bought mystery '85, stored last 3 years

Hi there Fred and welcome to the 928 Owners Club.

The reason everyone is telling you to fix it before you try and start it is so that you don't end up with pluged injectors, bent valves or bearing damage that was caused by not checking first.

All of the above items (belt, fuel ect.) may be fine but it is always better to drag these cars home on a trailer and roll them off into the drive way.
It is also way cooler and no risk of getting only half way home on the side of the road with a steaming car that could now cost thousands of dollars more to repair.

If the timing belt was not kept up on by the prev owner then it may not have made it for the 3 year storage and may brake as soon as you turn it over.
Not a good risk because then it will be down for another year while you pull the engine, find the parts reassemble and start all over. Agreed

Fuel will get a slime like gravy and will plug the filter and or injectors causing un needed diagnoses and down time.

Of course clean fresh oil is a must.

So, rent a trailer and get it home, tell us when you are going and maybe someone close by will be able to help.
TAKE A CAMERA to document your new baby (another must) and take pictures of the vin# and paint and other codes.
WE LOVE LOTS OF PICTURES just check out our car profiles

WE will get you to check, and walk you through things like checking your driveshaft preload (it distroyes engine bearings) and other things that have stung others. We sometimes learn the hard way.

Oh and most importent
Have fun, this is a project that will make you very very proud.

Brad Haugen

Jim, Brad, Stan, Austin - thanks for all your suggestions. I will figure out what work was done on the car 3 yrs ago (the original repair bill was apparently $4500!), and then make a plan for bringing it back to life. We're going to try to get our hands on it next week, using a flat bed to tow it somewhere we can work on it.

Fred

Good luck, and keep us advised, I have been involved in a few rescues myself, avoiding the expensive mistakes of two TBFs is the key:
Timing belt failure - resulting in bent valves
Thrust bearing failure - resulting in damaged block

fred944;1956 wrote: Jim, Brad, Stan, Austin - thanks for all your suggestions. I will figure out what work was done on the car 3 yrs ago (the original repair bill was apparently $4500!), and then make a plan for bringing it back to life. We're going to try to get our hands on it next week, using a flat bed to tow it somewhere we can work on it.

Fred

Hard to imagine that high of a repair bill being anything other than one of the two "TBFs" Stan eluded to. I suspect the first as it is far more common for your MY. Thrust Bearing Failure is much more common on later models with automatic transmissions. That's an EOL (end of life) type of failure. Timing belt failure isn't necessarily that catastrophic, though, it will involve a lot of hard work and some cash to correct. You must pull the engine to remove each cylinder head. This will require a sizable personal tool inventory including, but not limited to, a couple of 928 specific tools.

Fred,

Where are you located? I recently saw an '85 on Ebay with suspected thrust bearing failure. It was located in Gallatin, TN. Just curious if it may have been the same car we're all talking about now.

One other thing - I have had 2 sharks that started life in FL, and every bit of the rubber in the engine bay was baked to glass. All rubber will likely need to be replaced unless the car has been stored inside over the years. The FL heat and sun kills rubber bits, especially in an engine bay that gets hot under any circumstnaces. You'll want to do a fuel line refresh early on - call Roger (he's a bd member here) for the parts - he has it all ready in a kit. The other hoses and rubber bits are a little less critical, but you'll want to replace them too.
Almost forgot to mention that these are a few sensors under there that will be brittle and need replacing as well. The engine bay is a good winter project, and if you are handy. a full top refresh is just under $1000 in parts for the 85/86.