1978 SC purchase gone bad!!

[Lemonade]

Hi guys,

I am new to this board and this is my first post. I made a deal last week on a 1978 911 SC with 121k and a full rebuild at 107k in 1991 with tensioners and studs done (the price was $9,000). The interior is nice, but the front seats are rough and the back seats are shot and the drivers interior door panel is mismatching. Almost no rust and nicely matching seams all the way around. The car was in a small front end accident which was evident by an ever so small crease under the hood carpeting. The car recently had a new coat of metallic silver paint that was nicely done. After my test drive I informed him that the gearbox squeaks (almost like a chirp) in between gears (no grinding) and the left front caliper was a bit lazy. There were also some minor oil leaks coming from different spots under the engine. Other than that the car pulled hard to redline, ran cool, drove straight and braked hard. I told him to fix the caliper and change the oil and filter and the deal is done. The car showed up at my house on saturday morning with the caliper fixed and the oil changed.

Well, I decided to take it out for a quick test drive after delivery and the car began to smoke like I have never seen a car smoke! Also, that caliper seized right back up again and I was not happy to say the least. I contacted the seller and he informed me that a new tech had added 4 MORE QUARTS OF OIL THAN THE CAR NEEDED. Now, that seems like a hell of a mistake and even after draining out 4-5 quarts and checking the hot oil on level ground with the dipstike more towards the lower hash mark it still smokes. I let it run and run and run and run and it still smokes. I also have massive puddles of oil coming out of the engine where the leaks once were. The seller admitted his mistakes and agreed to pick the car up and refund my money (very fair). My question is, did this overfill cause permanent damage to the engine? Did it enhance (permanently) any leaks the motor already had? Did I just pass on a decent car because of a simple problem or did I do the right thing by returning it? These SC's are getting hard to come by in good shape.

Thanks,

David

[Rich76_911s]

It seems like whomever did the oil change didn't know what the heck they were doing. It is quite possible that they spilled a lot of oil when doing the oil change. And this oil has a way of finding its way down ontop of the heat-exchangers. When the heat-exchangers get hot the car starts to cook that oil and in turn it smokes like crazy. I would have taken a look at that first. 9K for a rust free 911 is a pretty good deal, and a brake caliper rebuild is not all that complicated. ON the other hand though if there was some permanent damage to the engine you did the right thing, and that is one heck of a seller to give you your money back.

That is my two cents.

And if you are still in the market for a car, make sure to take any car you are looking to buy to a qualified Porsche Mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection. Have them do a compression and leakdown test, and with the SC watch out for broken headstuds. Maybe you should see if you could take the car that you returned and have a good mechanic take a look at it, to give you a better idea of how well the engine is running.

Cheers,
Rich

[Gunter]

Is this another one of those many incidents where the buyer "saved" the cost of a thorough PPI with a self-diagnoses?
The only way to tell the condition of the engine is to have a compression/leak-down test done.
Guessing from a distance as to what might, or might not be the case is like rolling the dice.

[TerryH]

Again! Seems we cover this once a week... if someone does not know the procedure for checking the oil level on these cars, they will almost always overfill. If the car didn't smoke on your first drive, it sounds like the car is overfilled.

There will be residule oil in the exhaust and intake areas. Remove the air cleaner might reveal a mess. It may smoke for a quite a while now.

Take the car to a known Porsche specialist for an inspection. It is money well spent.

[VBHokie]

The mechanic I take my 79 SC to has worked on newer european cars (Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes), but mine is the first one of its age he has worked on.

First oil change he did for me he slightly overfilled it (not 4 quarts worth I believe) and told me he had it running in the garage for about an hour letting everything burn off before he rechecked everything on the engine before releasing it back to me.

No harm was done to vehicle, and now I have something funny to needle him with. Well, that and the other time he was in the passenger side, and couldn't quite figure out at first how to unlock the door and get out. That was pretty funny.

[john walker's workshop]

the excess oil gets burped into the intake system, goes quickly through the engine and gets deposited in the muffler, where it will smoke for hours. no harm done to the engine. wait until dark and go fog for mosquitos until it stops.