NormD

How difficult a job is a timing belt job on a 86 928... any special tools needed.

I did my 944 Turbo years ago

Thanks
Norm

Wisconsin Joe

How skilled are you? It's not all that hard, but it can get involved.

Flywheel lock and Kempf tool for setting the belt tension are the only "special" tools I can think of. Porken's bumpstick & 32vr tools make setting the cams a lot easier, but they aren't absolutley necessary.

Dwayne's writeup is good, although it's for the S4 (lots of similarities) Scott Yoo has one for the 86.5 here:
http://www.scott-yoo.com/other/tb.html

NormD

Thanks was a good write up, looks pretty straight forward.

docmirror

Billions of words written, and pics, and video, and real time help here. If you can do a 951, you can do a 928. Few minor things diff. It's all the WYAIT other things like water pump, oil gear, cam gears, tensioner, etc. Search and you will find lots of reading.

linderpat

Key tools are the flywheel lock tool, and the Kempf tensioning tool (http://www.jdsporsche.com/cambelt.html).

davek9

And also LOT O $, if you need all the parts that typical are worn out and have not been replaced.

Cam, Oil and Crank Gears, Water pump, guide pulleys, Tensioner (serviced), and pivot arm plastic bushings, I've never seen one that only needed a new belt.

Best way is to plan down time, dissemble, clean and inspect for what needs to be replaced, order parts and reassemble and adjust

bureau13

This job took me about five weeks of mostly-weekend work. I started a thread here and posted any questions I had where I got stuck, along with pics, etc. Just be patient and methodical, check here if you're not sure about something, and you should be fine. As stated above, you won't necessarily know what all you need to buy until you break it down a bit and can see the status of some of the parts.

Mattman928

I literally just finished the project. The first time took me about 8 hours total, now that I have done it I could probably repeat in about 5 or 6 hours. it was straight forward, just LABEL everything!!! Dwayne's trick of having a ziploc bag for the parts you take out was very useful.

Also, while you are at it, replace the Hall sensor (Back of passenger cam gear) if you haven't replaced yet.

Good luck, and remember we are all out here if you get stuck!

syoo8

No hall sensor on an '86...

davek9

Yep no HALL, and 5 to 6 hrs "if" the replacement parts are on-hand, and no rusted WP bolts in block that need to be tapped, etc.
Always an adventure for sure

Taguid

Just be careful if you break any bolts and get Dremel drunk and have to pull the engine to get the block repaired after cutting into the water pump gasket sealing area. Thankfully welded area by a skilled aluminum artist and all seals well for a year now. Other than that I just followed Dwayne's awesome write-up and it was quite easy but time consuming. This is the third time I pull the engine to remove all A/C lines to get repaired.( I know not really necessary but so much easier to access all the lines.)

bureau13

I recommend, as others on here have (maybe not all) breaking those water pump bolts loose with an impact driver. I was going to, but the first came loose pretty easily by hand...then I broke one. AARRGH. Well, I got to learn how to use a time cert, and those things are cool. But I used the impact driver on the rest of them, with no problems.

black04

Wow. Lots of advice.

If you did your 944 you can do the 928. Like the dealer told me in 1983, "the 944 motor is like half of a 928". So I bought a 1979 928

I did my 79 timing belt, drove it another 50k miles and did it again.

No special tools. Just a little ingenuity and the thumb and forefinger to adjust the belt. The mechanic at the dealer showed me on a car he was doing. (they did 928 t-belts every week back in the mid-80's)

No parts other than the belt

....Oh yeah, I spent $250 on the OEM Service Manual. Of course that was before the internet.

SeanR

Very, very poor advice.

davek9

Yeah the "twist" method is not a good way to adjust a T Belt on a 928.

However on an old 16 valve non-interference engine, no real harm if things go south quickly.
On a 32v not so, it gets very expensive in a few seconds