Steve N.

I have owned a 1986 944 Turbo dedicated track car for about three years. The original conversion to race car was done at Kelly Moss, and my local race shop has further developed the car since I have owned it. Saturday I suffered a catastrophic engine failure at the track - we haven't pulled anything apart yet to see exactly what happened, but the obvious guess is that a rod let go - and then it got nasty. I managed to leave a dozen or more fragments of aluminum along the track, and a few quarts of Mobil 1. This happened in third gear under full throttle at about 5500 rpm - precipitating an immediate spin and a quick oil fire, neither of which caused any permanent damage to car or occupant.

While the guys at my race shop are highly skilled, their real passion/expertise is centered on air cooled Porsches in general, but particularly early 911's. So I don't want to leave this matter strictly in their hands, and I am looking for input regarding options in replacing my motor. While my car is a fully prepared race car, the engine was more or less stock - a chip, waste gate shims, and that was about it, as I recall. In replacing/rebuilding the motor, I would value reliability and driveability over sheer horsepower - I'm not looking to turn this into a 400 hp PCA GT3 class car. But, a little more horsepower is always nice....

So, can anyone recommend a shop that truly specializes in the 951 and its variants?

dacula951

How about the ones that did the original conversion, Kelly Moss? They don't specialize in 951s, but I know they do work on them. Probably too far since they are in Wisconsin.

Ski

How big a hurry are you in timeline wise? Would you pull the motor and be able to drop it off somewhere?

951North

"Mobil 1" eh? as an aside, I read their quality was slipping. Do you believe this may have led to your failure?

MichelleJD

Are you interested in doing the work yourself? This forum enabled me to do a complete rebuild on Anita

Trucho-951

There was a discussion here a few days ago regarding oil windage solutions for the 951 engine and particularly in trying to deal with oil starvation problem and throwing rods...

I found post #14 made by Chris White summarizes the problems with our engines at the race track really well.

See link here:

azmi951

Chris White may be a good source to talk to.

Steve N.

All: I'm not in a real big hurry - but I don't think it is realistic to take on the project myself. I would expect to pull and ship the motor if that made sense - although I holed the block (case in 911 parlance - block for a 951, I assume) and I wouldn't be surprised to find serious damage to the crank. This wasn't just "spinning a bearing".

The thread about oiling problems with the 951 was interesting. I'm not a longstanding 951 owner, and certainly not an expert, but I was surprised that this motor has oil aeration issues on the track - as the cars were raced in the Firehawk series, and there are a lot of 951's racing in PCA and SCCA events.

Anyway, thanks for the input.

fast951

Talk to Chris White!

Chris White

I am listening.....!
Thanks for the referral guys – if you want to chat about a project or just ask some questions – 315-636-8716

Chris White

macnewma

I'm sorry to hear about your motor. The good thing is that you walked away with only a damaged engine and wallet. Your health is always worth more.

If you want to go 2.7 or 3.0 liters, I have a 968 block for sale. PM me if you are interested. Chris White could build you quite a motor with this block.

eclou

Steve,

have you been with Sam at ProTechnik? There is not really any shop in town that specializes in 944s, but Viking at Viking Motorsports on 59/Bellaire will pay a bit more attention to it and has built up a couple of nice running 300 rwhp motors. He is pretty good about getting the motor sealed up and tuned correctly. As others have stated, there are alot of advantages to shipping it out and having some specialists work on it. Chris White in NY, Lindsey Racing in OK, Ski and team in Corpus. There are also alot of Rennlisters in town who have first hand experience on total rebuilds. As a matter of fact there is a meet going on on Saturday in Katy.

Chris White

Mmmm...968 block = piston squirters...

turbinek

Did I get that right - 3 years on track?
If so - I wouldn't have thought a 951 engine would last that long because of it's not good constructed oil feeding to cyl. #2.

How many miles on the clock?
Has there been any rebuild done before you bought the car?
How much oil did it consume?
...
I rebuilt my engine since it consumed oil and water and since the rebild this stopped.

Be prepare to spend a lot of bucks since you're not doing it yourself.
Good luck

RKD in OKC

Lindsey Racing sure are building up a LOT of motors for people now-a-days. Last time I was by there they had 4 or 5 in queue.

I understand one of the reasons they put in an engine dyno was so they could do break-in on it so you can just buckle it up and go racing.

That's where I'm planning on taking what sounds like #2 starting to knock slightly when warmed up. Sure glad my mechanic caught it before it turned into a catastrophic failure like you described. Hoping it just needs fresh bearings.