Best of luck , hope its something simple. Once in a blue moon my 71 t would hydrolock with fuel(carbs occasional stuck float) I would have to put it in 3rd and push the car backwards about 20 feet and it would barf the fuel out. very cool car, you should persevere and enjoy the car , no car guy can be "complete" without intimate knowledge of the early 911.

i made it clear to to tech that i wanted to be present in breaking down engine.Called tech on Friday and told me early next week we could continue. Called Monday at about 11 to figure a time to resume and tech says had a little time now and then Friday so the engine was all broken down except case. that all he had to due was crack the case and had found nothing up till the??? obviously he didn't wait for me to be present so my request went in one ear and out the next. makes me pretty suspicious. So he set up time for me today at 1-2 o'clock to meet. met today and he cracks case and says the is the problem it's one bearing in the middle that was lightly scorched.i'm no pro but the case had already been opened.. cylinders fine and pistons fine. nothing cracked. put wrench on motor spin motor now unlocked. i asked him and he says is that all it takes is one scorched bearing to lock up an engine. i personally don't know but have spoke to two guy with over 30 years of experience and say sounds fishy!one guy who sells motors tells me with one of these motors you can drive with cracked pistons and she still will go.says the only waqy one of these motor seizes is that of oil starvation. ! i don't know why he broke it down after he knew clearly i wanted to be there. so then i ask what is it going to cost now that you see what we have !! tells me 2500 for labor and thinks now it's going to cost 3500 for the parts to be machined (vales 1400-1600)crank to be polished and cut but he going to have to check on that .I'm thinking you told me first approximately 5000k and now your at 6k. at this point i really don't know what i should do. Look for a used engine?? take car right out there?? i don't think I'm going for that 6k rebuild !! really just considering taking her home and putting in garage. I'm thinking i better start shopping around for a used engine. and that's where I'm at. confused and waiting to hear from tech on final quote!!!!what's your opinion??

What's my opinion? You're...uh, does jerk work for you? Better than liar.

I was at the shop earlier today, Your number-four bearing spun in a mag case--not unusual. Not the tech's fault, just happened to happen on his watch.

You are continuing to impugn a skilled Porsche specialist who in fact has nice things to say about you, though I can't imagine why.

Please stop this hysterical pursuit of finding why your 35-year-old car took a ****, no matter how many "guys" you talk to who give you expert opinions.

Oh, and I should add that if you want advice on what to do rather than all this "oh jeez I don't know what to do???" call Mike Bigg at Quality Auto, a quarter-mile down the road from where your car is, and have Mickey flat-bed everything to either Danbury Porsche (Danbury,Conn.) or Prestige Porsche (Nyack, New York).

You'll Be In Good Hands. eh?

for the sake of the poor mechanic, just take it all home and leave him alone. clearly not his fault. nothing worse than a distrusting customer.

no matter what, no one should have opened the case, etc. of someone's motor w/o the owner being present if that was clearly stated.

instead, they should have either accepted or rejected the requirement that you be present - most likely, rejected and given every part back to you. you could then call for a tow truck or whatever and take it all away

this is why people put everything in writing


I think you should take the motor and rebuild it yourself. It will be educational for you.

As a new guy to the porsche world, recently rebuilt top end I would say crate it up and roll her home. When I got the bad news on head studs I probably felt much the same way you do now.

Rwebb hits it on the head. Its a no win for you or the mechanic at this point.

Take it home, rebuild yourself ( wish i had )

The nice thing is these guys have done alot of the leg work for you and am sure they would pay you to get it out of their shop at this point.

By the way John your posts are getting easier to read.

6K is a pretty good price for a rebuild. I have spent some serious money at that shop, and while I no longer use them, they do good work.

I think a bd problem like this would make anyone get a bad taste in their mouth, but at this point it isn't very clear that anything they did at the shop had anything to do with your engine failing. The very fact that John is speaking up says as much.

I have been where you are, and believe me it could be a LOT worse. You can spend 5 K just having the cams replaced. I would advise you to do either one of two things.

One would be to apologise for getting so worked up, and ask them to fix the car. They will do a good job, and I know this for a fact.

