4drgl

The skinny is... it makes me nervous to put all this work back together without doing headgaskets.... I always make it a habit to do headgaskets and a waterpump on everything I buy and drive before I put it on the road and it never lets me down... (vw mentality!!)

Car has sat for 3 years prior to me... Motor ran good before teardown for new seals b/c everything was leaking due to dry rotted seals.

Should I do headgaskets... It makes me nervous to put it all back together with original headgaskets, and have to take it all back apart again... I want to take it on some cruises this year... and DO NOT want the headgaskets to give up somewhere along the side of the road. As that would be the only weak link.

I do not plan on doing the water pump as it is not leaking, and advice so far has been, if it's not leaking don't touch it... b/c aftermarket pumps are hit or miss...

Advice please!
Thx

123quattro

I would replace the gaskets if they are the originals from 1980. My 84's gaskets were weaping a touch when I tore it down. The gaskets looked bad.

4drgl

With the cam covers off I can pull the heads with the engine in the car... right?? I don't visibly see any reason why I couldn't??

Tom in Austin

Some of the early cars used studs instead of bolts and people say those engines have to come out. Others opine that even with bolts it is 'preferred' to pull the engine. Apparently very high on the PITA scale to pull the head ... I found getting just the ^&*#^$ pass side cam cover off to be a PITA, but I guess everyone has their own scale ...

blown 87

Nope, I think your has head studs.

hacker-pschorr

You can remove the heads on any 928 with the engine still in the car. Even the 85/86's - friend of mine just finished up with one in his shop.

He also converted his S4 to studs and has removed the heads a couple of times without yanking the motor.

chewy8000

Do yourself a favor and take the motor out! I did the head gaskets a few years ago. It is a MAJOR pain in the *** in the car. Search my threads you can read all about it...

GlenL

I highly advised pulling the engine if it hasn't been apart in 5 or 10 years. It's not the heads that are the problem, it's the cam tower bolts. Hard to get access to them and they're often frozen.

Sailmed

Yes - you can - but do you want too?
Try repairing that damn cam cover stud just next to the shock tower on your 86.5.... AAArrrg!
I refuse to go farther then a TB change while leaving the engine in the car - it is quick to pull and replace. Not only does it make everything easy to work on, but you can get the engine compartment clean too!
Trust me - your back and fenders will thank you for it!
Where is Walt when ya need him?

4drgl

It does have head studs.

The cam towers are already off... I removed both sides with the engine in the car. It took a great deal of patience and caution but I did it. 5 hours for the driver side (including removal of the timing, accessory belts/pulley setup) and 3 for the passenger side. I'm pretty cautious with the alan bolts...

VW's are a good alan bolt example.

Both cam covers are off at powdercoat. the entire top and front of the motor has been disassembled and all hosing pulleys etc are removed or out of my way.

Seized bolts in the water bridge, and crud stuck everywhere... Found the green wire... (it wasn't green! greaseeee and oily...) Really dry rotted.

If time permitted I would glady pull the motor... then torque tube, R&R etc.... so on and so forth... So if I can pull the heads and do the gaskets with the engine in car I would like to just for my peace of mind.

The fenders, hood, and bumper are removed!

GlenL

Then you're in! Adding the head gaskets is a comparably quick effort from where you're at.

And 5 hours for one tower isn't unusual.

hacker-pschorr

With a 16V car getting the heads off is a piece of cake, the hard part is removing / installing the cam towers.

Since the towers are already off, it's a no-brainer. Yank the heads!!!

4drgl

Thankyou!

That's what I was hoping... I didn't want to put all my hard work in jeopardy because of a set of $100 head gaskets decided to take a vacation when I take it out in traffic!

Water pump is one thing... that's easy enough (relatively) to replace if it gives up... But the headgaskets... are deeply mired in a stuffed full engine bay. Of which 3/4's is already removed.

hacker-pschorr

There is an ongoing debate about re-using head nuts (I replaced mine) but you should never re-use the washers.

Also, the side of the washer that touches the block needs to be scorned with sand paper or something similar to keep it from spinning as you tighten the studs.

4drgl

Roger should be able to supply me with those goodies right??

I sent him an email asking for just about everything! I'll add the nuts/washers, green wire and headgaskets!

All I wanted for Christmas was no leaks, no grease, clean, pretty paint, and reliable.

It's no S4, but it's still a Porsche, and after that... well my bank account follows...

I would like to do a couple of the shows this year... Plan to drive it up to Keystone for the Porsche parade (innaugural run, after the breakin/breakdown period in May), and after that (depending upon it's reliability) going to Wustefest in Vegas with some fellow vw guys that welcomed the 928 with wide open arms, and my brother is rockin my 86 jetta with a vr6, or his corrado slc... if he ever gets it running!

Two builds, and three paint jobs... in 6 months... I'm takin a 6 month break from wrenching after these!