I am guessing that 8 broken head studs is a bad thing?

[lespaul]

I just acquired a 78 SC with 35,000 miles on it and no rust for a good price and was feeling pretty good about it. It was a barn find, but it started up and seem to run ok. I only drove it about 10 miles and decided to go through it with a valve adjust, new plugs, oil change, trans oil change, check ignition timing, new distributor cap and rotor.

Today, pulled the valve covers to do the valve adjustment and these fell out of the lower covers. Nice pre-Father's Day gift. Nevertheless, I have 90% decided to do as much of a top end job myself (never done one before) as I can and put in a set of steel studs. While I am in there, I can clean things up, fix the 4 pulled valve cover studs and put in new Carerra chain tensioners.

Here is my question, with 35,000 miles on the engine, does the fact there are 8 broken head studs in and of itself indicate that other serious problems exist that I should be prepared for before I dig in?

Brad

[mv70]

blown head gasket rings, cylinder grooves, valves ??

[john walker's workshop]

they can pop just from sitting a long time. i fixed an '81 that had 6K miles and 6 broken studs. so you may not have much cylinder to head damage. never know until it's apart.

[lespaul]

Thanks. That makes me feel better. Now to drop the engine and dig in.

[Flat6pac]

Good luck on the long broken one...
Bruce

[lespaul]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

[whiz05403]

Where are you in VT?

[kodioneill]

Originally Posted by whiz05403

Where are you in VT?

Yes where are you? I'm 15 minutes from Arlington .

[sm70911]

Is the mileage on the car correct ? Seems like a lot of studs for a 35k mile motor ? That's not that many miles / heat cycles

[whiz05403]

Originally Posted by kodioneill

Yes where are you? I'm 15 minutes from Arlington .

I'm a few hours North in Burlington.

I just finished a rebuild,

Vermont First Engine Drop-87 Targa

never did it before but learned a ton. Ended up dropping the motor twice. Would love to help, but you are pretty far South.

[kodioneill]

Originally Posted by whiz05403

I'm a few hours North in Burlington.

I just finished a rebuild,

Vermont First Engine Drop-87 Targa

never did it before but learned a ton. Ended up dropping the motor twice. Would love to help, but you are pretty far South.

I was asking lespaul where he was located to see if I could help.

[lespaul]

Whiz and Kodi,

Wow. Thanks for offering to help with my new project. That is very nice of you. I am located in Brattleboro, so that would be somewhat of a trip for each of you. I have done one engine drop previously on my '73 (with my son helping) and it went pretty well. But, since then, I got distracted on some other things and never got around to the engine teardown stage on the '73.

Then, this '78 came along . . . .

This time, my plan is to drop the '78 engine and move forward to pull the head, check things out (hopefully, no additional evident problems) -- install the Carrera chain tensioners, clean up and powder coat some stuff, clean up the engine bay and put it back together.

The place I think I could most benefit from help would be pulling the broken studs -- but would be grateful for help at any stage. I don't own an engine yoke or engine stand, so those are next on the buy list. If you have either and want to sell them, let me know. I am not sure on timing going forward but would like to get the '78 back on the road before the end of summer. If you would like to "be invited" to the party (dropping the engine, pulling studs, whatever), please send me an e-mail and we can keep in touch that way. My e-mail is bfawley@drm.com.

[whiz05403]

If ur up for a drive I could loan you the yoke and the stand.

[lespaul]

Seriously! That is very generous. Wow, that would be fantastic. My son actually lives in Burlington and is coming down to Brattleboro on Wednesday. Is there any chance he could pick them up from you before then?

Brad

[IROC]

Originally Posted by sm70911

Is the mileage on the car correct ? Seems like a lot of studs for a 35k mile motor ? That's not that many miles / heat cycles

Back in the early 90s I looked at an SC that had 20k original miles on it. It had been tied up in some insurance squabble for years and had just sat. I didn't buy it, but saw it a few months later in a Porsche shop I used to frequent. I told the shop owner I "knew" that car and asked why it was in there. He said, "7 broken head studs..."...

[techweenie]

The most 'serious' engine work I've done was dealing with a head stud issue. I put the engine on a yoke, disassembled one side of the engine, fixed the problem and reassembled. It's fiddly business and you need to measure at every stage, but it is something you can absolutely do in your garage.

I had always heard that the 3.0 head stud breakage was due to excessive heat cycling (many short trips). But now, 30+ years out, corrosion gets at least some of the blame.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

My 84 with 72K on it had 7 broken studs from sitting for 7 years. Pulls the heads off, fixed all lower studs with new steel, cleaned, measured, put it all back together, runs like a top. You should be able to do it all in 3 weekends.

[lespaul]

To all. Thanks for the information and encouragement. As near as I can tell, this car has been mostly sitting for the last 7-8 years. Tires date from 1992! Just a guess, but since it ran fairly smoothly when I started it up to heat the oil prior to oil change, I suspect it does not have many miles on the broken set of studs. No popping on acceleration. Time will tell.

I LOVE the idea of 3 weekends of work -- but would not even mind if it took 8. I will post my work as I go. Should be an adventure.

Brad

[aschen]

Maybe 8 is better than 1.

If you had one you might try to convince yourself you didnt have to tear the motor down.


Optimistically,
Aschen

[timmy2]

I had one broken head stud, 3 years ago when I got my car, dove in right away, broke 2 more taking it apart.
Put it all back together within a month.
Now it has new studs, gaskets, chain ramps, hydraulic tensioners rings camshafts, heat exchangers, muffler etc.
been good to go for almost 3 years now.
Bought a lot of specialty tools with the money I saved doing it myself, including a mid rise lift too!