/h, motorists must not drive in the right-hand lane unless they are:
•     overtaking
•     turning right or making a U-turn
•     avoiding an obstacle
•     driving in congested traffic
•     driving in a special purpose lane or if there is a Left Lane Must Turn Left sign or a left traffic arrow and the driver is not turning left.
If a Keep Left Unless Overtaking sign is displayed, the requirement
applies regardless of the speed limit.
2. More of the collected road taxes need to be spent actually FIXING the roads! This means not simply slapping some bitumen in the chasms that appear after it rains. It means fixing the roads and more importantly building them correctly in the first place. The surfaces on some of roads should never qualify as being ‘main roads’ at all.
3. Compulsory advanced driver training courses for ALL drivers throughout the lifetime of their road use. What passes for driving ability on the roads today is a joke. It is not until you have taken an advanced driver training course do you realize what a piss poor driver you are. That changes the way you approach driving which is something that benefits all, reduces accidents, makes travel safer and therefore lowers insurance premiums to boot.
4. Cyclists have every right to use the road PROVIDED they:
a. Have compulsory third party insurance like all other vehicles that use the roads.
b. Are ridden by someone who has passed a road skills theory and practical exam like all other vehicles that use the roads.
c. Ride registered vehicles that pass annual safety inspections like all other vehicles that use the road.
d. Are driven by people who take appropriate safety precautions like wearing a helmet as motor cyclists are required to.
e. Are subject to the same road rules as all other vehicles on the road(which typically means actually stopping at red traffic lights).
5. More has to be done to get cars off the roads. They are simply choking with increased volumes of traffic every day. For three days around Christmas this year traffic heading north out of Sydney was at a stand still. How is that possible? I am also constantly amazed at how heavy Sydney traffic is when I occasionally venture out, even in the middle of the weekday. I would also suggest that 90% of the traffic I see in peak hour are vehicles with a single person in it. How inefficient. Better public transport to free up our roads and reduce frustration, road wear and save the environment. I certainly use the train whenever I can. It is far cheaper and much more efficient in a big city.
A good manifesto I reckon.
The other milestone reached this week was reaching the 40,000 kilometres travelled mark. One of things that you soon learn about older cars is that if you lock them away in a garage and never drive them then the changes of them failing is much greater than a car that is used regularly. A car is designed to be driven and the parts are designed to be worked. Not driving a car regularly fails to work many components which generally leads to their premature failure.
Yep, sure, you drive a car and it is going to get dirty, scratched, dented and so on. That is simply part of price on enjoying a car. If you are worried about that happening then you shouldn’t be driving something where that will be a concern. My advice? Downgrade and live without the stress but don;t forget you are forgoing the pleasure which to me is far outweighed by such minor (although at times very irritating) concerns.
So what did reward did the F355 receive for passing two major milestones this week? It got a nice drive in the country followed by a full wash and polish. I would have done more but it was getting to hot unfortunately so I scurried back home to the shade.
Time to start planning the twenty first birthday bash I reckon now.

Ferrari Race Days Sydney Tickets now available

Tickets are now available for the Ferrari Race Day Sydney April 12-13 2014 at Sydney Motorsport Park Eastern Creek.

Street legal

In a previous post I covered how the car had gone in for registration and required the CV boots changed amongst a few other things. One of the things that needed looking at was the tyre valve on the passenger’s rear, which was proving hard to use. When the car was retuned after having the valve changed to a genuine F355 one it was ‘discovered’ that both rear wheels had gashes on them.

The one in the in the second picture above was on the same rim that has the faulty valve. Now the tyre people were positive it wasn’t them but I am pretty sure I would have notice something like that on the rim before hand but unfortunately couldn’t be 100% sure. So was I was now also up for 2 rim repairs. (Note to self – next time photograph all rims before going to tyre place).

So off came the old CV boots as you can see above.

and on went a shiny set of new boots.

As mentioned previously, this was something that had been noted when I first purchased the car so it was not a surprise that they needed changing after all these years. Now with them done it should be right for quite a while.

You can see the heat shields that the boots sit under to protect them from the heat of the engine.

