Car is finally done. I really dodged a bullet with my chain rail / guides getting chewed up in my engine.. I attached some pictures. One of the guides broke off about a three inch piece and was flying around in the engine for some time.. It looks like a prison shank..You can see that it wedged itself in the back of the engine near the chain..How I got away with avoiding a major engine failure is amazing. Any of those debris particles could have blocked an oil passage and the engine would have been toast. Another guide was cracked in half...I checked my DME for recent over revs and there was nothing. So apparently when they get old they can fail..My car has 89k on it..The good news is I got the car back and it runs beautifully..Welded coolant inlets with SharkWerks coolant hose kit..New chain guides, new starter, New clutch.. Lots of new fittings and hoses. I ended up spending 6k for all the parts and labor. Very reasonable for all that work.
Just glad to have the car back!

 

Yikes! Dodged a bullet for sure, and seems like a good price on what you got done! Bet you're glad to be back on the road for another 80k.

 

$6k for all that isn't bad at all. Is the timing chain guide thing a common failure on these? Is it easy to inspect? I feel like I've maybe heard of it but I'm surprised it hasn't resulted in more horror stories. My car's up there in miles too so I guess I'll add it to my list of nightmares.

 

According to my tech it happens to mostly to high mileage Turbos and rarely on a GT3. I wouldn't say it is "common" but it does happen. If you have the engine out at some point and you have over 75k miles it might be a good idea to replace them.. The parts are relatively inexpensive...Labor time is about 7 hours according to my tech. He has all the Porsche tools for the timing. .Fortunately for me my friend did all the work and only charged me $2700 for all the labor for the entire project..As far as inspection just keep an eye on reddish particles on your oil filter.. Those would be chain guide debris. The rails are plastic and take quite a beating keeping those timing chains in check...So I guess it's no surprise that at some point they would fail.

 

Great advise replace them if you have the engine out for any reason, I just completed mine at 77K had a small piece of the chain guide mission found it in the oil filter at the 500 mile planned oil change.
When your back on all 4 lets fo driving ACH or wherever.
Gotta be an expensive clutch lol

 

Yes Jay and thank you for your feedback along the way. I will be in touch an will hook up with your crew for a drive. Yes it turned out to be much more than a clutch job!