nine9six

Chuck,
OEM Bosch plugs; OEM Beru wires, OEM Bosch cap and rotors.

Great recommendation in mpruden's post # 13, item 3:

pp000830

Above may be construed that one should turn one if the rotors by hand, nope may just break the belt or damage something. Just unplug the center wire to the coil on the distributor that is directly attached to the engine. If the car starts and runs at all then the belt is good. Then for good measure check the directly connected distributor by plugging the center connector back in and remove the other distributor cap center connector. If the car starts and runs the directly driven ignition circuit is working as well.

pp000830

Yes in the following sequence:

I would replace the DME relay and
check the caps and rotors first, then
the ignition rotation sensor.
Then have the flywheel checked as you suggest:

I am told the litmus test for a failing DMF is to use the PSTII (Porsche tool), put the car in the air and with the car in gear, read the speed sensor directly. I'm told that it will rapidly slow and speed up out of sync with the engine RPM. Also LuK offers a DMF testing tool that physically tests the flywheel once the transmission is removed.

Andy :-)

Chuckthetruck

Putting in an order on the ignition parts tonight.

I see there are aluminium valve covers available, are those descent upgrades, it waste of money?

nine9six

HUGE waste of money...If valve covers are leaking, just buy some new gaskets from Porsche (Sunset Imports)

Rockit

Chuck, the lower valve covers tend to leak because they are made of plastic and eventually warp do to heat, the uppers do not. Rennline makes billet aluminum ones that will last forever. Generally when the valve covers leak so do the grommets on the timing case. Mine was doing both. Installed the Rennline covers and new rubber timing grommets and bolts and fixed it.

A new valve cover gasket could stop the leak if the covers are not warped yet, but if you find they are, why do the job twice.

Also check the oil return tubes, they also tend to leak with age but are not as common to. They are right next to the valve covers.

http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/9...buy_guide.html

kjr914

Yes the aluminum ones are NICE and will be nice and flat, but I've not seen REAL evidence of "warped" lower valve covers. (Please point me to any thread that proves this idea, in case I missed something...) The seals do the real work and are the reason the valve covers leak as they shrink with age/heat, then fail to do their job. I did mine recently, and the size of the rubber was drastically different (originally rebuilt about 45k by PO, just changed them at 118k, so after 63k miles.)

Chuckthetruck

Ah, Thanks for the info. Then I will skip the alu valvecovers, and just check the ones that are there. And spend my money on some other parts of my car.

I have a lot of experience with tuning/working on nissan/toyota, but I see that this is another game, specially since it's aircooled. I find this forum a good place to source information and help

nine9six

...Thanks for Keith giving you the WHY, I said the billet VC's were a huge waste of $$$.

Not true! ...And if it were true, the uppers would be the first to warp, since the lowers are constantly in a fresh air flow, as you drive...

Once you remove the valve covers and see the configuration of their build, you will understand why "warping" as stated previously, is not likely. Others say its due to over tightening the VC screws, that cause leaking; but you will see that there are metal inserts (stand-offs) in the screw through-holes, which will only allow squeeze on the gasket till these standoffs come in contact with the base of the screw head, and cam/rocker train mating surface.

NOTE You can over-tighten them, but this will not lead to over-squeezing the gasket, due to the engineering build configuration of the valve covers. You can however, stretch and eventually strip the internal threads of the mating surface; and mostly, that's not good!

Rockit

To OPer....

The valve covers do warp, it's documented all over the internet, might want to ask your shop. My car before I bought it had 3 sets of valve cover gaskets replaced. When I got it the lower valve covers were leaking like a sieve. That's when I replaced the cover and gasket...

You have to remove the mufflers to replace the lower plugs they are so close to the valve cover.

Lots of bad info and personal opinion I'm fining here and not much real world experience.

Chuckthetruck

I will pick up the ignition parts at the post-office today, hopefully I will get time to replace parts soon.

I will inspect valvecovers at the same time, pr today there's no leakage.

Oh, and also, some video from Nurburgring: (visit my channel for more)

kjr914

Rockit,
Please pardon my & others disbelief of warped cover stories, but you are the 1st example I can recall (in 7+ years of 993 ownership/RL addiction) of being able to truly document it was the valve covers, not just seals. Many I've seen talk about warped covers and replace the original seals and covers at the same time, which doesn't prove it was warped covers at all. Sure, I believe it can happen. But is it only in isolated cases or is it really a "common" problem...

How many years/miles on the car when the seals were done and when you had to replace the covers?

If you've got any links to other examples with good evidence for warped covers, please share. I've done some searching and all cases I've found are lacking any definitive data to pin it to the covers.

Thanks,
Keith

nine9six

...and this is a prime example!^^^

...and you should always take as fact, what's been "documented" on the internet!

...Yes, I'm a tad less politically correct than Keith

Political correctness...Now there's an oxymoron if ever I heard one!

Rockit

Hi Keith,

I don't think it fair to say "All" 993 lower valve covers warp. I really think it matters in what part of the country you live but more importantly how you drive the car that causes them to warp and the mileage on the car.

Mine has 180k and was driven to work daily in traffic so it goes to say stop and go driving is no friend to an air cooled engine on a car or bike.

I went through all the service records and the owner before me had 3 sets changed and when I got it, it was leaking a puddle about the size of a pizza. I didn't check the old covers on a bench but I still have them. I saw them both leaking from the one corner. I would also imagine if you use the gaskets and silicone sealer it will seal a small warp but will come back at some point.

If you call any Porsche specialist shop, they will tell you they warp, when I brought mine in I was told this and I did check...here is one site below, I don't have time to link all of them, I had linked this on other posts but no one read them. I also saw the guys at Rennline at a show and talked to them in detail about my problem and they said that's why they made them. T

The stock covers are fine and most will probably not suffer any ill effects but they do warp. You have to scroll down some on this link
http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/

Just tiring to help out other owners. It doesn't make much sense to do a job that big and not know if the cover is good or not and why buy an OEM that might happen again. Problem is the timing case grommets will usually leak at the same time. Someone posted to change that gasket too but my gasket was fine, the rubber grommets got soft and stopped sealing. I just went through this mess with mine.

Good Luck.