When I got home I just parked it for about 5 months because I really did not have the $$ for a good used motor, or a place to work on it. PSD motors used w/ verifiable miles are hard to find and expensive, especially if they need to be shipped. They go for 911 motor prices and weigh ~850 lbs.
Still, I hunted for one for a long time w/ no luck, (not going to buy one on ebay for big bucks that I could not test/inspect first), these engines can last several 100k miles
if they are maintained properly. And that is one big "if". They also blow up w/ 100k on them. Mine has 157k miles.
I finally decided that I would have to try to fix this engine, or at least tear it down and see if it was practical. My long-suffering friend David D., (dd74), donated some work space in the lot behind his office building in Hollywood and I towed it over. Major, major thanks to David and his lovely better half for this favor since it has predictably taken me longer than planned to complete the project.
Here was the little problem, somehow the rings broke on one piston and destroyed the cylinder wall, resulting in zero compression and the aforementioned knock.
