Hi Bob,
I was fortunate to find/buy a replacement head (actually an entire set) from another pelican at a very good price and the machine shop prepped it for me at no cost (they acknowledged that they must have caused the damage).
I can't really comment on how the motor ran, or how the car drove previously, as this has been a project from the beginning. I received a non-running basket-case '79 SC about 3 yrs back and intended to bring it back to life, but decided it was BER (aviation acronym for Beyond Economical Repair)...so I kept the motor/trans and parted most of the car. I've rebuilt the motor with minor mods (SSIs, Webers, DC-19 cams, MSD, hyd tensioners, Mahle 9.3:1 P&Cs), located an '84 roller and just finished the install a few weeks ago. I got the motor running last weekend and it runs great. Webers were easy to set up on this motor, took very little time to get the motor running well, but I'll be tuning it further as I start driving it. As expected, throttle response is excellent (I run Webers on my other car with an American V-8). In fact, the flat six revs even quicker than the V-8!
This is my first 911, but I've driven a few SCs with CIS in the past and was never impressed. This motor is much more flexible and fun to drive. I've built quite a few motors (all types), but this is the first Porsche motor and it's far and away the most challenging I've ever tackled (except for the turbines I used to overhaul much earlier in my career)...to say that I'm extremely relieved and pleased that it doesn't have any apparent leaks and runs well is a vast understatement...
Mike...
