[JFP in PA]

I’ve known Mike for a long time; he does not have a malicious bone in his body. Hell, the man is retired, and instead of working on his golf handicap, he shows up here trying to offer some guidance based upon solid years of experience. A former moderator on one of the major Porsche forums, he also has a website of his own with encyclopedic information about Porsches that is extremely useful for the DIY’ers. And he has also seen more than one if these driveway projects come to tears.

Trying to assess if someone is fully prepared and equipped to undertake a project is very difficult at best. Just about any answer you throw out is going to offend someone, even though it was made with the best of intentions. And as this particular instance involves some substantial risk if you get it wrong, his “heart surgery” comment was not far off the mark. This is not a project for everyone to consider undertaking, no matter how well equipped they are, or how much automotive background they have. If you are not experienced with these engine’s, or do not have absolutely everything you need to do it lined up, perhaps you should reconsider and do more research on the subject.

This is something that even the so-called “factory trained technician’s” can completely screw up in a shop with multiples of everything needed to do the job; so it is realistic to express some level of caution, which is not intended to demean the individual asking the question as you have no background on how prepared they are to deal with what needs to be accomplished.