fbarnhill

Stan,
With your help and that of many of the people here on this list, I finally got my 86.5 running pretty well today. I especialy want to thank you for spending the time with me on the phone before I started the rebuild. I took 3 pages of notes and adheared to every single one of them. I believe the bottom end of this engine is bullet proof and thanks to you, I feel pretty good about the heads also. As you probably saw, I had one hell of a time getting it running. It fired up the first time, idled well and sounded pretty good except that it was loud as hell with lots of bearing and lifter noise. I turned it off, removed the fender covers, topped off the oil and water, opened the garage door ready to do fr a drive and it just wouldn't restart. Finally after much work and many new parts, I removed both computers, took them up to my office, re-soldered many places that looked under the magnifing glass that they may had come loose and put them back together. I ordered half dozen 53 relays from roger and since the kickdown relay was so expensive, I pulled it, opened it up, cleaned the points with some fine emory paper, put it back together, re-assembled everything and it fired right up. Now it ran like crap until replaced the replacment wiring harness with one I got from another sharkster that was in great shape. I also found that one of the boots had bent up into the tube instead of going over it on the bottom side. I finished those jobs today. She fired right up, idles just fine but a bit low and man does she have wayyyy more power than my 79. I still have a ton of other jobs to do to it but with what I consider a new engine, I intend to get her in shape to drive for the next 20 years.

Stan, you go out of your way to help people here on this list and I have never heard you 'flame' anyone. I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me. If I am ever in a position to return the favor, all you have to do is ask. We are moving to the beach soon so why don't you and your family plan a trip to NC? I will provide a place to stay and probably promise some pretty good weather.

Thanks again,
Frank Barnhill

PS: Thanks also to Roger at 928s RUS, Miles and Connie at 928 Motorsportsa for great service and for answering so many stupid questions, and all the rest of you guys out there. I am so glad you are here and that we share the love of ths great car.

PorKen

Good job!


If you like the power now, just imagine that after that '86.5 is fully tuned and running well, you may have another 40-50 HP/TQ under your foot.


The idle speed screw is at the front of the throttle body. You'll need a 7mm socket on an extension. Adjust CCW until the idle settles down nicely (not dropping low and recovering harshly) when you lift the throttle.

fbarnhill

Ken, I am getting it ready for your chips and x pipe. You said to get it running perfectly first then do the other stuff. I have all new dampners along with the 87 FPR. I am taking it to Ray twards the end of next week. He is the best around. After that, you will be getting an order from me. I can't wait. This car is not as nice as promised. The guy told me on the phone that it was almost perfect except for the bent valves... I won't be believing that one again without seeing it for myself. I need to go through the brakes, I think it will be needing a rack and something is causing a death warble between 60 and 80. Hoping it is just a wheel out of ballance. It will be a beautifull car when I get done with it. I am hopeing that someday you will share your headlight stuff with me. I mean show me how you did it. It would be nice to clean that up and get rid of all that weight.

I love the power of this thing already, I can see a long friendship developing...

fst951

Stan the man is a real treasure for this list and 928s in general.

No finer guy anywhere. Hard worker, meticulous, and considerate. Damn I wish I could hire that guy. Oh thats right, I already had and I miss him dearly. Nice job Stosh.

Nite.

UncleMaz

This.

Mrmerlin

Frank thanks so much for your kind words and i am glad that your getting closer to perfection with your project,
Kens chipset will really make the car rock as well as fitting an X pipe from Motorsport in Utah.
Garrity and Micheal ...well thank you,
I am glad to have an opportunity to to assist others , Keep Em Flying !!!

fbarnhill

Stan,
I am working twards the x-pipe. Looked at the supspension today for the first time since I can now actually drive it and was pretty satisfied with what I found. Needs break pads/sensors but other than that I could get not much movment out of any of the suspension parts in any of the wrong directions. It has blue Boge's in the front and black ones in the rear. I got excited at first thinking they might be Bilsteins but, no luck. One thing that amazed me was that the rear sway bar links were not bent in any shape or form. I have never seen them on a car this old that were actually straight. They have the same crud as the hubs and other parts in the same area so I don't think they have been changed. I am trying to chase down a death rattle above 60. I found no easy answer so I am hopeing that it is just a wheel weight that has fallen off. This poor car has had some cruel owners in the past. That is all I will say about that. She will be well cared for from this point forward.

fbarnhill

One other thing Stan,
Is that your p51? I would die to have just a short ride in one before I die. I would not hesitate to drive a couple thousand miles to do so either....

I truely believe that the p51 D is the most beautiful of all WWII American aircraft. I have seen them perform at several shows by the Confederate Air Force and they are just awsome. One show we had in Greensboro had a P51D, an ME109 and a Spitfire. What a combo.

Mrmerlin

Frank I do not own any P51s only a strong desire to one day fly one, and own one.

As for the rattle how old are the tires?
if old its time to replace them,
old is over 5 years

tmpusfugit

[QUOTE=fbarnhill;9309744] This car is not as nice as promised. The guy told me on the phone that it was almost perfect except for the bent valves... I won't be believing that one again without seeing it for myself. /QUOTE]

A couple of us visited this car before you bought it, and we published our opinions here on Rennlist. The owner had described the car to us as "near perfect" other than the bent valves...our opinion was a bit different....maybe disinterested 3rd parties with some technical knowledge should be trusted more than owners of a car for sale?

