MGW-Fla

Welcome & Great buy indeed! Find the fix to the burning smell 1st, that could have very bad consequences otherwise!

ruf965

Amazing buy...I love the color as well...looks like a great project.

Good luck.

Danieldd

I simply don't know what to say..

I am so overwhelmed by the positive feedback and support you guys have given me that I wish I could reply to all of you individually and say "THANKS". I'm taking to heart all the suggestions given and you can rest assured that everything necessary to make the car safe and reliable will be done - in time.

Thank You all!

jeff spahn

Daniel. When you do jack it up, take what Mr. Merlin said and ONLY JACK IT FROM THE LIFT POINTS. You can get Porken lift bars or make your own. You can see the porken bars at www.liftbars.com. I made my own. Also check out the Porkensioner there cause you'll need to replace the timing belt and check your tensioner. might as well replace it with some modern technology.

Also get GOOD JACK STANDS. 3 ton minimum so you have the height underneath to work on the car. 6 ton is better.

Welcome to the looney bin.

heinrich

You lucked out. Also a good colour. I can sell you a black dash, instrument pod, center console and door armrests that will break the Burgundy up a bit and get you started on maybe a full black interior.

928autobahndreamer

To me this looks like a fantastic buy. $2500 for a running S4 5 speed in a unique color? That screams steal to me. It amazes me how undervalued these cars are.

With a little work and TLC this car will be fantastic. Just focus on the safety issues first. Fuel lines, Fuel lines, Fuel lines. Then Timing belt/waterpump. Then take your time from there slowly working through your list.

I have had my car for about 4 years and have had a long list of projects that I have slowly been working through. It sounds like you have some mechanical ability, so there is nothing that needs doing on this car that you can not do yourself with the information on this forum.

Congratulations and good luck.

P.S. Oh, if you can't learn to live with the maroon interior, once you have the mechanicals sorted, look up Paul Champagne. He works magic with leather, and can recover everything in black and make your interior look like a work of art.

http://www.designpaulchampagne.com/PorscheLeather.html

SMTCapeCod

all the interest in black int. Ew.
I vote grey or tan. Or grey-green, of course.

Could start with the just a used/recovered pair of door inserts, they help a lot IMO.

Might as well vicariously re-engineer the new owner's car, right?

PC-85-928S

buy a new ground strap

Bill Ball

The interior appears to me to be in very good condition over all and easily made to look good as new without going whole hog replacement, which is monsterously expensive. I think once you mildly refurb it (repair any holes, clean, soften, simple wash application of color-matched dye to take care of any defects, such as from Leatherique) you will be very pleased. Regardless, mechanical review and refurb is higher priority for now. Diagnose and resolve the burning smell (it could be any of a number of things from common oil leaks onto the exhaust to something more complicated) and check out the usual suspects (rack bushings, motor mounts, other things well covered in other posts) as well as routine maintenance, but don't go overboard replacing things that are not needed - I'm still on my original torque tube bearings... and ground strap.

dcrasta

Im Jealous.

That car looks very very unmolested.. All of the interior pictures look like someone either took a very careful approach or never removed a lot of the interior.

I Agree with the posters that urge you to address the Timing belt issue and Fuel lines first. Car-be-ques are common with injected cars, and the 928 has a lot of underhood heat, and those rubber lines are dying to burst, and spray 36psi fountain on your hot exhaust parts. Address those two issues first.

Im concerned by the low compression, however after getting the timing belt and fuel lines sorted, more testing (possibly a leakdown test) should give you a clue on the cause of the varied #s.

In any case, you scored a hell of a deal (At least cosmetically) and IMHO these cars are harder to bring inline cosmetically than mechanically. Best of luck!

mazdaverx7

jealous is an understatement! even with the small things you are finding need attention, the car was still a stellar buy! for me its the perfect color combo...but i'm a little sick, lol. i really like the maroon interior and the garnet red exterior!

dogleg

well done on your purchase spend as much time on here as you can its invaluable free essential addive.you may have the bargain of the year there, time will tell!!

Tom in Austin

I'll join the chorus ... bought my GTS in 2007 sight-unseen and four years later it's becoming a pretty nice car. I was lucky enough to be close to Dallas, Roger and Sean and they've been a huge help in caring for the big & difficult stuff.

I piddle with endless small stuff - at my own pace - and with the help of the folks on this board it's all working out nicely.

Welcome aboard!

JPR928

Yup, that was a wise-buy. :-) I'm happy for you. Take good care of her. The paint is really nice!

Hilton

I wouldn't say the numbers are low for an 87 S4. The range is a little high - but I suspect carbon buildup in some cylinders raising the compression is the culprit.

I've compression tested both my 87 5-speed S4's and both are in the 165psi range (engine warm). From reading, this is because the early S4's aren't 10:1 compression - they have a deeper piston dish volume than later S4's and GT's - they're more like 9.4:1 (actually the factory spec range is 10:1 +0/-0.6). There was a piston change mid-way through 88MY to the high compression ones, where the dish volume on the pistons was reduced 5cc's. My 89 5-speed S4 with the higher compression pistons gives 185psi per cylinder.

After getting the timing belt and fuel lines done, a BG carbon clean would be a good idea.