Portola Valley Garage told me when they last saw my car (they installed the Rennshifter in November and changed the fluids) that I had oil leaking from:

Both lower valve cover gaskets, (wait till adjust valves)
Cam housing covers ( have to remove engine to do this, wait till tune up)
Left cam housing oil line seals
Slight seepage from main oil lines

They also recommended fixing the oil leaks when I decided to get the tune-up.

Which would involving 8-10 hours of valve tuning (need to take engine out or drop the exhaust) at which point they recommended doing the "Bermuda triangle" too, which is the oil cooler seals, oil thermostat seal, oil pressure switch.

This work estimate was $1,300!?

None of this of course, has anything to do with my new electrical problems.

I need triage advice.

Andy, Jon W. you've driven the car....I want her back to dependable driving condition. Is all this other tune-up work necessary?

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Oh ya, not sure what cams I have in my engine. I think it's 2.2S stock. John Larson? You put this engine in, what's she got?

Hi, Gwen. It should take an experienced tech no more than 2 hours to adjust the valves on your car. Removing the exhaust or removing the drivetrain is NOT necessary, nor is either technique cost effective. The cam oil lines are cheap and easily done in the car, and it's unlikely resealing the cam boxes is gonna be of much benefit. 2.0-2.7 mag case motors tend to seep from anywhere there's a junction. Bigger motors are worse, but they ALL leak. The suction and return lines date from the time of the engine installation, and shouldn't be bad. If they are, GPR can replace the rubber portions of the lines for a reasonable price. Oil cooler seals? RARELY necessary. 2.2S cams. The Cap'n

Thanks! I'm not a mechanic but I want to be knowledgeable. I hate being taken advantage of. What he was telling me seemed extreme.

Probably shouldn't have this shop mucking with my car, huh?

Who should I take my car to up here these days?

Reitmeirs Werkstat. Family owned repair facility in Los Altos.
they do most German Cars....
Jeff knows the older Porsches very very well.

On 1st St., right across the street from Draeger's.

Is this him?

Reitmeir's Werkstatt
Jeff Reitmeir
309 First Street
Los Altos, CA 94022

Phone (650) 941-4331
Fax (650) 941-4914
www.rw-inc.com


Has he worked on you car? Is he well versed in conversions? or doesn't it matter?

James, do you 2nd Dan's recommendation?

James? Dan? Have you had your cars worked on by this shop?

Just talked to Jeff and he says he's swamped for at least 2 weeks.

He recommended I take my car to Tony Heyer or Dave Modderman.

They've never worked on my car before, but their shops are close to my home.

Anyone had them work on their 914? Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

I've never gone there (I'm my own mechanic), but he has a good rep. You might also try CT Automotive in Campbell (or San Jose, around there). They seem like good people, did a PPI on my 912 for the buyer and seemed fair. They had a couple of 914/6 conversions in the shop when I was there, so they know them.

If I go back to Campbell might as well give it back to Jerry Woods It's not so close to home though....

Curious that no one on the board will vouch for shops around here...

James, how are you at fixing electrical gremlins?

Most of the board people in the Bay Area seem to do most or all of their own work. Hence, very little experience with shops. You might ask on a 911 board, esp. since you have a 911 engine, anyway.

At the moment, I'm really good at creating electrical gremlins. I took a look at your car when it was at the Tied House with Jon, but nothing jumped out at me. I didn't look at the dash wiring very closely, though. I'd be happy to try some troubleshooting for you. The main question at the moment is time. I'm doing 10 hour days a work for the next couple of weeks, and am trying to get my 914 done enough to make an event on the 9th. If you can wait until the weekend after the 9th (um, 16th/17th/18th), I'll likely have more time to look at things. San Mateo is almost as far as Campbell, though. I'd only charge a free drive of your car, though.

Dave Modderman would *probably* take it on. Just not sure how many 914's he wants to do nowadays.

