race911

Actually, it's not the Steve's and Pete's of the world who would ever bother. Not even me when I was doing one step above this to pay for law school 20 years ago. (Sucks that you have to judge some jobs on what the owner is willing to pay, versus what it truly takes to do the job correctly and completely. But I truly believe I always knew when it was crossing the line toward deception. Even if I was in law school.)

But back to the "been there, done that", you cannot believe how many POS 2.7L cars (2.4s to a lesser extent) were patched together in the '80's in order to hustle the car off quickly to the next unsuspecting owner. One of the "best", and a $10K build in its day, was taking a 2.4S to 2.7RS but only RANDOMLY timecerting half the case. CIS and Non-CIS pistons. Alusil and Nikasils mixed. Small port heads with large port runners. 2.0/2.2/2.4s stuck into 2.7 cars. RTV EVERYWHERE, sometimes leading to oil related failures. New clutches slapped onto fried flywheels. JB Weld to patch mag cases. Found a 2.0 crank in a supposedly 2.7 engine once.......healthy 6.5-1 compression ratio! You name it, it's been done to a 2.7L car.

race911

Oh, one more I forgot........plugging off a leaking engine mounted oil cooler. The new owner immediately wondered why the car ran so hot, even though it was winter.

Brett San Diego

I don't disagree with that. Just trying to answer a question. Personally, I'd park the car until I had the money to do it right, but not everyone is me. It seems that given the condition of this car overall, it isn't worth it to do it right at anyway.

Brett

Tango635

Are you guys saying that you couldn't find used or discounted new parts on e-bay or pelican, to save substantially over going the "sack of money" route that most of us like to do in order to achieve Porsche specs or beyond?

theiceman

Yeah but come on lets have soem fun .. let's say we are just trying to get this car to the tractor pull becasue the tractor needs a hung of metal to pull ....

I think it would ned a couple of valves, some sealant , a gasket . The tricky part might be the specialized toools to time the cams again if they weren't available.
When I was in school I more than once took a head off , replaced a busted valve and put an engine back together and had it run for a year or 2 after .. I would do it as a fun project if it were me just to learn more about the engine .. I actually did this a few years ago with some public school kids for the local church . we got a car from the wreckers , and wanted to get it running for the local smash up derby .. sounds like all this ca ris good for anyway .

Ed Hughes

Some parts just don't lend themselves to being replaced by used.

IMO, this is one of the reasons why there are so many junk 928's and 944's around. Guys think "I can buy a Porsche for only $6 or 8K!". Then when something breaks, they can't afford to fix, and jury rig. Then the next guy he sells it to says "I can buy a Porsche for only $3 or 4K!". Repeat, and rinse.

Ed Hughes

I never insinuated they would, as that would be an insult to them.

The point is, that caliber of talent would be appropriate to try and fix one or two cylinder problems on an old motor, and then get it back together reasonably well even though everthing around the repairs may be on its last leg or plain worn out.

whalebird

If it takes a failed smog test for you to realise your 911 is running on 4 cylinders, you've got big problems. There will be no easy/cheap fix and, if I may shoot-from-the-hip, is a junkyard car.motor.
Don't get involved with this.

Tango635

I have an idea, let's get a collection together to buy the car from this guy, then we repair it as Iceman has done in the past, then we get that guy Matt from the morning show on CBS or whatever, to drive around the country to different track events. Meanwhile us rennlisters take up a bet on how many miles the car will go before it blows up?

whalebird

Honestly, ^^^^that is an idea that would never had occured to me.

rusnak

Follow up time.

As I mentioned, I went out there and pressed for time, did not bring an air compressor, so no leak down test.

I adjusted the valves because he already had the valve covers off and oil drained. All valves except #1 exhaust were way way tight. I had to back the adjusting screw out a few turns and pull the rockers away from the valves, then it took probably 6-7 complete cycles to get consistently good valve adjustments on all cylinders.

Then I took off, and since he had no valve cover gaskets, I did not re-fill with oil, nor hear the car run. #3 cylinder valve seemed not to be bent because it turned ok. I had a brain fart and did not check #4 valve.

I got a call today, almost a week later. He replaced the valve covers with new gaskets, started it up, and the wrecker 911 lives on!!!! In fact, I'm told the 911 runs smoothly and of course has more power probably due to all cylinders firing now. It would be interesting to check the cylinder compression and do a leak down test, but that will have to wait. I noticed a home-made catalytic converter that I'm told cost around $250 installed, and looked a lot like one that I bought for $450 not installed a few years ago.

theiceman

what !!!!! how can you leave us hanging like that .. i am dying to know the compresion numbers ... but isn't it weird that they would be that tight ? did he try a valave job or something ?

rusnak

I know, I am sort of surprised that the thing even runs. Cold w no oil would not give a good compression number. But the car is an hour drive away. No valve job, just driven for a few years without a valve adjustment.

Ed said that his valve to cylinder clearance was about 1.5mm~2.0mm. This would allow a turn to a turn and a half, maybe even two. Stock SC pistons are flat topped, so who knows if a valve hit a cylinder or not. There were no broken rockers. Amazing.

Ed Hughes

Nice job! Did he really buy new gaskets, or did he use P-Tex?

Ed Hughes

An un rebuilt engine could have more valve clearance.