jumpinjimmy

YEE HAH, 180,000 miles and no broken head studs. Adjusted the valves today and was expecting the worst in my 83 SC Cabriolet. I figured I would post since most people that don't have that issue probably never bother. A bientôt!

theiceman

Good for you. I wonder if they have been previously changed to steel ?

Anyway that's how I found mine. Through a valve adjustment

jumpinjimmy

I have really complete service records for the car and if they are correct, the engine has never been apart, so the head studs are original. I've taken the entire injection system out of the car to chase down some vacuum leaks and the first thing I found was the large boot had a lip folded over when the "professional" mechanic put it back on, probably several years ago. Large air leak and boot cracked. Injector o-rings completely dried up, a few hoses to change, and I noticed evidence that the airbox had been repaired once with glue. An amazing learning experience for me and I can't express enough how important this and other porsche forums have been for the wealth of information I've been able to access that gave me confidence to go forward (of course, the car is not back together yet and it may not run when assembled!) The generosity of the membership in sharing their knowledge is incredible!! I'm excited to get my car back together and very pleased that I'm not looking at having to repair broken head studs. I did feel that this was a problem that you only hear about from the people that have experienced it, and it's possible that not all cars suffer from this. Greetings from France!!

theiceman

The glue on the airbox is factory. Even my brand new one had it Make sure you replace both seals on the injectors. The one for the injector and the one for the sleeve

jumpinjimmy

Thanks, I replaced both seals on the injectors and the sleeve as well. Interesting about the glue.

Reiver

It just depends on where/how the car lived....the studs on my 930-16 were fine and re torqued at 230 k miles with no issue...they are still fine to my knowledge.
The car was always driven prop to temp and lived in a dry climate...Phoeniz Az or San Diego/LA Ca.....I think that helped a great deal.
I traded it out for a fresh 930-10 of the same year even tho it drove very well.

jumpinjimmy

my car is a southern car, purchased new in the Charlotte area, always garaged and almost certainly driven lightly. My understanding is that the head studs on later model SCs were of a better material as well.

Reiver

Same material but coated and they still have the same issue's depending upon care (driving habits) and it seems location (hot/dry good cold/damp bad).
If it (stud) gets compromised it will eventually go with time and stress as they are brittle.
But as I said I had 50k more miles than your car with no issues when I swapped that motor and I drove it 1700 miles to swap it out and it ran great.