PPI in Purcellville, North Virgina?

[notfarnow]

Can anyone recommend a shop for a full PPI in Purcellville, North Virgina?

My father and his wife are on the hunt for a car, and I sent them a link to an 86 Carrera Cabriolet being sold by a fellow Pelican. They are interested, and the car is in their price range. Dad isn't very computer literate, and although he loves cars doesn't work on them. He's asked me to make arrangements to have the car checked out.

Also, I know head studs are a concern on SCs, but is that true of 3.2s as well? Most of my reading on 3.2s has been around valve guide wear. The car has under 70k, and the seller says there is no smoke at startup or otherwise. He says he hasn't noticed any oil consumption, but he's only driven it ~3k since buying it so it would be hard to guage oil consumption based on that. Not sure how easy it is to check for valve guide wear, so I'd like to find someone very knowledgeable to check it out.

If the seller is OK with it, I'd love to find someone to go over and check for any glaring issues. The guy seems very honest and upfront, but it's hard to spend 300+ on a PPI before having someoen else take a quick look. I sent an email to the seller about that, I'll see what he says.

Thanks in advance!

[VaSteve]

Check your PMs

[notfarnow]

*Bump*

Anyone able to recommend a shop in the area to do a full PPI?

[VaSteve]

Stuttgart Performance in Gaithersburg, VA
ASG, IMA in Merrifield, VA

[notfarnow]

Here are a few that the seller has told me are nearby:

Currys’ Auto Service, Inc., 4003 A Westfax Drive, Chantilly, VA 20151

Autobahn Service Inc.: 3158 A Spring Street, Fairfax, VA 22031

IMA Motorsport: 2928 C Prosperity Avenue, Fairfax, VA 22031

Porsche of Arlington: 3100 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202

HBL of Tysons Corner: Porsche/Audi/Mercedes Dealer

I'm hesitant to use a dealer for a PPI on an older Porsche, so I'd prefer to pick from the first three. If anyone has any feedback about them, please reply here or by PM.

VaSteve, thanks again for your help.

A couple tech questions:
-With a low mile 3.2, what procedure (other than looking for smoke) would you use to look for valve guide issues. If the car isn't smoking on startup, I assume there wouldn't be enough wear to make the valve loose in the guides.
-Most of my reading over the past two years has been about SCs. Are head studs an issue on 3.2s.

The reason I ask these two questions: During a PPI, is it worthwhile to have them pop the valve covers to check the headstuds & valves? Or is a leakdown and full inspections sufficient?

[KFJ_SC]

IMA just did a PPI for me (in Sept.) and did a very thorough job. I met Ivan (the owner) at my first track event with the car a month later. He's a great Porsche enthusiast. Curry's is good, but I wouldn't put them in the category of Porsche specialist. I'm sure they would do a fine job, they've done some work on my Audi, but given the choice for a Porsche PPI I would go IMA. I too would steer clear of HBL.

[notfarnow]

Thanks!

I've had a few recommendations for IMA, so I think that's who I'll go with.

Can anyone comment on how to check the valve guides? I've read up a fair bit, and according to some of Wayne's and John Walker's replies in other threads, compression or leakdown tests won't show valve guide wear unless they are really far gone.

Someone mentioned doing a co2 test.

comments?

[asphaltgambler]

IMA only - I know these guys.

[Pele911]

IMA is the best of the lot. Stay away from Autobahn!

[notfarnow]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Spoke with Chris Prack at IMA, and now we have a PPI scheduled for Friday. Deposit is on the car, sale pending results of the PPI.

Fingers crossed... not even my car, but BOY AM I EXCITED!

[notfarnow]

Just got the leakdown results:
#1 2%
#2 2%
#3 1%
#4 2%
#5 2%
#6 3%

I'd say that's about as good as you can hope for. If everything else checks out it looks like it's a "go". Fingers crossed!