Dave White

So, here is my official hello to the group, I was a member years ago, but was inactive for years.
I purchased my 89C4 around 11 years ago, with around 55k miles. Not knowing much about Porsches, but wanting something with high performance, that would hopefully hold it's value and not fall apart. This would be my only car at the time, so the AWD was a big bonus, as it originally was to be my only car and have to get me around in inclement weather in Ohio. I did not get or know anything about a PPI, but had the local euro car tech look it over quickly as he happened to have a 90C4 targa. He assured me that it looked to be a good car and ran strong.
It leaked a little then, maybe a quarter sized spot each time I parked it, and was always slightly damp underneath. It pretty much stayed this way for 5 or 6 years before it progressively got worse. Then around 4 years ago, it got to the point of occasionally smoking at a light or smelling inside the cabin due to the oil on the heat exchangers, which was embarrassing to me and unacceptable. I tried to alleviate this somewhat by having the heat exchangers cleaned and powdercoated to seal up the seams. This helped a little, but I had to make the big decision to fix it right or sell it. After trying to repair some of the smaller leaks, I got the quote for the proper fix, at which point I had the sticker shock heart attack of a rebuild!

Dave White

Meanwhile, I had dated a girl that had a Boxster and fell in love with the car, not so much the girl . So I bought and owned a 2002 BoxS for a second vehicle and loved it.
In hindsight, I should have put the money into the 911, but I didn't know that it would require an expensive rebuild at the time.
I ended up selling that car, taking a huge loss, not because I got tired of it, but because the convertible aspect of the car was found to be unappealing. I am lite complected and a red head, so I got burnt every time I put the top down! Not so much fun.
Anyway, back to the 964. I had been pondering what to do with it since it wasn't worth much as is, needing rebuilt. I couldn't consciously try to sell it to some unsuspecting buyer thinking he could just reseal it on the cheap. I considered trading it on something newer, but would be afraid of getting into another car that I didn't know it's history. I didn't want a water cooler, and didn't feel I would get enough out of my car in trade to make it worth while. So I bit the bullet and had it torn down.
Here, you can see where these cars leak.

Dave White

I considered a turbo conversion at Protosport, and was ready to plunk down the deposit, but decided not to do it the last minute. There doesn't seem to be many guys that have them, and they are far away from me, which had me concerned if I ran into problems. So I decided to keep the car local and have it rebuilt near me.
Since I had neglected some of the maintenance over the last few years deciding what to do with it, I had a whole laundry list of items that I wanted updated or gone over. It was just over 80k miles, so the original(as far as I know) clutch would need replaced, and many other things rebuilt while the engine was out. I also decided to replace the stock 21y/o suspension as well. I got a deal on this set of JIC's.

Dave White

How far to go is always the big question on a rebuild, and I really fell down the slope! I knew I wanted to go 3.8L, just to be different and have that "little extra". So I went with Mahle Motorsport 3.8's. These are phosphorus coated and have a friction reducing coating on the skirts, very cool!

Dave White

Then I started thinking, "what else can I do with what I have", and it all got more expensive quickly! So I decided to try to optimize everything I had, without getting too crazy, so I had the heads shaved and ported to bring the compression up as much as I could run on pump gas, as I have read that the compression from Mahle isn't quite what they state. I had the cams reground to a mild increase(needed reground anyway as one was scored slightly). I don't have any new cam pictures, unfortunately.

Dave White

Since I was spending all of this money on shiny parts on the inside, I figured I might as well make it pretty when you open the lid, sooo.... My early car has the aluminum intake, so I'm able to do this.

Dave White

More to follow...

CT944

Damn. Great pix, look fwd to seeing more.

Dave White

So, going back together.... Suspension in the car:

Dave White

Engine finally going back together, I had to wait nearly 3 months for Mahle to make my pistons!!

Dave White

Now for the cool stuff, check out this before and after!!

beentherebaby

It's a shame that Porsche decided to use the taper cyl. top seal on the 964 engines. That approach is OK for a single cylinder but not so much for multiple cylinders as they soon found out. The factory fix of field remachining the heads wasn't so great either.

Dave White

....and the finished product:

Dave White

Here is a before and after of the engine compartment:

Dave White

And the new stance:

Before:


After: