Broken Down

[Humpers]

Design flaw. You put a Ferrari engine in a Maserati and Ferrari make you choke the engine as much as possible so it doesn't out perform the Ferrari cars. Stick a squash pipe and 2 cats close together so when the primary's break up, they can't get past the secondary cats and end up getting sucked back into the engine.

The cats are ceramic so basically break up into a sand. This sand mixes with the oil and you can work out what happens from this point.

This is why every 4200/GS I have had gets its secondary's chopped out so if the primary's do break up they get blown out the back.

From what I have seen 70k miles seems to be the point where this happens.

Picked up the GS today after getting Larini sports cats put in. Not exaggerating too much to say it felt like a different car. A real shame the stock set up was done that way.

 

[zagatoes30]

Not good news, hope it works out not too expensive

 

[GeoffCapes]

Not good news, hope it works out not too expensive

Unfortunately the only thing it will be is expensive.

However. Sh!t happens. Life goes on.

 

[zagatoes30]

At least there seem to be a few 4200 engines around at the moment but none of them are cheap.

As you say life goes on

 

[conaero]

£2.5-3k will get you a good low mileage used engine. Your looking at a £5k bill at the end of the day as you will probably do the clutch and a few other bits whilst it's out.

Fair play for the positive attitude mate, if I can help just ask.

 

[GeoffCapes]

£2.5-3k will get you a good low mileage used engine. Your looking at a £5k bill at the end of the day as you will probably do the clutch and a few other bits whilst it's out.

Fair play for the positive attitude mate, if I can help just ask.

I've figured it's a 5k job. Anything less is a bonus.

 

[BenjaminBraddock]

I can't help wondering that this is self inflicted though as per my previous post - these are Ferrari engines and parts after all that need to be treated with care and respect, and I can't say I'd expect a Ferrari owner to revs the nuts off his car while the oil, fluids, cats etc. have not got up to proper running temperature.

Hope that it's not as bad as you fear, you won't know for sure until Mathew has a proper look. Atleast it's in good hands with Mathew.

 

[FIFTY]

Hope you are back out disturbing the neighborhood soon Mark!

This has made me stop thinking about buying expensive back boxes and instead getting even more expensive sports cats... even the Larini website says that the standard cats go easily...

 

[hilts uk]

Hope you are back out disturbing the neighborhood soon Mark!

This has made me stop thinking about buying expensive back boxes and instead getting even more expensive sports cats... even the Larini website says that the standard cats go easily...

Sorry to hear this Mark. I have the Larini sports cats and they have made huge difference to performance but they also seem like a good insurance policy against this happening. Hope you are back up and runnign soon.

 

[m1980k]

Larini (or similar) sports cats won't make a difference if you have a car with standard primary cats in the header and they break up though, will they?

 

[Felonious Crud]

Good attitude, Mark. It's a right bloody bugger, but as you say, what's done is done. Good luck!

 

[GeoffCapes]

Good attitude, Mark. It's a right bloody bugger, but as you say, what's done is done. Good luck!

As anyone who has been divorced will tell you 5 grand is a drop in the ocean. It's not the end of the world.
These cars are appreciating so I'm calling it an investment. (So I keep telling myself).

 

[Humpers]

Hope you are back out disturbing the neighborhood soon Mark!

This has made me stop thinking about buying expensive back boxes and instead getting even more expensive sports cats... even the Larini website says that the standard cats go easily...

That did influence my decision to do it sooner rather than later. None of the this is much comfort to Mark. Easy to fall out of love with a car that does that to you. would echo earlier comments, a very positive attitude. Hope you're out and about again soon.

 

[drewf]

As anyone who has been divorced will tell you 5 grand is a drop in the ocean. It's not the end of the world.
These cars are appreciating so I'm calling it an investment. (So I keep telling myself).

Absolutely!!! Gutted for you Mark, but kudos on the positive attitude. It can be sorted, and so much cheaper than a divorce

 

[D Walker]

Larini (or similar) sports cats won't make a difference if you have a car with standard primary cats in the header and they break up though, will they?

Thats what I am thinking - The euro manifolds I found on Ebay for £1k look they would have been a bargain now, wonder if still available......

Mark - feel your pain - better attitude than me when my clutch went !!

 

[whereskeith]

Engine change question..
I have seen a discussion before on here about fitting the 4.7 gts engine into a coupe/GS but issue was that It was a wet sump and thus would not work.
So.... Hypothetically thinking could the f430 4.3 dry sump fit ? The air intake system seems taller and different but surely that could be sorted.....the thought of 490bhp sounds awesome
Prob would cost a fortune too.

 

[adam01]

Those concerned about cats inbuilt in the primary headers could always consider Craig Watermans elegant and cheap solution to eliminate the cermic content whilst maintaining the std factory look

There is a DIY on th ML site as a reference point for those interested

 

[StuartW]

Sorry to hear this Mark, I initially had the same sinking feeling when I found out that my AC suffered end float failure but you have to move on and I applaud your attitude. It took me a bit longer to come around I have to say.

Good luck in what you decide with the car and I hope she's back in rude health soon.

I echo what others have said about renewing the cats for sport cats - it has to be worth consideration. My cousin has a Gallardo and has removed his cats altogether (his is an early 2004 manual model) but was advised his cats could fail at any time & it's better to take precautions now.

Best of luck buddy & keep smiling

 

[mjheathcote]

As said, I find it very surprising that both primary cats can fail at the same time.
Also do you have the US spec manifolds? as your car is not a facelift I would expect EURO spec...never heard of CAT failure on EURO spec being sucked back being much further downstream compared to the US spec primary cat/manifolds.
So I feel the initial diagnosis could be wrong, hopefully in your favor.

 

[GeoffCapes]

As said, I find it very surprising that both primary cats can fail at the same time.
Also do you have the US spec manifolds? as your car is not a facelift I would expect EURO spec...never heard of CAT failure on EURO spec being sucked back being much further downstream compared to the US spec primary cat/manifolds.
So I feel the initial diagnosis could be wrong, hopefully in your favor.

I hope you're right Mike!