dirtyTurbo

Again, thanks for all the great insight

LUCKYJACKASS: I want your car to have my babies. Beautiful

2 seconds of poking around on my local craigslist gave me this:
http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/2054566920.html
http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/2080118713.html

Didnt see that coming, now thats my kind of prive range!

What kind of work would you say these would need? I love looking at 944's in simillar condition and thinking of everything that could be wrong, but I'm only starting my research on the 928

Mrmerlin

of the two i would go for the 85 it has a 32V engine and with a bit of work you can add Porkens chips, you should be close to 300HP if you fix all of the other parts. The bad running could be a bad coil wire.
offer 1500. and figure to add about 5K to make it right

dirtyTurbo

5K?? For what? Please bear in mind I am in college and next to no care about appearances

LUCKYJACKASS

Well, I wouldn't know where to start on a diagnoses on these two, as I have only had mine about 8 months, but I can say that one that has been sitting is not good. So much will have to be addressed on something sitting that long - all rubber under the hood, all fuel lines rebuilt (no longer available, and an easy repair to do yourself). The car with the miss could be just a vacuum leak, or could be more serious. If you use tempestsearch.com, you can search all of craigslist within a certain radius of your location to come up with more options. If you start a new post on a car you are interested in, more than likely you will get a lot of feedback from more experienced troubleshooters and somebody with experience that is local to the car will more than likely offer to look at it for/with you. Thanks for the kind words on my car, as i said, she's not perfect, but perfectly mine! I will be getting very familiar with her over the next few months getting her back on the road. I don't ever want to get rid of either of my Porsches, even for a better one...I have become attached to and love both of them! I would steer clear of any car I couldn't actually test drive unless I had one of the board guru's here look at it with me. Don't rush into anything, as if you wait, the right car will come around for you (and you'll be adding to your purchasing fund as you wait, hopefully). That car with the miss looks ok, but I would want to see it in person as pictures are decieving, and drive it before making any offer. If I couldn't come to a conclusion on cause of problems by inspecting it myself, I would want someone more experienced with 928's to look at it before moving forward. Different year models have different weak points and costs of ownership. The early cars (pre 84) are 16 valve and you won't bend valves if the timing belt breaks, but they are lower horsepower (unless you can find a euro car). Read a lot of the threads on here and you will start to get an idea of what to look for for each year model. It only took me 2 months of reading here before I really started looking to buy. I missed a local 86.5 Guards red 928S with a transmission problem for cheap, then 3 days later bought Jaws - a much better deal and she's a Euro (300hp opposed to 220 for the US model in '83). Keep looking and posting here. Some guys will give you flack at times, but keep your chin up and do what you feel is right. Most everyone here does have good information to pass along, you just have to figure out what advice is best for you and your situation. If you are serious about getting into a low cost 928, it really shouldn't be your only transportation, as some problems can be costly and time consuming, especially if you do it yourself. Also, read about TBF - that can be thrust bearing failure or timing belt failure. Both of those can mean heartbreak and bankruptcy to a 928 owner. Welcome, by the way.

namasgt

Intake and valve cover refresh, complete timing belt job, HVAC system repair...
I would go with a 16 valve, more economical to repair and keep up, 32 valve engine parts are expensive.

dirtyTurbo

No offense, but I don't believe in "refreshing" or fixing things that aren't broke. Timing belts being an exception obviously. I can do that myself...probably

namasgt

Well there are some oil breather lines that go under the intake, they get soft and break into pieces when old. To change them you need to take the intake off, when you take the intake off, theres a good chance you have to change your Knock sensor(85,86 have only one but S4 has 2). If the breather lines are fine, I would just leave the intake alone and just do a T-belt replace and fuel line replacement.
I took my intake off because one of the breather lines was shattered.
One thing I would be worried about buying a 928 that was not maintained well is head gasket damage, when the coolant doesn't get changed every 2 years it gets acidic and will soon eat the head gasket, after that it will eat up the head, whats worse is that in some cases the bad coolant will start eating the cylinder walls which translates to needing a new short block.

namasgt

Also, most people that do the intake refresh, are doing it to fix any potential vacum leaks that cause bad ideal or HP loss.

dirtyTurbo

That doesn't sound too bad. I wouldn't go anywhere without doing all of the vacuum lines anyway.

LUCKYJACKASS

Here are a few that I would look a bit closer at, even though they are a littele further from you...I am not sure where in Jersey you are. These are low cost and appear to be in better shape than the two you posted earlier. Take a look at tempestsearch, they have added a new auto search site that looks at other auto sales sites now too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1984-...item35ae4c3e8e

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Very-...item255f4c6021

http://lancaster.craigslist.org/cto/2062232242.html

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto/2072189901.html

dirtyTurbo

Awesome thanks! I really need a new job, next purchase needs to be an air cooled for my vw daily. I'm so shocked at how low these things are, timing belts and I'm good to go right?

namasgt

Change all the rubber fuel lines, its as important as changing the T-belt, many 928s have left us by catching on fire. just do a search on fire and you will find many cases.

EspritS4s

I would vote for the '84 in Philly if it runs as well as the seller says. Unless the car has been painted, that faded red paint is likely just oxidized and will polish up nicely.

It's hard to tell from your posts, but I hope that you aren't looking for a cheap 928 to be your daily driver.

bronto

Water pump too, since it's part of the timing belt circuit. Good belt won't do you any good if the water pump dies.

Personally, I think if you are taking a "fix it when it breaks" approach you would be better off with a 16v (non-interference) motor. That would mean 84 or less. Water pump or timing belt failure on a 32v motor leaves you with a badly damaged engine.

dirtyTurbo

Timing belts are a different story, I don't mind doing them for the insurance. I just don't go as far as a lot of people on here haha