The other thing apart from the CV boots and the tyre rims I had done was to get the drivers seat ‘refurbished’ somewhat because it had become worn on the outer side where you slide in and out of the car. It is something that is always getting rubbed as I enter and exit the car (which I still can’t do gracefully in the confines of where it lives). This means that this outer part gets worn more than the rest of the seat so I also had that ‘repaired’ and ‘protected’. It will need doing again over time but it certainly looks much better. At the same time they also fixed the cushion on the seat at the front just under my legs as that was also (not unexpectedly) also wearing.

With that all complete (including an oil change after my oil incident) I rolled out of Racing Red and headed home. It is always amazing how heavy mid day traffic is when I am returning from a service. This time wasn’t as stressful as last time but it still wasn’t as free flowing as I reckon it should be at that time of the day. Must be just me!

With the car all tucked away I paid for my third party insurance (green slip) and registration online. Car registered for another year, done! Also, since there are no longer any registration stickers the car needs no further work, just get in and drive from here on in. Yeah.

All the repairs, including the unexpected ones to the rims, did make the bill more that I wanted but the majority was for repairs that I knew were coming and needed to be done. In the long run they all add to or maintain the value of the car so I have no hesitation in paying what is required here. Speaking of ‘known’ repairs, next year’s annual service will require the engine to be dropped out of the car and the belts changed. This should be completed every three years and dropping the engine out of the F355 is a ‘unique’ part of the maintenance of the car. Another ‘known’ issue that I’ll probably get taken care of at the same time is to get the shock absorbers re-conditioned as they were showing signs of leaking when I purchased the car. They are no worse to day but hey, while the whole engine is out why not refurbish the rear shocks as well eh? Next year’s annual service will make this years look cheap I feel.

All part of the joy of owning a F355.

I’m EXCITED!

The rumours are finally true! Yeah! Ferrari Race Days are coming to Sydney. This weeks as the official announcement:

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/ferrari-challenge-festival-confirmed-for-sydney-20131205-2ytfp.html

after much rumour:

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/ferrari-racing-day-coming-to-australia-20130906-2t9uu.html

If it anything like the events overseas:

It will be HUGE!

I’m also sure that the Ferrari Club will be heavily involved and hopefully get some special ‘deals’ and ‘access’. At least that’s what I’m hoping. Finger crossed.

Make sure you book Friday the 11th to Sunday the 13th of April to be at Eastern Creek. I know I will!

Annual service

So another year has rolled around and it’s time to get the car serviced and rego’ed again.
When I received the third party insurance (green slip) renewal for the the coming year the price was over $250 more than it was last year. That’s strange I thought, I wonder why that is? The attached covering letter from the insurance company suggested that I contact them to ask about multi-policy discounts. I might just do that, given my daily drive is also insured by the same company.
Lucky I did, as it turns out that because the F355 is comprehensively insured by a broker it isn’t listed via a ‘known’ insurance company on the other company’s list. This means at green slip renewal time they remove it from their system and thus the car goes back to not having comprehensive insurance. This results in a higher green slip premium.
As soon as I told them that the car was comprehensively insured the green slip fee dropped back to what it was last year (around $540). I understand why the green slip insurance company did what they did but I also note what would have happened if I hadn’t called them up to check why the premium was so much higher. Moral of that story is to always check things out when the price jumps like that. I made a note for renewal time next year.
So with the rego paper received it was time to get the car over to Racing Red for the annual service and registration. Aside from the service and rego there were a few things that I need checking out or more information on.
– The passenger rear tyre that had issues with a faulty valve previously that resulted in constant deflation, but had been replaced last time was proving hard to get the air pump on to insert air. Turns out that when they repaired the valve last time they had used a replacement valve that was not a Ferrari original. Not unsurprisingly given those valves aren’t too common. Luckily, Sal said that he had a spare and would get them to make a change.
– The suspension was still lower on one side when compared to the other. I’d had the car adjusted earlier in the year and the car was handling fine so I knew it wasn’t an issue but I was curious as to why this was? Investigations to be made.
– I quizzed Sal about the oil levels and temperatures after the recent ‘episode’ I had gone through. I was especially interested in why the oil level varied so much from cold to warm. Turns out the oil expands that much! Wow, didn’t know that. Also interesting to find out that the car shouldn’t burn that much oil at all. The only way is over consumes oil is if it is blowing smoke. That means that it shouldn’t need any oil between annual services given the low kilometres I do. Ok, roger, got that.
– After having to recently replace the battery in my daily drive car I wondered whether I should be looking to change the battery in this car? There was no indication of issues so no real need it turns out. If the battery is weak then it will crank the engine slowly when starting. That’s the early warning sign to watch for. Although I could get the NRMA (road side assistance) to change the battery, the best bet is to get Sal to take of that. Ok, check.
– Signs of leaking shocker absorbers. An issue highlighted during initial inspection and checked last year. Need to see whether they have degraded to the point where it needs addressing. Investigations to be made.
– During the initial purchase inspection it was revealed that the inner driveshaft CV boots were swollen and deformed. The CV boots are basically rubber housing that fits over the axles at either end.

