duskflyer

Okay, brief backstory - '88 s4, Auto, 130,000 miles. This was my fathers car. He did very little maintenance on it. A/C inoperable, Steering rack leaking like mad, Transmission not upshifting when in drive, and reluctantly when 2nd or 3rd selected. The car was last driven in December of 2000 when a head gasket blew. I had no money to fix it and no place to work on it anyway. So it was parked outside for two and a half years (rotting, I know). Now I have a house with a garage, so last summer I had it moved home . This spring I finally began working on it in ernest...

I have removed the engine and am proceding to change the head gasket. This is going to be my first real engine work aside from some boat motors and lawnmowers. I had in mind completely disassembling the engine, new bearings, have the heads serviced, possibly add some performance parts, change the timing belt, water pump, fuel injector service, cleaning, powdercoating, reassembling and installation. I have a friend who has experience working on engines who says no-way! He says, given my experience level and the fact that everything had been running fine before the head hasket failure, I should only fix what is broken and change the timing belt. Doing more, he says, is a waste of time, money and also adds the risk of a mistake. I am torn. I do NOT want to have to pull the engine again anytime soon, but there have lots of other things on the car that I need to spend time and money on other than the engine. I have heard some stories about WYAIT syndrome. Do I have this? Is my friend right? Is there a happy medium? I really want to drive this car, but I want it to be right. HHHEEEEEEEELLLLLP!!

Shane

"Do I have this? Is my friend right?"

Only you can answer that one. With the work shop manuels and plenty of time it is certainly doable, and with access to the rennlist.

perrys4

I am like you in that I dont have a lot of mechanical experience. A small mistake could be a costly one where the engine is concerned. If I was you I would have someone very knowledgable build the motor and I would concentrate on the things you can do that wont mean big money and labor losses if things go wrong. It is cool that you are fixing this car up. Sure it has a lot of sentimental value. I wish I still had my moms 72 charger. 400 4-barrel w/slapstick tranny. Had a lot of fun with that car. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Chris

You are going to get a bunch of opinions here .... lets look at where you are, you have pulled the engine (a major achievement by itself). You are going to replace the head gasket which failed so yet more dissasembly. I believe you are going to have to learn a few things, just depends how deep you want to go, none of it is that difficult.

Now why did the head gasket fail ?? Its not normal, so was it caused by corrosion from lack of coolant changes or overheating ??

I would at least get a complete gasket set and replace everything you can, sitting for a few years is going to kill a bunch of seals.

To replace the rod bearings is a piece of cake and the pan gasket it going to need doing so just a WYAIT item.

All that leaves are mains (usually last a very long time), rings ... likely OK too.

For sure you are not going to get much change out of $1000 by the time you have changed the t-belt as well, you were going to change that right ?

Chris

Mark

AMEN! SOOOO much easer to do head gaskets and cam tower gaskets (AND those pesky little gaskets on the rear of the cam towers!) with the engine OUT!

donberry

I had never worked on a engine before and completely rebuilt a ford engine with the help of a Haynes manual. As long as it is out, I think it would be foolish NOT to replace the bearings and seals. I personally would take the block and heads in to a machine shop and have them cleaned and checked out (will cost under $150.00), replace the bearings, valve seals etc.....
you will basically have a rebuilt engine that you know will last another 100k.
I would reuse everything that I could such as injectors, etc......
but every bearing and seal should be replaced.
It is also a good time to paint the valve covers etc and make them look pretty.
A Machine shop can dip the disassembled heads and block and have it looking like new for a very minimum cost. They can also check the bores etc and make sure they are still in spec.
You then , with the aide of the manual, just do the reassembly and have the satisfaction of a job well done.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Be sure the head gasket did fail ..It could be the heat exchanger in the radiator tank ruptured and caused an oil water inter mix ...... I would suggest you listen to your friend ......you are starting down a long , steep , slippery slope . You might set down and add up all the things you know the car needs . We do have all the parts you would need you can click into the store below to check prices .

tresamore

Check your bank and calendar. Make sure the first is full and the second is empty.

MBMB

This belongs in the Big 928 Book O' Wisdom, along with "We don't own our 928s. They own us."

Chris

Jim, that makes sense, could explain why the tranny was acting up at the same time ....

Tony

Well perhaps our resident Ski Instructor (referencing the slippery slope) Mr Campion, will chime in

The car hasn't been driven in two years, so whats one more year except your desire or itching to get it on the road. Take your time do it once, do it right. It can be a VERY slippery and expnsive slope if your not careful. Replaced parts leads to replaced seals..bushings...fluids.. etc etc, the little stuff adds up! If you have the space to work on it in comfort and dont "need" the car to get around, take your time and enjoy it.

Im sure you have a copy of the shop manuals already, (trust me you do) therefore you can contact Jim Morehouse who can provide a full digital back up on CD ROM that will be a great value to you.

There is a tremendous amount of info and knowledge on this list. A good share of it learned from experience. There isn't too much someone hasn't come across on this car that someone else hasn't seen before and fixed.

Jim_H

Replace every hose / vacuum line you can get to.

duskflyer

First, to answer some questions:
Yes I have the shop manuals.
I am fairly certain it is in fact the head gasket. I do not know why. I had been diving the car for only two days when it failed. It was running higher than normal rps because of the transmission - however, the transmission had been acting up for over a year. It had been looked at by a tranny guy, but I am not sure what he said. all I know is that it must have been pricey because it didn't get fixed then.

My bank account is not full nor is my calendar empty, but I have a budget of about four thousand dollars and I am the one who makes the schedule at work. I do have a wife to keep happy, though.

Yes I am changing the timing belt. I found out that it had last been changed in 1995, so it has to go.

Okay, I spent a couple hours tonight and here is what I did:
I removed the oil pan and took a look. The cylinder walls look great where I can see them. I removed the fuel rails and injectors. There was lots of debris from the foam that used to wrap around the fuel rails. That stuff got everywhere. I also removed the intake manifold. Looking down to the intake valves I can see quite a bit of carbon buildup and what appears to be corrosion. In fact, there was such a thick buildup, the valves that are open left a carbon "shell" in the closed position. I took some pictures and I will post them later.

Thanks for the input, encouragement, and caution. I'll keep the updates coming.

Nicole

Don't forget the stuff under the intake, such as knock sensors, idle control valve, and throttle position switchIt's at least four hours of labor every thime you need to fix anything under the intake, so make sure you don't skip any of these items. They WILL fail soon, if they have not yet ben replaced.

One thing to consider is to upgrade the throttle position switch to '94+ and do the rest of the upgrade for the dynamic kickdown of the '94+ models.

jon928se

You got the Engine out so you can't be that bad of a mechanic. Did you try and lift the bodyshell up with the alternator/starter wiring ? Most do first time around.

There's only two difficult jobs when you put it all back together (and I have now forgotten if your 928 is a 16 or 32 valve engine. - Cam timing on a 32v requires patience, and reinstalling the inlet manifold (dunno about 16v motors) Another running 928 for reference is good at this point. Find some way of supporting the manifold about 6" above it's mounting point while you connect everything. Other than that it's no different to anyother car, just more of it and less space to work in.

Did anybpdy sat replace the motor mounts and all the ancillary hoses wyait and probably rebuild the rack as well.

Jon
bLack SE
still building up the parts inventory.