Terry Adams

2ndof2, on my previous '87, at 116K miles, I went from 1 qt per 800 when the first puffs of grey smoke appeared to about 1 qt per 400 when it was belching like an old diesel. Did a top end for about $6K. Piston heads looked like my BBQ. My mechanic attributed this to lots of stop and go traffic.

CAHRERA

Terry,

Have you had the any topend work done on the C2S? .........Knock on wood, I hope not. You're the only one giving me hope that if you just drive your car on long runs you won't have the SAI fault. When I drive my C2S I always try to make sure I get it out on the Freeway.

Terry Adams

No problems with the S. I spend almost no time idling in hot traffic. Chevron gas, bottle of Techron on an almost empty tank, drive the boogie out of it for one tankful, get an oil change. Repeat every 5K miles. Well, drive the boogie out of it between oil changes as well.

2ndof2

I'm one of the fortunate ones who doesn't spend a whole lot of time in stop/go traffic. I lucky that I go against the traffic flow rolling from SB to Ventura every day and can keep it revved up. (I usually have to decide if going 65-70 in 6th is running the RPMs to low) My main concern is CHP and their airplane who have nabbed me in my 928 twice (once got off with a warning). I believe the PO definately spent his share of time in stop/go since the car came from somewhere in the Valley near 101 & 405 freeways. Thats about as bad stop/go as you'll find plus lots of high temperatures in the summer months over there. All that aside, I think its likely I don't have excessive valve guide wear with my car and that it may be that the PO's city driving may have clogged things up a little. Just going to monitor the oil consumption for a while then decide if and where to take it to have the SAI ports cleaned out (see other thread).

mborkow

my SAI ports were clogged and i was not burning any oil. i think 65-70 in 6th gear is too low. i won't shift to 6th until 80 (which means my 6th gear will last forever), just my 2 cents.

Arrwin

Great. You guys are both giving me hope. Let's hope it's on a color by color basis.

2ndof2

mborkow,
You didn't say if you've ever had the ports cleared or top-end work done. If so, same questions apply....when etc......
Did you guys (who had this procedure done) conclude that there wasn't excessive valve guide wear by having the valves examined for play or was this purely based upon low oil consumption?
Still waiting for a call back from that shop you guys recommended.

mborkow

i had a top end rebuild early last summer before the procedure to "clean" the ports had been posted on p-car. i tried techron (based on readings in this forum) but that didn't work. i took it to a few garages and they all said the same thing: top end rebuild. to my knowledge there was nothing else wrong with the car; i wish i had known there was going to be a procedure to resolve the problem for $1000s less.

2ndof2

mborkow,
I just spoke to the shop the guys referenced above. They basically said that a current SAI fault is likely to result in a CEL eventually over time. Also told me with 8 past SAI faults being reset, car may have possibly had a top-end rebuild (possible, but I don't have records to tell). His final words of advice were be sure to check the play in the valves before going down the path of a SAI clean-out or its just good money after bad. He also suggested changing the check valves when doing my 60K mile service which is 7500 miles from now. Will definately follow his advice. Everyone agrees around here that valve guides are the achilles heel on these cars, so the fact that you did the repair isn't so bad in the end. Chances are the guides may have been pretty bad. How bad is "too bad" is up to debate I suppose.