[alfadoc]

Subject vehicle '89 944S2. I bought it non-running, with the chain tensioner damage to the cylinder head. My single car shop space is tied up with an immobile restoration project, so I had a local mechanic do the head swap. He's not a Porsche guy per se, but a competent wrench who works on European stuff, mostly Saabs. We get the thing back together, and the vibration at idle is to me unbearable. I know it's a big whoppin 4 cylinder, but this couldn't be acceptable when the car was built.

The car has 122K on it, and I do not see motor mounts in the service history. An S2 did get the uprated turbo mounts from the factory, right? Don't they last fairly well?

Had the mechanic pull the balance shaft belt cover back off. I didn't crawl underneath to check the TDC mark, but he assures me it's on the mark, and the reference mark on the cam pulley is aligned, as are the balance shafts. Even though he didn't take the pulleys off of the balance shafts, I insist that he remove the bolts and washers, certain that a previous mechanic had installed the lower gear 180 out. No dice, O mark aligned with the woodruff key on the top one, and opposite the key on the bottom.

So now I'm really stumped. My old '86 944 N/A is all I have to compare it to; there is a significant difference between the two in terms of this vibration. Otherwise the car runs great, with bags of torque and power. What did I miss?