1986 Blue on Blue and Blue smoke and what to do?

[PandA]

Title about says it all. 286k Miles motor has never been apart and it is past due.

I do love Little Blue. It is a blue on blue car, I am the 17th or 18th owner and I have owned it for over 20 years.
Just finished re-upholstering the seats. Rebuilt the transmission last year. New paint 2 years ago. New carpet, still in the box.
But the motor needs going through. It seems like the we are just about at a total loss oil system.
It is my intent to do the motor myself, I have a nice machine shop to help out with things that I cannot do. However, I am at a bit of my loss. Arguably the car is worth about 60k. And by the time we do the motor we are probably about 30k more into it. That puts us around 90.
Our truck that we drove away from our wedding in is a '66. I am thinking about trading the 86 911 for a 66 911.

I am quite curious what you all think. I feel like the 86 is still faster than almost everything on the road, and a 66 will look pretty but not be that fast?

Looking forward to your thoughts!
Andrew

[porsche930dude]

Im cheap so I would consider just replacing the valve seals first. Of course first check for valve side play to see if your wasting your time. I would think a 66 is a whole different car than an 86. Maybe thats your jam. I dont know

[kenzinger]

With a motor that's more of a core than anything, is it really worth $60k? Maybe that fact makes the math a bit more tolerable when you think about it.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[darrin]

Andrew -- I see you've owned your Carrera for 20 years. Value is only material if/when you plan to sell it. If you enjoy (and expect to continue to enjoy) the car for a while, imo, do what's necessary to continue that enjoyment. Also, agree with Kurt that you'd be hard pressed to get anywhere near $60k for a Carrera with a "total loss oil system."

Also, since much of the $ involved in a rebuild is for labor, suspect you can get this done for well under $30k (especially if you exercise some "while in there" discipline). How much did you spend to (DIY?) the transmission rebuild?

[HarryD]

Have you diagnosed the source of the blue smoke? When does it occur? Acceleration, deceleration, all the time. What does an oil test disclose in regards to bearing wear? Before the dep dive, you should know what meds to be addressed.

IMHO, the SWB 911’s (1968 and earlier) are interesting but if it was me, I would go with a later longhood for the evolutionary improvements.

[al lkosmal]

The 1st thing I would do, is a leak-down test......this will give you a good idea about the state of the valves, rings etc.......however, at 286K, it is likely due for a complete rebuild.

regards,
al

[PandA]

Thank you all for the replies!
I have not really diagnosed the smoke, I know most of it is on startup, but I also know the manual says to tear the motor down every 100k miles and I am quite shure that many of the horses have run away from the barn over the last 200k miles that I have put on it.
I add up what the transmission cost me for a rebuild, but it was also a new clutch, flywheel, (pull it back out because I forgot the ring gear) the wevo gate shift kit (pull it back out because the "dongle" didn't fit)... I was probably in it for 5k?

[darrin]

Andrew -- Smoke on startup is pretty normal for our cars (even with a freshly rebuilt motor). I agree with Al's suggestion of starting with a leak down and HarryD's regarding getting an oil analysis. I'd also carefully monitor oil consumption, as it's another good gauge of when a rebuild is required. 20 years ago, mine '86 wouldn't make 2 fill ups (600 miles) before it needed a quart of oil. A top end overhaul (replace valve guides, recondition rockers, regrind galled cams, etc.) put my engine back in "new" condition and engine ran quite well (2.5k per quart of oil, plugs uniformly colored, etc.) until I decided to upgrade it a few years ago at 175k while the car was down for a year to address some rust/do a respray. We found nothing out of spec at 175k.

Long winded way of getting to my point - I see you estimate that a large # of folks owned this before you, any chance that one of them could have done an intermediate engine overhaul? If your oil consumption is not terrible, your spark plugs look OK/uniform, an oil test doesn't identify any dying bearings, etc. and you get good/consistent leak down numbers, you might just need to chase down some vacuum leaks and / or replace some sensors to get your engine back to its good old self.

[Sboxin]

IMHO - - -

I agree with most of the other comments . . . but would like to add our experiences with a 3.2l and now our 3.8L race engine:

The leak down hot is important to see what condition the valves and piston rings are in. If you have been diligent about changing the oil and use good oil the bearings should be OK.
But, with the car being an occasional driver the cams/lifters will be worn from possible poor warm up process.

Even our newly rebuilt 3.8L engine will smoke at start up after sitting for a week or two because the oil leaks down into the combustion cambers.

If you can really tell a loss of power, then it is time to investigate everything including the injectors getting dirty and other little things - maybe have a really good Porsche shop evaluate for you?

Our 3.2L race engine held up very well for 4 years of track racing/time trials/etc. I sold it when we needed more Torque on race starts and built the 3.8L (from a 964 core).

Wish you the best on your project - I would not sell the car (the 3.2L is a great engine) IMHO of course.

Regards,
Roy T