jakeflyer

A good working A/C in Houston would be a real $ plus. You might check carfax.com for the car's history. I have found incorrect mile readings and an accident recorded on the carfax records. I think is is about $30.

Brett San Diego

1978 predates the standard 17 digit VIN and therefore Carfax records.

Brett

Shannon123

Yes....AC in Texas where it never rains is a good idea. On the other hand, I guess i could rive it between 1am and 6am haha

Mark Salvetti

My 1979 Targa had an AC system just like that when I bought it in 1992. I assumed it was aftermarket too. A real hack job was done to get the evaporator in the smugglers box. I would make sure you check in there for rust.

The AC wasn't working, so I just removed it and replaced the underdash unit with the regular knee bolsters. But no AC in Boston is a bit different than Texas.

Mark

Shannon123

Thanks Mark......I've been around this site for almost 24 months....looking, lurking, learning and I totally missed the hackjob AC. At this point, I have a good rapport with the owner over the phone, but his liaison for email communication is his wife and she is just plain irresponsive. I mentioned to the husband that I was having trouble getting info he promised me from his wife, but at this point its becoming a clusterf*ck.
I've learned over the years that IF things go smoothly, it was probably meant to be....if they don't then there's likely a reason.

The good thing is I'm patient (for the RIGHT car)....maybe this one works, maybe it doesn't but not going to push things. The GOOD thing is that I'm blessed to have found this site, otherwise I would be VERY far in the hole !

I did go down to Victory Motors here in Houston and looked at the '86 Turbo and '85 T/Look cars and WOW were they nice, too nice for daily drivers though.

Shannon123

A couple IFS !!

PPI is going forward.....
IF it comes back with no broken head suds

1. Does one immediately have them replaced....if so, I read a Zimmerman page and he said $2k or so, but that might have been years ago....what would one expect to pay now ?

2. Drive until head studs break and fix from there....obviously run risk of significant damage, more fix cost.

3. Hope they never break ? I thought I read another Zimmerman article saying it was only around 10% chance...albeit higher on low milage cars.

Thanks

500

A head stud breaking is not a catastrophic failure that will leave you stranded or do immediate, irreparable damage to the engine. Many people drive with one (or more) broken headstuds for quite some time... It is not a good idea though, as the cylinder/head interface will start to accumulate a beating. However, in the normal course of events, it is totally fine to drive the car until (if) a head stud breaks and then take care of it. Although head studs are a known issue, yours may never break prior to the point that you would elect to do a rebuild for other reasons (e.g. worn valve guides etc).

If the PPI says no broken head studs, then just take that in stride as meaning you do not need to do major motor work at this time (assuming compression, oil pressure and consumption are within spec).

As for cost, $2K would be bare bones for JUST replacing head studs. However, the amount of teardown needed to do that is such that you really need to consider doing other things, most notably a valve job with new valve guides. Even with low mileage, you would want to consider this, as newer valve guides seem to have much better longevity based on what I have read.

$5K would be a more realistic top-end budget...

Caferacer

Warning, Unsolicited Advice follows:
I am not generally a fan of color matched Fuchs EXCEPT with white cars. For some reason, I think they look really great in addition to being period correct. If this beautiful car were mine, that is the direction I would go. This is clearly subjective and I know you will enjoy the heck out of this car if it ends up in your garage.

veleno

If you do get the car, I may be interested in the wheels on there now if you're going another route

Shannon123

OK...I'll see how things go

ivangene

nothing to say that hasnt been said....

but love me some white Porsche

whalebird

Shannon...I'm lurking on this one. Good advice so far. Sorry for your loss.

1stgear

So sorry to hear about your dad, Shannon. I try to talk to my dad every day.

Love the car. I know some said to lose the phone, but I happen to like it! I have an old radar detector in mine that I just can't get rid of. It's so period correct and cool.

Brads911sc

Good luck with you potential purchase.

budge96

Sorry to hear of your loss,my dad went with the same affliction after 18 long hard mos of fighting back
in '92.
It was a hard pill to swallow but he's certainly in a better place now..
The turbo conversion looks pretty nice,I had a white '77 converted to turbo look with a '78 3 liter and it
ran like a scalded cat ,your potential car seems to have a tidy engine compartment and a very decent
metal conversion,could be a very good driver for the money.
I subsequently installed an '86 3.2 eng/trans and 930 brakes with factory 7's and 9's beautiful car!
Sold it when I bought a '94 3.6 Turbo and never looked back....enjoy, Bert