Your other option would be to take it to a guy down the road, and get a second opinion. I can give you the name of the most honest mechanic in the region, but I can tell you now that it isn't going to get any cheaper. You don't want it to get cheaper either, you want the car to run well, and for a long time.


I think I can say for all of us that we are very very sorry that this happened to your car. It is very unfortunate, and it always stinks when something like this happens, particularly after you just spent money servicing a car. It is understandable that you would be upset. However, it is now time to man up and get into action around your car.

You actually have a few more options, such as bagging up the engine and selling the car as is, or bagging up the engine and letting the car sit until you have calmed down and feel like putting some money into it. I wouldn't do that personally, as the engine is apart, but those are your options as I see them.

If you want the name of a really good mechanic, PM me. Otherwise, consider calming down and having an adult talk with your mechanic. Don't be surprised however if a few other things come up while the engine is torn down. I'm telling you this now, because it is likely to happen. Be prepared, and calm down.

It is only an old car, and it is only money. Nobody is dying. It stinks, but you are not the first guy that has had Porsche maladies. It will probably happen again. It can leave a sour taste in your mouth, and it can ruin Porsches for some.

If you see it through, you will eventually start to enjoy the car again, especially on that first fine Spring morning. But you will need to change your current outlook if you want to see this through. Only you can decide if it is worth it, and only you can decide how you want to handle it.

Accept that this is where you are. Calm down. Then evaluate your options, in that order.

John

You have received a lot of good an honest advice in this thread.
Time to take some of it on board and move on.

Yes... It's unfortunate you weren't there for the tear down but you can't change that now.

Don't take everything so personally. If you want to drive one of the most desirable classic cars available things like this will happen.
One good thing about air cooled 911s is that they hold their value and you'll see that back someday.
If you fix the engine properly now you should get 10 years of trouble free motoring at a minimum. What other classic car can you expect that from?

$6,000 for a rebuild? Wish I could get that locally. Same thing in Australia would cost about $12,000.

Fix the engine you have. Less risky this way.

I know buying a second hand engine may seem cheaper but you may be faced with a bigger repair bill within a few years years.

Let me start by saying how entertaining some of these threads can be, this one was a real soap opera. But John I agree with most, beautiful car, and with a fresh rebuild at $6000 grand you are still in a good position financially on this car............and you have a fresh engine. Get over the blame thing and just get on with the rebuild, you haven't lost your shirt by any means............and like a previous poster mentioned. The first sunny spring day you drive that car you will not even think of the $$$ spent. Keep it , build it, enjoy it.

I've really tried working with him but i think I'm past the point of no return. 6 k way too much for me. first he says 5k now 6k and we did not mention his disregard of not letting me be present on rest of breakdown and i made that real clear. this guy is tells me one thing and then tells me another thing!! i think he does want to get me going.obviously no one on board can answer the question as if can a worn bearing make an engine seize??? I'm at the end of my rope and calm about it!! my wife is about to kill me with this thing and i think the best thing for me is to box it up and bring her home!! time for a vacation after this one with this tech!! it's been a nightmare!!maybe you guys are used to this but not me!!!when somebody tells me something i expect them to keep there words!!!I'm waiting for his final estimate as we speak. if it's above 5k she's coming home!! i will play with it by myself!! i will never buy a Porsche again!!! lesson learned. all have a great day!! at least i will be able to look at her in the garage.

Take some close up of the main bearings, especially the one that has failed. You said it had started to "scorch", not sure what that means, got hot and burned the metal? Look at the bearing closely and try to determine if it tried to heal itself, ie, got oil after it started to fail.
Dry start then got oil. If not, the engine locked up and wasn't able to be turned over enough to get oil pressure. my 2cents worth. John, opinions are like....everybody has one.
Good luck and let the guy rebuild the engine. Drive and enjoy. Add pressure fed tensioners while you are in there.

John,

Regardless of your shop woes, you got a sick deal on this car. If you just want out of the car. I am sure you can find many takers for it on this forum if you don't try to make a killing on it. It's unfotrunate that you will not get to enjoy an early 911 experience, but if you are that frustrated, pass it on to someone who will enjoy it.

