The case for crating up your motor an sending it out.
 

I live in MN. Very little aircooled action up her as compared to CA.
When I bought my teener, it was very rustfree, but parked ( not stored for 14 years. Stuck motor, stuck brakes, mice in exhaust and the usual stuff you find. A local Porsche restorer (356 body guy, NOT a mechanic) helped me to unstick the motor and stressed the that he shoudl have his 356 engine rebuild guy "adjust the valves". Result: Dropped a valve seat. Looked all over town for someone who could fix my heads ( weld aluminum)found a guy, he charged me 475 bucks to pressfit the valve seats and NOT flycut after welding ( I find out later) My attempt at DIY topend rebuild was botched ( spent another 500.00 having 2 guys try to adjust the valves) Found a somewhat competent type 4 shop with racing engine experience who did their own macine work to dissasemble, fix stuff and put the motor back in the carbut when the saw the heads, they replaced the wxhaust valves. flycut them , welded cracks replaced p/c's and said that they "didn't want to dig out those valve seats" that were now just pressfit in. In ran great at first, but then idle started to wander ( defensively attributed to carbs) and then it DROPPED ANOTHER VALVE SEAT!! So now my heads go to FAT. 6 wks later they come back, with a 940.00 repair bill + shpg both ways. Now they find a broken piston (!) not a big deal, but this is the trird summer I'll miss most of with this car. If I'd just bit the bullet and sent my motor to FAT at first, I'd have been off a lot cheaper, and would not have been thinking of giving up and buying a 912T right now (like I am).....I think I've got like 4 grand and 3 summers into a stock topend rebuild here. That 2 grand FAT 2.0 stock rebuild sounds good to me right now.

This information is from RIMCO'S web site.

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HEADWORK

411 / 914, 356 / 912

*Complete reconditioning available, Price depends on type of valves used.

Recondition Complete (no new valves) - Each.................................. $105.00

If you are thinking about switching to a 912T I want you to remember something I read a while back, which pretty much sums up the 914 experience. It was written by a very wise man who always made good choices. I think after reading this passage you may change your mind:

"Clutchtubedoorhandlesbrokeclockgaugeswipersdontwo rkbatteryboxrustdroppedvalveseatspongybrakesandten footshiftlinkageandIstillloveit!"

About that 105 flat rate price quote: FAT quoted me like 250 over the phone, and then they said stuff like "Oh, you wanted the valve seats
GROUND?" And then proceeded to justify the almost 400% quote change
AFTER they got my heads. I just want my F'ing car back at this point...