Dear People,

I have recently bought a 928 S4 (1992, Black) in Stuttgart, Germany ( fine tuned for me by an ex-porsche company man). I am considering having it transported to Cairo, Egypt where I work presently. The roads here are very variable, often one encounters large pot holes, and rather high road bumps (sleeping policeman) and generally the roads though tarmacked are of poor quality. So my first question is:

1) Does this pose a major reason not to bring it here in your alls opinion? and how high is the Porsche off the ground?

Secondly, the gas here is 90 Octane ( There are only 3 gas stations in Cairo that give 95 octane, which is the maximum available here) so

2) Is that a reason to exclude bringing it here, or should i/can i modify the car to make it work on 90 Octane gas?

P.S. There is, fortunately, one porsche authorised service centre here who are equipped to service the car etc.

Thanks you

Guanabana

 

I'm assuming that octane is Egypt is measured the same as in Europe. If so you should think about getting the 95.

The 928 rides pretty low. You can raise it, but I'd be concerned about damage.

Reminds me of a guy from Argentina who was going to have a special heavy belly pan made. He had torn of the alternator and/or A/C compressor previously. (I forget which).

 

You could always carry a bottle of octane booster with you. It might not be too cost effective(extra $5 a tank?), but you want feed your shark the best octance you can get.

I'm running on 93-94 octance right now.

 

first avoid all the pot holes and cops sleeping. the cars height is pretty much equal to all other passenger cars. As to octane 90 should be fine but im not sure if its equal to u.s. gas (unleaded).

928blur: to get the most power out of your car use regular since in 83 the car was designed to run on 87 (93-94) wasnt around. To much of an octane and your not burning all the the fuel just wasting it. Theres other treads on here about that.

Lou
83 928 5speed

 

For the potholes, check the ride height to make sure the car isn't riding too low. Some owners (possibly even ex factory guys?) lower the car because they think it will help performance or look better or something....

Search the forum on ride height, but it should be measured from the correct places underneath the suspension (not the fender). From memory, it should be about 175mm. I found my handling to improve once I got the car up to the right height.

 

Thank you all for your comments they are very useful and may help me to avoid a possibly expensive mistake, particularly onebad928s and Marc Schwager comments

From what i now understand:

1) The normal Porsche 928 s4 height from ground is 175mm and that that is roughly equivalent to normal passenger cars, but to nevertheless be careful. ( GlenL says the ride is low though)

2) 90 Octane gas is acceptable ( if it is equal to US 90 unleaded) (but it is better to have 95 according to GlenL).

Could someone please confirm this, because i am still a little confused and at the very start of the learning curve here. I am interpreting the data as optimistically as possible because i really want to bring the car here, but i don't want to find myself in mechanics hell after having it here a week.

------

Someone told me that i can delay the ignition of the compressed fuel-air slightly so that it will work for 89/90 octane gas, but that i will lose about 40HP in the process.

also i came across this 'Understanding Octane' not the most interesting thing in the world ! but it does give an insight.. -

http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/sciencel...002/octane.htm


Thank you

Guanabana

 

"You could always carry a bottle of octane booster with you. It might not be too cost effective(extra $5 a tank?), but you want feed your shark the best octance you can get."

Total rip-off. (For Guanabana - means that "octane improvers" are useless.)

If you read the labels, they either make no claims at all, or they claim to improve the octane rating by "five points" or some such. Five points is 1/2 an octane number - that is, from 89 to 89.5. They hope that you don't know that a point is a tenth of an octane number...

 

Any final comments or advice from anyone on this subject. Any very precise answers to the questions posed would be most appreciated. I do not want to labour it too much, but although basic is rather important to be clear about.

Thank you,

Guanabana

 

For people that may not know, octane is measured differently in Europe than in the US. The difference is roughly 3 so 90 octane in Europe is 87 octane here.

Whether ride-height is lower or not is one thing, having the A/C compressor, alternator and oil pan so low and exposed is highly unusual. That's what causes expensive repairs in relatively minor off-road adventures and when hitting deep holes..

 

the ground clearance for a new 1979 was 125 mm or 4.9 inches , 1980 120 mm 4.72 inch , 1987 120 mm 4.72 inches NEW .......after the springs sag and the motor mounts collapse the oil sump ,alternator , and A/C compressor are all exposed hanging down ready to . The prior numbers were to the designated measuring points and not ground clearance . There are very few cars with so little ground clearance and such vulnerable expensive items hanging down . Measure the ground clearance of your other autos . Add to that the complexity of the various systems , expense of replacement parts and lack of trained mechanics to service it and I seriously doubt it would be a car in six months . I have customers in various countries where the 928 is very rare and exotic the difficulties they encounter are almost unbelievable .

 

whatever you do respect the signs....

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...led-roads?lite

 

octane booster......I have a formula posted on reenlist somewhere but it turned out in order to raise the octane 3 points that is 90 to 93 it would take 1 gallon of toluene per 10 gallons of fuel. the "octane boosters " that claim to raise the octane 5 or 8 points is really tenths of points i.e. 90 to 90.8....waste of money