HoBoJoe

Well, i got my car back from the local porsche mechanic on friday... I'm very excited as my car has been gone for an entire business week... New rod bearings, oil pan baffle kit, and NO MORE oil leak! So i'm going towards work, and the car runs very roughly before about 2k, i'm thinking maybe she needs to warm up... So i let the car get nice and warm before attempting to go into boost... As soon as i start to hit boost the car just doesn't have any power, and hesitates... It builds boost but you couldn't tell other then the hesitating feeling you get from the motor... Well i get the car home, the bypass valve is loose on both connections, fix that, then the car won't start... Now this is when i got pissed... So turns out my reference sensor connector is broken so it came loose... Rigged that to stay together, and thought now the car should run right... ugh, i was wrong... Well my mechanic said to bring it in on tuesday, because they are closed for the weekend of course... Also, between 2k when the car starts to run normal, and boost, it runs great...

SO i think the timing is off... I've never check the timing in the car, what is the easiest way to do it, i don't want to take more off the car then i have to.. I see an inspection hole on the end of the camshaft housing next to the cap... do i have to remove anything, or just look in there and down at the crank??? Any help or advice would be great... Thanks guys...

Ski

Take a 24mm socket, with a 3" extension and 1/2" drive ratchet so that you can rotate the engine with the crankshaft front bolt. The opening in the cam gear cover, just above and right of the distributor cap, look for the indented LINE marking on the cam gear, under the timing belt, to line up with the tab at the back cover; at the same time, underneath the car, there is about a 5mm spot on the flywheel, that should be at the opening in the bell housing. You can look through the top of the bell housing, by the speed/reference sensors to see if you can spot OT but I doubt it.

It helps to have two people; one to rotate and one to look. The bell housing, get that aligned, then check the cam gear mark.

Tom M'Guinn

To change the oil pan gasket, the mechanic had to take a lot of stuff off the motor. It sounds like he did not shake down the car after putting it back together -- since there were loose hoses and fittings. I doubt your timing is off. There is no need to play with the cam belt or cam timing when replacing the oil pan gasket. Ignition timing is not adjustable in stock configuration. Sounds more likely that your engine position sensors have a bad connection or that there are still vacuum leaks from untightened hoses. Bigger vacuum leaks will make make low rpm and boost situations run poorly, because the leak probably has the biggest impact on a/f ratios in those situations. I would not be too happy with the mechanic that returned your car in this state before a 3-day weekend.

HoBoJoe

Actually they did the timing belt and balance belt... I forgot to add that in... My question is, why did they have the intake manifold off???

turbo8

to take the oil pan off you have to take the cross over pipe off, and to take the cross over pipe off you have to take the intake manifold off.

if you dont mind do you think you could pm me and tell me how much you paid for all that, i was thinking about taking mine to a shop for all that since i dont have that much time to do it myself

Tom M'Guinn

Re removing the intake...what turbo8 said...

You can check that the belt is properly positioned by making sure the mark on the cam sprocket (as seen throught the dime sized hole next to the distributor cap) lines up with its mark at the same time as the flywheel TDC mark lines up (as viewed by looking straight down the rear center of the motor). I bet it is on properly, but that there are other loose vacuum connections. Just a hunch.

Danno

Also check the big intake-hoses coming out of the turbo and connecting the intercooler pipes. A loose hose-clamp would let you run just fine at lower-RPMs and low-boost. But as soon as you open it up, the hoses would open up and cause a big leak and stumbling.

HoBoJoe

Thanks for all the replies everyone.. I'm going to start taking the intake hoses and things off and checking them.. the only connection i havn't been able to check is the j-boot where it connects to the turbo.. What gets me is that it runs like crap til 2k, then it runs normal, then once you go out of vaccum it runs like crap again... ugh, at least it wasn't a really nice day today! haha