Gregg K

I'm nervously about to purchase a '79 928. It has sat in a museum, of all places, for the last three years. I've read these cars get "unhappy" sitting and doing nothing. My question is- before starting this car, what should I do?

Mikey Mason

I'd look around for another 928 or get ready to spend some bucks..timeing belt for starters...who knows what else.From what I've read just sitting around without being driven any can be a real problem also for seals, vacum lines, etc..not to mention possible electrical woes...Maybe some of the experts will chime in here..

Michael

Joe '87 S4

Interesting - sitting in a museum. From my experience, I would look for another 928 that has been driven regularly and was well maintained. It's not so much the cars that get unhappy when not driven, but the new owner that gets unhappy when they have to keep replacing things as the car is brought back to life. I guess it depends on how the car was stored. My car was abandoned so I basically had everything flushed and cleaned before it was started. Good luck!

Gregg K

It has a brand new '83 engine built by Devek. And it has sat in a museum next to Ferrari's and the like. The seller is a long time friend who I trust. My real concern is what problems one may encounter from the car just not running. And my experience is that it isn't a problem. But I just wondered if the 928 was special in this way.

SteveG

It depends on what was replaced before the museum, if anything; I mean some of the rubber items like hoses and vacuum hose(s) may have been replaced. Was the "museum" heated? And it depends on the price. You'll have to drain the fuel tank and lines for starters, injectors may be stuck. Search under winterize and you will find info on lubricating the cylinders. You can hand turn the crank and do the same, but you'll probably replace the plugs and it might be better to squirt 2 cc of oil in each cylinder and then turn the crank b/c you'll probably replace the tbelt and have to turn the crank anyway. If it was in a museum, it has to have some high points like a mint interior. sounds interesting.

Gregg K

Oh, new 5 speed tranni with 1000 miles. New seats. New tires. New paint. $5000

Mark

$5k - DEVEK motor or Tranny alone worth that!

Gregg K

Thought so. I guess I'll throw my cash into the wind and see if the car is as nice as Devek says it is. I just called them and they remembered it.
Thanks

Rob M Budd

My 928 sat for 5 years before I bought it. It ran fine but soon (within 300 miles) developed numerous oil leaks. I've heard it said after the fact, the gaskets dry out & shrink when a 928 sits for a long time causing oil leaks. There appears to be some truth in that.
If its a new Devek engine, I'd negotiate what Devek rebuild would cost VS asking price. It may run good, but a leaky 928 is not normal and very, very expensive to fix properly.

rjtw

I'll chime in: My 928 sat for 3 1/2 years in my garage with a no-start problem that I had no time to debug until recently. I can say this: In my case, the car started, ran, and drove as if it had been driven yesterday. The car was covered the whole time, but unheated... but in my area it rarely reaches freezing conditions. The car was not prepped in any way for long-term storage (as none was intended...!!) Now that it's been back to life for about six months, here's a summary of what I found and did:

- No oil or vacuum leaks caused by storage. And now that I fixed one vacuum leak, no leaks period.

- I put a bottle of Techroline in the tank before starting, and several gallons of fresh gasoline. The tank was almost empty before storage. No injector or fuel problems.

- I had to charge the battery (which seems to have recovered OK from that long period of total depletion), and of course cranked with no fuel for about 10 secs to get oil pressure before starting.

- After I got the car briefly on the road again, I took it offline for an extended wellness check: New fluids and filters everywhere, replaced all the rubber fittings in the vacuum system, fixed one vacuum leak in the dash (pre-existing before storage), new plugs/wires, cleaned cap/rotor and all grounds, and checked/fixed every little thing I could find. Everything works, I'm glad to say.

- I also replaced the giant O-ring between the AFM and air cleaner... after removing and re-inserting the AFM, it developed some leakage there causing rough running.

As you can tell, I really didn't have any big issues with storage (I may have been lucky, but then again the car went into storage in very good shape). Save one: The ONLY problem I had was totally flat-spotted tires! Boy, that first mile was rough, even at very low speeds ;-) Even the tires, though, have fully recovered.

If the car is good enough to be in a museum (wow!) and was running well before going in, I would personally not consider the storage issue to be a big problem.

Caveats: Have all the fluids been removed? As someone pointed out, seals may be an issue in this case. I understand that various other components can also dry out through lack of use. Might wanna make your sale conditional on at least getting it started!!

Good luck!
Rick

Gregg K

Well, that last story sounds exactly, to a tee, what I expect here. It's been in storage that's heated and very happy. Once I do begin the process of starting, the primary lead will be yanked first. He's got over $30k invested in this car. I'm giddy just thinking about what a nice car this is. Devek said it was a "screamer". It's been widened 2" somehow- rims, or susp. I think the new seats came out of a recent model that was wrecked. New interior as well. I know, it's a 25 year old car.
One interesting note- About four years ago the owner called me saying he'd been out driving fast, and when he parked the car and got out, suddenly one of the front aluminum balljoints broke, and the car dropped an inch or two. He would have crashed. So he replaced all of the suspension parts front and rear.
There's a lot to learn about this car. I'm guessing they all have sunroofs? Limited slip would be almost a neccessity, but evidently not. And I wonder if it's even available for the '79 model. I'm guessing it's a pretty easy car to work on. Well, anything is easy after working on a '69 Case backhoe differential. Thanks for the replies folks.
Gregg

Mike LaBranche

$5k? Fresh Devek engine, fresh tranny, fresh suspension with steel ball joints, heated storage...
sounds pretty damn good to me.

I'd start it, drive it around the block a few times and get it warm. Then change all the fluids. Engine, tranny/diff, brakes, coolant. Be prepared the first time you fill the gas tank completely. Expect leakage from vent hose that's been sitting dry for a few years and all of sudden gets wet. I'd put fresh rubber on it and get an alignment done. Check and repair any vacuum leaks. Fresh plugs, cap, rotor maybe. Then go drive the **** out of it.

Congrats on what sounds like a good find.

Gregg K

Thanks. If I get possession, I'll post back with comments and probably a zillion questions.

Dennis Wilson

Fuel system varnish will probably be your biggest problem. The fuel pumps on my 78 928 (sat for 10 years) and the 931 (sat for 6 years) crapped out shortly after starting. The injectors on both required cleaning/replacement and the fuel distributor on the 928 had 8 of its 10 o rings cracked or broken from shrinkage.

Recommend you pull the fuel pump(s) and flush them with acetone or other solvent prior to trying to run them. Remove the injectors and have them cleaned/tested. If stuck open, the injectors can cause your 928 to hydrolock which can get very expensive. Use throttle body cleaner to clean the lines between the fuel distributor and injectors and warm up regulator. After it is running use a good fuel system cleaner in the first 2 or 3 tanks of gas.

Electrical connections will be another issue. Be prepared to pull the fuse panel and clean all of the connections (front and back). Replace all of the fuses as they will be corroded. Clean all of the ground points (8 of them?). If your power windows don't work try cleaning the contacts on the switches.

There will be other issues but these and what was mentioned earlier should keep you busy enough.

Good luck and welcome.

Dennis

Brett Matthews

As a matter of fact, I saw a '79 928 this past weekend, that sold at auction, for $6100, without a sunroof.