Ghianightmare
Montreal
- Joined
- 25 Apr 2017
- Messages
- 608
My engine is in Hartech, stripped and I have a diagnosis... but first the history...
I bought the car from an ad on this forum. The PO had to rebuild the engine due to a dropped valve seat in cylinder 3 at about 114k miles. I have the invoices for £10k
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=98339&highlight=
I bought the car 2 years ago with 120k miles as it had a rebuild and good history with 10 owners. 50k miles were put up in 18 months of what looked like commute between Birmingham and Sheffield! it has been great for the past 2 year - I spent a few grand on suspension and tidying bits and pieces - but recently I became concerned about a coupe of things - a bit of smoke on start, a tappety sound and fluffy idle when started.
On the evening of the 26th April I took a mate for a blast. He was impressed at its performance (first time in a 911). I told him I needed to check out some things but that yes it was pulling well.
We stopped off at another mates house for a couple of hours and then when I started the car it was really rough. Took about 30 seconds for the idle to settle. But once warmed up, I floored it in 3rd and it took off like a scalded cat. No problems.
When we came off the motorway, we drove for about 2 miles to his house. I pulled into the drive, he hopped out, I put the car in reverse and immediately there was a bad rattle, so i shut it off. I started it quickly again to check oil pressure and see it if was engine related and shut it down immediately. Oil pressure was fine.
I rang my car Insurance recovery and they took me home within an hour.
I started frantically reading on here and on the www and reckoned it was either timing chain issue or borescore.
My car Insurance rang me in the morning to see if I got home ok. They asked if I had any questions. So I asked if they would still take me to a garage and they said yes. I asked did that include a garage in the UK (I'm in Dublin) and the nice lady said she'd check with a supervisor. What she came back she asked why I couldn't go to a garage in Ireland, so I told her we didn't have the technology or experience and that while I could get the engine removed in Ireland, we would have to send it to the clever people in England - and so she said yes! I then called Hartech and they said they could take it but couldn't start on it for a few weeks.
So on Thursday 2 May the nice man in a truck came and took my car to Hartech free of charge and saving me a packet.i didn't even bother pulling a filter or looking underneath.
The engine is finally disassembled and I have the diagnosis. And it isn't bosescore or IMS....
It's another bad valve seat in Cylinder 2 - the neighbor of cylinder 3. Grant reckons that it can only be due to an over heated head or a bad valve seat batch. I don't have any history that would suggest an overheat. Regardless, Hartechs advice is not to use the same head again unless the 12 valve seats are replaced and this is not something they have found an acceptable solution to. While some people will replace the seats, no of them seem to be providing warranty to protect Hartech in the event a seat fails again.
So where do that leave me? A full rebuild plus either a new head (£3,500) or a good used head... which seem to be like hens teeth. If anyone has one lying around, please PM me. I have a feeling that any good used ones are in Mr Corns garage!
I'm happy to go with Hartechs position on the head as lightening has struck twice in my engines case. I'm coming to terms with the cost implications. I'm also a bit peeved that the cost of the head has killed any chance of a 3.9...
So there you have it - 127,000 miles, 2 rebuilds and not a sniff of borescore or IMS issues...
I did contemplate selling it as is, but then I'm still faced with replacing it and doing all of the work I have done already and still have a risk on the engine. And based on the recent threads here, there aren't many good ones around.
Part of getting the wife across the line was telling her we can do a weekend in the Lake District when I pick it up from Hartech...I just need to figure out a way to break it to her that the budget doesn't cover a hotel and that we'll be sleeping in the car.
I bought the car from an ad on this forum. The PO had to rebuild the engine due to a dropped valve seat in cylinder 3 at about 114k miles. I have the invoices for £10k
http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=98339&highlight=
I bought the car 2 years ago with 120k miles as it had a rebuild and good history with 10 owners. 50k miles were put up in 18 months of what looked like commute between Birmingham and Sheffield! it has been great for the past 2 year - I spent a few grand on suspension and tidying bits and pieces - but recently I became concerned about a coupe of things - a bit of smoke on start, a tappety sound and fluffy idle when started.
On the evening of the 26th April I took a mate for a blast. He was impressed at its performance (first time in a 911). I told him I needed to check out some things but that yes it was pulling well.
We stopped off at another mates house for a couple of hours and then when I started the car it was really rough. Took about 30 seconds for the idle to settle. But once warmed up, I floored it in 3rd and it took off like a scalded cat. No problems.
When we came off the motorway, we drove for about 2 miles to his house. I pulled into the drive, he hopped out, I put the car in reverse and immediately there was a bad rattle, so i shut it off. I started it quickly again to check oil pressure and see it if was engine related and shut it down immediately. Oil pressure was fine.
I rang my car Insurance recovery and they took me home within an hour.
I started frantically reading on here and on the www and reckoned it was either timing chain issue or borescore.
My car Insurance rang me in the morning to see if I got home ok. They asked if I had any questions. So I asked if they would still take me to a garage and they said yes. I asked did that include a garage in the UK (I'm in Dublin) and the nice lady said she'd check with a supervisor. What she came back she asked why I couldn't go to a garage in Ireland, so I told her we didn't have the technology or experience and that while I could get the engine removed in Ireland, we would have to send it to the clever people in England - and so she said yes! I then called Hartech and they said they could take it but couldn't start on it for a few weeks.
So on Thursday 2 May the nice man in a truck came and took my car to Hartech free of charge and saving me a packet.i didn't even bother pulling a filter or looking underneath.
The engine is finally disassembled and I have the diagnosis. And it isn't bosescore or IMS....
It's another bad valve seat in Cylinder 2 - the neighbor of cylinder 3. Grant reckons that it can only be due to an over heated head or a bad valve seat batch. I don't have any history that would suggest an overheat. Regardless, Hartechs advice is not to use the same head again unless the 12 valve seats are replaced and this is not something they have found an acceptable solution to. While some people will replace the seats, no of them seem to be providing warranty to protect Hartech in the event a seat fails again.
So where do that leave me? A full rebuild plus either a new head (£3,500) or a good used head... which seem to be like hens teeth. If anyone has one lying around, please PM me. I have a feeling that any good used ones are in Mr Corns garage!
I'm happy to go with Hartechs position on the head as lightening has struck twice in my engines case. I'm coming to terms with the cost implications. I'm also a bit peeved that the cost of the head has killed any chance of a 3.9...
So there you have it - 127,000 miles, 2 rebuilds and not a sniff of borescore or IMS issues...
I did contemplate selling it as is, but then I'm still faced with replacing it and doing all of the work I have done already and still have a risk on the engine. And based on the recent threads here, there aren't many good ones around.
Part of getting the wife across the line was telling her we can do a weekend in the Lake District when I pick it up from Hartech...I just need to figure out a way to break it to her that the budget doesn't cover a hotel and that we'll be sleeping in the car.