[mhackney]

I just wanted to follow up with an update. After much research and talking to local Porsche folks, I decided to take my car to Randolph Racing in Stoughton, MA. Kevin (the owner) has an excellent reputation and experience with SCs and many other Porsches. In fact, he was rebuilding an engine on another 83 Cabriolet. I had the car flat-bedded to his shop and filled him in on this backstory.

After looking the car over he called me with not entirely unexpected news. The engine has been developing oil leaks and with 191K miles on her, I've know for a while that a rebuild was probably in the cards sooner than later. Kevin confirmed that and believed that several head studs were broken and the cam tensioners were shot (which I was aware of and had on my list to service asap). And now the fun begins...

I could have just had a stock rebuild, but what's the fun in that? I've always wanted a more performance-oriented Porsche so I opted for a performance rebuild. So here are some of the upgrades: a 3.6 964 crankshaft with cross drilled center main bearing for improved lubrication, WEB-CAM 20/21 cams, Mahle 10 to 1 98mm pistons and cylinders (3.0 t0 3.5l upgrade) Wavetrac diff, hydraulic chain tensioners, SACHS Performance clutch, and a Billy Boat header and muffler (and oh does she sound sweet!). Of course I got the sheetmetal powder coated, new trans/engine mounts, and lots of other details while "we were in there".

I got the car back on Friday late afternoon and, or course, it snowed Friday night and Saturday and rained Sunday! I only got to drive the 65 miles home mostly on the interstate. But, boy was that fun (even keeping below the 4000RPM break in period). I get to put 300 miles on her and then back to the shop for head stud retorquing and valve adjustment and swap out the break in oil and I want to have her dyno'd then too just to see what I really have for HP and torque.

Kevin was great on the communication and invited me in to see the rebuild several times over the winter and he actually drove to my house unexpectedly to show me his work and let me take it out for a short spin around the neighborhood. Overall, I put some money into the rebuild but it is a completely different car now and I anticipate it to be worth every penny! I can't wait to start racking up more miles, I put about 100K of the 191K on the odometer and bought the car in June 2008 - so we have a bit of history together!