[Wayne 962]

A lot of people have been commenting about my stance on doing a quality job and doing things right. Just to clarify. If you use the methods outlined in the new engine rebuild book, you will have:

- A good, strong running motor with excellent compression and leakdown numbers
- An engine that is considerably better and more reliable than when it was new
- An engine that will last at least 100,000 miles (or more if it's an aluminum case engine)
- A leak-free engine (most people forget about this point)

Sure, you can slap together some old worn out junk, and it will probably work. Will it work well? Probably not. You might have piston slap, or excess clearances that burn oil, and the engine may last about 40K-50K miles. You'll also have reduced HP, and increased gas mileage.

I believe in saving money when you can (like not replacing the number eight bearing if it's in spec). But there are somethings that you have to replace in order to achieve an engine that will satisfy the above criteria.

Anyone who has ever done any construction work on their house knows firsthand that you have to use the correct tools, the correct knowledge, have plenty of patience, and use the correct materials in order to achieve a good quality job. The same is true with the 911 engine.

For example, if you tear down a magnesium case and simply replace the pulled head studs without doing anything else, you're asking for trouble. Why? Because the cylinder base spigots bend and deform. When you go to bolt the whole thing back together, the center spigot will be higher or lower than the ones on either side. This creats a poor fit, and results most commonly in oil leaks.

In the new book, I tell you the way that you can be assured to do the job properly, and end up with a strong, leak-free engine. To skimp or compromise on the tasks or machine work that is needed specifically means that you will most likely have oil leaks or performance problems later on. You might get lucky, but you are spending so much time working on your engine, you'd hate to put it together and find out that you have a major oil leak. I'm a firm advocate of doing it right the first time. I also advocate that if you can't afford to do it right, then it might not be worth doing at all.

Follow the book, and your engine will turn out right. Start cutting corners, and you're increasing the risk of something going wrong...

I do think that a lot of the debate and comments on this BBS are written by people who have not read the book, and don't quite understand the processes that they would be skipping (like the spigot problem mentioned above). I do know that people who have the book, and have read it, have come to me, and said, "ah, I understand now why you recommend that," or "yes, it makes perfect sense to me since you explained it that way in the book." I suppose that I should just wait until the people on this forum have read the book, and have a firm understanding of why I am making these specific recommendations. Perhaps until then I will be simply spinning my wheels trying to convince some of you otherwise?

-Wayne