Front Suspension & Engine Mounts | Porsche 928 S (Part 1)

Ajouté : 2026-06-05

[00:00:06]This is OAN, my new 85928S.

[00:00:10]Another one, you might say. Yes, I buy and sell cars for a living. And who says work shouldn't be fun?

[00:00:18]>> Turn it up. Don't turn it off.

[00:00:22]Turn me around. Put me in my place.

[00:00:26]from there. I can see it all. So beautiful.

[00:00:31]>> Some of you will also remember Rosalva Ramos, the white gold 928 that spent 20 years locked away in a Spanish government parking garage while caught in a legal deadlock. As soon as my current customer work clears out, she's getting my full attention again.

[00:00:51]But the truth is, I've had a weakness for green cars since I was a young man.

[00:00:56]It isn't often that green 928s hit the market, especially not those with their original paint and low mileage.

[00:01:05]And so it happened again when Oan here showed up. All original paint, every scratch and stone chip included. And with less than 100k kilometers on the clock, I was a goner.

[00:01:19]and dance me to the other side.

[00:01:24]From there we can fly into the 80s.

[00:01:30]And it seems these shale birds have a way of finding me for the trouble started back in 2002 with a clutch repair. When the workshop finally presented the invoice to the owner, it was as if Gandalf was looking up from the edge of the bridge whispering one last command. Fly, you fool.

[00:01:53]>> And so he did. The owner vanished. The car stayed and the years began to stack up. By the time the legal red tape was finally cleared away, 20 years had simply passed her by.

[00:02:08]I was lost in the moment I looked into these frog eyes. They sail off his blind, and I was all too ready to believe the seller's fairy tale that the gears had only started jumping out recently because he'd misaligned the shifter linkage. "I must have messed something up," he said. "But I'm sure it's an easy fix." As it turned out, love might be blind, but reality has a 2020 vision. Even after I had perfectly adjusted the linkage, the gears kept right jumping.

[00:02:43]Back in my workshop, I began investigating why this happened. I called up my friend Tino in Berlin, a true 928 expert. And our discussions led us to the point that the culprits were likely one of two things. Either worn out motor mounts or more seriously, worn out dog teeth inside the gearbox itself.

[00:03:04]Since I make a rule to replace the motor mounts on every transaxle classic I buy, I knew exactly where to start.

[00:03:19]The shifter is connected to the body while the linkage runs back to the transaxle. Suspended in between are the engine mounts. And this film is all about replacing them. But as always in my projects, I'll be refurbishing every single part I touch along the way. So this film is also about restoring the front suspension. To me, that's the only way these cars truly get better in the long run.

[00:03:46]The road to those mounts is a long one.

[00:03:48]When you're standing under the car, the first thing you notice is absolutely no sign of them.

[00:04:20]With the cover plate removed and the hydraulic lines and steering column disconnected, the steering rack is left hanging by the tie rods.

[00:04:29]Don't forget, we never hammer directly on the head of the bolt. Doing that only mushrooms the metal, compressing it and creating an even tighter fit than before.

[00:04:40]Instead, a few sharp radial strikes to the side can sometimes vibrate it loose.

[00:04:46]But the safe way is to use a ball joint separator to press it out cleanly.

[00:04:58]The steering system was in good shape, just a little dirty from years of service. I dropped it off at the Iceman for a thorough cleaning, allowing me to shift my focus entirely to the engine mounts. With the rack out of the way, they were finally fully visible for the first time.

[00:05:19]This is the point where things only move forward if we have a plan for supporting the engine while we swap the mounts.

[00:05:26]Porsche provides lifting eyes on the 928's engine. One is at the front right, the other one at the rear left, and their distance from the center line is significant. To keep the engine from tilting to one side, we have to support both points. My first thought was that I could manage this with a single brace set diagonally. But as soon as I started tensioning the chains, the brace wanted to pull itself straight. That's just not going to work.

[00:05:58]Eventually, I found that supporting the engine from below was the better way to go. If you're even thinking of copying this, your jack and your lift hydraulics must be absolutely leaktight. If either one gives a cm, you lose the tension and the whole lot will tip sideways.

[00:06:21]You might think it's a good thing being buried under a Porsche V8, but don't let the Porsche V8 be the reason you get buried. By the way, I left the brace in place as a backup.

[00:06:40]>> Now, here's where the job doubles in size. The crossmember doesn't just cradle the engine. It's also the mounting point for the lower control arms. There's simply no alternative here. If the crossmember is supposed to come down, the suspension too is on our menu.

[00:07:04]A couple of bolts later, the whole thing is almost loose, only hanging by the front mounting points of the control arms. Once these are gone, I'll be able to drop the entire assembly.

[00:07:29]Turn it up. Don't turn it off.

[00:07:33]Turn me around. Put me in my place.

[00:07:37]from I can see it all. I'm so beautiful.

[00:07:42]The world is blindfold.

[00:07:45]Got too many but your eyes found my scratches on the side.

[00:08:01]your records spinning in my mind.

[00:08:09]>> So, here we are. The hydro mounts. A new pair of genuine Porsche parts will cost us about €1,500, which is exactly why you see me using the ones from Hamburg Technique today.

[00:08:22]The price difference is roughly a factor of 10, and that alone should give us enough reason to take a closer look at what we're actually installing here.

[00:08:32]You see, I could talk about engine mounts for hours, if not days. I keep getting feedback that my films are quite soothing, but I suppose it's the wrong approach to make them that soothing. So, let me sum up what you need to know about engine mounts while you watch me restoring the surrounding components.

[00:08:56]>> Scratches on the pieces.

