BrianCos

Hi everyone,

New here, and not a very positive 1st post. I bought my 1st 911 (a 964 1993 C4) about a year ago. Started having a bad rattle recently and now I am just off the phone to my mechanic who says that a big end bearing is gone, I need new con rods and some crank work done. He is concerned that this may have happened from oil starvation but is looking into it.

He has told me that if I can get my hands on a used engine it will be the much cheaper option, as funds for all the work that he needs to do are not really with me at the moment. So... my question is... where is the best place to look for a used 964 engine that I could plant into my car? Breaklers yards?

I am in the UK but if there are place in Europe I could get one shipped from I would be able to do that too.

I hope you can help me... feeling kind of desperate now.

Thanks very much

Brian

Tom W

In the USA, a used engine from a salvage place will cost about $8k (or so it appeared after mine blew up and I did some pricing) and then add in about $1k to remove the old and add the new. I decided to have a new, stronger engine built for my track car and that cost a lot more. If I recall correctly, the estimate for a new engine built to stock spec was about $15k. I needed a new case for the rebuild and that cost more.

Indycam

http://www.partsheaven.com/

http://www.germanautodismantlers.com/

TR6

I'm going through this very thing right now. Rod bearing failed. I looked into a used engine and found them anywhere from $6500 to $9500. I opted to go with a full rebuild of my engine because when I did the math, the gap ended up only being a few thousand. Think about it. You've got to pay labor for the swap itself. And then you're going to want to do some maintenance to the used engine before you install it (valves, etc) since you really don't know when those things were last done and its so easy with the engine out of the car. And then, you or your mechanic is going to find that its leaking oil from several seals and hoses. By the time your done, you are within a few thousand of a complete fresh rebuild of your old engine. Or that's the way my math worked out.

Also, keep in mind that if you've had a bearing failure, you need to have the oil cooler and tank professionally cleaned. Oil lines purges too. You need to get any and all metal particles out of the oiling system from your bearing failure.

I'm getting close to $15K on my estimate now for my rebuild. But I'm taking the opportunity to improve it quite a bit. And these engines aren't cheap to rebuild.

BTW, there is a guy named Bob in Texas that is parting out a wrecked RS America (1993 964) track car and he is selling the engine with 45K miles on it. He's asking $8K for it. If you are interested, let me know and I'll put you in contact with him. I looked into it myself before I opted to rebuild mine.

Good luck.

atan888

too bad I just sold my low mileage 3.6 vram from my 993 c4s recently. it could have been a great upgrade.

Strega(UK)

Best place in the UK is probably douglas valley breakershttp://www.douglasvalley.co.uk/

BrianCos

Thanks afor all the replies... I will keep looking and try to do the maths!

Brian

IanR

Also keep an eye on ebay, including in Germany. There was one went unsold recently that may be re-listed - http://cgi.ebay.de/Porsche-Motor-911...QQcmdZViewItem

ianellison

Prestige Salvage in Leeds (Porsche only breakers) have complete engines for sale with histories. Speak to Neil.

Indycam

"I will keep looking and try to do the maths!"
If you part out the old motor , you will make some good money .

A set of heads
A set of pistons and cylinders
A distributor
A case
A intermediate shaft
Two cam shafts
An intake system
An exhaust system , maybe
Cruise control parts , maybe
A fixable crank , maybe
etc etc etc

User 040621

not likely to make you feel any better, but.........it could make you feel a little less "worse"......check out the cost of a replacement engine on pelican parts......
PN: OEM -96410026441 = $58,829.75. The good news.....they say that they can ship it in about a week!

Seriously.....sorry to hear about your troubles.
Mitch

BrianCos

Thank you all so much for your replies....

BrianCos

Whst sort of money would you get for this?? Roughly??
A set of heads
A set of pistons and cylinders
A distributor
A case
A intermediate shaft
Two cam shafts
An intake system

Christer

Hi Brian

Sorry to hear this very negative news - its not much fun at any stage to go through this. Having rebuilt my engine twice, I know where you are coming from. (Twice kind of both my fault though....and its a long story).

I would also recommend that you go for a rebuild of your own engibe. This is because as others have said, you might get hold of a 2nd hand engine with 70K miles on it for £4.5K but then God knows what kind of condition it is in...

I would say that you need to budget for about £6K minimum and that is if you don't need a new crank - they can be expensive - not sure of current pricing on that one. as you are replacing big end bearings, you might as well get the oil pump replaced - I didn't and although I have not had a problem with it - I kind of regret not having doen it with the engine apart anyway...again, expensive I seem to remember around £500-600 for one...but they do last.....

If you don't have the funds right now, I would use Rennlist and other resources just to do the investigative work in the first place....don't think too much about the bill at this stage - but arm yourself with knowledge and contacts so that when you start the work you will feel confident that you are doing it right and in thebest way possible.

2 places you may consdier for rebuilds are 9M/Ninemeister (Warrington) and JZ Machtech in Watford area. There are of course others and others will probably chime in with those. The reason I mention these mechanics is that they are very expereinced and will know for example whether a crank can be machined instead of a new one being required and are as importantly honest about the work that needs doiing.

Take a deep breath, don't panic and use us on here and wherever else you have contacts.

I can only speak for myself but feel free to PM me if I can be of help.

BrianCos

Christer, great post... very decent of you. Thanks to all again.