u/wootfatigue

Five years ago this month my dad and I were on a roadtrip. His cancer and dementia had been worsening. He could barely walk. With heavy chemotherapy on the horizon we had to sneak one more in. 

Learning from previous trips, I kept this one unstructured and simple. We flew into San Francisco for a few days, rented a new 3 Series, and eventually made our way down to Santa Cruz. For the next week we’d spend our days in Monterey and Carmel by the Sea, wandering and experiencing Car Week from the very low perspective of a Beck Porsche 550 Speedster replica. I’d secured tickets to the Pebble Beach Concours, and we spent days attending auctions and roaming the pits of the Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca. Nights were for spirited drives up and down State Route 9.

We eventually made our way south to San Luis Obispo via Highway 1, passing Big Sur at sunset. As someone who frequently traveled with me, he was used to staying in odd hotels, so while our arrival at the Madonna Inn was a bit overwhelming, he got a kick out of our stay. 

In Los Angeles I had trouble finding anything interesting with vacancies, but came across a tastefully modified 1950s motel named The Tangerine in Burbank. For this final branch of the trip, I’d arranged for seven days with a 1967 Porsche 912 - white on black with the optional five-speed and five-gauge dash. Our only particular agenda was to hit as many twisty mountain and canyon roads as possible. 

We put about a thousand miles on the car in total, exploring Malibu and Angeles Crest by day and cruising the city at night. Evenings were packed with good food, kitschy dive bars, and the Comedy Store. 

We spent a lot of time in cars together, talking about past life experiences, music, comedy, pain, and death. We’d opened up a lot to each other in those years, and time was running out. 

Then, after about three weeks, we flew home. Things went downhill pretty rapidly after that, and he would eventually die just short of two years later in June of 2023. 

Take your dad on a road trip. He’s waiting for you to ask. 

Running and handling brilliantly after five months of work… well, almost.

New RMS, IMS bearing, timing chain guides and tensioners, oil pressure sender, injectors, intake and exhaust lifters, valves, heads, and pistons clean, chromoly oil pump drive key, throwout bearing, all new gaskets and o-rings, cracked tail lights replaced, Bilstein B8s wearing H&R cabrio-specific lowering springs, H&R adjustable rear sway bar, silicone vacuum lines with brass fittings, spark plugs, control arms, aluminum passenger side floorboard to match the driver’s, headlights wet-sanded and PPF’d, everything detailed and ceramic’d.

Had a local hydraulic shop rebuild my clutch hose and it failed within 100 miles. Left me stranded hours from home but there’s nothing I can’t get done in a parts store parking lot.

Running and handling brilliantly after five months of work… well, almost.

New RMS, IMS bearing, timing chain guides and tensioners, oil pressure sender, injectors, intake and exhaust lifters, valves, heads, and pistons clean, chromoly oil pump drive key, throwout bearing, all new gaskets and o-rings, cracked tail lights replaced, Bilstein B8s wearing H&R cabrio-specific lowering springs, H&R adjustable rear sway bar, silicone vacuum lines with brass fittings, spark plugs, control arms, aluminum passenger side floorboard to match the driver’s, headlights wet-sanded and PPF’d, everything detailed and ceramic’d.

Had a local hydraulic repair shop rebuild my clutch hose and it failed within 100 miles. Left me stranded hours from home but there’s nothing I can’t get done in a parts store parking lot.

Two 8D 12v batteries connected in serial for 24v. Powering a Detroit Diesel 8V92TA, two-stroke, 12.1 liter V8. Has a hard-start issue that I think is contributing to the problem as it takes forever to turn over.

Thought it was a loose connection but no luck.

Its identical twin battery bank and engine next to it has no issues.

Interesting situation and hopefully can get some guidance.

Lumpy idle but ran fine once given gas. Pulled plugs and Cylinder 1 was toast while all others healthy. No misfire codes.

Did a leak-down test. All cylinders at 95/100 at TDC except for Cylinder 1 which is at 50/100. If I turn the crank (not sure of the actual degree), I can get 95/100, just not at TDC.

With the headers removed, it’s very apparent that it’s leaking from one of the exhaust valves. If I wiggle the valve, the sound of the air changes.

From my research it sounds like it might be a broken spring or bad lifter. Does that sound likely to you? There are no signs of valve contact on the piston when scoping, so I don’t think it would be a bent valve.

I’m planning on removing the cams this weekend to see if anything sticks out as broken.