Now the inner CV boots are the ones that are closest to engine.

They become deformed because they are so close to the engine which gets mighty hot when it is running.

The above shots show you that the right hand inner CV boot is actually torn and starting to throw out grease, so time to get them changed.
This was something that was mentioned in the initial inspection and checked last year around this time so it is not a huge surprise that it needs doing, so the go ahead to replace both inner CV boots has been authorized but given that replacement parts are required this may delay the return of the car a little. That’s not a huge issue, and I’d rather get it done right.
I wonder whether the CV boots have ever been replaced? Probably not given the low distance the car has travelled prior to my ownership, so it is something that is known to deform over time with the heat of the engine although there is plenty of chat out there on the forums about the standard heat shields in the car not providing enough protection for the CV boots. That’s something I’ll get checked as well but given they have lasted this long I don’t think there should be a problem.
So that’s where we stand at the moment, repairs underway and further updates to come once I know more.

Wet and Dry

The saga I’m about to reveal all actually started with my other car. I had departed at around 5am for a trip to the Gold Coast (about 10 hours driving) and had just passed the last freeway service station. All of a sudden, while boring along the freeway, the check oil light came on.
In a mild panic I pulled off at the next exit to find a service station. When I did, I purchased whatever oil they had and poured about half a litre into the engine and proceeded on my way without further incident. The following week I put this car in for service and deduced that the issue had simply been a long time between services. My fault for failing to be diligent.
This incident then got me thinking about the fluid levels in the F355. The first thing was the water level. Here’s what the owner’s manual says:
Regularly check the level of the coolant in the tank, only when the engine is cold, the level must not fall below 2.8 to 3.1 (6 – 8 cm) below the filler cap.

So the expansion tank for the cooling system is located at the top, in the middle of the engine (item 6 above) and when I unscrewed the cap I did indeed find the water level to be a bit low. I therefore topped it up with about 1 litre of water, which was more that I expected it would take to get the level up.
Now checking the oil is a different matter. The owner’s manual says:
Check the oil every 500 miles (800 kms) by means of the dipstick under the oil tank filler cap.
The level must always be kept between the “Min” and “Max” marks on the dipstick.
Note: To check the oil level, leave the engine idle for a few minutes (oil temperature above 158 degree F), then stop the engine and check the oil immediately.
Unfortunately, what I took away from that was to check the oil when the car is warm, which is not completely correct. You MUST check the oil immediately after the car has stopped running as I will explain further.
So after taking the car out for a drive I left it for its customary cool down period (45 – 60 minutes) and then checked the oil.

The oil tank is the back right hand side of the engine bay (if looking at the engine from the rear). It is item 1 in the above diagram.

The oil filler cap (item 5 in diagram) has a dipstick connected as shown above with the requisite “Min” and “Max” lines.
After removing the cap, wiping the dipstick and checking the oil level I discovered, much to my horror, that no oil level was registered! Now in a mid state of panic I checked the level again and failed to find any trace of oil. The ‘red mist’ descended.
Oh no, I thought. The engine has no oil. What will I do? Then I remembered the oil I had purchased for my other car previously and only partially used. I retrieved that and poured about half of what remained into the F355 oil tank. Checking the oil level again, I still found no trace of oil on the dipstick. The panic level increased as I poured the remaining oil into the F355 oil tank. A final check after this still failed to reveal any traces of oil in the F355 tank.
With no more oil available I started making plans to immediately rush out and pick some up. As the ‘red mist’ of panic began to subside, the more logical side of my brain kicked in. Surely, the oil level couldn’t ‘disappear’, I must be missing something.
I was. After some research the important part of the owners manual I had dutifully neglected was:
Note: To check the oil level, leave the engine idle for a few minutes (oil temperature above 158 degree F), then stop the engine and check the oil immediately.
The reason you need to check the oil level immediately after stopping the car is that the F355 has a dry sump configuration. Now I had no idea what the difference between a wet and dry sump was. I don’t feel too bad now because nearly everyone else I asked didn’t either. So here, in a nutshell is the difference between a wet and dry sump.

