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December saw the beginning of my second year of ownership of E57YNB. The first year had me clocking up 11,585 miles which included a trackday at Castle Combe with 50 other 928s, a trip to Holland for the record breaking meeting of 187 928s from all over Europe, my first ever (but not my last) trip to Le Mans plus various meets across the UK. All this was achieved without the Old Girl missing a beat.
Throughout 2005 my knowledge of 928s gradually increased and I was fortunate enough to see many excellent and well cared for examples. But a certain Guards Red GT with a gleaming engine bay stood out in particular. I wanted my engine bay to look as good, that was the project for 2006 sorted then! “But it’s under the bonnet, no one will ever see it” was my wife’s reaction – like that matters!
Obviously the intake manifold and cam covers had to be removed for painting. A little bit of research quickly revealed that, as well as the idle stabiliser control valve and knock sensors the intake manifold was home to a multitude of rubber pipes and vacuum hoses. What to change? What not to change? I decided that as everything under there was nearly eighteen years old and had been subjected to a lot of heat it would be prudent to change everything. A visit to the website of North Carolina based 928 Specialists sorted out all of the necessary (and some not so necessary) parts including replacement gaskets and seals.
I arranged to have this work done with Paul Anderson of Stroud along with the annual service. Paul is one of the UK’s leading 928 experts and a very nice man to boot. This is probably where the ‘project’ started to get a little out of hand and grew into something of a monster.
Obviously my car was going to be off the road while this work was being done, so why not add a few other jobs? I had managed to ‘boil’ my brake fluid during a trackday at Brands Hatch in December so I wanted to upgrade the brake fluid to ATE Racing Blue. At the time it seemed sensible to fit new discs all round, Goodridge braided hoses and EBC Red Stuff pads. And oh, may as well have the callipers painted while I am at it.
If you spend enough time on various forums and email lists you will quickly discover that certain jobs become ‘fashionable’, that is not to say that they are unnecessary, just that they become a ‘hot’ topic. This is why I decided to have the engine mounts and sump gasket changed, together with having the fuel injectors and idle stabiliser valve ultrasonically cleaned plus a full alignment check.
The task of painting the intake manifold, cam covers and callipers was put into the extremely capable hands of Dave McLoughlin (Dave Mak) at Daytona Coachworks in Stevenage. Paul Anderson supplied an ‘exchange’ intake manifold and cam covers to help speed things up a little. The brake callipers were removed as soon as I delivered my car to Paul and, as luck would have it, Dave was dropping his 928S4 off at Paul’s the next day so he took them back to his workshop.
It has to be said that I am delighted with the results of all of this work, the combination of the wheel alignment and the new engine mounts has improved what I had already thought was an excellent ride. The brakes work extremely well albeit there is a little squeal now and again as there was before, the EBC Red Stuff pads also seem to produce less brake dust and the dust that is produced certainly seems easier to clean from the wheels. Plus the engine bay now looks ‘pretty’! Dave Mak’s attention to detail and desire to get the job just right is highly commendable.
Needless to say all this work has resulted in my being hopelessly over budget. I decided not to include prices in this report just in case my wife should read it! Hopefully, everything is now sorted; the belts and water pump were changed back in March 2005 and the MAF in October last year. The plan for 2007 is for the annual service only and maybe one or two little, and hopefully inexpensive, tweaks as necessary.
Well, that was the state of play at the end of February. Since then I had to take the car back to Paul Anderson because the ‘belt tension’ warning light appeared and there was also a smell of petrol. Paul re-tensioned the belt and traced the smell of fuel to a leaking fuel injector. The offending article was quickly replaced and everything was perfect. Or was it?
“You do know there is no gas in your Air Con system, don’t you?” says Mr. Anderson. Bugger, I had the air conditioning leak checked and topped up back in October at the same time Richard Armstrong of Ritech Systems fitted my ‘X’ pipes. I took the car back to Richard who checked the Old Girl over and found that a pipe was leaking and leaking badly. Two pipes had to be ordered so I arranged to bring the car back in May. Richard replaced the two pipes, charged the system with nitrogen to test for leaks only to find that the condenser had now also sprung a leak. He sourced a replacement and everything is now working fine however, it is not cheap being cool!
With a two week jaunt to Monte Carlo planned for August and the Euro928 meeting at the Nurburgring at the end of September I was hoping that the haemorrhaging from my bank account would cease. This of course was not to be as I have now made the decision to have Paul Anderson replace the original Boge shocks for new Bilsteins the day before the 928 Trackday at Castle Combe on July 28th. With the amount of miles I am planning to do plus light thrashings around Castle Combe, the Nordschleife and the Nurburgring GP circuit I think this is a prudent and logical step.
I always knew that life with a 928 was never going to be cheap but people like Messrs Anderson, Armstrong and McLoughlin make it so much easier to live with. The problem with 928s is that they certainly do get under your skin.
This report first appeared in the TIPEC All Torque magazine Issue 59, July 2006.
Clive Lusted - May 25th, 2006. Updated July 14th, 2006 |
