funxman

I went to so cal and picked up my 86.5 yesterday. I've come to learn the car has sat for the most part for about 4 years. It ran pretty bad. At the gas station I put some 91 and fuel injector cleaner in with about 10 gallons. runs better but now it smokes. I'm wondering if the injector cleaner would cause this. Smoke is dark like fuel??? the guy just had a smog done, all the numbers looked fine except for HC was measured 178---max 178, so it just barely passed.

Light warnings flickering everywhere. Brake, tail... Replaced all the bulbs this morning. Haven't tested yet.

Gage cluster lights are very dim if I turn the dimmer swith until it clicks, any other spot in the adjustment and they simply go dark???

The guy swears he replaced the timing belt, but had problems with the light still coming on. And it is coming on...any suggestions ???

Fog lights have no power going to them.

WORST part is a vibration. Present at idle and when motivating, but seems to smooth out at highway speeds. 1200 to 1800 rpms seems to be the bad spot in neutral or moving.

Anyways, any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Indi red, 86.5 928 5 speed.

macreel

funxman... congrats...now begins the fun (and frustration).
Check Ignit. timing & manifold vacuum. How do plugs look?
What are compression numbers ?

Flicker lights... make sure the ground points are clean & tight.
Clean battery terminals/cable/compartment.

Timing belt... get the Kempf tension gage and CHECK THE BELT.
Watch the belt track over the pulleys, hopefully evenly.

Fogs... maybe grounds but maybe bad wires/fuses/bulbs.

Vibration... Motor mounts ? T. Tube?

G'luck.

p.s. where are you ?

Ispeed

Clean all your electrical grounds. Do a search on where they are, clean them up. The tires are probably badly flat spotted. Change brake fluid and other fluids as well.
'86.5 5 speed??? Great car!!! Good luck, be patient sorting it all out. Probably should have trailered it home if sitting for a very long time.

heinrich

if it's the low-mile one I saw out there you got a great steal.

dr bob

Check the plugs right away and see if you have any wet ones immediately after a cold start. Vibration comes from a miss, and the high HC reading indicates a miss. Pumping raw fuel into the cat can cause a nasty fire.

Start off with the basics to bring the car back to known good shape. Fluids and filter, ignition tune-up (plugs-caps-rotors-wires) The aging belt would bother me, especially if the light comes on. It might not be bad, but if he has no evidence to share about replacement then it wasn't changed. "If it's not in writing it doesn't exist." Do a compression and leakdown test to discover any engine mechanical weaknesses that might contribute to the vibration/miss too.

Most cars that are parked for an extended period are usually parked for a reason.
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There are more than a few reasons to get a PPI done. I don't want to point a finger at you in particular, so don't take this the wrong way please. many of these cars are picked up by folks who may not be familiar enough with the cars to knew when things aren't just right. I was certainly one of those when I bought mine sight unseen. I was very fortunate. Meanwhile, there are very recent posts about flying someplace to pick up a car, and having it catch fire on the way home. A PPI in this neighborhood costs between $100 and $400, depending on who's doing it and how thorough the inspection is. Considering costs of repair, these are bargain prices. I spent well having a PPI done on my car, as part of a whole bring it up to snuff package before I even saw the car. It could happen to others too.

funxman

I am in Porterville Ca. Thanks for all the suggestions. I will refasten all the grounds regardless of how they look. I have reciepts for the TB. TWO in the last four years. Not because of mileage, but because of the warning light. So it has less than 2000 miles on it. The air cleaner box is cracked, so I am going to remove it and see what I can do with it.

I'm also going to remove the intake plenums and replace the valve cover gaskets-has a very small oil leak somewhere in there. While I am in there I'll do another compression check- the test he had done is from 2001 and all was good +-6psi. I have a look at the motor mounts as well.

I haven't looked down there yet, and call me stupid, but is the clutch in the back or front of the TT. ie, does it turn when stopped and in neutral? I will be doing all the work myself. I just need a little time and tutilage with familiarizing myself with the 928. I bought the 450mb online version of the manual, but due to the nature of it being images, it is very time consuming to find particular systems. But I am getting better.

The smoking seems to have let up. I did push it through a 0-100 run and thats when it started smoking. Maybe because I asked it to do something it has not done in a while... valve float maybe? But its gone for now.

All the dash and console is covered in a thin leather and has new carpet. the spare, jack, tools, porsche compressor and cargo net are all in place.

