Long idle time...Poor performance
 

Does anyone have an opinion as to what happened here?

I kept the engine running at idle on the '87 Carrera for about 30-40 minutes while doing several small maintenence items (e.g., checking and filling the oil, checking the spark plug wires, just listening to the engine, etc.).

When a took it for a spin, the car ran very rough with terrible acceleration. Absolutely lost the now familiar power band surge above 3500 rpm. Felt as if I was trying to pull out a tree stump. Panic and depression immediately set in.

When I started it up about 4 hours later, there was a big cloud of white smoke, but the car ran as if nothing happened.

At the moment, I feel like a lucky knucklehead.

Shouldn't idle a dry sump vehicle.
 

Your owners manual tells you to avoid idling your 911 since it's has dry sump oiling.

Live and learn, man. Consider yourself a wiser Porsche owner.

I see a lot of guys do this on our runs and I just shake my head. Don't people read the manual? Porsche advises <I>against</I> this in plain language.

Perhaps you fouled your plugs with all that idling. The white smoke was it burning off. The car was fine after the "Italian tune-up."

I let my car idle (10 minutes) to dry off the engine (per instructions on the can) at the car wash last week. I had problems a few blocks away - thought it was moisture under the distributor cap (found some), and also cleaned off a burr on the fuel pump relay.

I did not think until now that it could of been anything else.

Live and learn.

Don't know if this is an urban legend, but I've heard that idling for extended periods of time causes increased camshaft wear. It is also wasteful, environmentally irresponsible, and , in some places, illegal.

BTW, why hasn't "Italian tuneup" joined the ranks of politically incorrect terms that several posters have taken offence to?

I resemble that remark:eek: :D :D
I'm half "eyetalian" and take no offense!
The other half, however, is German.... Go figure!:D :D :D

Thanks for the replies, guys!

I'm still not sure exactly what goes wrong when the engine idles too long with a dry sump oiling system--but I do know never to do it again.

I'll check the plugs for fouling when I adjust the valves and change the oil next weekend.

Thanks for the replies.

Still not sure what goes wrong when an engine with a dry sump oiling system idles too long, but I do know it will never happen again.

I'll see if I fouled the plugs when I adjust the valves and change the oil next weekend. Have no idea if "Italian tune up" is PC or non-PC, but it certainly got the Carrera back into good running order.

Well, besides possibly fouling the plugs (which is probably what happened to your engine), I've read that these engines apparently don't lube the cams very well at idle speeds.