Hi All,
I finally got around to pulling my cam covers tonight after having the kits for about a year. It was a total snap and the covers came off like butter.
It helped that I had a lot of posts from BTDT folks and also the help of my bud Chris who had taken his off already.
Man oh Freakin man!!!!
Have you ever seen the spark plug socket gaskets put on backwards???? They were not sealing anything (Hey honey - what's that burning smell??)
The cam cover gaskets themselves were also completely shot and they were sealed up with some crap. I would also like to mention that they must have lost three washers and decided to stack a couple of thinner ones to make up for the ones they lost. "Screw the customer, he'll never see 'em". As you have probably guessed, this continues to burn me severely. I never paid out a dime in "Professional" repairs but the 2 PO's paid dearly - poor schmucks..

Anyway, the only things to mention are:
1) The standoffs for the cover bolts really enjoy coming out of the head when you undo the cover bolts. This becomes a real problem on the passenger side cover. There is a bracket that mounts to 2 of the bolts of the cam cover and if these standoffs come loose, you can't get the bracket away from the cover sooooo you can't get the cover off. Chris had to cut his bracket to finally get it off but we tried something different on mine. We didn't use any crescent wrenches but instead used an air gun to give it a quick spin - worked like a charm. Bracket and engine hoist needed to be bent back so the cover would clear.
The other booboo was the little plastic clips that hold the wires down against the cover. Most were broken on mine (Screw 'em, he'll never see 'em) so we took them off. Ooooppss - three of the 8 screws lost their heads in that battle. Those screws are very weak and you need to be gentle. What I did was to gently twist the screw back and forth until I saw some good movement. Then they just come out. I did the same with one broken one using visegrips and worked it out as well. The other two broke off to close to the cover to get any grip. I will have to deal with those later.

Tomorrow, covers and borrowed S2 intake (Thanx Chris) are off to the powdercoater to be done in hammer finish gloss black. Red lettering to follow. Then I get to clean my check valves and put on those creamy dreamy new gasket sets. Thanx Jim Bailey.

Pictures are forthcoming.


<img src="graemlins/xyxwave.gif" border="0" alt="[bigbye]" />

 

I decided to copy over a response I gave on another thread so anyone ready the upstairs thread will understand some of my frustration as I swim through the mess that the mechanics who previously worked on my car have left me.....

<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

My PO story actually has nothing to do with the PO's. Neither of the two PO's of my car ever laid on hand on this car. They both opted to have all maintenance done by "certified" Porsche repair shops. What a joke!!!!!
I have two folders worth of repairs from the PO's that total up to almost the price of the car - NEW!!!!
How about an oil filter for $35.00
A air filter for $85.00
Diagnostic for $150.00
Tires @ $450.00 a piece.
Labour rates at $90.00 an hour
You get the idea.
As I have started to wrench the car myself, I have found incredibly bad things done to this beautiful machine.
Spark plug wires held on with zip ties (all hold down bolts missing)
MAF installed with no o-rings and not even inserted into the intake (just sort of laying there)
This one really burns me - I guess they had removed the bonnet to service the motor and couldn't get it aligned properly when they reinstalled it. I guess then the proper fix is to take a grinder to the front lip of the bonnet until it doesn't strike the front fascia!!! Good news was it was a "no charge" repair...


Broken interior bits and pieces etc.
I have only wrenched the car for about 5 repairs so far and what I have found has made me ill.

I don't even know exactly what I'm doing with this car. My rule list is like this.
READ
ASK
LISTEN
READ
PERFORM
Its worked very well so far and I expect that I have saved thousands of dollars in labour alone. I also know, without a doubt, that it was done right.
Taking a Porsche to a Porsche mechanic is a scary thing. It gives you a false sense of security that there is an old German guy back there who simply won't let anything bad happen to your baby.
Don't get me wrong, those guys exist, but they have to be sought out and that can only be done through collective research. That's why Rennlist is so important.
Bottom line is - never take anybody's word for it. There is too much money at stake here. There is also the life of a beautiful car at stake. That wonderful V8 rumble you hear can turn into a parts car on ebay in a nanosecond if someone (not necessarily the PO) screwed something up.
If I were to buy another 928, the preflight check on the desired vehicle would be as long as my arm. If the current owner wasn't hip to this checklist, then he can keep the car and I will look somewhere else.

Knowledge Is Power

 

I had a debate with a few guys on the 911 board about this topic, and one of them insisted he would not buy a car unless it was maintained by a Porsche mechanic.

I have worked in many shops, and just because a guy has been certified or through all the training schools, this doesn't make him a good mechanic.

There are lots of hacks out there. I chose to do my own work, unless I don't have the equipment or the time (rare).

