ed devinney

My 951 is going in for a clutch (after which my mechanic is required to name the boat after me - 20 hours doesn't seem unreasonable, but it gets pricey). The engine has a number of oil leaks, needs a timing belt, and at 87k, it seems prudent to do the rod bearings especially since the car sees 6-8 track weekends a year.

So the proposal for the top end is to R&R all hoses, top end gaskets including head gasket and valve seals, strip front of block to reseal oil pump and cam tower, R&R intercooler and clean out oil, R&R rod bearings, and generally make good. Bottom end is R&R rod bearings, which of course requires taking off the x-member, x-over, etc. Shop is excellent, knows 944s & has done my work for years.

Just have to check, though - is 40 hours reasonable labor? And while I doubt it, is there another way to skin the cat of oil leaks?

keith

OUCH. Oh, Ed, even atour shop, that is 2400.00 in labor alone!

I am sympathizing.

AC

Here is a breakdown of recent service and quotes for just some of the items I had done.

Head Gasket and all gaskets Replaced 12hrs

Replaced All Belts, Distributor, Rotor,
Sparkplug wires, various hoses, vacuum
lines, Wastegate, Injectors 6hrs

Turbo Replacement 10hrs

__________________________________________________

My Quote for Head Gasket R&R 12hrs
My Quote for Rod Bearing R&R 15hrs
My Quote for Clutch R&R 20 to 22hrs

Of course some of the above quotes would be reduced since some of the procedures for R&R would overlap. The quote you were given for all that you were asking to have done, unfortunately, sounds normal for having a mechanic work on it. If I am off with these, someone please let me know.

Good luck. I am also feeling your same pain. Just got the bill yesterday. Of course, behind the wheel with the mods put in the car, I seem to forget about the bill. At least until the cash disappears from the account.

Matt Sheppard

I dont know how you guys do it. If I didn't struggle through all this stuff myself, I couldn't eat.

special tool

Matt - you have 4 Porsches

fast951

It might be cheaper to pull the engine out and replace what's needed. A new set of rings could be used as well.

Flight_951

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by ed devinney:
<strong>Just have to check, though - is 40 hours reasonable labor?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">If you feel compelled to doublecheck, I'd call around other shops in the area for a quote. At this time of year, you'll likely find competitive pricing, especially for a big job. Call Dr. John's Motorsports in Sterling first. I've never had to doublecheck anything they've told me yet.

hrk

Any possibility to do these yourself?
If you are not in greatest of hurry you can do these by yourself if you have a place to do it.
Pulling the motor is definetly the way to go, it is much nicer to deal with top end and balance shaft seals if motor is on bench.
Even if you invest ~$1000 to good tools which you still have after this overhaul you'll end up saving money and learning more. With archives here and other places you can cover most of the problems you'll encounter.

But it takes time.

hrk

dmoffitt

it's very doable yourself, but that's also a very reasonable quote imo (depends on your time and budget etc if it's worth it). best of luck to you!

ed devinney

Thanks all - I really just needed a reality check. When broken down the hours look OK, but they sure do add up. And then there's the required Finance Committee approval...

I'm technically capable of doing the work, but justdon't have that kind of time. Plus, I have a high level of confidence that at the end of this my car will perform better and I can keep up my usual routine at the track, which is to read a book between sessions instead of hacking on the car.

Jaxon

Ed- Where do you get it serviced? If you are not comfortable posting, would you email?

Chris Prack

FWIW, we get 15 hrs. on the clutch and about 20 on rod bearings.

Sounds like a lot of work for less than 90k.

Renn 951

Chris and I had this discussion earlier this week -- I've got 112K miles on my 951, which wasn't tracked until this past season, and he doesn't see any need to mess with the rod bearings at this time.

With only 87K miles on your car, Ed, unless the PO tracked it a lot, doing the rod bearings at this point may buy you some peace of mind, but it seems like some very expensive insurance.

Russ Murphy

FWIW I bit the bullet and did the rod bearings on my 160K engine. In the end, it was kind of pointless, the bearings were in fine shape.

951carter

Ed,
What part of VA are you in? I am in Richmond. A good friend of mine here has a Porsche specialty shop. He campaigns a 944 turbo himself and owns about a dozen of them personally.

Unless your oil pressure has been dropping, I would skip the rod bearings and put on an Accusump. More peace of mind than new bearings IMO. He has been racing his 951 for about 10 years with an Accusump and is still on the original rod bearings. I threw an Accusump on my car before I even though about taking it on the track.....it is more essential than racing tires IMO. Matter of fact, if you are on road racing tires you are pulling alot more G's and definitely require an Accusump IMO.

There are those out there that believe in other fixes, but, the Accusump has proven itself for this application in my eyes. I have never seen or heard of a 944 spinning a bearing with an Accusump installed. If someone has, then I would bet that the bearing was already damaged when they installed the Accusump.

I don't like to brag about this, because it was real stupid, but, I forgot to check my oil one time and was harshing my car on the twisty roads of the Blue Ridge Mountains for a couple of hours. I checked the oil when I gor home to find out that I was 4 quarts low!! I suffered no damage! Try that without an Accusump!