[00:09:01]In a nutshell, we want a certain stiffness to keep the engine from dropping and we want high damping at low frequencies so that engine oscillations resulting from driving dynamics like engaging the clutch or lifting the throttle decay quickly.

[00:09:18]However, we also want the mounts to be as soft as possible to ensure that engine vibrations aren't transmitted into the chassis.

[00:09:26]Standard rubber mounts get stiffer as the frequency increases, which is exactly the opposite of what we want for comfort.

[00:09:35]By using an oil filling and the restrictive orifice through which the fluid is pumped during large amplitudes at low frequencies, we achieve that additional damping exactly where it's needed. While the mount can be generally be designed much softer to isolate the high frequency low amplitude engine vibrations from the cabin.

[00:10:23]And then there is the next stage of hydro evolution. It involves igen frequencies, differential equations, and even more horrifying things. So I won't bore you with that. But essentially it works on the same principle as active noise cancelling headphones using a counter vibration to nullify the original disturbance.

[00:10:45]So historically we are looking at three distinct generations of mount technology. Basic rubber, rubber with hydraulic damping and finally rubber with hydraulic damping plus a tuned mass damper or TMD design. The question is, was Porsche already capable of designing a generation 3 motor mount back in the early 80s? Oh, yes, absolutely.

[00:11:09]Does the Hanbok Technic mount actually feature this? Well, cutting open a brand new mount felt a bit excessive, so I spoke with Rohan, the owner of Hanbok Technic.

[00:11:28]Rohan confirmed that unlike their much more modern mounts for the 944, the TMD function is not present in their 928 mounts. This means the Hamburg part is effectively a type two mount. It has the oil and the damping, but it lacks the sophisticated frequency cancelling calibration of the original that we see here.

[00:11:53]The whole thing looks quite simple. a steel housing, some rubber, some fluid, a perforated plate, and a rubber diaphragm.

[00:12:01]The actual challenge is to determine the iggon frequencies of the engine vibrating inside the car and get the mount to firstly match them and secondly erase them. Not an easy thing to do. And it really reminds me of my early days as a simulation engineer when exactly that kind of job was on my menu.

[00:12:24]How do the Hamburg Technic mounts actually feel on the road? Remember, Porsche introduced hydro mounts in 83.

[00:12:32]Prior to that, the 928 relied on standard rubber blocks. I would say that the car definitely performs better with the Hamburg Technic mounts than it did with the original first generation rubber mounts. It also feels better than it would with old collapsed second generation hydro mounts, of course.

[00:12:52]However, it naturally falls short of the refinement provided by the genuine Porsche factory mounts.

[00:13:10]The motor mounts and their brackets are a breeze to install while the crossmember is on the bench. But getting the crossmember back into the car, that's a different story. The issue is the lower control arms. Right now, they're just dangling loosely from the struts, and they're nowhere near where they need to be. I had to manually force them outward, even to have a chance to get the crossmember in.

[00:13:37]That day, the two young ladies who usually help me with these jobs were off attending a beauty contest, so I had to get a little creative. Nadine Hurley, my trusty pallet check, carrying the Alfa Romeo engine from the Spider Project on one side and the 944 turbo wheel on the other, served as a makeshift anchor for two ratchet straps, allowing me to force the control arms into the position I needed.

[00:14:15]With a bit of wiggling, the crossmember finally slid into place and I was able to thread the first bolt. One by one, I reestablished a solid connection between the engine and the chassis.

[00:15:48]The former Devil V8 was supported by its mounts again and the timber could go.

[00:15:54]The steering came back from the Iceman.

[00:15:56]And while I'm installing it, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that beautiful customized Porsche ad posters you see in the background of my workshop. And they are now also available for the 928.

[00:16:09]Check out the greasy fingers page on custom postershop.com. The link is in the description.

[00:16:16]I'd also like to recommend visiting the website of my new sponsor.

[00:16:22]It's a web shop dedicated entirely to the 928 and they even produce highquality aftermarket parts like hydraulic lifters and injection waves.

[00:16:36]Finally, I'd really appreciate if you could give me your hype points again. If you watch it during the first week of its release, you can hype this video on your mobile device or computer, which helps YouTube prioritize it over films about Ferrari cars that look like an earphone box.

[00:17:08]The protection plate for the steering system is held by the same bolts that hold the steering rack itself, so it needs to be kept in place with cable ties while being installed. All these parts are freshly painted or galvanized.

[00:17:22]And even though they'll be entirely invisible, it gives me huge satisfaction just knowing they're done right.

[00:17:30]Honestly, I prefer this over a perfect paint job. And thank God there are maniacs like myself out there whom I have the honor of calling my customers.

[00:17:56]Speaking of maniac things, if the suspension bushings are tightened with the wheels hanging in their full rebound position, they'll already be under significant twist when the car is back on the ground. I therefore always tighten them with the car resting on its wheels. The effect on their lifespan is huge. So, it's actually not that maniac after all.

[00:18:30]Look at how much these things twist between full droop and right hate. It's obvious that the rubber is going to crack. Of course, we only need to tighten those bushings in right that actually twist when the car is lowered.

[00:18:43]The anti-roll bar is still missing, and it's slowly getting time to think about the big question. Did Oan's gear pop out because the engine mounts held the drivetrain in the wrong position and literally shook the gears loose? Or were the dock teeth inside the gearbox simply worn out? Feel free to drop your opinion in the comments, but you'll have to wait until the next video for the answer. You can imagine how intensely you're going to stare at the gear lever during the first test drive.

[00:19:29]Turn it up. Don't turn it off.

[00:19:33]Turn me around. Put me in my place.