If you own a 355 Ferrari, a 360 Ferrari, a 360 Challenge Stradale, a 430 Ferrari, or a Scuderia you should know that there is a potential damaging ticking time bomb in your vehicle about which you should be very, very concerned.

Included in the design of these models is what Ferrari refers to as a "heat exchanger" the function of which was to cool the transmission oil with engine coolant. This is the ticking time bomb!

This "heat exchanger" on the 355 and 360 series cars is a heavy tubular metal design mounted between the water pump and the water inlet nipple to the cylinder heads. See the drawing and note the location below the air intakes marked "OEM Exchanger" in red.

360 Heat Exchanger Location
360 OEM Heat Exchanger Body

Within the body of this Ferrari factory tubular "heat exchanger" is a series of small tubes through which engine coolant flows. Within the jacket of the "exchanger" but outside of these tubes (partially visible in the drawing) 75 weight transmission gear oil is circulated under pressure. The design was to allow engine coolant to reduce the temperature of the transmission gear oil as it was circulated through the exchanger.

Due to the proximity of the catalytic converters straddling the gearbox, engine heat, and the limited air flow due in the engine compartment due to the bottom pan, there is considerable heat that builds up within the transmission. This heat quickly degrades the gear oil which adds considerably to gear, synchronizer, and bearing wear and which ultimately makes shifting very difficult.

The factory "exchanger" not only fails to reduce heat from the transmission oil, it adds resistance to the flow of coolant water to the cylinder heads and actually introduces considerable heat from the transmission gear oil into the engine! This is not a very desirable result.

The time bomb consideration is that this exchanger will fail, and when it does there will be a very unpleasant disaster. The cooling system will be flooded with 75 weight gear oil and your transmission will be full of coolant! This is without question a horrible and very undesirable result.

This exact scenario happened recently to a friend's 360. The cost to clean up this mess but not including tearing the gearbox apart for rebuilding was in the nature of $10,000.00! In addition, who now knows what the lifespan of that gearbox will be and what damage the gear oil will do to the cooling system? Worse yet it is almost impossible to completely rid the cooling system of the induced gear oil residue. To safeguard the transmission and rear end the gearbox should be completely disassembled, cleaned, seals replaced, and the box fully rebuilt. Again, another huge expense beyond what has been above outlined!

We began working on an advanced alternative to the OEM "heat exchanger" issue some time before this disaster happened to our friend in order to head off such a potential disaster and subsequent expense and to add longevity and additional protection to the transmission by way of better gear oil cooling. Our research and development has paid off very well as we now have the ultimate solution.

Our FTC series of Ferrari transmission coolers answers and intelligently corrects all the potential disasters and issues above mentioned, and the cost for this entire package is about $200.00 more than the cost of that horrendously-designed factory heat exchanger!

To install our replacement transmission cooler in the 355 and 360 series vehicles the OEM "heat exchanger" is removed and is replaced with a section of extremely high quality, multi-layered heater hose with advanced stainless steel clamps and the OEM oil lines are then routed to our designated safe location on the vehicles and are then connected to our Ferrari transmission cooler coil.

The replacement procedure for the 430 series of vehicles is slightly different, but all required equipment to bypass the OEM exchanger is included.

The installation of our Ferrari Transmission Cooler should be particularly important to 430 series owners, because there is no external engine oil cooler! This means that the engine oil is "cooled" by hot engine cooling water. Just what type of cooling is that? So on the 430 series vehicles all cooling is done by the coolant water. This is not a desirable function according to our view.

The actual coil of our Ferrari transmission cooler is an extremely high grade model used by Ferrari in some applications, and it has a "non-invasive" temperature sensor attached the purpose of which is to control the attached cooling fan as needed. By "non-invasive" it is meant that the temp sensor does not penetrate the cooler coil housing so there is no fear of leakage at its joint.

We provide all the necessary cleverly engineered and designed powdercoated mounting brackets with heat shields which are secured both by OEM bolts and with the hardware supplied. There is absolutely no drilling or cutting required at all! This is a straight forward mechanical installation process with a few electrical connections.

Included with and part of the cooling coil is a small, high speed sealed fan (also a Ferrari component), the fan shroud, wiring harness, necessary fusing and relay, wire ties, banjo bolt seals, miscellaneous items, and all the detailed instructions.

The installation applies to both the F1 and the manual transmission models.

The FTC-355 fits the 355 Ferrari, the FTC-360 fits the 360 Ferrari and the Challenge Stradale Ferrari, and the FTC-430 is for the 430 and Scuderia models.

Please note, however, that the FTC-360 Ferrari Transmission Cooler for the 360 Ferrari will not fit vehicles that have the OEM muffler.

Product availability should be approximately September, 2009. Please place your order now to secure your availability and to ensure a prompt and timely delivery.

If you are a serious Ferrarista, are very concerned about maintaining the mechanical integrity of your Ferrari, concerned about securing your peace of mind, seriously want to prevent an expensive disaster, and if you want the transmission cooling performance that has been achieved with the Challenge race cars then you must have this upgrade!

The cost of our Ferrari transmission cooler upgrade including the necessary installation will definitely be a fraction of the cost should the inevitable disaster have occurred, and after having it installed you will then not only know that your vehicle's cooling water and transmission gear oil will definitely never again mix in your vehicle, you will be assured that your transmission will run 47-50 degrees Farenheit cooler than it presently does! That temperature decrease will definitely extend the life of your transmission, maintain the integrity of its oil, and greatly facilitate shifting.