VehiGAZ

YMMV but...

That age and mileage is still a bit short of what Porsche originally planned to be the safe-and-conservative change interval (60,000 miles @ 10k miles/year = 6 years). Anecdotally, there are a LOT more accounts of 10-year old t-belts looking almost new than 5-year old belts looking like 15-year old belts, which suggests that the belts are made pretty damned well and are very unlikely to fail within the recommended change interval.

A peak under the covers will give you a better idea of what the belt looks like. If doesn't look trashed, the belt is most likely going to make it another 3000 miles and a few days cross-country. You are far more likely to get stranded from another of other common shark problems than the t-belt.

In reading about a couple-thousand-mile road rally for antique cars, one of the entrants explained that he took his 1955 (whatever it was) for a couple-hundred mile trip to visit family and back before the rally. He figured that if it'll go 200 miles without breaking, it'll go 2000 in the rally

blown 87

His (Paul's) was this year.

blown 87

Not so much the belt, but the pulleys and everything else the belt touches, was it a good Porsche belt or a Conti that was put on last time, to many things unkown to make that call.

AO

Right. Yours was last year.

blown 87

I might have had a small hand in getting his done.
But you are right, mine was last year, I did not have near the worries this year.
It is scary to take off on a long trip not knowing after a engine build like that, a thousand things can go wrong, far away from home.

VehiGAZ

Good point, Greg. The devil's in the details... but like I said - a quick peek under the cover will tell you smyth if the belt is a big liability.

Look, I know RL'ers are emphatic about replacing the t-belts on 32V motors, but I'm not as religious or observant... I've run a Honda 90k mile timing belt out to 120k miles. And the 7-year old/~15k mile belt that came off my shark last year looked almost new. Consider the incidence of t-belt failures compared to the number of starter failures, FP/FPR failures, LH/EZK failures, MAF failures, and ignition-protection circuit mis-activations we see here in a given month.

I think smitty has much more likely things to worry about if he's considering driving an unknown shark across the country.

blown 87

I will buy you a beer if you will buy me a lottery ticket.


I do agree that there are a lot of things on a old car that can put you to walking besides the Timing belt.

dr bob

I guess my logic is too complex... If the list of must-be-done-when-it-gets-home includes something like this where it could be done -before- it comes home, and there's a huge peace-of-mind factorinvolved, why would you not just have it done in advance??? Unless you plan to do it yourself when you get it home, when the labor cost difference can be significant.

My 928 donation points are already used up for a while, else you could bring it here and use the tools and do it yourself with supervision, with 928 International less than an hour away. If you can get on Greg Brown's calendar in Anaheim, have him do the PPI and any critical repairs/maintenance before you show up for the drive home.

VehiGAZ

Deal! And I'm getting the better end of it... I have never won more than $5 on a lottery ticket.

Hilton

Smyth1 - if you're going to work on the car yourself, then in your shoes, I'd just turn up to collect the car with a Kempf tool, pull the right-side belt cover and inspect and re-tension the belt, then test the tension warning system to make sure it lights up if the belt tension is low (can just unplug the sensor wire from the center belt cover - then run the car for 3 mins and make sure the light comes on).

Re-tension belt is actually a pretty quick job.. and plenty of write-ups here on how to measure tension.

If it fails your visual inspection, take it to a nearby 928 mechanic recommended by a lister, and get a new belt on.

Rob Edwards

Still dunno where the car is, and what year it is.

If you A) buy it, and B) elect to drive it home, I'd be happy to host a quick TB '(re)tensioning check' party if it makes any sense to drive to Orange County on the way home with it.

Tony

X2...the odds of something going wrong with the belt are A LOT less then with doing a bunch of work just to replace it IMHO.


If folks want to split hairs, technically it should be retensioned by the time you got to NJ anyway...so is there risk in that also??

Drive it.

smyth1

the car is in seattle.it's an 87 5 speed with 150 k on it.spoke with the shop autowerks regarding driving it back and he didn't seem to think it wouold be a problem.he did mention changing a few relays but thought the belt would be fine.

blown 87

Is this a shop that works on 928's and do they "know" that car?

smyth1

that shop was recommended by a fellow rennlister so i would imagine they do.