TonyH has a new building he is supporting.. you might try him. Tony has more experience in the early cars that DaveM (only because Tony is older)

B

So will I be supporting his new building too?

I'm trying to get my 914 done for the WCC on the 9th too, so I guess I'll have to pass on your offer this time

Brad and I did some probing before he left on Monday. Didn't see anything obvious other than maybe the corrosion on the distibutor wires and at the relay board connector. MSD related? Maybe? Got the car to start with the coil unplugged. It died 2 blocks later and wouldn't restart though... Andy said it started right up later that evening when they moved it into Yeamans building.

Why not Rich?

Not happy with the way our last bit of business was conducted

Okey Dokey...

The stop, wait, restart later thing sounds like a heat problem to me. How new is the MSD box? Could this have started with the installation of that box? If so, I'd suspect it. It gets hot, and stops working. It cools down, it works again.

The MSD box is going on 2 or 3 years in the car.

OK, second idea is it's a connection in the ignition that's heat-sensitive. It's rare, but I've seen cases of heat growth breaking a marginal connection, which "reconnects" cold.

I don't know enough about how an MSD box is wired to give explicit directions off the top of my head, but I'd check various connections with a meter when it's in the "not running" state. I'd need to look up MSD wiring first.

btw, when I said the 9th, I meant JUNE 9th (I have a non-WCC event that weekend), not July 9th, when WCC is coming up. I can help you out in two weeks, so you should be able to make WCC (assuming I can find the problem).

Well you said you were busy... I'm out of the first 3 weekend of June. Thanks for the ideas James. Jon did replace the ignition switch with his switch. Might the heat/connection be coming from there?

I just called Tony H. and will bring the car to him next Weds.

I told him about the MSD and his response was "oh boy..."

Then he asked how attached I was to the MSD because he said there are "easier ways". He had another call to take so I couldn't delve further.

So now I want to be prepared for that future discussion.

What's he talking about?

And why wouldn't I want to have an "easier" ignition system'?

It's my general purpose recreational hot wheels car (street, AX, track events).

What's the purpose of the CD box (ala MSD)?

What happens if my car doesn't have one?

What are the alternatives?

A CDI box gives you a "hotter" spark, by dumping the coil voltage from a charged capacitor, rather than just the slower charge up via the points. In the real world (not the marketing world), this mostly reduces plug fouling, and MAY in some cases, help the plug to fire more consistently under high compression. It also reduces the current flowing through the points dramatically, which helps them live a lot longer. A Crane/Pertronix/whatever breakerless ignition will do the same thing, w/o the hotter spark bit.

I ran a 2.4 for nearly a year with no CDI box of any kind, just the usual points/condensor setup. Other than the fact that the engine leaked like the Exxon Valdez, no problems. However, this was a 2.4T, and with the higher compression of an S, it's possible you'd see some misfire problems w/o a CDI.

An MSD (multiple spark discharge), Mallory HyFire, or other similar box supposedly provides multiple sparks at engine speeds below 3,000 rpm as opposed to a single spark provided by conventional ignitions. They also provide a stronger spark. This is to provide better combustion in the cylinder. Apparently they can be made to work well, just look at the typical modified racing car, but they obviously can be troublesome if not everything is matched and correct. There are lots of threads about people having set-up problems.

One of these helped me in my 911 with the same problem.

Except it's not the starter. The starter spins the engine just fine. It just won't fire.

The basic trouble is that it dies while running, and won't restart. It appears to have plenty of gas (MFI), but it doesn't appear to have any spark. Wait awhile, and it suddenly fires right up.

What is that wiring for? Fused ignition? Fused starter? Fused fuel pump?

I think I have something similar already, but it uses a 20amp fuse.

Definitely cranks fine. Just doesn't catch.

What would cause the MSD to fail?
Where in the system would it most likely fail?

BTW- I've got the MSD Offroad box (black) and the MSD Blaster coil.

