LostInSpace

I’ve owned this 1990 GT in the UK since 2007 and have enjoyed it immensely. I bought the car knowing it was in good, but not great condition. Everything worked, but various parts were showing signs of wear commensurate with 24 years of use in all weather conditions. The car has approx. 86,000 miles on it.

The motor started pressurising the coolant reservoir, further investigation indicated a head gasket failure was likely. I’ve also been building a list of general maintenance and some minor upgrades planned and the time has come to get into this list of work. Whilst attending to these maintenance issues, I also wanted to take the time to clean and refurbish as necessary along with any WYIAT’s.

Inspired by various restoration and modification threads, I’ll use this thread to document the refurbishment, upgrades, trials, tribulations and fun I hope to have over the coming months. I’m estimating somewhere between 6-12 months to complete the project.

List of jobs to do:

Engine:
Head gasket
Colin’s cam’s, 24lb injectors
Balance rotating assembly
Oil control – windage tray, Accusump, etc
Motor mounts
New radiator
X-Pipes and 2.5” dual exhaust

Suspension:
New shocks all round
Replace bushings as needed

Drive train:
Torque tube bearings
Transmission seals
Clutch release bearing
Shifter linkages

Brakes:
Replace flexible lines
New discs
33bar pressure valve

Misc:
Clean engine bay and underside of car – oil, fluid leaks, road grime etc.
Remove cooling flaps

Tuesday night is designated for 928 activities along with any other time I can grab. I’m in no particular hurry, life and work demands will influence available time and the in-laws are over from New Zealand for six weeks from mid-June – not sure if that will mean more or less 928 time….

Current Status:

The car was moved into a rented garage several months ago in preparation for the project. Prior to this, I had prepped the motor for pulling by removing the intake manifold, engine and AC radiators, air pump, alternator, PS pump and as much of the ancillaries in the engine bay as possible. Once in the garage, the brakes, front suspension and steering were all removed, along with the exhaust system and heat shields.

With the help of another 928 owner, the motor was removed on Saturday. With the various parts already removed and in no particular hurry, we got the motor out in four hours. The starter couldn’t be removed due to both bolts refusing to budge, despite the usual methods. We were able to lever the clutch arm off the top pivot and removed the engine with the clutch and starter attached.



We had planned to inspect the timing belt and water pump, but the crank pulley bolt wasn’t interested in moving and claimed the life of an old torque wrench…



I need to take more photo’s as things happen.

I’m really enjoying the work and wish there were more hours in the day/week/month to spend on the 928 – Probably not alone in that!

SeanR

Cool project, keep us updated with lots of pictures.

LostInSpace

Off on a (related) tangent already!

The suspension on the GT was original and knackered, not to mention heavily rusted, so replacement will be necessary. I’ve ridden in several 928’s with upgraded suspension and generally found them to still be unacceptably harsh or limited operating windows – e.g. 928 Motorsports Koni’s work well on smooth high speed environments (track days) but lacked the damping performance for real world use on less than perfect road surfaces.

I’ve been researching shock manufacturers and their offerings for the last year or so and found several companies I was interested in and approached for solutions. None of them had existing kits for a 928 and whilst there is nothing specifically difficult about the requirements, only two were interested and able to make the mounts and any other custom parts needed.

I’ve chosen to go with Quantum Racing, a small UK company that are conveniently located close to me. Quantum have a long history in supplying shocks to various types of racing cars, particularly single seaters and more recently in the Lotus world. They’re becoming more active in the aftermarket road market and offer both a quality product and staff who will work with me to provide a genuine fast road suspension kit and not a racing kit for a road car.

Having established a fast road kit is the target, I now need to provide info to work out the required damping and spring rates along with mounting. The shocks will be a monotube design, single adjustable (combined bump and rebound adjustment), re-valvable and inverted.

The following info is needed to work out the damping/valving and spring rates:
Corner weights
Unsprung weight
Leverage ratio
Wheel travel, specifically normal ride height to max compression

I’ll use the GT which is now up on axle stands to work out the travel ratios and then remove parts as necessary to weigh. I’m hoping someone’s got some corner weight info they can share for S4/GT/GTS cars?

Mounting hardware and options will be dependent on space, based on photo’s I’ve supplied we don’t anticipate any issues give the size of the OEM units.

Approximate cost will be £2500 pounds. Certainly not cheap, but not silly expensive either and I believe an acceptable price/performance balance.

I’ve recently bought a 93 GTS manual and will run the new shocks on this until the GT is ready for re-assembly.

Once the fitment and road testing is done, it’s likely this will be available as a kit. I’ll revisit this at a later date.

LostInSpace

Certainly will and I will have plenty of questions for the community once this really gets going.

For anyone undertaking any project, one thing I will say is bag and tag ALL the parts you remove - it's saved me a couple of times already.

hopwood

Hi there,

amazing project! Whereabouts in the UK are you?

Cheers,

Joel
'79 manual hot rod (4.7 S2 engine, S4 brakes+suspension, many many mods)
'79 manual track car (4.5)

Adamant1971

You will need a 3/4 socket for the crank bolt, and a long bar and or toque multiplier.

LostInSpace

Hi Joel,

I'm in West Sussex, I think we spoken once at Tilford a few years ago.

It'll definitely be fun and I know there will be a few challenges along the way too.

hopwood

Cool, I'm in west Kent / Sussex border. I'm off work for the next couple of months so if you need a hand with anything I'd love to pop by. I'm not much good with a spanner but will bring beer and a large fund of 928 stories..

Tom in Austin

Sean should post a pic of his "big-*** wrench", it's approximately as long as he is tall IIRC, and it was quite a sight when he tightened my crank bolt with one hand while holding a wine glass in the other ...

major dad

Looking forward to following this thread having last month bought a 1990 GT, same car as this. Already spent 20% of the purchase price on a new rad and hoses.

928 GT R

You are going to love that car when it is rolling again…

Have fun!