Hello guys. This is my first time on this site and I'm searching for clues on my hydrolock situation. The car has been running rough with a strong fuel smell every time you start it cold or hot. To make a long story short today I picked it up from Reeves PORSCHE here in Tampa (for the second time in a week) and once again it did the same thing. Now it is throwing gobs of white smoke out the back and running on 6 or 7 cylinders. On the highway on my way back to the dealer it ran very rough but I made it to their lot and parked it. About five minutes later the service Mgr. came to start it and it hydrolocked. They took the plugs off and said that number 6 and 7 were soaked but didn't say of water so I left assuming it was fuel since 15 minutes before it looked to me like fuel was coming out of the tail pipe along with the white smoke. Now I was wondering what kind of damage can occur by it locking on a start as opposed to on the road if any. I've had the car for 16 years and it is an 84 with a 83 engine that had less than 10k miles on it. Bought that engine from Jim at 928 International years ago. I appreciate any help since it is my daily car. Thank you! You can call me at 813-770-5555

 

I've been on the phone with Fabian and his story sounds like he got a short shaft at the dealer.

Apparently they let it 'idle' for quite some time as they were doing something.........who knows what but the time frame quoted was 5-6 hours?????WTF?

From our conversation it sounds like he has a head gasket that went. The smoke blowing down the highway was light in color (no idea if it was fuel or coolant) and when he got to the dealership they tried to crank it and it wouldn't move.

 

It is also hard to tell if a 'fuel' issue could be misdiagnosed as a coolant issue in this case. From what I gathered there was no fuel pressure tests done and the dealership did not disclose much to him. He had the front fuel dampener replaced and the "master porsche tech" was the one that was giving advice.

I know we have a good sized Florida group, if anyone can help Fabian out, that would be great.

 

Hi Sean thanks a lot for taking the time to call me. I think that I need to start looking for a 928 shop in Tampa. Reeves PORSCHE has royally screwed me. The mechanics act like if you're not driving a 60K 911 they don't have time for you.

 

Before I took it to them I had put a new BOSCH fuel pump and filter. They replaced both fuel regulators and put a new cold start valve as well.

 

Did you see any coolant leak from the exhaust pipe ?
I hydrolocked my engine on my S4 and when I started it up alot of white smoke was coming out (the smoke should smell kinda sweet) after a few minutes of idealing coolant start driping out the back from the exhaust.

If its locked up because some fluid is in there you should be able to look inside the plug holes with a flash light and see if there is any liquids in the chamber.
If its hard to see, I would get an Aquarium hose and send it down the plug hole and try to syfune any liquid that could be in the chamber.

I would think that if there was a problem with the injectors or the plug, and the fuel didnt burn, in engine operating temperatures the fuel would have washed the cylinder walls dry from oil and your piston rings could have gauged the cylinder walls causing the engine to lock up.

 

Maybe pull some spark plugs and see what they look like?

 

This may help. http://www.eatel.net/~dslabat/mech.htm
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...mechanics+list
I have also seen a few 928's at Bert Smith Porsche in St.Pete and i have receipts from there for service from my cars previous owner. (maybe a last resort since you may not want to go back to a dealer)
There are a few other shops in St.pete but i can't recall the names.
If you want them,send me a PM, and i will do a little research.

good luck man.
I hope it works out for you.

 

The car is at Reeves PORSCHE in Tampa. They're the ones that made this mess but not realizing from the get go what the problem was trying to tell me that the smoke was because I had an oil separation problem and "that's all it is" he said. Never mind the fact that when I left the dealer and got to the traffic light I had all four intersections covered with smoke. I starting to think they owe me an engine.

 

If you had that much fuel coming out of the exhaust, shouldn't the cat have overheated from the excess fuel? I would have thought it would have been red hot.

Rod

 

This is a public apology to Fabian, he is for real, and he needs help with his 928.

Sounds like the car was left running unattended and overheated then lost the head gaskets.

I just got off the phone with him, sounds like a great guy who needs our help.

As Fabian will soon find out, not much on a 928 that cant be fixed with the help of the folks here.

Welcome to Rennlist Fabian.

Greg Nettles

 

Fabian

how long the car has been sitting without running, did you said 5 years on the last post ? did the engine have coolant in it when it was in storage ?

 

Sounds like the car was left running unattended and overheated then lost the head gaskets.


Greg Nettles [/QUOTE]

Exactly what I surmised last night. BTDT on an '86 with 22k. The owner would start the car up every month to charge the battery and walk away.

 

Fabianrou,
I'm not sure that I would spend a whole lot of time thinking about repairing that engine. '83-'84 non-Euro engines are non interference, generally do not TBF problems and are very inexpensive. If you determine that your pesent engine is toast, you should be able to source a complete engine relatively cheaply and just swap the engines. It will probably save you money doing it this way on all fronts. BTW, I think the dealer should pay for the engine swap.

 

Not a bad idea but, he's not going to find a 10K mile engine and if he somehow does, it won't be cheap.