JEC_31

They got the year and model wrong, but the story (as if you can believe half the stories on this site..) is interesting.

http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newpho...0816_001.shtml


A moment of silence....

PorKen

Sounds like a PIT manuevuer.

Says "1992 Porsche 928 s4", but it's an '85 or '86.

danglerb

Looks terrible, but its good to walk away from a whack like that. I wonder just how deep the damage is to the car, fender and bumper are toast, but how much more is bad? Are there only dismantlers, or are there a few places that try to put the good bits back together, not Larry's muffler, but a serious operation that does a lot of it?

JEC_31

IMO, that poor 85/86 is now an organ doner. The front left corner of the unibody frame is quite smooshed rearwards, upwards and inboard - so the whole frame is probably pretty tweaked. The left rear wheel also appears to be leaning inwards, so the rear damage is probably severe also.

There are many restoration shops for high-end cars, but the only place I know of that does 928s is 928 Specialists (check their site for some very nice resto pics) - but I don't know if they will tackle heavy frame damage.

I would much rather re-body if I had a bent-frame 928 with a known good drivetrain. What with the amount of action in the dismantler business, there are clean unibodies to be had for scrap-weight prices once in a while. What sounds more fun than disassembling and putting back together an ENTIRE 928! (Brendan?)

One tside note to consider is that it is not unkown for aluminium block motors to suffer irrepairable damage in heavy frontal collisions. I read here several years ago about someone pulling a GT motor from a severe wreck only to find it had a cracked block, and I've heard of junkyards passing off cracked LS1s to internet customers.

Imo000

Note the part attached to the strut bace. It's not an '85 but an '86.

danglerb

I wondered about the block. The LS1 seems like it is strong for making power, and nothing else. I have heard the oil pan is a stressed element for the block. The LS7 is nothing short of amazing.

Imo000

Can you elaborate a little on this? What else is an engine supposed to do but make power?

SBCs have been extremely reliable and robust; they are simple in design and last a long time. The LT/LS series engines are no different. The problem is when they get a 150-250hp of extra boost and then some of them break. In a stock or near stock configuration, they'll last a lifetime.

JEC_31

+1 to Imo000, I missed that detail.


Back to the new topic:
The LS1/2/6 motors are the best thing to ever happen to the ancient hallowed tradition (pre-dating even the slang term hot-rod) of motor swaps. When you're raiding the junkyard for an easily-available plug-n-play-powerful motor to stuff into a cheap but sporty little chassis, you can't go wrong with an LS1 out of a wrecked Camaro SS or Firebird WS6. The key to their value is not just reliable power, because the Fords and Mopars have that too, but in their amazingly compact dimensions and very low weight. Once the RX-7 guys found out that an LS1 with a T56 gearbox weighed a mere ~50 lbs more than their tiny (and usually dead) 13B-REW twin-turbo Wankel rotary with it's 5-speed, and fit under the slinky low hoodline with room to spare, the game was on.

But you're right about the boost, Imo000, a search of the GM musclecar forums will yield multiple examples of u-shaped con rods and the jagged shards of the pretty aluminum blocks they used to inhabit. Some die from turbos, some from SCs, and many perish from over-application of laughing gas.