I am looking at purchasing a 1993 Turbo 3.6 (Atlas Grey with Black Interior). It has sports seats and polished centre speedlines. Australian Delivered RHD with 76,000 KM/s (47K miles) in excellent condition. The car is standard apart from Stainless Steel headers/exhaust and a 1 BAR spring.

The car is leaking a small amount of oil onto the exhaust (I am getting it checked out).

Just wondering if it's best to have a total engine reseal done - what's involved and approx. cost ?

Rgds,

John

 

A "total engine reseal" involves splitting the case and will run many thousands. Not to mention the "while you are in there" costs. As long as the leak is not too bad, just leave it alone until the engine needs work. If the leak is bad, pass on the car.

 

John, the cost to reseal these engines is ~ NZD 8,000 to NZD 10,000, which is approx. 70% labour. Apparently, the 993 type O rings for the head studs give a better seal than the originals, but I'm willing to bet that eventually it will leak again somewhere, at which point I'd be a very unhappy camper having spent that sum of money.

FWIW: my advice is DON'T buy one of these cars if you are annoyed by even small oil drips and the accompanying smell [I love it]. If you can live with small ones, then get the engine cleaned periodically and attack any larger leaks on ancilliary parts as they happen.

Be aware as well that even cars with no leaks will occasionally smoke on start-up...it's called character and has no effect on performance.

 

I had a quick look under the engine and there was oil residue formation on the top of the right hand side vavle cover.

If you leave the car sitting for some time you get some oil burning from the header. No oil drops on the garage floor.

What is the most common sources of engine sourced oil leaks for the 964 Turbo - Is it the head bolts leaking through the cylinder head ?

Rgds,

John

 

Not sure, my car drips maybe a drip per run and the major source appears to be the oil scavenge pump on the front of the engine. Other small seepages as well, nothing major, but unless the engine is sqeaky clean to start with it is hard to identify the true source, as it gets pushed by heat and wind all over the place, usually ending up on the lowest point, the headers.

 

Hi there John, my car also leaked some oil, was hard to determine where it was coming from but after taking it to a specialist here he found out most of it was coming from the oil scavenge pump . Engine had to come out anyway otherwise the specialist thought he could fix it with the engine in... Mine was leaking pretty bad but she's dry now! Not a drop... No need to split the engine whatsoever but make sure the engine get's cleaned very well before, then leave it idle/rev it now & then and after one hour or so you should be able to determine the cause /place of the leak in a good way (that's what my guy did). No need to leave the car but calculate some money in for the repair. Labour will set you back mostly I think.
cheers, Paul

 

Here's some pictures before & after ;-)
The last one is with the engine out & new seals for the oilpump. Also the valve covers leaked a bit but this is easy to fix. Make sure they know what's leaking before they maybe take out the engine!

 

Well said.

 

Thats a stock exhaust system.

I believe the seals alone cost something like $2900 not including labor.

 

Hi guys,

was wondering if it is normal for it to sip some oil when car is parked after driving. Only happens after driving, a few drops. nothing more unless after a drive again. Don't wanna split the engine until I am prepared to mod it a little..

 

InC
there is also some talk of oil leaks on this thread:
https://rennlist.com/forums/964-turbo-forum/276327-mileage-and-issues.html

Don't worry too much...

 

964-100-908-00 $812.36USD set of seals, cylinder head
964-100-903-00 $121.08USD set of seals, crankcase
964-105-902-01 $106.27USD set of seals, valve cover
964-104-901-00 $66.98USD Valve Stem Seal Kit

Those part numbers cover every seal and most of the fasteners attached to the engine. Prices as listed are MSRP so they can be found for around half that.

 

Do Turbo 3.6s have normal head gaskets? I remember reading somewhere about a special stainless steel feature to them.

 

You're right, the other forum site has the following prices

964-100-908-00 USD 388.00
964-100-903-00 USD 121.08
964-105-902-01 USD 49.75
964-104-901-00 USD 66.98

Total = USD 625.81

Seems very reasonable. Where have I gone wrong here?

 

It's not the parts, but the labor that is expensive. In order to install all those seals, you need to tear the engine completely down. That's going to be ~$4k.