[Dueller]

Keep in mind the old adage "All 911's are $20,000.00 cars."

IIRC before you began editing, you paid $5K for the car and put between $3-5K in it before the engine failure? So you're in it for $10K? Save yourself anguish, advertise it for exactly what you have in it "as is" (NOT the $18K you posted in F/S forum) and if its as clean and solid as it looks in the pics I would bet it will be sold inside of 48 hours here. There. Done. Start over with another 911 if that's what you want. And don't look back if someone takes it off your hands, fixes it and flips it for a tidy profit. Or if they keep it and enjoy it.

While I understand you wanted to be there for the teardown, I do not get the feeling the tech was doing anything surreptitious or deceptive. Perhaps a misunderstanding; perhaps he began the teardown before you got there to expedite the process for both of you. But think about it for a minute. The tech never was in side the motor where the failure occurred. Had something like the clutch exploded which he did repair I can understand him being held liable. Nothing in his work/diagnosis would reveal the problem that surfaced.

On the subject of what he did do for you, it seems he truly wanted to make the car as right as possible for you. What he charged you for what he did do was VERY reasonable. Sounds like the guy is pretty stand up...I point to the fact that the transmission noise was a relatively minor problem for which he really could have gouged you had he been dishonest claiming you needed a full tranny rebuild. And he obviously feels bad about the coincidence of it happening under his watch...he's cutting you a helluva deal on the rebuild. He could have just said "Hey..its an old car. Shiit happens. I'll rebuild the motor for $12-15K. No? Come get it outta my way." What if the failure occurred on the way home. A month after you got it back? Six months?

Porsche ownership is not cheap. If you are not ready for a $6K hit when a shop is doing involved repairs, you either park it until you can affordn it or learn to do it yourself and still spend more than half what the shop would charge you. I had a similar sequence of events on my car. Took it into shop for a few minor repairs and other problems were discovered/arose. It was a shock but at no point did I remotely think it was the tech's doing. What starrted out as an estimated $1200 dollar in repairs cost me $4K by the time I was done.

What is it that you think the shop posssibly did wrong that was a direct cause of this failure?

No disrespect to you in my comments. And I have no clue as to who the tech/shop was. I understand your frustration. Comes with the territory of old cars as a hobby. Whether you park it or fix it or keep it or sell, I think you need to make a decision and move on. Life's too short.