If you decide to keep it and really get into the Porsche experience, take the car home, buy Wayne's book, and rebuild it yourself. You will probably still spend near what the shop is willing to rebuild it for, but going out to the garage for a few hours is a great way to clear your head. You will also have an intimate knowledge of your 911 making the driving experience all the better. Make it a winter project and when spring comes around, do what these cars are built for. Drive.

My $.02

Unsubscribe - too many exclamation points.

If this situation is your biggest problem, you got it good my man. If it makes you feel better, I paid $16k for an SC and put over $20k into it over 4 years. But guess what? I enjoyed every minute of it and hopefully I will be running mostly trouble free for the next 10-20 years.

John, it's abundantly clear that it's time for you to move on.

You can never be made happy with the situation you're in, and you will never be happy with the car. Your expectation of what a 36 year old car can provide is not realistic. Your expectation that your mechanic can fix something and promise that nothing else will ever break is not realistic. The shop has offered you a resolution that is very generous on his part, and you're still not happy with every little detail. I'd guess that your mechanic is getting a little gun-shy of you, due to your basic lack of knowledge, your unrealistic expectations, and your immediately going very public with the whole thing.

It appears you have a minimal investment in this car at this point. I'd suggest that you sell it as-is; I believe the engine is original to the car and that's a valuable thing. I think you'd come out fine financially this way. Alternately you could buy a used engine and see if you could get more for it as a running car with the original engine included. Probably a break-even with the first choice.

Then I'd suggest you take your money and look for a classic sports car that doesn't wear out or break down. Good luck with that.

Keep in mind the old adage "All 911's are $20,000.00 cars."

IIRC before you began editing, you paid $5K for the car and put between $3-5K in it before the engine failure? So you're in it for $10K? Save yourself anguish, advertise it for exactly what you have in it "as is" (NOT the $18K you posted in F/S forum) and if its as clean and solid as it looks in the pics I would bet it will be sold inside of 48 hours here. There. Done. Start over with another 911 if that's what you want. And don't look back if someone takes it off your hands, fixes it and flips it for a tidy profit. Or if they keep it and enjoy it.

While I understand you wanted to be there for the teardown, I do not get the feeling the tech was doing anything surreptitious or deceptive. Perhaps a misunderstanding; perhaps he began the teardown before you got there to expedite the process for both of you. But think about it for a minute. The tech never was in side the motor where the failure occurred. Had something like the clutch exploded which he did repair I can understand him being held liable. Nothing in his work/diagnosis would reveal the problem that surfaced.

On the subject of what he did do for you, it seems he truly wanted to make the car as right as possible for you. What he charged you for what he did do was VERY reasonable. Sounds like the guy is pretty stand up...I point to the fact that the transmission noise was a relatively minor problem for which he really could have gouged you had he been dishonest claiming you needed a full tranny rebuild. And he obviously feels bad about the coincidence of it happening under his watch...he's cutting you a helluva deal on the rebuild. He could have just said "Hey..its an old car. Shiit happens. I'll rebuild the motor for $12-15K. No? Come get it outta my way." What if the failure occurred on the way home. A month after you got it back? Six months?

Porsche ownership is not cheap. If you are not ready for a $6K hit when a shop is doing involved repairs, you either park it until you can affordn it or learn to do it yourself and still spend more than half what the shop would charge you. I had a similar sequence of events on my car. Took it into shop for a few minor repairs and other problems were discovered/arose. It was a shock but at no point did I remotely think it was the tech's doing. What starrted out as an estimated $1200 dollar in repairs cost me $4K by the time I was done.

What is it that you think the shop posssibly did wrong that was a direct cause of this failure?

No disrespect to you in my comments. And I have no clue as to who the tech/shop was. I understand your frustration. Comes with the territory of old cars as a hobby. Whether you park it or fix it or keep it or sell, I think you need to make a decision and move on. Life's too short.

Best idea i've heard so far... other than him selling the car.

SmileWavy see ya!!!!!!!

He would be in a 911 with a newly rebuilt motor for around $13K from what I read, I agree if that's out of his range a different car will fit better.