BC

I have this 91S4 that I have been working for a friend. He is selling it and the ad is in the classifieds. The car has had tons and tons of work done by a mechanic in northern LA, and when he got the car my friend put in recovered seats, repaired some paint, did the front brakes, and has had me do some repairs to things that have surfaced as problems.

As I was working on the car figuring out a hot-start/cold start strangeness, I noticed that:

1) The intake was ugly
2) The WOT switch was not registering (the idle was)
3) The flappy for some unknown reason is disconnected under the intake

So - even though the receipts (20,000 worth if you ad in oil changes) show all this work done, including a new TT, caps, rotors, wires, injectors (IIRC), and a new MAF among other super expensive "Rape the customer" operations, the car needed to have the intake off so I could make it run 100% correctly.

So off with the intake. I have taken some pics and I wanted to make some comments on a few of them:

Behold, the ugly intake:


Which is not befitting the car that has taken shape:



I thought it was best to take off the throttle console first:


And then obviously the fuel rail covers (on this car they are insulated?)


As I was getting prepared to take the fuel rails off, I noticed the front fuel line:



Is that normal?


Anyway, I took all the injector plugs off and blew out the area around the intake gasket - my greatest concern in these situations is dropping something in the ports as I remove the whole assembly.



I decided it would be best to remove the fuel rail itself without the injectors so there would be no holes to worry about whole doing other disassembly:



I don't even want to know why this was there:


I decided to take the side plates off to make removing the intake easier when that time came:







Again I took off the metal washers that go over the bushings so they would not get caught anywhere or "fall in"



You can see in this picture that Porsche did some sort of port matching on the ports:


I also decided it would be a good idea to put the caps on the injectors. They look pretty clean:



Anyway, I finally removed the intake after finding the ridiculous amount of connections that would in no way be accessible any other way, and found some interesting items:

A disconnected Flappy line:


A very BAD looking knock sensor:


Another very BAD looking knock sensor:



I am going to retest the WOT switch as it seems like it was replaced. The intake gasket looks new and soft, and all the lines under there look like they were replaced recently. The car has 185,000 miles - they would be petrified if they were original.

Even the J-boot looks like it was replaced.

So now I order a few parts, test some others, and make sure I put everything back the way I found it or better. The car will continue to be for sale here in San Diego. I will probably go to ebay after I am done with this.

fraggle

replace all fuel lines that one is original and looks like mine did before I refreshed.

NoVector

BC or Mrmerlin - How much time should a person plan on setting aside for a top-end refresh? I'm thinking the cleaning can be done while the intake and covers are being stripped and waiting on parts. Would a couple weekends sound about right? Thanks / Bruce

BC

Not every single ad on this site is posted so that you can tell someone that they need to rip the car apart to fix stuff. A price point is a price point, and if someone wishes to pay it, fine, if not, then the market will dictate. You referred incorrectly to a coil that was obviously ascue as I had mentioned testing the coils.

When people have basic, relatively trustworthy mechanics that charge alot - stuff that looks pretty or that is not important to their own goals for the car will not get changed or worked on. The was and continues to be reliable. It has not stranded me since I have been working on it and driving it daily. It is clearly a good value at 9k or so, and will be even more so when I paint the intake and hook up the flappy for people who notice those things.

That plug is fine. The cam covers will probably not get taken off. Why? They aren't leaking. If something isn't leaking, or broken.... Listen - I have a powdercoated, polished, re-bushinged car - but not everyone needs to do every little detail. The mileage and the condition of the rest of the car equals the selling price and making it worse by screwing with stuff that is working and not leaking is not in the plans.

Its not leaking there at all. Nor should it as those have been off per the receipts. Hondabond? I'm not sure that's a good idea.



Both those things have been dealt with. As I said years of work have been done on this car in its mileage - most of it recorded in the receipts that would go to the buyer. The Temp II and the gauge sensor have been replaced but I may replace the Temp II again.

BC

That rubber one I pictured will have to be dealt with somehow. I will have to look at the other ones, like at the back. The dampener that I blocked off because it was leaking into the intake is somehow "sweating" fuel in that area.

BC

I sure as hell hope it doesn't take a couple of weekends. I have everything off, and will try and get the parts quickly, whatever is needed. Depending on how I deal with the intake, I can put it back on within about 6 hours of work.

the flyin' scotsman

I'll condense what Stan said and also add that another Rennlist poster and myself agree with:

replace everything.....its +20 years old

Speedtoys

If you had -everything- pre ordered from say, Roger in your hands when you started, a weekend can do it ez.


But..theres zero detail work in doing it that way...barely even cleaning...then theres ground points to clean, ignition stuff to replace...and that -1- thing you gotta order last second.


Anything you DONT replace that isnt metal, will have you right back here in this thread, depressingly fast later.

Bill Ball

Hi Brendan:

The insulated rail covers are GTS and what you get now if you order new covers.

That fuel line wear divot is "common" but not normal.

Looks like there are lots of extra washers down there besides the one sitting on the fuel rail. Most are probably from the fuel rail mounts, dropped when trying to reinstall them. Put the washer on a long, thin blade screwdriver with the nut above it and then put the tip of the blade on the stud, drop them down on the stud and reach down with your finger and tweak the nut while holding the blade tip on the stud until it starts threading.

Test the WOT switch directly with an Ohm meter, center pin (ground) versus upper pin, looking for continuity when it engages. If it works then make sure all the slack is out of both halves of the throttle cable without pulling the throttle plate off the stop when you reassemble.

Fun and games. The car exterior looks nice. Show us the final result with the engine compartment.