Aries9

I got my car checked out recently and the porsche mechanic said that my oil leak on the left side of the engine is due to a busted seal between the cam and the chain tensioners (or something like that I wrote it down but dont have it with me, anyway there's a round opening in the chain tensioner housing and that's the seal).

Next, potentially the most critical thing, the seals between the engine and exhaust at the heat exchangers are blown out and it's blowing exhaust onto the engine there and causing the heat exchangers to rattle. There's also an oil leak that he said might be due to broken head studs? (i think that's right, he said it was pretty common in these cars)

And while I'm getting all of that done I should get a valve adjustment/rocker arm adjustment etc.

Sorry for the vagueness. Anyway the quote came to 900 and I'm just wondering if these are critical problems or will become critical problems and should I get them fixed.

Thanks in advance and again sorry for the vagueness

RoninLB

a Very Bad exhaust leak May burn a valve.. kinda bad enough to be like running an engine without any exhaust.

the chain housing seal needs the cam removed to replace. The cam hopefully is centered in the case seal.

chrisp

The exhaust gasket is easy to replace once the exchangers are off. The exchangers are easy to get to but being 20+ yrs old the nuts are very hard to get off. Often exhaust studs will break and need to be replaced. That may add sig. $$ to your estimate should they break. The gasket itself is especially expensive in the SC compared to others. Check some of the sites, you'll see they are pricey...for an exhaust gasket. I used 3.2 gaskets in my 3.0 since I was replacing all six and it saved maybe $5-$10 per cylinder and I could find them locally in my case.

I cannot comment on the oil cam seal. I do not know how the loss of oil here would compromise engine life.

If you have a broken head stud, hopefully he means the studs that hold the valve cover on. That would cause a leak. A leak in this area is not necessarily a bad thing but it's probably making a mess of you garage floor and the engine area. If the mech. meant a broken "cylinder/head stud" it's a whole new ballgame and probably wouldn't cause an oil leak but is several hundred $ at a minimum all the way up to being a good excuse for a full rebuild depending on which options you choose. Most SC's have this condition (broken cylinder stud that is). Don't be totally blown away if they take the valve covers off and one of your cylinder studs has snapped. I am not trying to scare you but rather give you the info so you can ask the right questions and be prepared for the potential answers. I went through this this past winter.