Shop recommendations for freshen up and mods

[RDG]

Hi all, after about 30 years of owning a 930 I'm finely in the position to be able to have some work done on my car. It's a low mile 79. I'd like to pull the engine and trans and have a shop disassemble, replace the rod bolts and head studs with ARP, reassemble with a fresh valve Job, mild cams, Turbokraft intercooler and a GT35r turbo. I'm located in Portland OR and have a couple places in mind here in town they are Rennsport and Rothsport. I have also spoken to Turbokraft in AZ. All these guys are very well respected in the air cooled and turbo community if you had the option where would you have your work done, would you stay local with the very competent people in town or would you ship OOT where it's more of a drop and pick vs maybe being able to see some of what's going on if you stay in town. Oh and if you had the choice would you just drop your car and have it done or would you turn some wrenches and pull the engine yourself, it's not a huge savings but the car would be at home and I could detail the engine compartment and fix any small items while the engine was in the shop.
Thanks for any input.

[Matt Monson]

I'd take it to Jeff. No need to ship it anywhere. Won't be cheap but it will be perfect.

[tailwind22]

You picked a hard three to draw from as all have some of the best reputations in the industry. Turbo Kraft does so many mods and so many modded tune jobs that the are very efficient at what they do. You could not go wrong with either of the three.

[Tippy]

Option 3:

Trailer to Turbokraft and have them install EFI along with everything you listed above.

Then drive it back home.

[jsveb]

I have nothing against any of these -awesome options.

I agree local is convenient, however, I'd tow it to TurboKraft; they are very experienced in these mods, operate "in the open," more than willing to share their knowledge, and Mr. Carroll himself is a stand-up guy. Though I have never met him, he is more than willing to assist over the phone.

[RDG]

Thanks for the replies. It's a super hard choice, I know it's not a big HP high end build, and I'm sure all of the 3 are more then capable, transport via lift ramp truck I'm guessing 3k to and from, AZ that's another reason I was thinking of just pulling the engine renting a little uhaul trailer and taking it myself. I have spoken to Steve and Chris and really like what they had to say, I haven't yet spoken to Jeff, think I'll give him a call. Looks like regardless of who does the work most of the parts would be ordered from Chris.

[krasuskyp]

I think what others have not touched upon but you mentioned is important to consider:

DIY affords excellent opportunity to "while you're in there" - and I don't (necessarily) mean of the slippery slope type, but sprucing all the peripherals up that you now have sudden amazing access to and that most shops won't attend to (or they will but you'll of course be paying for that).

not only that, but it also provides an unparalleled chance to truly KNOW your car, all it's workings, condition, etc. and absorb voluminous loads of knowledge in the process

which - lastly - provides one's self with a truly awesome sense of accomplishment, which can be quite rewarding

if you've got the time, the basic know-how and tools, motivation, and spousal / family understanding & support (huge factor, honestly - not to be underestimated!)... then I say go this route (not at all knocking or dismissing any of those 3 shop choices - they're certainly the best)

I recently went down this road, and accomplished things I'd only previously dreamed / read about. And attended to such things like scraping off the sound pad remnants and polishing / cleaning this & that etc. and changing seals / hoses that suddenly are accessible.

I learned an immense amount from the kind folks here, and now am intimately familiar with all the systems which helps me "own" the car so so so much better in the long run.

good luck whichever route you take - the results are REALLY worth the effort... find a local member's car to drive that shares similar mods if you've not yet experienced such - and - prepare to be OMG'd

HTH

[JFairman]

If I was in your place I'd really consider this complete rebuilt EFI motor that's for sale and it's not far away from you. He even say's he'll have it transported to the shop in Oregon you mentioned.
Relisted-Rebuilt Porsche 3.3 Turbo Motor w/efi, engine mgmt, I/C, turbo, headers

You could put your turbo drip tank and scavenge pump on it or your entire CIS and exhaust system if you wanted.
Then you still have your original motor to sell or keep.

[Norm K]

^^^ This ^^^

If the engine had been priced like this when I began my venture I may well have bought it, then sold my original one to defray the cost. You'd end up with as close to a free (a few grand is essentially free in this case), nicely-modded 930 engine as you're ever likely to get. No way you could build yours - even doing all the assembly yourself - for the difference in price between this engine and yours.

[TurboKraft]

Hi Rob -- thanks for the consideration! Steve and Jeff are both very capable, can easily handle this. Jeff has an engine dyno, we have a chassis dyno, and either of us can tune the CIS.
Whatever you're comfortable with.


Re: that 2nd engine -- good price. Not my favorite engine management system, and IMO would need some attention before going into a 930 (no mention of head studs or rod bolts), not to mention getting it cosmetically as nice as the rest of your car. But at that price, it would still fall within your project budget. And you'd still have your original engine.

[Spenny_b]

I tell you, Paul is spot-on with his thoughts above. As he says, lots of "ifs, buts and maybes" depending on your circumstances.

I'm a spanner monkey, not by trade but as a passion. I sold a 996 GT3 Mk2 because it was beyond the realms of either being improved upon (within a normal budget) or for fear of devaluing it come resale time...it had to go, I wanted greasy fingernails again, so the hunt was on for my Turbo.

Pretty much from the get-go there was an intention of doing some kind of project on it. I never thought it'd be a full-on rebuild/re-engineering project though. See my link below, you'll read that it was to only be an EFI conversion to start with, but me being me, and a long time sufferer of upgradeitis, it's become far more, and given me that true sense of ownership that never happened with the GT3 (bolting in a roll-cage, Schroth harnesses and a Cargraphics exhaust system don't accomplish this!)

I've not spoken to the other 2 guys you mention, and I'm sure I'm not sparing Chris his blushes, but I was "sold" after following Toms 2010 Odyssey Project. Amazing work, and there's many more like that (Chris can point you in the direction of his turbo ITB project as well, v impressive). Chris has been more than helpful when I've needed to reach out and either ask exploratory questions, or, more often than not, stupid questions!

The time taken to rebuild, again as Paul points out, not to be underestimated for a first timer like me/most of us. It's into the thousands of hours in my case, but then, I'm making a tonne of custom bespoke parts, using non-factory items to upgrade with, being stupidly anal about re-plating everything, doing some fabrication, and all inbetween doing the (new) day job, spending time with my daughter, building a new workshop and being exhausted. Please don't let that put you off (I don't regret it in the least), the point I'm making is that it can be as big or as small a job as you choose to make it.

Sending my car isn't feasible (I'm in the UK), shipping my engine is of course *possible* although likely to be hugely expensive... but you never know, if I've made a right Horlicks of my rebuild come fire-up time, that's certainly what I'll be doing!!

HTH
Spencer.

[tailwind22]

Originally Posted by JFairman

If I was in your place I'd really consider this complete rebuilt EFI motor that's for sale and it's not far away from you. He even say's he'll have it transported to the shop in Oregon you mentioned.
Relisted-Rebuilt Porsche 3.3 Turbo Motor w/efi, engine mgmt, I/C, turbo, headers

You could put your turbo drip tank and scavenge pump on it or your entire CIS and exhaust system if you wanted.
Then you still have your original motor to sell or keep.

Thanks for thinking of my motor. Going to make someone happy.