Chris Lockhart

Good luck with it Shaun! I'm doing the same with my '89 S4 5 speed. Engine out head gaskets, and anything else I can find to do over the winter. Your hardware is gorgeous btw. Read the Pelican posts, and I think you'll be hearing from me.

Shaun @ Tru6

Thank you Christopher, I really love what I do and glad it shows. Got your email and sent a reply. Good luck with your heads!

Shaun @ Tru6

It comes apart easily enough. Will probably wait for the weekend to get the heads off. Probably best done fresh. tomorrow I'll do the exhaust.

Cams do not look good.

Shaun @ Tru6

I remain amazed at how simple this motor is, but then I'm used to air cooled I guess. Everything comes apart easily. Very well engineered. Didn't need the bridges or a Hazet 8mm triple square, my trusty old, no idea where I got it, triple square set made of structural cheddar worked perfectly with a 3/8 gun to just loosen the bearing cap bolts.

Tomorrow morning we get to see what's under the bad head side.

sprfrkr

Great fun following your work. Please keep it coming.

marine928

Shaun, you are an inspiration to all new comers to the 928 fraternity. Many of us have learned through trial and error, what it takes to bring a long dormant 928 to life. There are no shortcuts and while most of us concentrate on the top end, the engine out procedure is probably the best avenue to truly have a bottom up reference moving forward.
You probably already have your complete to-do list but just in case, don't forget the motor mounts and torque tube / pinch bolts front and rear.
Great work, you make me want to go take apart something on my car....

Lon

928phantom

seven years is nothing for a motor to sit, especially inside a garage, it would have to sit for decades with pure water in it to rust out and blow out a headgasket...My guess is the old guy overheated the **** out of it, blew the gaskets and just parked it instead of fixing it.

Shaun @ Tru6

Taking off the head, the problem became immediately obvious. Victor Reinz's experiment with head gaskets made out of facial/make-up removal cotton pads didn't work out so well.

Shaun @ Tru6

The plot thickens.

Shark_gts

We parted an 1989 S4, oil all through the cooling system. Nasty. Same thing head gasket "bridge" failure due to sitting, car was from Japan, 60K miles.

Ran perfectly otherwise. To cost to fix that problem and to do the DOT import so it could get on the road.. we decided it was better to part it out.

Shaun @ Tru6

I am now thinking this head gasket failed from the damaged surfaces causing hot spots causing detonation causing localized overheating.

Combustion chamber

Shaun @ Tru6

Walls of #6 are discolored compared to others but smooth with no scratches or scoring at all. So I think a new piston and head are in order.

Shaun @ Tru6

I'm now on the hunt for at least one new head, a good piston and some cams. Have to inspect those still. My sense is if I can find a single motor/matched pair of heads with good cams, I'll spring for those, and probably gears as well. I have one lead with LA Dismantler, they are letting me know if their heads are .04 or .06. Anyone know the difference, if any?

DepDawg

Thanks for the write-up and pics. I am doing similar work to an 84 Euro. My air pump needs a new bearing which won't be hard to do - but what else must I do if I choose to leave it off? I found PO had 2 wrong injectors, had other 6 rebuilt but need 2 correct injectors - know anyone that has 2, maybe even swap? The 2 wrong ones are for the US 84 928S, I have the Euro 84 928S. Keep up the good work, keeps me energized to to get mine on the road again.

Shark_gts

89S4 & up the casting was modified a bit to add material around the head bolt(s) to reinforce. My guess is there was some cracking occurring in the field (us) and that was fed back to engineering = implemented the change.

So 89 & up technically are better.

Our 89 car we had the heads cleaned and dressed. Looked amazing. I sold those to someone back in Ontario. Shipped in a double box, lots of packing.