[az968]

Oh no! And the odyssey continues for brave ulysses!

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[ds968]

No doubt that at some point shortly before this whole series of issues started I must have cut off a gypsy caravan entering the freeway... ergo the curse which keeps on giving ...

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[Rap]

Not that this in any way, shape or form is similar to the agony you have been going through but I've been bedeviled by my truck. I was coming home from an event at Summit Point WV and was about an hour from home when what sounded like an explosion came from the back of my truck. The truck starts to swerve back and forth. Mind you I'm smoking a cigar rockin out with the roof open. I throw the cigar out of the roof and work on getting the truck back in control. A quick look out of the drivers side mirror shows a gusher of sparks coming from the left rear area. By the grace of God, a ton of luck and being in the right place I was able to get the vehicle with the trailer and the 968 safely over and off the side of the road. After I cleaned up the mess in my pants I got out to look. Imagine my surprise when I saw the truck resting on about 60% of the left rear rotar. No wheel no tire no lug nuts and one sheared stud.

Since that time it has been one problem after another. I'm hoping to get the truck back on Monday.


I have learned that the only way to deal with this is by patience. I'm not a patient person by nature.

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[ds968]

Yikes , that had the potential for a horrible outcome so first of all glad you're ok and secondly the 968 is ok...


Patience ( something I've never had ) has become a necessary evil with my 968 saga . At least, with respect to this latest drama the further delay and an additional trip to SoCal are the only downsides for me ; the mechanic said no matter what the repair or replacement time and expense required may be , this is all at his cost .


I was there Friday to hear and feel the engine run before everything is yanked out again, which will happen Monday or Tuesday . The crack is about 1/8 " , lower half of the block close to the motor mount next to the exhaust manifold. He is fairly confident it can be easily welded, it's not close to any edges or gaskets or anything of the sort which can be compromised. However he did say that once the engine is out again and he can closely examine everything, if he thinks there is even a 1% chance the repair might cause problems in the future he won't do it, and will replace it with a new block ...all parts & labor free of charge to me. But I'm told welding a block, and in particular a crack as minor as this one is a completely safe and permanent repair and that I should have no concerns whatsoever . ( in fact he said the crack is so small even a high heat JB weld adhesive would have sealed it permanently, but he claimed that's a " Mickey Mouse " way out and not the right way to fix something so out comes the engine once again ..) Fingers crossed, that's the end of the drama with this car...that is, until the next time I see that gypsy caravan and an all-out war breaks !!!

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[az968]

+ 1 on the bullet dodging skills of Rap!

Now's the chance to swap engines between cars ?

Maybe tidy up the engine compartment while you are in there ?

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[ds968]

Speaking of the engine compartment ; he has a 968 there in which he installed a big block ( 5.7 L ) Camaro engine . I was surprised , actually shocked to see that there considerably more room left in the engine bay with that huge 8 cyl in there , than there is with our engines in it. Not sure how that's possible and maybe the SC assembly makes everything look more crowded, but I was scratching my head trying to figure out how a 3 L 4 banger can be bigger than a 5.7 L 8.

.It must be an optical illusion .


Oh, and he has another three 968s on which he is currently working , in addition to the four or five in the yard which are " totaled " . Almost as many 968s as we gather at some of our Forums events, lol..

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[ds968]

The to-be-welded crack was inspected closely with the engine out, and although that by itself would not have been an issue, he said that without knowing for sure what caused the crack in the first place, there no way to tell if any other parts of the block might be compromised so he changed the block yet one more time . The engine is back in now and he's conducting all sorts of tests and diagnostics to make sure everything is running as it should .. Even though it should be ready this coming week, I won't have a chance to take a trip down there to pick it up until the end of June or first week of July , so it's going to be a while longer before I can drive it back to its home sweet home ..

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[wildcat]

And for the price of repairs you could have bought Flash's car and had change left over... (let's hope not) Geez I've heard horror stories but your's takes the prize!

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[Rap]

How many blocks are you going to use up? Going to leave any for the rest of us?

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[ds968]

Well, the second block came at an incremental cost of only $ 500 , because the mechanic was pretty confident he would be able to sell or use my original one in spite of its minor inperfections ..and this latest block was entirely free of charge to me, because of the aforementioned surprise/problem for which the mechanic took full responsibility - the guy's integrity, professionalism and courtesy is obviously as high as anyone could possibly hope for .

Not that the total bill will be cheap by any means , when adding up all the "unforeseen" parts replacements, but removing, disassembling, reassembling and reinstalling the engine one additional time, and the extra "while in there" labor is waived , so a significant relief ..


p.s. - buy Flash's car ?! Hell, he'd have to pay me ; it's a CAB for heaven's sake !! :-) :-)

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[az968]

And it's not at tip, two strikes :-)

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[ds968]

lol, if flash's 968 were a coupe though, I'd sell both my 968s and then gladly pay the difference to own that car ..

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[wildcat]

And it's not at tip, two strikes :-)

So I only get 50% of the equation, boy this is a tough crowd.  Mine's a tip and a Cab which makes for interesting driving.   B)  

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[flash]

i still have a tip cab too, and it is frequently more pleasurable to drive than the manual version.  it's just easier, regardless of being so much slower and heavier.  if i thought i could have been happy with the power, i would have built that one up, instead of buying the targa.  i just knew, based on what i had in the blue car, that the amount i would have to de-tune it to keep from blowing things up, would not make me happy.

 

dan may ultimately come to the same conclusion

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[ds968]

The green machine is back in action ! Picked it up last night, drove it down to Bob today to give it a thorough check up & programming fine-tuning - all systems go status given, so after close to seven months and $ 9 K later , it's ready to go home and serve its daily driver duties once again. Perfect opportunity to complete its prescribed 500 mile new engine break-in . ( the drive home is about 480 miles , but I've already put 114 miles on it since Friday ) .

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[Rap]

That's great to hear Dan! Best of luck. Remember to change the fluids!!! Do you need to drive it over 4000 RPM's all the time?

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[ds968]

The 4k and above rpm M.O is on the six speed car, the tip only gets above 4k when I stomp on it , and even then it quickly gets back to below 4k and settles around 3 -3.8 K and that's where it stays most of the time I drive it ; I keep it in the regular "D" gear the majority of time ( as opposed to the tiptronic manual option ) so it selects its own rpm. The six speed however, I still run at high rpms but after this experience I might have to reconsider that m.o. as well ..

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[Rap]

Now don't go all fuddy duddy on me. You're my role model!!

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[az968]

Nice to hear it's back on the road and your commutes will be fun again! What a pain to have to shift gears yourself. Not!

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[ds968]

A couple of observations to share post engine rebuilt ( note, this is at the very early stages , not even 1 K miles have yet been logged on the odo )


oil consumption - 1 QT needed after approx 750 miles


gas consumption - 16 MPG ( 80 % highway and at about 3 k rpm most of the time , and 20 % city )

Also I'm not yet pushing the SC ; maybe 2 or 3 times, and even then it was very brief, for just a few seconds .., and last, the AC has been on 90% of the time )

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