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Originally Posted by mts
I was able to tow the car to a local Porsche tech who was unfortunately able to confirm that my initial diagnosis of an IMS failure was correct. Now I've got to figure out what to do. Initial thoughts are:
1) Let Jake Raby take a look and get his thoughts. Unfortunately he's on almost a 2 month backlog before he can even look at the car. It will be June before I can even tow it down there to get his thoughts. He's indicated even on a failure caught as quickly as mine was, it's probably less than a 50% chance the motor can be saved(debris in the engine everywhere). If it needs to be rebuilt, I would probably go ahead with the 3.2->3.6 upgrade, but if that is decided in June it will be approximately February 2011 before that work can be completed according to Jake. So I would be out out the cost of the rebuild plus being without the car for almost a year. 
2) Do a new crate motor from Porsche and replace the bearing with one from LN before sticking it in the car. This is easily the option that gets the car back on the road the quickest and sadly may end up being one of my least expensive alternatives as well.
3) Call RUF in Dallas to see about doing one of their 3.6 conversions. I would insist on the IMS bearing being upgraded to the LN one before installation. This is probably the most expensive route, but gets the car back on the road in a reasonable amount of time. Anyone dealth with them before?
By far my preference would be to deal with Jake. I've talked to him on the phone a couple times and he really seems like a good guy. However, the timing just stinks there and really is a testament to how many problems these cars have that he's booked so far out.
Decisions, decisions. |
Everyone, just wanted to give a quick update on where things stand. An the various options I considered. I wanted to throw praise in a few directions and a little less flattering info in others.
1) Flat 6 Innovations - They've been great, they've answered my questions and I can always get them on the phone or via email. Jake will even set up a phone discussion appointment with you to help work around his (and your) busy schedule. Really a top notch organization. I've been very impressed. The downside is they are REALLY busy. They were booking almost 2 months out to even look at my car and if it needed a fully rebuild were quoting some pretty lengthy completion times. This was definitely the way I was heading though despite being without the car for quite possibly a lengthy period of time.
2) RUF in Dallas - What a joke. As far as I can tell they do not take phone calls of any type EVER. After leaving multiple messages over a couple week period and a few emails as well (through their website) I got nothing. I posted something on Rennlist that perhaps they had closed their doors and got multiple posts back that they didn't answer their phone and you needed to physically go over there to speak with them. Since I'm about 1,000 miles away that really didn't work for me. I did get a suggestion to post something in a specific forum on Rennlist as they did check there from time to time. I sort of blasted them in that sub-forum and shortly after did get a return phonecall (which I missed of course I have to work too). Anyway I never did get to speak with them, but did correspond with Hans through Rennlist PM's. Basically they don't even do the RUF conversions on Boxsters anymore. I asked why they still listed it on their website to which I got no response. He did indicate he could do an FVD 3.8L conversion for me for $30k, but never responded to my timeframe question or what was involved, nor did he respond to my suggestion for him to give me a time he would be available for a call. No way would I ever consider doing business with these people.
3) Porsche Goodwill - After seeing how long it would be to get in with Flat 6, I decided to take a shot with Porsche goodwill in the meantime. My car is a special edition car with 20k miles, immacuate maintenance records, and has been out from under warranty for a year. Unfortunately my local Porsche dealership closed in January so I was basically dealing with strangers on this deal (not giving me too much hope). I tried 3 dealerships: Bluegrass Porsche in Louisville, Kings North Porsche in Cincinnati, and Porsche of the Village in Cincinnati. Of the 3, only Porsche of the Village in Cincinnati seemed willing to got to bat with me with Porsche so I took the car to them. They've had the car for over a month and I just got word that Porsche goodwill is covering 100% of the cost of a crate motor.
I think I got very lucky on this deal. Obviously my opinion of Porsche of the Village is pretty high right now. I wasn't sure I would have much luck going this direction so I'm quite pleased. I should get the car back next week.
Absent this help I was looking at a very extended period without the car.