Lately, my car has not been running great with a number of related problems. An American Friend of mine, who used to work for Sauber, is a Master mechanic at a Swiss Porsche dealership (on the recommendation of Alois Ruf, no less), and is familiar with MB. He is in town for two more weeks, and I talked him into sorting out my car. He originally found the short vac line missing and the hole plugged on the idle valve (replaced), a defect electric connector on the idle valve (replaced), the board inside the idle control box was jury rigged (replaced), sticking throttle plate (housing replaced). I just received an additional housing, complete w. fuel distributor that still has the steel ball closing off the adjustment tower, two leaking exhaust manifold gaskets (ordered 8), I also ordered all vacuum line connectors. Minus the intake manifold, there is a vac line visible in the back, that runs into a rusty looking valve (will be replaced). He removed the intake manifold, which only had an old gasket on the drivers, and 'none' on the passenger side (have new gaskets and plenum rings). Amazing that the car ran as good as it did. The passenger side camshaft # 2 Cyl. exhaust lobe is visibly lower (perhaps caused by a cheap item like a clogged oiler, rail has been cleaned and oilers replaced). I have a good replacement cam. We might need to replace one or two rockers, I ordered keepers and shims.
Now the good news:
The car now has 140K miles, and both heads have already been done. The springs have the factory red and another set of markings, the valve guides and even the valves look new. The chain and tensioner looks recent, and the rails look like apx. 20-25K miles. The chain has too much play. My buddy wants to clean the tensioner. If that doesn't work, it will be replaced with an OEM. I'll replace all the hard to get to parts, like the short lenght of coolant hose between thermostat and intake manifold & others (recommendations???). My not very old distr. cap and especially the rotor look done. He'll replace, and check the distributor bushings and replace as needed, once it can be put to zero.
Have the experts here heard about advancing the timing chain 1 tooth, to even out (blue print) the engine?
All this stuff is quite exciting to me. I'll keep you informed, and try to take pictures.
Now the good news:
The car now has 140K miles, and both heads have already been done. The springs have the factory red and another set of markings, the valve guides and even the valves look new. The chain and tensioner looks recent, and the rails look like apx. 20-25K miles. The chain has too much play. My buddy wants to clean the tensioner. If that doesn't work, it will be replaced with an OEM. I'll replace all the hard to get to parts, like the short lenght of coolant hose between thermostat and intake manifold & others (recommendations???). My not very old distr. cap and especially the rotor look done. He'll replace, and check the distributor bushings and replace as needed, once it can be put to zero.
Have the experts here heard about advancing the timing chain 1 tooth, to even out (blue print) the engine?
All this stuff is quite exciting to me. I'll keep you informed, and try to take pictures.
