blown 944

I'm out west so I don't know the distances. I'm sure there's someone close to you. You shouldn't need a cam.

cruise98

There are several vendors that keep rebuilt heads in stock. Try Bennington Motor Sports, or Lindsey Racing for starters. A stock rebuilt head should be in the ~$500 range, exchange. If you want fancy valve seat work or porting, it goes up in a hurry.

17 hours is, well, way high. I am slow but even I can do it faster than that. With that kind of a quote, i would be looking for a second opinion. A compression gauge is not expensive, and the engine does not have to be warm to determine if it has zero compression in one cylinder. A leak down test requires more stuff to perform, like an air compressor!

Ben951S

Going to either try it myself or get a tech friend to assist in the compression test on Saturday.

Checked LR and I don't see rebuilt heads for sale. I'll hit up paragon and BMS and see if they show anything.

nics951

I got a complete valve set with guides seats and seals for around 350 after tax from garrity out here in Utah. They have run great for over a year. The machine work was 180. And about 6 hours for me and a friend to install back together.

Ben951S

Appreciate it Nic. Lart has a known good head for sale for about $350 shipped so I am leaning that way if compression test #2 shows a problem.

Gator_86_951

5-6 hours is about right if you are moving fast and not drinking beer too much. I tend to work very slow and deliberate, so it takes me much longer. Part of that is if you don't work with your hands for a living, they are soft, so you really can't work that fast. Also, I really don't like being under the car on stands by myself, so that eats time too.

lart951

Lart can help a fellow lister, shoot me a pm, when you are ready

Bri Bro

Taking your time and being deliberate is the key unless you do this every day of the week. Even at that, it is a weekend job if you have all the parts on hand. Having access too a good set of tools is really helpful and you will need a 3/8 and 1/2 inch torque wrench.

Another thing you can do is take some pictures of the engine, post them and let the RL folks tell you what to take off next. Then you have a visual record of how thing came apart when you put it all together. Might make for a really good thread on "how to swap out a head"

reno808

Is there white smoke coming out? I cant help out this weekend as Sat i am going to hersey and Sun i am finishing up my car because on Monday i am going to be doing the final tune on the dyno. following weekend yea

Paulyy

I'm sure you could do the job yourself over the weekend.
even if you print of a set of instructions from clarks garage if you're not sure.

All you really need is a rebuilt head. IMO i rather rebuilt then a known good used. Give LR a call, im sure they've got rebuilt ones you could get it ported and polished for under the price you got quoted.

Ben951S

PM sent to Lart and TechnoDuck concerning available heads and possible work. PM sent to Reno concerning possible work as well.

I am getting mixed info concerning driving the car in the current condition (being told to remove the injector wire and spark plug wire)...


* thinking of picking up the ~$150 Costco Fiber Optic camera and making sure the piston is not burned *

StoogeMoe

I was just thinking -- Couldn't a broken valve spring be causing this issue?

If so, you wouldn't need to pull the head. That would save some time.

Ben951S

Van said so possibly. Would it affect both intake and exhaust at the same time? Would there be any tapping or anything? Damage occurring from running like this? Any way to check without digging into too much? (think apartment parking lot as my available garage)

Techno Duck

I would say HIGHLY unlikely you burned a piston. I think the most likely cause is a burned exhaust valve. When they did the leakdown, they should have been able to isolate it to the intake or exhaust? Might want to ask them which is was. If air is leaking through the intake side, you probably bent rather than burned a valve but because you said there were no mega high over revs. Exhaust is the most likely cause. Broken valve spring is a good bet also but only way to know really is pull the cam tower, or get a bore scope and look through the caps.

$1800 is absolutely absurd to check the head out. Used valves are cheap and a rebuild shouldnt cost you more than $150-200 in parts / labor. For $1800 you better be getting a race prepped head with porting work done for max flow!

I think the shop you are using is just trying to 'make you go away' as they dont want to work on the car. It wouldnt surprise me because in most cases places either dont know how to work on these cars or just dont want to bother because of the age / time involved. Its much easier to make money plugging in the Snap-On MODIS to the OBDII port to figure out what is wrong with the car.

I would start out finding a new shop... NJ has a very active PCA region, in particular NNJ. Ask around for good shops in the area. PowerTech in Rockaway seemed to have a good reputation from those i auto-x'ed with the NNJ region. Might want to ask on the 993 board as there is a very high concentration of people in the NJ area who can tell you who is good and not good to use.

Honestly if you were closer to me i would help you do the work, but i have a ton of work on my own car to get done and mostly do not enjoy myself when working on these cars anymore!

Basically dont sweat this.. its going to cost some money to get it fixed if paying a shop but nowhere near what this place is quoting you. I doubt there it is anything more than a burnt valve or broken valve spring, both of which arent too difficult to remedy.

BTW, looking at your mod list i see you have an aftermarket cam. Broken valve spring is an even greater possibility now.

JohnKoaWood

Having thought more on this..

If I had to venture a guess, my guess would be a dropped valve seat.. this could explain BOTH valves on a given cylinder all teh sudden being bad, and a slow progression to totally bad..

not entirely common, but also not impossible..

Simptoms of a broken valve spring are a bit different... it would start and idle fine, and have good compression, but pick up a miss at RPM, and deffinitely miss on boost! (problem with a broken valve spring is the valve not being able to close fast engouh at RPM or against boost)

BTW Ben, I replied to your PM..