I have heard a lot about 3.2 engines and bad valve guides. Mine never smokes, and uses a quart of oil about every 12-1500 miles. Which as I understand is pretty good, I do however hear some slight valve noise that comes and goes. Is this a sign of trouble? Is it dangerous to drive in this condition or am I o.k. until I get smoke or excessive oil consumption?

Thanks guys

 

Dean,

Sounds like you are OK to me, when is the last time the valves where adjusted?

My 3.2 uses perhaps a half a quart every 3K miles.

 

I adjusted them about 1000 miles ago. Thought that might be the cause but it didn't cure it. Just to clarify, sometimes it clicks a little right after start up, other times I can drive a whole session with no noticable noise. On rare occasion, it will make slight noise the whole time.

 

What I've heard is that the valve guide problems were caused by eiher a bad lot of parts / wrong material or both.

This was identified and corrected during the production run of the 3.2s.

Also heard that if you have an engine with valve guide issues- they show up by 70K.

This implies that if you're OK past that, then valve guides aren't an issue for your car.

 

I just turned over 100K. Could this clicking be anything else?

 

Actually by Porsche narrowing the tolerences on the 3.2. Oil starvation issues from what I have read. If they don't show by 70K - you should be A-OK.