I love the car and look forward to the frustrations/exhilarations it will bring. I've done this enough to know that after a little cussing and throwing a wrench or two, things always get better.

sharkmeister85

Do the receipts say what other parts were changed when the TB was done? If they just changed the belts, there could be problems with other parts that are worn and need replacing. Clearing this up should be a priority before driving any further. Congrats on the purchase! Any pics?
Glenn

AO

First off, congrats on the purchase. post pics when you have a chance.

The clutch mates to the flywheel at teh back of the engine and is the coupled to the TT. And yes the TT will continue to spin when in Neutral. Your vibrations are most likely due to colapsed motor mounts. There is a TON of info here in the forum on this.

An "Italian tuneup" is always a good idea on a car that has sat fro a long time. These cars like to be driven often and hard! What color sloke? White, blue, or black? White=water, blue=oil, black=fuel. It's not uncommon for there to be some smoke from sitting, and may continue to disapate as you continue to drive.

sharkmeister85

[QUOTE=Andrew Olson]
.. An "Italian tuneup" is always a good idea on a car that has sat fro a long time. These cars like to be driven often and hard!.... QUOTE]
Really? I think I'd be checking out a "questionable" timing belt first!
Glenn

AO

Yeah... ok. Check the TB first, then do the Italian tuneup.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Danger Will Robinson....."replace the valve cover gaskets-has a very small oil leak somewhere in there. " Doing this can turn into a NIGHTMARE !! the cam cover bolts screw into the head of a bolt which is screwed into the cylinder head for the 85-86 32 valve cars ONLY . More often than not when you attempt to reomve the cam cover bolt you break the head off the bolt in the head. Then the fun begins as you try to remove the broken bolts from the head then failing that attempt to remove the cylinder head only to find that the block has head studs which makes it nearly impossible to remove the head in the car so then you PULL engine ........ So what started as a simple replace cam cover gaskets quickly becomes Remove engine from car but only for the 85-86 model 32 valve ...

Shane

Congrats you got a very nice 928!

Brake lights and tail lights: Check your grounds and fuses, pretty common on 928's that sit a lot. I had one that wouldn't clear till I replaced the bulb check brain, which is bolted to the pass. side map tray.

Timing belt is probably in need of retension. Check to make sure your damper is full of oil and holding the oil.

HC problems could be from a vacuum leak. Get a mitivac tester and check to see if your system holds a vacuum. IF not the fuel regulator will be at max pressure and you will run rich.

Smoke out the tail pipe seems to be normal as well on these years, especailly when you get on it. The crankcase breather system puts a lot of oil into the intake ( you will see this when you pull the side plenums, they will have oil in them) and when you step into the gas you get some of that oil burned as fuel. I rerouted my breather system to an external filter, and since have not had any blue smoke out of my exhaust and my plenums are clear of oil.

HTH

funxman

I checked the resistance at the TB connector inside the cover, I get .10 ohms at the 20K setting. I'm not an electrician so I am not sure what that means. I know that has "some" continuity. But is it enough-bad/weak connection inside? I read in a search to check this.

I didn't know the cam covers were that in depth... It can wait.

Water pump and tensioner was changed with the TB. And something about races replaced on the rocker arms also???

Just got back from the DMV, the build sticker in the trunk saved me cuz the one in the door jam is gone and they need two VIN# sources-last registered in SD. BTW, why does the one on the fender indicate ZZZ92Z ??-everything else was the same?? The DMV girl was confused so I made up a german import story and she simply said "interesting?" I'll get some pics up soon, the car looks much better that it runs at this point.

Jim bailey - 928 International

All later cars have the ZZZ chassis ID on the fender then added the USA public Vin on the windshield pillar and the sticker on the drivers door jamb.

dr bob

You've got a load of fun/work ahead of you, but the rewards are in there waiting.

Find a hard copy of the WSM. Second choice is a copy of Jim Morehouse's excellent CD manual set. Thes erae scanned to PDF, indexed and xref'd so you can find stuff. The online scanned-to-PDF versions are weak, poor quality low-res scans, etc. and they don't get better with age or use.

Invest in your Rennlist membership too. Good sportsmanship, golden rule, whatever. You'll be a regular here and the cost will dissappear into the noise as you get more done on the car.

Welcome to the group!


Oh yeah---

Sharktoberfest in a month! Visit www.sharktoberfest.com and get in on the fun. Meet more than a few owners and see a lot of cars. Get more advice and support than you thought you'd ever find live in one place.


Did I mention the Rennlist membership thing?