328 back after 90K service

The 328 GTS came back home today. I've had it down at Madrona Autoworks for the 90K major.

Since it was the first work during my ownership, I was expecting we'd find a bunch of major "uh-oh"s. Turned out not to be the case. A few of the fuel injector o-rings were shot, as were two of the small vacuum hoses running under the plenum. The fuel lines needed replacing. The only thing we noticed that was a less-than-perfect issue was a somewhat shadetree-esque fix for a stripped tranny filler plug hole. (But it works fine, and we didn't notice it being ugly to look at until it was time to fill it!)

It idles and accelerates much smoother now. And with the engine degreased and new paint on the plenum, valve covers and timing covers, it looks nice.

Plus, there's that whole peace-of-mind thing about having new belts, bearings, water pump, seals and valve clearances/head bolt torque set properly.


I have tons of pictures from the process, and will be writing a story about it. Will let you know when I publish it.

 

We didn't do a compression check, mostly because there were no indications of low compression (no misfire, oil smoke, overheating...)

The valve covers and timing covers had already been painted red by the previous owner. They were chipped in places, so I redid them. I'll add a picture or two.

 

We didn't do a compression check, mostly because there were no indications of low compression (no misfire, oil smoke, overheating...)

The valve covers and timing covers had already been painted red by the previous owner. They were chipped in places, so I redid them. I decided to sand-off the paint on the raised edges on the timing covers to match the valve covers.

It's not "original" ... but I like the look.
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It was a spray can that NAPA mixed-up based on a color chip match to the existing plenum paint. Since it was previously done in wrinkle/crinkle, this new paint had no texture and was just a light coat over the existing color.