Anyone have experience dealing with him? Considering buying from him in the near future. Thanks in advance.

 

Do a search over on Pelicanparts.
There have been issues.....

 

My limited experience with him has been favorable.. His speciality seems to be 3.6 conversion kits and exhaust systems, although he has quite the shop in the back if you need work done, and can get the car to Delaware..

 

I've bought parts from Instant G / Steve Timmins and always found him fine to deal with and the bits that I've bought have been good quality. His technical support is a nice bonus too.
On the flip side there are people who have had some pretty major and well publicised 'issues' with him.
Depends what you are planning on buying I guess.

 

What are you planning to do in the future? There are a lot of very knowledgeable shops in the bay area. Why deal with someone across the country?

 

agreed...would be nice to know the context of the transaction.

this guy is about 1 hr from me and i have talked with him via email and he seems to be a good guy. But before I do any business with him I would search the boards.

 

I was considering a crate engine from him. The cost is about half of a rebuild and suits the budget fairly well. I have looked into shops in the area and can't quite stretch to $25000 for an engine overhaul. I know some can do it for less but skill and reputation do count and doing it right will be very expensive.

 

25K what...that is crazy for an overhaul. I had the opportunity recently to buy a 3.8 engine and 6-spd transmission for 22K and both had very low mileage on them. I am assuming an overhaul would be to get it back to stock specs...I would expect you can do a lot for 25K. I am fairly certain you can get your engine removed/crated/shipped to many places that would do it for much less.

 

What's wrong with your engine to cause you to want to rebuild/replace it? Is it just oil leaks? Many of those can be fixed externally. Or is it something internal? Or are you looking to upgrade?

 

I want to know what the 25K number is about...

I have seen entire cars in great condition go for that.

 

My engine is still running well but I'm looking to the foreseeable future. My engine is fairly typical for a high mileage (185,000 mi) early 964. I have sought out many opinions on engine overhaul. Had long talks with many respected experts, got a referral to Real Mean Garage in Sunnyvale and had an eye opening conversation with Bob Grigsby. He seemed very honest and said that anyone can quote a lower price but many hidden costs and other related work will drive the $25,000 cost. He even asked me what year I had and whether or not it was an RSA or other special model, it's not and he flat out told me the car was not worth investing that much in. Even you g out of area for lower labor costs gets me estimates if up to $18,000. Far less than $25,00 but also not taking into account any related work like oil cooler lines, engine tins, ect.
I am not looking to invest that much in such an old car. I'm just looking for viable options.

 

Planning ahead is a great idea. But don't rush into doing a rebuild. Your engine has a lot of miles to go. My cab has 230K miles on it before I disassembled it. It too was running well but I had made a mistake replacing the alternator and it burned the wire harness. While I had the engine out to replace it, I decided to do a rebuild. You can save yourself a lot of money if you have the time and space to do it yourself.

 

Thanks Rob, sage advice. I am not planning to do anything until the engine is ready to quit on me. I am just doing my research and this idea of the low mileage used engine at least on the surface sounds pretty good. Though it has it potential pitfalls the cost of a proper rebuild seems somewhat prohibitive. While I know many including yourself have done it with success I just do not think I want to invest that much in the engine, then do the gear box and anything else that may be in need of replacement at that time. Could easily get way to close to 30k for comfort unless like you said do it myself. Only drawback to that is time and available space, both of which I have in short supply.