TRT41

Great post, much appreciate you taking the time to detail your process. I plan on doing a rebuild for a back up motor for my race car, but lack the time and space to start.

TomF

Very nice writeup! I am about half way through the pictures. You are very thorough!

Incidentally, I too would like to know more about what your total costs were on this project.

brad@tirerack.com

Quite entertaining. Thanks for taking the time to take all the pictures!

Barn996

What a difference after you cleaned the outside of your engine, replaced so many components, gaskets, plugs, AOS etc. A great pictorial of all your work and no doubt a future benefit to anyone interested in doing the same. My hat is off to you, you must feel a tremendous amount of satisfaction by doing the work yourself. Thanks for the slide show and your explicit documentation.Now, go take your rebuilt Porsche for a long drive.

logray

Thanks again for all of the good words everyone !!!! If feels great to be driving the car again. When you're away from it for a month you start to realize why you bought a Porsche in the first place.

1.) I did not measure the cylinders, only went over them visually and could see very few imperfections for 75k miles. Then again, I am not a pro. I suppose if they are not within tolerance it is only a matter of time... and perhaps another mistake at perhaps throwing money at something that might not be worth it down the road (more on that later). In hindsight I probably should have done a lot more, but the costs were starting to skyrocket.

2.) Correct, I did not split the case, but I may have to revisit this at some point due to a potential issue that might be present with worn rings (if the soot and oil consumption returns). And a potentially worse problem with bearings or shims and possibly even camshaft. Unfortunately (kicking myself) I didn't catch this until I had reassembled (front and rear seals dry as a bone), but I need to measure the run-out on the crank pulley since it appears to have a slight wobble. I am hoping a harmonic under drive pulley and new DMF could compensate for a potential problem and extend it's useable life, although I'm not sure by how much a damper could help, or if it is worth it in this engines case?

Although it was great fun to drop and tear apart and I would do it again in a heartbeat - I suppose if the crank shaft has a problem I will just drive this car until it explodes, because I can't see spending another $6000 on it for that work - which brings the total spend closer to a replacement (more on that later).

No, I rebuilt my boat's motor due to blown head gasket about 2 years ago. I've also been inside VW, Ford, and Chrysler, but I am no seasoned pro by any means.

In short, not even close, but here is some narrative about the costs involved should you decide to do something similar.

COSTS

I spent $3000 in parts and $800 in labor. I was able to offset that by $1700 through the sale of some misc parts I had stock piled or stored and was meaning to sell regardless. Not calculating the sold parts original value (<cough>, double in most cases) since those things were already done and paid for years ago, that brought my "total out of pocket" down to about $2150, or $150 over my original budget.

I did consider a new engine. However, you can't get one for $2000. I also considered http://www.renegadehybrids.com, but some people would scoff at the idea. I also considered nickies for $4000, but at that price plus the $3500 above (and more), it would put the total spend much more closer to a replacement. Not to mention why do it yourself when for just a little more you can have the best in the world? (more on that in a bit). However I finally decided that I want to give what I have already a shot at a new lease on life - if it works out, which it seems to thus far - will be the least expensive way to get back on the road. If I really screwed up or poured money into a heap, I'm only out the $2000 it wouldn't be the end of the world, and there would be other options available ... which would be inevitable (or perhaps even more costly) anyways if I continued driving the car in the state it was in. I guess you could say I "gambled" a little bit. Time will tell, I suppose.

I'm not looking for brownie points here, but when you do this on your own and tally up the numbers as you will see, this goes to show you that Flat 6 REALLY DOES provide value in what they do... for actually very little labor costs (albeit I'm sure they do make a little on parts) - there are no "hidden costs" there. For example.

The only NEW or USED engine I would consider buying would be from Flat 6. IMHO, you are trying your luck at one of those $5000 ebay rebuild specials from motor meister or from a breakers (who charge significantly more and that is just pulled out of "some car"). Currently Jake's "least expensive" option is $9000 for a rebuilt and certified 3.4L. While that would give the car a new lease on life, I could not justify spending $10,000 on a car that might be worth $20,000. Sad, but true. Thet whole IMS debacle plus the tanked ecomomy does not bode well for the new water cooled generation. Somewhat kicking myself I didn't pull the trigger on a 993 which I was also eyeballing before this, but you live, you learn.

Here is the cost break down for those interested:



RESEARCH

I forgot to include these invaluable threads in my original post but these are MUST READS if you plan to do this on your own!!!

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti..._Tensioner.htm (a little light on documentation for CRITICAL things such as timing and torque settings)

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26418

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/637412-making-9611-cam-holding-tool.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/641790-issue-with-p253-camshaft-timing-tool.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/508893-qustion-on-camshaft-allocation-tool-9612-a.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/594122-how-to-set-cam-timing-on-996-a.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/510492-intermix-repair-camshafts-threaded-plugs.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/623466-lifter-noise.html

Also thanks to http://www.pedrosgarage.com and http://p-car.com

jtilden

awesome thread! you did a heck of a job. don't be suprised if your inbox becomes inundated with rebuild requests for assistance and guidance.

LongTail 996

Great job, great info, the best demonstration of what an enthusiast forum is all about.

Ahsai

Excellent writeup and info! Congrats on the success!

fasteddie99

Now that you're up and running, let's go for a drive sometime.

speed rII

wow, loved the pictures, it's nice to see that someone documents what they are doing

You did dig deeper than I did, I did not remove the heads nor did I change the lifters... Well new lifters and oilpump are on the shelf, waiting the time to change those...

smokindav

Did I miss the part where you actually rebuilt the engine?

logray

Well, if you read the first post (and my second reply) you would see that I did not crack the case. However everything from the case outwards, it's all in the picture album link - from engine drop, to dis-assembly, to reassembly. About the only part that is light on pictures is raising the engine, but it was pretty anti-climatic and I was too busy to take pics. In fact raising it seemed much easier than dropping and there aren't a ton of things to connect once you get it up in there.

Also I did not do the valve job, that was outsourced to the professionals with several tens of thousands of dollars worth of computer controlled valve cutting machines - however I did post plenty of before and after pics of their work on the heads.

avader906

Congratulations. This is excellent reference material. Thank you.

fpena944

That is awesome and quite reasonable! As long as the case doesn't have to be opened this seems to be a perfect option for someone who wants to tackle the job.

If you did have to open the case would you have attempted that yourself or sent it away? Any idea what that would have cost?

Although I would imagine if there's not a lot of oil being consumed opening the case really isn't necessary...

spender

Incredible job! Amazing work.