Some of you all know I purchased an 86.5 Auto out of Texas for 1,900. Car was advertised as a daily driver that needed a few neglected things fixed. My thinking was well if is total crap I got a parts car and a brake upgrade for my ’85. If not it will be a great project car for my 19 yr old son and he can drive it until late fall.

Now the Onion part
First layer:
Car arrived same week as purchased, started and was driven off the car carrier with a Left Rear Flat. Put car in driveway and filled up tire w/ air, next day flat once again. A “rusty” nail was found, repaired, all tires have decent tread.

Body looks to be straight, all doors, hood and hatches close nicely, the rear hatch seal is totally shot. Under body is also in great shape w/ no corrosion and only slightly dented under body rails. All fitting are original and in great shape. No Trans or Diff leaks (yet).

Interior cleaned up real nice, only leather rip is in Drivers seat upper bolster, re dyed all in dark brown and it looks good, Robert bud helped w/ dye and some small parts (thanks Bob!) Dash and pod cracked. Drivers side Threshold plastic plate missing. Driver’s door needed a new window motor and a switch both had been messed with. Battery cover was removed and an old battery that was too tall was in the hole.

Second layer:
Engine cleaned up real nice and all the plated parts were surprisingly in great shape, the ignition wiring was a mess and most of all stock fasteners are missing. We removed them all, cleaned it up and tested all the wires, the ends were not corroded.

Engine still had 1,100 RMP idle, found way too many un connected and old dried out vacuum lines, the two fuel dampeners had a rubber hose run over the top on the manifold (non-fuel rated) connecting the vacuum ports to each other. Once removed fuel poured out. Removing the Fuel Regulator vacuum line reviled the same, all three needed to be replaced.

At his point I said lets just do an intake R&R and be done w/ it, as we started I found a ground wire connected to the Timing Belt warning light wire (to defeat it), removed it and watched the belt track good via the belt cover vents (haven’t gone in there yet).

All was going good; my son learned how to remove old paint, re-ferb Injectors w/ new o rings and pintels, and was learning more, all the rubber under the manifold was hard as a brick and thus needed to be replaced.

Third Layer:
Let’s do the thermostat and Oil fill, parts are nil compared to the labor, if we don’t do it now. Looked in the Rad Expansion tank no water/fluid! Drained the Rad and only a half gallon of tan-ish liquid came out, daily driver I thought to my self, right!

Fourth Layer:
Lets do a compression check (wondering where/why all the water had gone) before we put this thing back together, (8-5) = 150, 150, 30, 145, 1-4 =) 80, 80, 80, 150 yep that’s all eight, and not good.

So here is the big question for you, all. Do we pull the eng and see what we got?
Bad head gaskets, bent valves or worse.
If we go any further we are going to be into Pan & Head gaskets, MM’s, Valve seals and maybe even head work, new rod bearings? Etc…

Haul it into storage and start stripping it? I have the garage space for long term storage.

Do I need to pull it just to look? I am curious (as are you), just gets harder to move around the heavy parts.

Moral of this story; a car running in a video does not equal a running car, and a stated daily driver is just that, a “stated” daily driver.

Just needing and wanting to share,

Dave.

Oh yeah, I’m just under 4k at this point (not including our labor) and no new parts other than the window motor have been installed, have also new rear rotors and pads, front were in great shape.

 

Welp.. Since you asked.

In for a penny, in for a pound. She's worth saving IMHO. But the compression issue is worrisome I agree. I have never had the heads off a 928 but my knee jerk reaction would be that 'It would be an excellent learning opportunity for you and your son' to pull the motor, refresh the motor. Possible to get away with a re-ring ? I read these blocks are pretty tough. Then again , if you ever had a timing Belt failure, could be bent valves.

Oh just another thought. If this car was a long term sitter, have you tried rislone or some other method to attempt to 'unstick' the rings? Carbon and old oil can cause sticky rings. I have had success with motorcycles that sat for too long by soaking about a table spoon of ATF in each cylinder, then changing the oil and driving the **** out of it for a few days. Sometimes you can free the carbon up and 'blow it out'.

If that doesnt work, pull the powerplant.

 

Thank you, I never considered stuck rings, I have done a few "Head Jobs", so pulling the eng is not beyond me.
The "in for a penny.." comment is well received, I'm just wondering what the other Shark nuts are thinking befor moving forward.

Thanks again,

Dave

 

Wow I'm getting old. (pic ref)
Looks pretty good. I vote for press on, but its not my bank account!

Nice to hope the oil additive could produce results..never know...or that you could remedy from underneath because you might as well go after mm/pan/rod/main bearings...

Tough to press through all that in the remainder of the summer though. WEll, it would be for me, I should say.

Drat- another Dunkelblau 86.5 in DC area...I should've planned that better!

 

I agree with dcrasta your compression numbers may be a side effect from sitting. Drive it for a while and retest. As long as the body and interior are in good shape it is worth the effort to fix it, especially since you can do the work.

 

You can part it out, which could be a PITA, and time consuming. In the end, you'll be lucky to break even if you let go of the good stuff like the S4 suspension and brakes.

You can throw it back together and sell it as is. You'll lose a lot of money.

You can push forward at additional expense, and get the car running.

If you go for the third choice, it's time to pull the timing covers and see what's going on. The low compression wouldn't bother me just yet(although 30 is very low.) The condition of the coolant would however. Have you changed the oil, or at least drained it to see what comes out?

 

In the words of JB: "You are $10K away from having a $5K 928."

Press on.

Those low compression numbers may just be due to dry valve seals. Drive it for awhile with some Marvel Mystery Oil additive.

 

Ha ha, yep me too trying to pass on some tricks to these young guns.
I know I'm thinking it was a belt failure and they just replaced the belt, that one cyl at 30 is way low, so no telling what i'm going to see/find.

edit: The eng sounds good when its running, except has a miss.

Thanks,

Dave

 

Looks way too good to strip!

 

Hopefully driving it will clear up the compression...

Otherwise, S3 engines aren't too rare?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=230661502021

 

Thanks for the link and idea Ken, that one even includes a starter

Dave

Edit: Ken unless I knew the eng was a good running eng, I could just be putting in another bad lump

 

Indeed

 

Do a leakdown test and confirm as to where the loss of compression is coming from.....

 

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...nt-engine.html

I would say head gaskets are a minimum on this car and that can open a whole can of worms. I had a problem with stuck rings https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...nt-engine.html and they were not going to be unstuck by anything but severe mechanical force that could damage the pistons. If you do it yourself the job may not be too expensive ($1,300 seals,rings etc?) and definitely a learning experience that could prove very satisfying. Gunar

 

Save it. If you part it, I might be interested in the cams.