Tony Heyer gets my personal seal of approval. I took my car to Tony for a number of years. He's straightforward with no BS. He does dislike (most) aftermarket parts quite extensively, but then again I'm not at all sure he's wrong on that. (E.g., K&N replacement air filters, Terry Cable clutch cables, etc.) Tony's been around for a long while; he was one of the Garretson's mechanics when they took their 935 to Le Mans.

Bob Grigsby at RMG Enterprises also gets a thumbs up from me. That's where my attorney's SC goes for anything other than the minor piddly stuff I can easily do.

--DD

The pic I posted was a starter relay... if it cranks fine, that's not it. That's what I get for reading partial posts... sorry

Thanks Dave. She goes to Tony on Weds.

How dangerous are these leaks

Oil leaking from:

- Both lower valve cover gaskets,
- Cam housing covers ,
- Left cam housing oil line seals,
- Slight seepage from main oil lines

Will I notice a performance improvement if some or all get fixed?

The oil lines I'd get looked at, as they run at significant pressure, and leaks can lower oil pressure. The valve and timing covers are less urgent, as they don't run under pressure, and most of them leak, anyway.

If you're interested in starting to tackle some of these jobs yourself, buy copies of Wayne Dempsey's 911 books (101 Projects and his engine rebuild book). He's one of the co-founders of Pelican Parts, and writes pretty well. The engine rebuild book will tell you quite a bit about things like where everything is, what it all does, and how to handle things like preventing leaks.

The update from Tony is GTEENER is running consistently again

What he did:
Diagnosed the SLOP & starting problem
Replaced the MSD box
Replaced the battery
Replaced the oil pressure gauge sender
Cleaned the wiring on the lights and voila! they all work again including the fog lights
Tune-up:
Valve adjustment
Cleaned the 1/4" thick guck off the exhaust system and heat exchangers
Re-sealead the cams and reduced the number of other oil leaks
Adjusted the throttle (but said the throttle bodies are worn out and the setting won't hold )
New fluid and filters

What he said may need to be done in the future but not high priority:
Oil leaking into the clutch (clutch will need replacing)
Rebuild/replace the MFI throttle bodies
Charging system issues:
Alternator is weak (advised against driving in the rain with the lights and wipers on)
Distributor is not an S distributor, but for fuel reasons, says it's probably better the way it is...
Doesn't think the heat exchangers and MFI are working properly together. Says he doesn't feel the power surge he expects over 5000 RPM. Questions the air flow. Then questioned whether the engine was really an S engine. Says it has a green shroud and feels more like an E... .

I think that's all <gulp> Need to pick it up and drive it some...

Tony just called and said my clutch cable broke last night when he was test driving.

If it weren't for bad luck...

New and much better internally alternators are available, and just bolt in.

Talk to Pacific Fuel Injection (I think they're in South SF) about the MFI problems. If (as I expect) their bill will be uncomfortably high, then perhaps you need to start considering unloading the MFI or the whole engine (a running MFI engine will fetch a good price).

The type number on the case should tell you if it was originally an S or an E. The main difference are the pistons and the cams, which can easily be changed, so there's no telling if it's still tuned to S specs or not.

If you unload just the MFI, you can try PMO carbs. If you unload the whole thing, you could pick up a CIS 2.4 or 2.7. Either one would just bolt in, after you handled all of the oil leaks and whatever else was wrong, of course.

If you need your MFI monkeyed with I know that Motor Works in National City San Diego can fix them for the lowest cost I have seen (cant recall). I know many shops in SD send their stuff to MW to get redone/rebuilt, etc. Also, they could rebuild your throttle body maybe.

Neat! I just found their new web site...I hope this doesn't mean that their prices went up.
http://www.pro-mach.com/

Sergio is the owner and one hell of a nice guy.

Thanks guys. Enough money has been spent on this car just in the last seven months to buy a good, stock 914

Remind me...Why do I own this car