 

Admittedly,
I will definately run into things that will be out of my scope of experience to repair. I will definately need to call on the advise and / or help of a purely Porsche trained mechanic. We are fortunate in the Socal928 club to have some very good expertise in Eric form Projekt928. You never see him post anywhere but that's because he never has his head out of a shark long enough to sit and write emails. He is definately one person that we value very much. I have confidence that when the time comes to let someone else put their hands into my baby, it will be Eric's.
He also appears to be growing into the 928 Supercharging King!! I have seen his work and it is about as clean and meticulous as it gets. I went to his shop one day and he had a GTS pulled apart all over the place installing a supercharger kit. It was like a tour as he pointed out this and that and gave me a first hand view on what "really" needs to be done during timing belt changes. I should also add that he was in the rebuild phase and you could have eaten off the work he was doing - it was that clean. I don't remember who the owner of that white GTS was but Eric was chuckling about it being "The Other White Car".
Anyway, whoever owns it, I hope your satisfied. There was a lot of care gone into that installation.
I will contiue to do my own work and hopefully I will continue to be successful at it. I said to Chris last night that it actually felt good to find all the botched work because it means that my shark will just keep getting better and better.

Cheers
Bernie

 

If I had nothing better to do I'd write a book...

It seems that often times when you drive up in a Porsche - especially one of the more upscale models - you are seen as "prey". You have to sense that, and remember that god gave you two feet to walk away.


What do you guys think about an oil change on a late model 928 for over US$ 140 in 1999 (including Mobil 1 and Filter)? And they are telling you to come back after 3-5k miles. Sounds like good business to me - no?

My last oil change in late 2001 (similar to the above) was $95. Still not exactly a bargain, but over 30% less than the above. I do understand it takes quite some extra time for removing and replacing the belly pan and there is a lot of oil to drain and refill, so this sounds reasonable.


The PO of my current 928 had it serviced at Mercedes and other European Car specialists. He pretty much paid clueless mechanics for his peace of mind. He was incredibly lucky...

How about a roller bearing for the timing belt missing? Too long screws for the water pump forced into the block (my mechanic had to drill them out when redoing the whole TB/WP job)?

And why was the car in the shop one week after it got a new engine computer, with the same problem description (no start)? This time some wiring was fixed and a cheap new battery was installed.

Not sure how the PO got the idea he needed a huge amplifier more than the compressor for the spare wheel. But the wiring was sure "interesting". I later paid SoundWave in San Carlos, CA, to reverse all this and put a nice Blaupunkt Toronto in (They did a great job!!!). Then I sold the radio cassette and amplifier...


On the previous 928, I had a used car inspection done by a Porsche shop in Virginia. The most expensive pre-purchase inspection I ever had done. That was basically OK - They did a leakdown test and checked the brakes pretty thoroughly.

But how did they miss a loose drivers seat, and both door panels loose (screws missing)? The "professionally installed" aftermarket speakers were only screwed to the loose panels. After the panels were tightened, everytime someone slammed the door the heavy speakers came loose from the panel. Needless to say, the professional installers had cut large holes into the sheetmetal of the doors... No word to me about this until I showed up and found out myself. Too late, the car was already bought, based on their recomnendation.

Worse: the AC did not work for the cross country trip to CA. The shocks were pretty much without function (resulting in an "Oldsmobile ride"). The clutch always seemed to react with a little delay, even though they had fixed some hydraulic line.

Overall that car wasn't bad, but I felt those mechanics had only done half of their job. Needless to say I wasn't too happy... Well, it took us only two "pit stops" to get home to CA.


Buying a 928 is always an adventure - kind of like the last frontier...

 

Hey, if there's one thing I've learned from this forum, quit your whining!!! Take what crap you're given and eat it with a smile.

If I had more time, I'd somehow show you how it's your fault that the work was done improperly and I'd tell you that you're probably going to get your *** dragged to court for malitious slandering and intentional hurting of feelings of these well meaning mechanics.

(i hope everyone by now has figured out that I'm being sarcastic, there are a few late-readers in the group that may need this pointed out)

Back to the ol' "if you want something done right, do it yourself".

 

Hey Buddy, Now wait a minute!!!!

LOL

 

Hey Nicole, you're full of it! - lots of good information, that is. :-) If you ever get around to writing that book, I'll buy a copy. "Life and Times of the 928" ought to be a good read.

Your story reminds me of a PPI I had done at a Porsche dealership, supposedly the same dealership that had serviced the '78 I was looking at since new for the PO, who was the original owner. The car was represented as being "mint." (An original owner '78, YEEHA!)

After looking at the car, the dealer diagnosed the exhaust as being "too loud, probably corroded and in need of replacement." It turns out that the exhaust was merely a healthy sounding Borla/Devek setup - nothing was wrong with it at all.

The shop also reported that "first gear grinds - synchros are shot." This turned out to be a linkage problem.

I don't know if the dealership was trying to create a nice fat estimate for work they thought the PO would pay to have done, no questions asked, but it seemed that way. I guess when a 928 comes into a Porsche dealership, it's time to make their efforts with this strange and unfamiliar Porsche well worth it! The moral of the story - have your PPI done by a 928 specialist (I guess we all knew that already.)

It turns out the eventual buyer of this car now lives in So. Cal. so I'll get to see it in person eventually.

Dan Bise
Pasadena, CA
'83S