Petrolburner wrote: Is this the "What could go wrong?" part?
Oy vey. The sum of all internet-hyped fears. 
Petrolburner wrote: Is this the "What could go wrong?" part?
Oy vey. The sum of all internet-hyped fears.
I just realized that you placed the words "cheap" and "Porsche" alongside each other in the title. Those words don't usually work in the same sentence...
Cheekiness aside, good luck on whatever mechanicals are ailing the car.
BoxheadTim wrote: I suspect so. That together with some other E36 M3 that happened today doesn't make for a good Tuesday.
At least it's still a Porsche after all these bills. Imagine if it was an eight year old minivan you were repairing.
In reply to Mitchell:
Seriously that. The trans in my truck is about $4.5k to replace. A full set of new injectors are $3.2k. When you fix the truck... it's still a berkeleying truck. At least when you drop $5k to fix your 911 you get a 911.
EDIT: I take it back. A loaded delivery van slid down my driveway and beached itself today. I drove my truck thru a foot of snow to get around him, then dragged him backwards all the way up the hill on the ice. You really can't do that with a 996 even if it's got AWD 
Yikes. I have just decided that I'm far too cheap to ever own a Porsche...$4k is more than I've spent on half of the cars I've owned! 
Well, I guess I could've spent $2.3k on a Maxjax and then 20+ hours I don't have dropping the engine 
. TBF 20+ hours is dropping it and putting it back in, but either way I don't have that sort of time...
Am I the only one not bothered by the $4k bill? Having the work done and receipts for it should add $2k or so to the resale. It would to me anyway. So in the end it adds $2k to owning a 911.
I'm somewhat annoyed by it, but not overly bothered. The big unknown is if it stays a $4k bill or if not, what number it hits on the Porsche blowup scale.
The range given to me by the shop was between $4k - $10k, I'd certainly be bothered by the upper end of it.
That's a heck of a shot to the wallet, but it's nothing out of the ordinary when compared to the issues the older air cooled cars can have.
Sorry to hear that you're having to do a little surgery, but the car will be better, and the elephant in the room (IMSB) will be addressed when it's all said and done.
Let us know how it progresses!
thewheelman wrote: That's a heck of a shot to the wallet, but it's nothing out of the ordinary when compared to the issues the older air cooled cars can have.
I've owned a C3.2 before so I'm more than familiar with the bills those can generate even though they are much less complex.
Part of the reason for this thread is to show that it's possible to own one of these on a "normal" budget but of course I'm not doing a particularly good job at the moment!
$4k wouldn't bother me for an engine out service that puts any IMS and timing chain issues to bed for a long time. New engine would bother me. That said I've owned a lot of used German cars that I did not service myself.
BoxheadTim wrote: Well, I guess I could've spent $2.3k on a Maxjax and then 20+ hours I don't have dropping the engine
What's a Maxjax?
http://www.dannmar.com/dannmar-products/two-post-lifts/maxjax.asp
In reply to BoxheadTim:
Oh, gotcha. Yeah, that doesn't sound like fun either, unless it's a project car that you don't actually need to drive.
Good luck on the repairs! If you were (since people seem to be reading here) looking at one of these for dual purpose would the C2 hardtop manual be the ones to look for? The turbo's are awesome but less good for autox etc with the turbo lag from what I hear.
Dual purpose as in track & Auto-X + DD? Yes, I'd look for C2 coupe with a manual transmission. The C4 carries a little more weight and if you don't need the AWD, I wouldn't want to pay the penalty for that.
I'm still tempted to take mine to an Auto-X at least once this summer, though .
Right now I have an NA miata that acts as my once a month I beat on it at autocross car and sometimes go on a drive. I've just wanted a 996 kinda for a while it will still be a bit before I can have a more expensive toy. Then again it gets decent highway mpg so its saving money over my SUV right?
Probably to the tune of 3mpg if mine is anything to go by - it gets about 21-22mpg...
I got some more news.
One of the cam chain tensioners was about to fall apart completely so we caught that just in time. Chances would have been that it would have taken out the chain if we allowed it to fail.
Really bad news is that they found more plastic debris of a different color. If I understood it correctly, the camchain guides use a brown plastic, whereas the IMS drive chain guides use black plastic.
They found black plastic, and to get at those guides, a full engine stripdown is required.
They're going to pull the heads today and dig a bit deeper (without going whole hog) to give me a better assessment of the overall condition of the engine so we can figure out if it's worth doing or not.
Either way the bill's crept up to between $7k-$10k unless they find more.
Happy berkeleying Friday, it is not.
Fortunately selling the Evo should cover the bill unless we're talking even more engine issues, but if I want to go on the track this year the budget for that has just shrunk to something Miata/Civic/Mini Cooper sized...
What's the going rate for a used or rebuilt 996 motor?
nderwater wrote: What's the going rate for a used or rebuilt 997 GT3 RSR motor?
FTFY
nderwater wrote: What's the going rate for a used or rebuilt 996 motor?
Rebuilt you're basically looking at at least the $10k mentioned above, used is about $7k with no guarantee that we won't find the same issues or worse. Properly rebuilt can easily top $15k-$20k depending on how does it and what you do to the engine while it's out.
The current hope is that because the engine was running fine, we may be able to get away with new guides and "while we're in there" throw in new bearings etc so I'll end up at least with a partially refreshed motor.
Are there any shared engine components between the 996 and 986? Because $7-10K will get you a complete, running Boxster from which you could pull the motor and then part the rest of the car to recoup your rebuild expenses.
I think the main shared parts are the ones that cause problems...
For starters, displacement is different - even a 986 S is .2L short (3.2L vs 3.4L in mine).
Sorry to hear this... Been watching closely, but this has caused me to pause... Will be a better car when done on the plus side
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