Where to stop with engine work
 

I pulled my 1985 32v engine to replace the head gaskets, replace the oil pan gasket and do a thorough inspection. Car had not been run much since 1997 and the only major item an inspection revealed was a leaking head gasket. The car has 65k miles on it but no service history came with it due to the previous owner being in poor health.

So, with the engine out and the heads and oil pan removed I have a choice to make. Do I put it all back together with new gaskets, timing belt and water pump or do I continue getting deeper and deeper. One side of my brain (the perfectionist side) is telling me to take this opportunity to do everything (i.e. bottom end) whereas the other side of my brain (the side that controls my credit card and itchy right foot) is telling me the engine should be just fine with the mileage being fairly low.

What would you guys do?

I would be temped to put new rings and connecting rod bearings in it if it's torn down that far. That's wouldn't be too hard or expensive. You could even go one step further with main bearings but splitting the block and removing the crank is a whole other level of scariness

Have you ever heard or had it running? For me, being very shallow pocketed. I would do the non-perfectionist stuff. Button it up with fresh gaskets and new WP and belt. Then start it up and drive it. Drive it a lot.

Agreed. As the (extremely organized) pile of parts gets bigger and the engine shrinks in size I'm getting nervous. I want to reach that rurning point where things start going back on instead of coming off.

I was considering splitting the crankcase just to make sure it's sealed up tight but this could open up a whole new can of worms.

Where to stop with engine work
 

The Porsche specialist who did the PDI had it running for 20 minutes or so. We did not want to run it excessively and risk a timing belt issue. I did not hear it but he said it sounded fine, with just a slight rattle coming from the cam chain tensioner on one side which I can see now has seized-up.

Have you seen my thread?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-928-technical-forum/707339-good-writeup-s3-intake-refresh.html

My car only has 70K on it, but it needed all the usual intake refresh parts. I did a lot of other WYAIT tasks, too. Most of that work would be a LOT easier with the engine out of the car.

These engines are really strong on the bottom, I'd fight the urge to mess around with the bottom end.

+1

I have changed out 2 sets of rod bearings as a WYAIT while doing the pan gasket. Both times I was sorry I did it. The original rod bearings were close to perfect in both 130K mile and 200K mile engines. In other words, they didn't need to be done, but by golly, I started replacing them and I was gonna finish it.

FWIW if you really need to look at the rod bearings start with the 2/6 rods if they are good then the rest of them will also be good as the 2/6 rods are first to lose pressure

I'd probably only rework it if it were known to have been thrashed, money somewhat controlling.

My understanding is that you have to buy a lot of bearings to get the tolerance group you need, as they are packaged randomly with 3 tolerances. Is that true?

I would check the bearings on one of the 2/6, look over the bores, take pictures, but unless they show/measure wear I would not replace either bearings or rings.

Plenty to do in the heads usually, guides and seals etc. cam chain tensioner stuff.

Good rule, don't look for places to spend money on a 928, it will provide plenty.

If an auto check TB play.