Shelton: You spent $38,000 last month on a 930 engine? That seems a bit rich, even if you sourced all new parts!!! Was that supposed to be 3.8 or 13.8 ??

$3k is pretty tight. No performance upgrades in that at all! I'm doing almost all the work myself and have extended the down time while I cruise various websites for cheap parts. I'll probably end up at $3-4K for a total STOCK rebuild (including special tools; I had a bunch already), but its been a year+ in the making. You can find good used parts and do everything except machining/balancing your self.

As others said, get more info with compression test and leak down tests to help target the exact nature of the issues.

Best regards,

Michael

will the engine run another 100k+ miles with just a top end rebuild?

First off, complete your profile to include your loaction.

At 120K miles, you may not need a rebuild at all.
--How much oil is the car using? How many quarts for how many miles? Blowing a puff of smoke at startup is not a problem, it is very common for 911 engines, and is not a reason for concern.
--Have you done a compression and leak-down test?

I wouldn't piss on Motor Meister if they were on fire.

Port and polish will get you very little. A stock 3.2 head flows very well. If you are trying to get the last few horsepower out of a race motor maybe for a street car, save your money (and don't even THINK about doing it yourself--you WILL screw it up, and hurt performance). If you do a little research you will find the Porsche left very little on the table for performance increases.

Tom

Agree with Euro911sc on the price. I'm doing a rebuild on my 3.2 right now (P&C were OK) and I'll have $3-$4K into it.

Get Wayne's books and like the other guys are saying figure out what if anything is wrong with your car.

I had 4 broken Dilaver head studs and no history so I elected to do a complete rebuild so I could have confidence in the motor. I could have done a top end and gotten by but thats not for me.

I had Henry rebuild the rods and heads, ARP rod bolts, new steel head studs, main and rod bearings, all new seals, gaskets, bearings, list goes on forever.

First thing you need to do if figure out what you have and don't tear into unless you have a plan and budget including about $400 in special tools unless you already have them.

Top end doing it yourself may be under the $2K mark but it depends on how many "while your in theres" you chose to do. I'm up to at least $1000 in things that have nothing to do with the motor rebuild. (clutch release fork, throw out bearing, fuel injector cleaning and flow testing, paint, hoses, sensors, hardware, rotor, cap, plugs and wires, seems endless)

If you decide on tearing into it send the heads to Henry at Supertech. Great guys and resource.

In response to your question regarding the top end going another 100K miles, no one knows. The top end may last 100K miles, but the rest of the engine may be another story.

Good luck

Brian

Depends on how its cared for,like I said if you know its had proper maintenance done by a good record history, Ive seen as many as 250k before the case is split. But if your ax and on the track,or just run hard things happen.

My apologies for hijacking this thread. Shelton--I just want to verify that you spent $38k to build (rebuild?) your 3.3 930. You can send me a PM if you want.

Yes or no question for the board:

If do leakdown & compression tests, one can be "certain" the rings are good?

You can tell they aren't broken. You can tell they aren't worn out completely yet. You can't tell how long they will last in the future.

-Andy