So, after a very long delay (sorry everybody) due to all sorts of things going on, here is a little bit of closure for everyone who laid eyes or commented upon this thread.

I'm happy to report the car is in full working order - sort of!

In total the car was probably in the shop for around 6 weeks purely down to a lot of hidden gems and WYAIT's that spring up with any job such as this.

I replaced the engine mounts as although not leaking or visibly damaged I had no idea or record of the last time they were done (I presume never). I ended up buying this direct from Porsche at an extortionate cost although I'm 99% sure the same would have sufficed from a Touareg/Q7 or even just a different brand. Replaced torque arm at same time due to split - Bought a slighter cheaper one purely for the fact if it wears I can easily notice and replace at home. Did NOT want to run the risk with engine mounts.

In response to a question above regarding coolant T's, Yes and No. I did replace them, however I replaced them with original plastic T's from Porsche. I would have loved to create some from metal as many have done however days were turning into weeks and it was simply much easier to order them as I was ordering other parts almost every day.

There were a hundred and one jobs to be done whist everything was apart and I won't bore you all with the details, so I'll just outline the main ones.

One of my exhaust manifolds was cracked upon inspection. Porsche wanted over $1000 (rough conversion from GBP) PER manifold so I actually sourced some from a totalled 06' cayenne in America with 40k miles which looked almost new! One note on that is they took 3 days over a weekend to arrive... whereas parts from Porsche were taking a week, go figure.

I had all of the valve stem seals replaced along with rear main seal, torque converter seal, along with any other gaskets or seals that were disturbed during the strip down.

There were a couple of oil cooler, coolant and vacuum pipes that also needed replacing and by this point the costs were adding up but it was cost effective in my eyes to just plow on and continue.

I obviously had both head gaskets replaced and the heads/block skimmed/honed. OH and I almost forgot even though its a pretty huge thing to miss out that one of my cylinders was scored. The machining company who did the work managed to glaze over/hone that out however I never did get to see the final product so fingers crossed they did a good job!

Two of the timing chain guides had cracked, one missing a piece of the end and another that looked to have split straight down the middle. My mechanics found a piece from one of them at the bottom of the engine just laying there. I think the other guide did just split and separate - judge for yourself with the pictures below.
At this point I would have loved to replace the timing chain but was told that it would be OK as they have never seen one stretch before although I know some people on this forum swear they can.

That's all I can think of right now on the part's side so I'll leave it at that although if any has any questions or suggestions let me know and it'll no doubt jog my memory as to what else I replaced.

The total cost was around £1500 for parts ($1968) and £2500 for labour ($3280) which I think is reasonable bearing in mind the length of time they had the car whilst parts were arriving from all over and the ever growing list of jobs that I continually added on.

Since having the car back it has been sound mechanically, apart from my temperature needle still goes beyond 80c but now drops back down again after hitting 90-95c presumably as the thermostat opens - which was also replaced actually.
Needless to say I was devastated when I sat and watch the needle climbing again, I was ready to roll the car off a cliff. The work done came with a 12 months / 10k warranty however so that alongside the fact the car would actually cool itself down now I felt a little more appeased.
After some searches I've noticed a few people reporting a fluctuating temperature gauge however I am always worried as I don't exactly live in the warmest of climates.

Since having the car up and running I've changed the plugs/coils, crankcase breather membrane, front discs/pads, front diff, rear diff, transfer and transmission fluids which were all fairly cleaned apart from front diff which suggests they have been done before (car is now at 102k miles)

There are further and ever increasing list of jobs that need doing and I'm definitely at a loss now with the car financially however slowly but surely I will continue until the car is trouble/code free. I have a Durametric now which obviously opens a lot of doors in regards to accessible information. At the moment it seems by the time I get round to completing one job, a further two pop up.
Basically almost every problem I have read about with the 955 I have either experienced first hand or it has had repairs for in the past.

Off topic this last couple of weeks I've sourced a set of 18" cayenne S wheels and 265/65/18 BF Goodrich AT tyres, I love the look of the Cayenne on all terrain rubber and I'm hoping the ride will be improved with the larger tread as the standard 20" used to bang bang bang all the way down the road.


Thanks for reading if you got this far and I'll dump a few photos I haven't already posted below in regards to the rebuild.

Cheers!