[da Vinci Dan]

How common? Who knows.

What I can say is that when I was buying 911s in late 90’s and early 00’s, everyone was talking about valve guides and smoke.

My last aircooled purchase was this year. This time, when I went to get ppi’s from the most reputable aircooled experts in two major cities (LA and Atlanta), all shops said it was a waste of time and money not to pull the covers and check the studs. I learned, evidently as the 3.2 has been aging, more hot / cold cycles, the more likely it is for it to bust some studs.

My understanding is that this is now common knowledge and therefore common practice in a thorough ppi.

Symptoms: Acccording to the original owner of my car, it was simply an oil leak. Compression was fine. There were a total of 6 broken studs and the car drove fine.

$23k later (tires, brakes, exhaust, drive shafts, while your in there stuff), it drives as new.