docmirror

High HC and high CO together is always going to be fuel mixture related. I'm betting the compression is good, and the spark is good, but you have some vac leaks, and maybe a bad fuel damper, and/or O2 sensor. You are in one of the meccas for 928 in SoCal. Save up some bucks, then later this winter, or spring offer a wknd tech session with beer, dogs, beer, burgers, beer, fries, beer, chips, and -- beer. You'll get 4-7 really good people to come over and fiddle with your car. Betting you'll find the charcoal canister pipe cracked, and also something on the fuel delivery messed up. Since the car has been sitting so long, it would also be good to remove all the intake stuff, then take out the injectors and send them to WitchHunter or another shop for cleaning and testing. this is a lot of labor on your part, but the cost is very modest. Also insure you have fresh fuel, and run a few cans of Techron or Ventil Sauber through it as well.

CA should be able to get you a provisional op permit while you work on the car now that you have gone to the smog place. Keep ALL your receipts for work you do. Once you have reached the max cost limit($300?) for compliance attempts, you can go to the referee and they will check your work, check some things on the car and then say 'meh - you did your best, here is your smog cert', no matter what the numbers are.

GT6ixer

Like Polecat said, you got lots of time. Yeah this is a real bummer considering the upfront money you spent, but don't be in hurry and take small bites. It's not your DD so you can afford the time to let it sit while you troubleshoot. Believe me there will be a day when it passes smog and all the little issues are fixed. You will then have it back on it's regularly scheduled maintenance and will have years of trouble free motoring. The rough start with this car will eventually fade from a discouraging demotivational drag to a proud sense of accomplishment that very few people have achieved. And here's the best part, when you get out there and start meeting up with other 928 owners you will start to realize that that car you got there, is cosemetically one of the nicest 928s around.

928S MN

Can you post what work was done by Greg Brown? That way this great 928 community can help you better.

Han Solo

All those instrument lights out would probably be your dimmer gone bad. That's located under the pod by your left knee (slide the drivers seat back and stick your head under there). I just bypassed mine with a male-to-male terminal spade and some electrical tape. Cost pennies to do and you'll never miss not having a dimmer on those.

Captain_Slow

You can also remove the dimmer and simply put a spare fuse in it's place. The spades of the fuse fit perfectly. When working the dimmer gives you dim...and dimmer, so with it bypassed you have to settle for dim

turamusic7

Here is a list of what has been done to the car so far. This was everything they suggested but I did ask them to save me some things so I did not expect everything to be 100% and I am in no way trying to put Greg and team on blast with this post, they have been a pleasure to work with and were very thorough given my budget and lack of experience. I will be contacting them since they are the only people who have had eyes on the car before doing anything on my own, but I know they are enjoying a family holiday and do not want to disturb them at this time. I glossed over lots of little bits but think I listed all the major stuff. I spared no expense on this and agreed to everything they recommended (5 pages on the final invoice). I appreciate all the input from this group, sorry I haven't been able to respond to all the posts individually, work has been crazy this week.

- Drivers side door panel fixed (you had to pull up on it to open the door due to broken clip and portion of the fiberglass)
- Headlight clip installed to prevent the arm from puncturing the radiator
- Adjusted drivers side headlight to avoid damage to the fender
- fixed interior lights (traced to wires touching)
- pulled fuel sender to check inside of tank (no varnish observed, more on this in a bit)
- Look car over, prepare list of items that need repair
- All new brakes (rotors, pads, sensors, fluid)
- coolant flush
- Automatic Trans service
- Timing belt, P/S belt, Alt. belt, AC belt, tensioner rebuild with all the goodies. Water pump looked good with no leakage so it was left in place.
- Fuel hose damper to regulator
- fuel hose chassis to front damper
- fuel return line
- fuel hose front - straight
- Y connector
- change charcoal canister "y"
- P/S pressure line, seal ring
- replaced steering rack boots
- fuel gauge wasn't working so the tank was drained and replaced intake filter and fuel filter, sender verified good. New (used) dash gauge resolved the issue.
- New gas
- Trans shifting hard, modulator wasn't holding vacuum, modulator cap replaced and other adjustments made
- New tires
- sent out for alignment
- More trans adjustments (modulator and TV cable) and extensive test driving to get them working in tandem

Wisconsin Joe

That's quite a 'laundry list" of stuff.

TB/WP & fuel lines to make sure the car doesn't destroy itself
A bunch of other stuff related to the fuel system, brakes, coolant & trans.
A few "odds & ends."

But nothing associated with the intake. Which is likely where you emissions issues are coming from.
Not to diss on Greg or his crew & shop. He did a very thorough job of making sure this car is safe to drive.

As was noted, you likely need an intake refresh. Fairly involved, lots of parts (that aren't cheap), but also very straight forward.
Just "parts bolted to parts".

Here is a thread with what is involved:
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...rst-timer.html

Best bet would be an entire refresh. But you might be able to get by with just vac lines, clean the injectors and a few other little things.

Remember you are in the initial stages of ownership. This is probably the least fun part. You also have a car with very good paint and interior. Those are the hardest and most expensive things to fix.

But for now, you get to find out everything that is wrong with it, and how much it costs to fix it/have it fixed.
Prioritize the list, decide what you can do. Keep in mind that much of this work can be done by a reasonably competent and willing owner. Anything you need to do has been done and written up at one time or another. Any time you get stuck, hop on here and holler for help.
Being in SoCal, you have a huge local knowledge base. As was suggested, a fridge full of beer and a pizza oven in the garage will go a long way towards making friends.

And once you get 'over the hump', you will have an amazing car.
Don't lose sight of that.

turamusic7

I took the day off from work and drove the 928 the easy 100 miles back to to GB's shop. Incredible service, as always. Passed a smog test afterward (before driving home this time). It was the oxygen sensor causing it to run rich, which I expected since I was unable to get any useful readings from it with a multimeter after researching the testing process online. My lack of experience lead me to question my limited electronics skills. I build audio recording gear (microphones, mic pre amps, compressors) for fun, but this car's electronics scare the **** out of me, haha. The car is now much more responsive to throttle input and I can go register it! Woohoo!

Since my last post, I have:

- replaced the broken hood release housing. Opens fine with original cable but I also bought a replacement.
- replaced the missing/broken outer seat back release ***** (found an original clip floating around in the drivers seat, but used a new one)
- "fixed" the instrument cluster lights by simply moving the potentiometer back and forth a bit, I will replace it with a fuse as suggested above eventually.
- purchased a new hood insulation pad (from GB's shop, today)
- washed, clay bar and waxed the whole car and got to know it a bit more
- "installed" a bluetooth speaker (siting wherever I toss it) to play some tunes until I get the time to dig back into the stereo.
- learned that the new brakes work, very well. CA drivers are terrible...

Up next:

- install hood insualtion
- replace burned out passenger side running light bulb
- register the car
- drive the snot out of it!
- get my mother in law to drive it to tell me how it compares to when it was new.

Thanks for reading.
Thank you all for your input!

skpyle

The Forgotten On

I'm looking forward to hearing how this goes. I let my mom drive my 81 and she was driving 90 while getting roadrage in the first 5 minutes

Hopefully your MIL enjoys driving it just like she has in the past and has a story to go along with it.