The above video details how oil works as a lubrication system for an engine. It resides at the bottom of the engine in a ‘sump’ where it is pumped around the engine for lubrication and cooling.

Most cars have what is know as a wet sump, that is all the oil resides in the sump at the bottom of the car. You use a dipstick to check the oil level when the car is cool as all the oil has pooled in the sump at the bottom and you can measure the level.
Typically, the F355 is not a ‘normal’ car, it uses a dry sump system (as detailed in the above video). Why? A dry sump basically stores the oil in a separate reservoir. This means the sump can be smaller, therefore the engine can be mounted lower in the car for better balance. A dry sump system also ensure a more even supply of oil to the engine when accelerating, braking or cornering at high speeds. In a normal wet sump system the oil can ‘slosh’ to one side when cornering preventing adequate oil supply.
Having established that the F355 has a dry sump system I understand the reason why the oil level needs to be checked just after stopping the engine (so there is oil in the tank!). So I now need to check the oil the ‘correct’ way, up to temperature and just after stopping the engine.

When I now tested the level I discovered it to way above the ‘Max’ level like so:

Having the oil at such high levels is not good for the engine as it can screw up the sensors as well as cause the engine to blow smoke.
Now the challenge was getting the oil level down. After some internet searching I came across this thread (where I also took the oil level pictures from):
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355/335635-checking-355-oil-level.html
and it recommended the best option was to use a turkey baster to remove the excess oil from the tank.

Silly me considered a turkey baster an easy item to procure. Alas, there were none in my local shopping centre, so off to the Internet search engines I went.
I eventually found one that I could order form the Internet, which I did but figured, surely, I could buy one somewhere. After some more searching I located a suitable shop in a bigger shopping complex and headed off to secure it. Problem is that when I arrived, turned out there must have been a run on turkey basters as there were none to be found. “REALLY?”, I groaned. None? Hang on sec, what’s this. Hmmm, not exactly what I was after but it will do the job.

So rather than just a turkey baster I ended up with a
MasterChef Roasting & Basting Set

I figured that I could use the brush from the set to at least clean the vents in the car. You use that kind of justification when you pay more for something than you wanted don’t you now?
Armed with my baster and an assistant I ran the car for 60 seconds to get oil into the tank and started to suck out the excess. Problem is, how much do I take out? I wasn’t a hundred percent sure of how much I had actually put in. I kind of figured just over half a litre. I therefore removed about this amount.
With that complete I needed to check the oil at temperature, so I fired the car up and let it idle. As the engine heated up I started to get lots of smoke from the engine. ‘Oh no, what have I done wrong’, my brain screamed as the ‘red mist’ of panic descended again. Here’s where having someone to help you pays dividends. My helper pointed out that I had managed to spill a small amount of oil on the exhaust manifold. When this heated up the oil burnt off. Thus, the smoke.
I could see the oil on the manifold but there was nothing I could do as the engine was now hot. I no other option but to let it burn off, which I did (while still holding my breath). What had in fact had happened, even though I had been extremely careful transferring the oil out of the tank and into a container, was oil had travelled down the underside of the container, to the bottom, and dripped on the manifold.
With engine at temperature I discovered the oil level still above the maximum level. “That’s strange”, I thought. We decided to let the car cool down before attempting to remove any more oil. Getting hot engine oil on one’s skin is not fun at all, so safety first!
About an hour later we returned and drained another 0.3 litres and even then the oil level was still at the maximum. Now I’m sure I didn’t put about 0.8 litres in there. Strange. Maybe it was high to start?
With that complete, I cleaned up, thanked my assistant and put the car to bed, still concerned as to whether I had in fact now removed too much oil.
The big test was going to be the weekend run down the south coast. To be safe I decided it was best to take some oil along with me, just in case I had in fact removed too much. Turns out that even buying oil is fraught with complications.
The oil specified in the owner’s manual is 10W40, whereas the oil I had added to the engine was 20W50. Hmmmm, ok what’s the difference? Turns out that these numbers refer to the viscosity of the oil. The first number is a ‘winter’ or cold viscosity, while the second number is a ‘normal’ operating temperature viscosity. The lower the number the less viscous (or more easily flowing the oil will be). Thus, a 10W oil will move through the engine faster when cold than a 20W. For more details on all this stuff see:
http://www.upmpg.com/tech_articles/motoroil_viscosity/
So basically I had not only added too much oil, but I had also added the wrong type. No much I could do about that now.
The other question about oil for the F355 was whether it needed to have ‘magnesium’ or not? At this point I wanted to put the whole saga behind me so I went out and bought some Shell Helix 10W40 as my oil security blanket for upcoming journeys.
So the epilogue of this story is that the car completed the Cavallino run without incident, even with the oil getting up to temperature sitting in traffic. It has also been out on additional runs, again without incident, but I am not yet confident enough to go out without my oil security bottle.
Big learning experience here is to do EXACTLY what the owners manual says when it comes to checking the car and at least now I know the difference between a wet and dry sump. I’m still a little fuzzy on some of the details that go along with this in the F355 but I’m sure I’ll work those out in good time. If you have gotten through this whole post, then hopefully you will as well know what a dry sump is in case you ever come across one! Thanks for reading.

