Mike Frye

I plan to spend this Friday on my back doing the motor mounts and a pan gasket on the old girl. If anyone plans to be around the Jersey Shore, send me a PM or e-mail for directions and feel free to stop on by.

The beer will be cold and I'll make burgers and dogs for anyone that wants to wander in.

We'll be at it from first thing in the am until the job is done (that is me and my dad: NJANG Sr. Master Sgt Frye, ret. He's used to working on jet engines, but he'll adapt)

PS- Access to the fridge in the garage, the grill out back and the WiFi network is included. Anyone with previous experience with this job is especially welcome.

AO

I'm in the middle of this job right now. Ok... still tearing things down. If you want you can come over to my place and get some experience before you do yours. Just a thought.

Given your milage, you might consider connecting rod bearings. I'm doing them. Good luck.

Mike Frye

Andrew,
Thanks. I considered the conn rod bearings. I may take a look and make the call while I'm in there. I know that will mean my car will be out of commission while I wait for the parts that way, but if there's no play and no wear, I'm going to leave well enough alone.

Are you working with a lift or jack stands?

OH yeah, and all hail the Porsche gods. Should I send the beat up motor mounts to the shrine when I get them out?

Bill Ball

Figure a good 12 hours, although having a second person may cut several of hours off that. You absolutely must have a 10mm Gearwrench to get at some of the more inaccessible pan bolts. I didn't have one at the time, and it took me 13 hours on a lift working alone. Otherwise, it's just a dirty, grunt-work job. Enjoy.

Mike Frye

Gear wrenches! That's what I forgot. Thanks for the tip. I saw a write-up on Greg Nichols' site and I meant to print it out before assembling the tools. That's where I got the WYAIT tip to do the pan gasket as well.

I'll be working on jack stands, but my dad's got an engine hoist, so it won't be as crowded under there as it could be.

I'm hoping with the extra pair of hands it won't take more than 7-8 hours.

No takers on the invite yet? Not many 'listers at the shore I guess.

ROG100

Mike,
Make sure you use a Real gasket so you never have to do it again.
If I was closer I would be there - still a 4000m round trip would be fun.
A tapered shaft for the horizontal frame bolts is very useful for lining them up - can be a PITA.
Good luck

Bill Ball

If you and your dad can get this done in 7-8 hours, you may have a future in the automotive service industry. If everything goes smoothly, sure. Some people encounter over-torqued MM bolts - so breaker bars, if not air tools. I spent a lot of time cleaning the pan and the gasket surfaces. Probably a hour there alone. I did have trouble aligning the crossmember support bracket's horizontal bolt holes with the frame, as Roger mentioned, but a helper joined me just for that and pried them into alignment.

ROG100

Bill & Mike,
The last one I did with John on his Euro 84 took about 8 hours and both of us worked pretty hard and it all went very smoothly with no hickups. We used air tools and I knew what I was doing.
Roger

Rob Edwards

To do the MM/pan gasket, it took me 30 hours + 2 separate visitations from the Glendale Angel Dr. Bob. At least half of that time was cleaning, putting the MM's in upside down (that was a good 4+ hours of head scratching) and trying to get the crossmember back in my myself without luck- Bob helped me through the critical parts. If you get stuck, post away- I made every mistake one can make, yet the car still runs, and there are no (knock on aluminum) leaks. The procedure is fresh in my mind- in fact, I may never be able to get it out of my head......

Mike Frye

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will get out the shark cam and set up the laptop in the garage and I may be sending up a few flares.

Rog, thanks for the offer and advice. What do you mean by 'real gasket'?

Bill,
We do have air tools and two sets of hands for the duration of the job, but you're scaring me with the assessment.

I respect everyone's judgement on this and in fact the reason we're starting first thing Friday morning (actually the car will already be on the stands and drained on Thursday evening) is so that I've got Saturday and Sunday to recover if something doesn't go well .

Every post I've read said there was a huge improvement after the MM job, and I'm really looking forward to it.

ROG100

Mike,
Do a search on Rennlist for Real Gasket.
You can get it from 928 Specalists.
The very latest gasket material. Fit and forget and you can reuse it (should the need arrise).
Do not use a cork gasket
Good luck

Bill Ball

Mike: If your pan is making contact with the crossmember, then, yes, expect a big improvement.

soontobered84

Mike,
Also use thread or small ties to tie the gasket to the pan as you lift and mount it back to the engine. As you put the bolts back in, just cut the thread/ties and remove them. This will keep the gasket from falling into the pan or out of place as you put bolts in.
Also definitely use air tools to undo bolts on diassenbly. Much much quicker and easier on the body as Roger will attest.
Good Luck

SharkSkin

Took me the better part of Labor Day weekend to do the same job, plus the rack. I had Ron_H helping, and we started 10-11am each day and knocked off around dinnertime. There were some challenges getting the wheel pointed straight with the rack centered(Dremel saved the day), and a lot of time spent cleaning stuff. We didn't rush at all, though air tools were used to get everything apart -- no doubt saving some busted knuckles and at least an hour of cussing.

The crossmember went right back in, thanks in large part to pre-tensioning the engine upwards before removing the crossmember. Remember, the new mounts are taller, you want to lift the engine high enough to account for that.

Also adding to the time was the extra cleaning of the oil pan bolt holes and addition of studs to replace the bolts. One of the side benefits of the stud kit is you can get all of the studs through all the holes in the gasket while there is still room to get your fingers in and move the gasket around.

AO

Hey guys,
Help me understand the difference between the stud kit and just reusing the existing bolts. Are these actual studs that you're threading in on the block side and using some kind of nut on the pan side? I don't see an advantage there.

928 Specialists sends their real gasket with some special washers (bent) that I assume are supposed to keep the bolts from loosening up. Are the studs that much better? Why not just use a little blue locktite on the bolts?