Steve in FL

Toby: Perhaps you were thinking of VarioCam Plus which adds the ability to change valve lift in addition to the timing change aspect of VarioCam? That system does need hydraulic lifters to vary the lift.

Toby Pennycuff

Steve,

You may very well be correct. By no means do I claim any mechanical expertise. It's just hard for me to imagine that Porsche would engineer a car to the degree of the Carrera GT and then require periodic valve train adjustments.

Guess it's time for more research!

Toby

Les Quam

Toby,
I am with you , I can't believe Porsche would build a car requiring valve adjustments. What does your Porsche tech say about this issue?

ben in lj

"What does your Porsche tech say about this issue?"

PAG told me at the factory that it should be appx every 40k KMs.

Les Quam

Ben,
I am not the sharpest tool in the shed , so how many miles does 40,000 KMs equal out to?

ben in lj

about 25k or every 10 years or so for me :-)

M758

Guys... Solid lifters are common on race motors. Simply by using a solid lifter you can rev the engine much higher. Hydraulic lifters use the oil to keep the lifter tight and therefore the connction between camshaft and valve tight. Problem is that at some point they do not respond fast enough and they become a liability. Good thing about these things is that they automatically maintian a constant pressure between the valve and the camshaft.

Solid lifter don't suffer from high rpm floating like hydraulic lifters. They also to not self asjust. What happens is that wear of the lifter to cam surface occurs over time and thus that gap changes on worn lifter. Hydraulics can compensate for this, but solid's can't. So you must manually adjust the valves at mileage intervales to ensure the proper cam to lifter top clearance.

W8MM

As a matter of interest, I was in Atlanta at the PCNA service technician training center to see if I would fit in the wide-option seats fitted to the training CGT.

The tech trainers told me that the fluid leak in Tim Allen's CGT was very easy to fix. After the time to remove the bottom panels, the fix took all of 5 minutes and it WAS NOT required to separate the transmission from the engine to make it right.

Inquiring minds, I'm sure, wanted to know.

Les Quam

Mike,
It's a hand built half million dollar car. My inquring mind however feeble it may be would like to know why the fitting was not torqued correctly in Germany.
As a point of comparison my 1970 Shelby with 110,000 miles is still not leaking a "fluid" on the original unopened motor, trans and hoses.
But that Shelby only cost 5400 at Johnny Bolten Ford in Maitland florida in April of 1970. Built in USA baby!!!!

W8MM

I'll bet your Shelby wasn't one of the first dozen production cars of its type ever built, either. How long had Ford been making Mustangs when yours rolled off the line?

Next, you'll be telling me you had a Cosworth Vega that, apart from a little rust, was the cat's meow.

ben in lj

"As a point of comparison my 1970 Shelby with 110,000 miles is still not leaking a "fluid" on the original unopened motor, trans and hoses."

yeah, and i bet no 1970 shelby has ever leaked oil. les you are committing a common logical fallacy. the exception does not make the rule and the rule is not invalidated by the exception.

Les Quam

Mike,
No cosworth vega, but I did stuff an LT 1 in a vega and it ran better than an 11.35 in the quarter mile. Hows that for logic Ben? Without any fluid leaks!

None of which explains why a fitting was not tightened properly on a 446,000 dollar car. Boy Mike you are really giving me some great flashbacks with that vega. Now their was a car eh?

adrial

Les,

Who said it was a fitting?

M758

Les.... Just because the car is 446k does not mean a fitting could not be loose. That is really poor logic.

It is ture that a the fitting or whatever was leaking should not be, but the fact that one did leak does not mean all CGT's are crap.

In fact on a hand made car I'd EXPECT more variation and inconsistancy. People do make mistakes and spreign $446k does make that go away.

The reason the car cost $446 due to 4 things
1) Cost for parts and hardware - Much more than typical car
2) Cost for Labor to put it all together - Probably more most car, but probably less than some others that much less expensive
3) Porsche and dealer profit margin
4) Design/Engineering cost ammortization = Probably HUGE
5) Marketing costs

So ... Even in the world of Multi millon dollar mechical devices like aircraft and jet engines fittings can be loose. Just because you spend XXX does not mean no problems will result. Alot of the reason you spend XXX has nothing to with product assembly.

Les Quam

I HAVE NEVER SAID ALL OR EVEN ONE CGT IS CRAP!!!!!

I have repeatedly said I think they are the best sportscar on this planet bar none. It seems to me that Porsche is building too many of them, is making the customer eat too much R and D cost and does not generate enough HP.

However it seems to me with a car this important to Porsche that more quality control would have been exercised to avoid the leak problems Tim Allen encountered. I find it surprising based on owning so many Porsche's over the years that the leak was not found before it was delivered to Mr. Allen. I am not impressed thus far with the CGT quality control in light of the fact that Labcars has had window and AC issues with his week old CGT.
Porsche has been building A/C and power windows for quite some time. Why doesn't Labcar Les have a trouble free half million dollar car?