Cavallino run

After warming up the F355 I headed off to Ferrari Maserati Sydney in Waterloo as the meeting point for the planned Cavallino run to the Southern Highlands as a tribute to Enzo Ferrari.

After some coffee and pastries we where marshalled in convoy onto the streets of Sydney. It was quite a sight to see over 20 Ferrari’s travelling on convoy. You couldn’t miss knowing when the lights changed from the roar of the exhausts.

We headed south along Southern Cross Drive and then onto the Princess Highway. We turned left Loftus and headed through the Royal National Park to our first stop around Stanwell Tops.

After a short break we headed onto the road again towards Wollongong. Unfortunately, we turned left instead of right which meant we missed taking Bulli Pass back up the mountain, but no fear we kept heading south towards Wollongong meeting up with the Princes Highway again.

At Albion Park we turned right and headed along the Illawarra Highway through Macquarie Pass National Park, which was a great stretch of road. At Robertson we turned right and headed through Kangaloon and then Bowral to our final destination Bendooley Estate Berrima.

We lined all the cars up and headed off to an exquisite lunch.

The cars where then arranged in a fan shape to permit the great shots you see above.

After filling up in Mittagong we headed back to Sydney along the Hume Highway.

A really fantastic day and a huge round of thank to Ferrari Maserati Sydney for all their hard work organizing the day, mapping the route, proving printed direction and keep all the ‘strays’ together. I think everyone had a great time and it was a fitting tribute to old man Ferrari.

Apart from the above shots I managed to get some great video with the Go Pro, although I did have some issues trying to ‘wake’ it up while driving through the scenic Macquarie Pass National Park. So no shots from there unfortunately! That’s ok because it would have captured me slamming the nose into the road after failing to see a major ‘bump’ along the way. Luckily, the car hasn’t shown an ill effects from this.

The video has some great shots of winding through the Royal National Park and long the coast road, including traversing the Sea Cliff Bridge in Wollongong. Unfortunately, it was pretty hazy due to all the bushfires lately but that certainly didn’t spoil the day.

Another angle

Slapped the Go Pro Hero 3 back on the car over the weekend and took it out for a run. This time I mounted it just behind the passengers head rest on the outside of the car.

This gives a different perspective from the other videos I’ve done which are generally all looking forward.

I think that it is getting a bit boring just having a single view of a camera during a run and I also think that it is getting a bit boring doing these sort of takes.

I can certainly start looking at creating a montage of all the footage I have collected so far but what about going forward? I can certainly keep sticking the camera in different places all over the car but does that have much point? I need to come up with something different I reckon to make things on the YouTube channel a bit fresher.

Any suggestions?