TheCooler

Im sorry, Im so sorry.

AndyK

Scary to look at. Glad I changed mine without going through what could have happend...but you never know. The chain rides on a small piece of plastic, with doom waiting beneath it!

Great job Porsche!?

joseph mitro

exact same pics as posted on my website of MY head eight months ago. i can't believe how many 16-valve owners on this website have had this same problem.

good luck!!!

see my website below for further pics and so on regarding my head damage

AndyK

Would it be cheaper to find a wreck and buy a used head?

Hey Tom, you changed your "My Mullet" to "My Z28"...liking it a little more lately?

fpena944

What do these chain tensioner assemblies go for at the dealer?

Also is the process of replacing it something that is not overly difficult to complete?

mpw

Have any aftermarket suppliers attempted to reengineer the tensioner? Like say, machine the pad and tensioner as one piece?

jonnybgood

Good you are seing this mpw. Still going to buy that S2? I hope you do, just change the tensioner when you get it.

If they just put a chamfer or radius on the metal plate so the chain would still slide over the top instead of catching on that right angle and pulling it out of the head....

Dal Heger

What would be the point of that? So you could place the wear on the chain instead of the replaceable tensioner pad? The design is fine, it just should have had a service interval associated with it. 80k miles or so to be on the safe side.

The mean failure mileage is 100k miles. Replace it before then and then every 80-100k after, and you're good to go.

Dal.

mpw

We'll see. I drove it last night, it's nice. I need to schedule a PPI, and then talk price. It's not everything I hoped it would be, but I do like it. This tensioner stuff doesn't really bother me, if it hasn't been changed, it will be the first thing done.

AndyK

So what didn't you like about the '91?? Condition, or drive quality, etc?? Was it the first S2 you drove? Details, man, details!?

mpw

Well, it wasn't that I didn't like anything, but I had built the thing up in my mind before I got there to something that it probably couldn't have been. I assumed that the car had one owner because the add said "all records since day one". The car is actually on it's third owner. The first owner used the car as his daily driver for 60k miles. He then turned it into the dealership and another guy bought it for his daily driver for the next 30k miles. The dealership turned the service records over to the second owner. The current owner was a friend of the second owner, and the records went with the car. That's not a big deal to me, the car is 13 years old and I would have expected it to change hands a few times. The other thing is that it does not have the LSD or the M030 package, like I though (at least according to the options sticker in the trunk). The owner said that it had both of those options, but I don't think he deceived me, I just think he thought it did. Since this car will be my daily driver/track car, the LSD was a big plus.

It drove very well for a 104k mile car. The body and paint are in excellent condition, except for a bit of damage to the right rear quarter panel behind the rear wheel. The rear diffuser (not sure if that's what you guys call that thing) is a bit gouged. This damage was disclosed in the add, so it was not a surprise. There are little electrical gremlins, the airbag and seatbelt lights will not shut off and the interior bulbs are burnt out. The interior itself is in excellent condition and there are no cracks or blemishes as far as I could tell. The car is VERY clean inside.

I guess my reservation is that I think the asking price is a little high after finding out that it did not have the LSD or the M030 package; both were big selling points for me. My only other concern is that the car has been the owners extra/weekend car for the past few years and hasn't been driven that much. Since it will be my daily driver, I'm worried what might pop up when it starts getting used again. Overall, it's a really nice car. It idles smoothly, the transmission feels good, and it looks great for a 13 year old car. I'm going to talk to the owner about the lack of an LSD and the M030 package and see what he has to say. He seems like a very nice and honest guy, so I really think he didn't know the car didn't have those options or it's my mistake and they aren't listed on the sticker.

Finally, I'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet and get a 951. I didn't push the S2 when I was driving it since it wasn't my car and the owner was nice enough to let me take it out on my own. I'm just not used to an engine that you need to wind up to get power out of it (although that's not a bad thing and something I'd really like to have).

Riff

I can totally relate. I am glad that I have owned my S2 well before I bought my chipped S6. The S6 is just plain faster. I still love the S2 for the handling and it is plenty fast for what I need.

Good luck in your search,

hacker-pschorr

What still puzzles me is the 928 S4 is the same design. You do not hear about these breaking on 928's.

I was semi-lucky when my chain broke. All 16 valves were ok, the head was ok, but both cams were shot.

When I was shopping for a short block after my bearing spun, many places had lower ends, but no heads for the 16V.

Good luck.

jonnybgood

Unless somebody here knows why I think a question to the 928 forum is in order. What is their secret? They are supposed to be the same head.

Jfrahm

My theory is heat. The 32v 928's get 300-350HP from two heads, so 150-175 each side. The tensioners turn orange-brown but they never seem to crack, at least not in the usual couple hundred thousand miles.

The heads are also not on top of the motor pressed close to the hood, they might run a bit cooler if more air circulates around them.

The cam specs and valve springs might also be an issue, if the 928 cams are easier to turn there would be correspondingly less force on the chain.

I suppose the S makes close to 1/2 a 928GTS's HP, but not a lot of GTS's have been run up to really high mileage. It will be interesting to see how the GTS's fare in the over 100K mile timeframe.

-Joel.