Hey everybody. I've got an '80 that I've been working on to get it running reasonably well. For the time being, I need to be able to move it in the driveway (preferably under its own power) so I can get my '86.5 in and out of the garage. One way or another this car is going to go away so I don't want to spend too much money on it. I want to save my time and money for my '86.5.

Last fall I decided to get it running (it has been sitting for about 10 years). I cleaned the fuel system back to front. The tank was bone dry. I replaced the seized fuel pump, replaced the filter, and had the injectors cleaned and flow tested. I also ran some sea foam through the fuel lines while I had the system open. I was able to get it running but it ran like crap. It barely had enough power to move around the driveway on its own and had a terrible miss. I replaced the plugs and checked all the wires. The wires checked fine. Still it had a bad miss.

I decided to get back on it today and believe I've found the issue but wanted to check with folks that have more 16v knowledge than I have. I believe the timing belt has jumped multiple teeth from what I can see today. I believe I have the crankshaft at TDC. It seems to be marked as 0T| on this car (I'm used to 0|T on my '86). The pictures below show the position I have the crank at and the position of the rotor. From the pictures do I have this at TDC? If so, it appears to me that the belt must have jumped. Also, is this damper flipped around backwards with the numbers upside down or is that a 16v thing. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

-Ethan

I know it looks a little off in the picture, but the pointer is on the | before T0


If I'm at TDC this shows that the distributor is off about 1/4 turn correct?

 

Hello Ethan,

apparently damper has been set reversed on the engine. You should be able to read the numbers normally and not up side down.
Here are the settings you need to have with cams aligned and rotor correctly positioned:






all is set at TDC

 

Its kinda amazing how often this happens. They are never aligned or timed correctly like this, and run very poorly.

 

Thanks for the confirmation and information Gerrit. I'm going to flip that balancer around and then see how things are lined up.

 

It really is Karl. It ran pretty well when I was driving it 10 years or so ago. It seems like it would have had to have been a lot of work to try and get the cam timing close with the balancer like this. I'll remove/reinstall it correctly and wee what things look like.

-Ethan

 

I expect a struggle when removing or torqueing a 928 crankshaft bolt. It appears that someone prior to me installed this one with red Locktite. That took the removal struggle to the next level.

 

"When you don't have a torque wrench use Loctite." "Cover that ck engine light with black tape." Could be a thread, probably already is.

 

The cam timing looks good now that the harmonic balancer is installed correctly. The balancer and pulleys are marked from 928 Intl. I know this car was hit in the front at some point. I'm guessing the balancer and pulleys were replaced as part of the repairs for that and the timing belt was left alone.

I'm going to clean grounds and check to make sure I have a pulse at each injector. I guess a green wire is next if all the injectors are getting a signal.

 

Once all the timing is adjusted, check the CIS system components. I assume, being an 80, that it is a CIS car. There are small strainers in the fuel lines at the distributor, and a screen at the main fuel inlet on the side of the distributor, these usually gum up.

Also very likely that there is an issue with the fuel distributor itself. They don’t like to sit, the Orings dry up, and then once they get wet again, crumble and block the fuel flow. Typically a rebuild of the FD is in order.

 

Hey Ron,

Thanks for the info. It's a L-Jet so I don't have a fuel distributor.

 

Oh cool. I wasn’t sure if L-jet was on an 80 euro or not…well never mind what I typed then! Good luck!

 

I finally got back to working on my '80 this week. I mainly cleaned several of the ground points. The ground that comes out of the injector harness and connects to the right side cam tower was fairly corroded and I think that may have been the issue. It's not running perfectly, but it's much smoother than it was. It will idle in gear and has enough power to easily move the car as needed.

I noticed a few things while working on it today that make me wonder if it might be a ROW car. It has a factory looking tensioner for the fan belt where the smog pump would be and it appears to have a factory y-pipe with no cats and there isn't any heat shield where the cat(s) would have been. The engine is a M28 14 which seems right for a '80 auto US spec. What do you folks think?

Thanks for all the help.

-Ethan

 

1980 928s never had a smog pump, US or ROW. As for the Y pipe, it is definitely aftermarket. The ROW cars offered without a cat had a massive muffler in that area.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me Blake. I'm guessing there would have originally been a cat in place of the Y pipe since it's a US spec car.