[larry47us]

I have purchased and read Wayne's book on restoring Porsches, and I am in the process of arranging to buy a 73 911E Targa that is being restored for me by a shop in CT. The car has 98K miles on it. The shop has just done a leakdown test and a compression test. Here are the results:

1: 140psi 19%
2: 140psi 18%
3: 145psi 18%
4: 145psi 9%
5: 152psi 10%
6: 140psi 10%

He said "I don't want to tell you what to make of these numbers. I think you should do some research to make your own decision. Personally I think they are good and would keep driving the car. It ran great last fall."

The car has been sitting idle for the last 6 months. He just replaced the injector pump because it wasn't running within specs, and said that before he ran the leakdown test, it was running rich, and the extra carbon probably affected the readings on cylinders 1-3.

From what I have read, it seems to me that the compression test went very well, all cylinders within 7% of each other. The leakdown test numbers seem inconsistent with the tightness of the engine I see in the compression test.

I am a total novice at this. Should I have him try to "burn off" the extra carbon and redo the leakdown test? Or, since the compression test is OK, should I consider the engine all right? He said he heard the hissing in cyl 1-3 out the exhaust.

I appreciate any comments you might throw my way. Thanks for helping.

larry