"The car is in decent shape, but the engine compartment is a mess, very dirty a really bad intake paint job that is flaking off. Paint is a bit rough, but might clean up. Driver's seat has a tear. Odometer shows 79k, but it is not working and the current owner doesn't know how long it's been out. Not much history at all since the owner has only had it 1.5 years. The windshield has a crack. Lots of oil on the underside as though the engine has never be resealed. Wheels are stocks that have been chromed and look ok. It does run but barely.
__________________
Yeah, we looked it over pretty well, at least at a cursory level. It needs whatever the engine problem is resolved; at some substantial cost. It is not clear that the engine can be saved, either yes or no will be expensive. Either replacement engine or several new valves, new rubber throughout, repair the intake, new head gaskets, etc. Transmission is an unknown but owner says OK. Odometer does not work so mileage is well over 79k. Windshield has crack. Paint is questionable on much of the car, but not "bad", just may need some attention and some repaint. No sign the flex plate has been checked in a very long time for movement and possible TBF issues. Needs MM. Rack looked to be leaking on drivers end. Tires have at least 50% tread but age of the tires was not checked, nor did I look for cracks in the rubber. The engine and undercarriage and transmission are all grease encased....shocks looked original and certainly suspect. AC unknown but "needs recharged" per the owner. Belts on engine all need replaced, belly pans missing.

The car is too good to part out, but one would have a lot of hours in it, as well as perhaps $7500 to make a decent but a lot less than perfect $5000 car...."

Benton

Frank,

It's music to my ears to hear the 928 (and you) are up and running well! I will get back to you on that email very shortly. Go grab a cold one; you deserve it!

fbarnhill

Thanks Stan, I will check the age. I got the problem fixed now and it is pretty smoothe.

Jim, I read and appreciated your comments about the car and they were 'spot on'. You guys did one hell of a job checking it over. The reason I was bitching about it was that I spoke with the PO on the phone half dozen times, he and his wife too. He just sounded to be an upstanding guy and I liked him. I was just a little disappointed that my read on him was wrong. Or, maybe he believed what he said. I was discussing that with Mark Anderson this morning, we don't all see 'great' the same way. For some people, if it runs it is great, for others, nothing but perfection gets the lable. The engine stuff didn't bother me as I already had a 55k mile engine that I was going to lightly rebuild and was going to clean the engine bay at the same time. That job is now done except that the rebuild turned into a total one. So much the better for me. I got it in the air last night and thoroughly checked the suspension and it is also in pretty good condition. I calculated the probable mileage as somewhere near 100k. This estimate came from usage before the odo broke and the carfax history report. I will be fixing the odo and correcting the mileage at the same time. I am also installing the new white face gauges that are just beautiful. So, it looks like the rest of my work is going to be dealing with the cosmetics. The brakes were excellent but needed pads and fluid changed. The transmision needs the 2-3rd gear shift repair and I am researching that now. I wanted an 86.5 and I feel like I got it for the right price. It is going to make a great car when finished. I used you guys PPI as an estimate for approx budget. I have already gone over it about 2.5k but I will have a well sorted 86.5 with a newly rebuilt engine that looks nice, for somewhere around 7-8k when frinished. There was a personel reason that I bought a project. I have an illness that is trying to take away all the things that I love to do in life. No damn tear jerkers, just facts. This rebuild has taken me many months to complete but every day I got to work on it was a day that I won the battle. I intend to continue to win that battle. I want to go run the Texas mile and all the others I can find over the next few years. I will be damned if I am going to lay down and let life pass me by because I hurt to badly to get up.

Mark, I will come see you one of these days after Anne gets to the point where I can leave her for a few hours. Have you got the motor in the race car yet?

fbarnhill

Jim,
I just re-read your post and noticed that your projected number of 7500 was just about perfect. And you are right, it will not be perfect. However, I have a friend that owns a body shop that does some pretty good paint on some nice show cars. He showed me a black 55 ford pickup one day that the paint looked 10 feet deep. He told me that If I will come with the car to the shop, help remove bumpers, windows etc and do what I can with some of the prep, he will paint the car for 1100.00. I told him I would jump on that in a quinstant. (3 times faster than an instant). I will probably at least break it in for a few months before getting into that. Maybe next fall will be a good time. This is the same guy that loaned me the engine hoist for I think 3 - 5 months and wouldn't let me pay him a cent for it. Now this gentleman is hispanic that barely speaks english. and I will tell you that the word gentleman fits him well. He is smart, one of the nicest people you will ever meet, very generous with his time and one of the hardest working people I have ever met. I feel privilaged to call him friend.

tmpusfugit

Frank, it is great you saved the car, I certainly would have like to have bought it myself but have one too many projects right now. And that project may be worse than a 928, but that is a another story... both Don and I were a bit taken aback by the owners phone description versus our first hand observations. And to your point, I think he thought it was "great". Compared to another black 928 I looked at just up the road from him, it was great. That may have been his point of reference.

And regarding Stan, the whole community owes him a big thank you for all he does for all of us....without him, Landseer, Dr.Bob, Dwayne, and about 10 others of similar dedication my car would not be on the road at all...and Roger, Mark, and Mark B......