It’s time to drop the engine, but what else will we find?

Update by David S. Wallens to the Porsche 911 Carrera project car
Sep 4, 2024 | Porsche, Porsche 911, Project car

Photos by David S. Wallens

Few things get the mind racing this quickly–and with as much dread. Maybe awakening from a peaceful slumber to the sound of the dog beside you throwing up comes close.

Our predicament: We had pulled a valve cover from my Porsche’s engine to adjust the clearances and found not just a broken head stud–hey, it happens–but the end of that stud and the associated bolt totally gone.

That missing end didn’t magically disappear. It wasn’t floating around inside the engine. Someone saw the problem, someone removed the problem, and then someone covered up the problem.

And now we had to deal with it.

Fortunately, I wasn’t alone on this. My friend Randy, who owned an independent Porsche shop back in the day, was showing me the ropes of 911 stewardship. At this point, I was maybe two years into owning this 1984 Carrera. Was the honeymoon about to screech to a halt?

He quickly put the situation into perspective: We had already planned on dropping the engine to replace the clutch, so let’s freshen the heads and make the engine ready for another few decades.

But who was going to rebuild the engine?

We were, he smiled.

Randy presented our plan of attack. We’d drop the engine–no big deal–and pull the heads so they could be sent out for freshening. Doing that, of course, would require removing everything in the way, meaning the entire intake and exhaust systems. We’d then, as necessary, clean, freshen or replace those removed items.

Based on our engine’s condition and mileage–about 140,000 miles at the time–Randy didn’t feel we needed to split the case and replace the main bearings. The pistons and cylinders looked good, too, so each pair would be removed as a unit to not disrupt their intimate relationship.

The cylinder heads went to JB Racing, which specializes in Porsche engine work. It’s also located next to Alex Job’s shop–he campaigned many of the top Porsches from 1988 until retiring in 2017. Once JB Racing looked at our heads, we got the work order: Blast and inspect the heads while performing a street valve job and replacing the valves, springs, guides and rocker shafts and nuts.

Randy would handle the bulk of the wrenching–find more details on those steps on our website–while I’d assist, clean things and learn how it all went down. I’d also be in charge of procuring all of the parts that we could now easily replace: timing chain ramps, oil pressure switch, oil lines, oil drain tubes, fuel lines, oxygen sensor, motor mounts, an intake boot plus assorted seals and O-rings. While replacing the clutch, we’d also replace its release fork, release spring and related seals.

Everything on the list was readily available and, usually, from all the popular sources. We stuck to genuine Porsche parts or OE equivalents sourced from Pelican Parts. The two main exceptions were stronger head studs from ARP and an aftermarket sport clutch.

We also used this engine-out opportunity to clean. The engine cooling shrouds were powder-coated in a matte black finish that looks stock, the engine-mounted oil cooler was boiled clean, and all the aluminum parts were bead blasted. The fuel injectors were sent to Marren Fuel Injection for cleaning.

We didn’t, fortunately, need to replace the big, expensive parts. Porsche cylinders can’t be overbored, and while replacements are available from the likes of LN Engineering and Mahle, we didn’t need them.

The first big question: How much? The bill for the parts and subcontractor work totaled close to $5500, with nearly half of that for just the cylinder heads. We should note these are 2012 dollars.

Second question: Can a novice rebuild a Porsche 911 engine? Just setting the cam timing and parallelling the timing chains took a few hours and required specialized tools plus the associated knowledge. What’s your comfort level working on an engine that, should things go sideways, costs $20,000 or more in today’s market to professionally rebuild?

And the third question: How’s the engine holding up more than a dozen years later? No issues, no weirdness, no oil consumption issues. If it sits for a while, it emits a puff at startup. Every few years, the valves get adjusted.

Should a pre-purchase inspection have been arranged? Yeah, probably, although I thought one had been done previously. Porsche 911 ownership has been all about the experience, and this engine rebuild was just one part of it. Still wouldn’t have done anything differently. Coming up next? The more fun side of ownership.