aras944

Hi all - I'm new to the board.
Well 16 months ago I had a farily reliable mechanic put on a new timing belt on my 944. Well a couple days ago, it was making some weird sounds, and gave way while the car was idling. Does this mean the engine is toast for sure? How do you find out? I had it towed to a nearby mechanic and they are "assuming" the engine is toast.

Any comments? How much is a rebuilt engine? Where to get one? Any reliable places?

thanks
Aras

Dal Heger

No, it's not toast. You will, however be looking to take the head off and replacing a valve or two because it's highly likely that you bent a few.

This "fairly reliable" mechanic should pony up the money to have the car fixed if he screwed up the timing belt install. I'd be looking at legal action if this happened to me.

Also, DO NOT let any "fairly decent" mechanic work on these cars. These are NOT American cars and are built to very exacting tolerances and have to have the proper maintenance done using the proper tools and procedures. Make sure that the mechanic knows how to work on the 944 series of cars. Even if he is a Porsche mechanic that doesn't mean that he knows how to work on the 944 series of cars. I'm sure that if you ask around on the general 924/944/951/968 board you'll get a lot of help finding a good mechanic in your area.

Oh, and a properly rebuilt engine is going to run you about $6-10k.

Take it away from the "nearby mechanic" before they do more damage, I'm serious.

Dal.

Micah

Okay,

Did you have the belts re-tensioned? Did the mechanic tell you to bring them back in to be re-tensioned? This is a vitally important point. If you skipped the re-tension, then you're to blame. If the mechanic didn't tell you about it, then I would consider going after him.

16 months is a long time, even if the guy didn't tell you about a re-tension... be warned that chances are you are not going to get anything back for this.

If he doesn't know you're supposed to re-tension the belts, then he's a moron. Don't let him near the car again. I don't know what Dal means by properly rebuilt; my mechanic told me that if I ever bent the valves, he could take care of it for me for around 2k.

Micah

Paul Bloomberg

$6-10K for a rebuild whooo....is that with gold plating?
Paul

Dal Heger

The whole engine at 6-10K. The head I can have done for about 2k.

Geeze, some people

And, yes, it it gold plated

Is it Friday yet?

Dal.

iloveporsches

If it's any help, I just had my whole head rebuilt for $1400. That included pulling the head, replacing all of the valves, seals, and guides, and putting it all back together.

aras944

Thanks all for the help. I've contacted the mechanic that worked on it, and he wants to help and is willing to diagnose how badly the engine may or may not be damaged and then work on it. Apparently the tensioner was too tight or too loose and it destroyed the timing belt.

Nope the mechnic did not have me come in for a "readjustment" after a month. Guess that may have something to do with it.

now the big question: Anybody know of good mechanics in chicago or champaign, IL ?

Micah

Check out the mechanic list:

<a href="http://php.indiana.edu/~miccjone/wrenchesstate.html" target="_blank">http://php.indiana.edu/~miccjone/wrenchesstate.html</a>

Also, re-tension is generally not after a month, but between 1500 and 3000 miles after the belt change.

Micah

Gordon Rankin

You might consider doing it yourself. There are good tech bulletins on how you can do it.

NKN84944

Aras, do you go to U of I? I have been driving a black on black 84 944 around in college town for over a year now, I don't know if you have seen me around or not. If you find a good mechanic in town I would be interested in hearing about it. I know there were a bunch of 944s at the auto x about a week ago at assembly hall, and I am sure if you went to another auto x in the area you could find some people that know a good mechanic.
Nate

aras944

so yeah, I'm an MD-PhD student (year 5) here at UIUC.
I've had alot of good luck with PeterB's in Urbana. THe guy is good. My friend with his 928 had good experience with Peter B as well. DO NOT go to Allstar - they don't know what they are doing.

Personally i do work on my car - I changed the clutch 2 years ago - but currently i don't have time to take the engine apart, plus i paid for the new timing belt -so i'm going to really hope PeterB (the guy himself) can fix it. Though he is a good mechanic all around.

He's in expensive and very very honest.

NKN84944

Awsome, thanks for the info. I have not had to do any major work to my car yet, and the small things that have been done I generally do myself. Hopefully I will not have to take it anywhere for anything major, but its good to know where to go if I do.