[targa80]

About six years ago I took my car to a porsche only garage for a complete tune up and oil tube replacement (they leaked badly. The engine had 85K on the odometer. They found two broken studs one on each cylinder bank of of the engine. I was told that the comression was still solid and not to worry until I have a second broken stud on the same bank or a loss of compression. Since I do enjoy driving my car but only have short sessions of agressive driving style (getting on the highway or passing a slow poke and that enviting curved country road). So, I took the advice and ran the car for several more years until I had a major oil leak from the oil temp sensor on the top of the engine. The car now had 96K on the odometer. I puled the motor and did the rebuild myself. I did find a second stud broken but never did notice any difference in performance. Between parts, machine shop work and special tools I did not own and had to buy I spent close to $7K on the work. I did all of the major updates to my 3.0 and used Pelican parts as a supplier. It was the first Porsche engine I had rebuilt and I learned a lot. The engine runs great and the odometer now has 118K .

When to repair the broken head studs is up to the individual and how much risk your willing to take. If you are a real aggressive driver and push your engine to the red line then do it now and don't wait. But if your like me It wouldn't hurt to postpone therepair until the time is rigt for you. By the way I still have my moments of aggressive behavior.

Targa80