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Re your "I also require some very good understandings about engine life and return on investment at higher mileages.".
Are you saying that ~80k so many other things are worn out that it makes sense only to do a total rebuild and refresh?
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Not really. What I am saying is at higher mileage points the risks for other issues popping up that could find a finger pointed at the IMSR increase. What the higher mileage retrofit client must understand is the procedure isn't magical and won't restore the entire engine to like new status all alone. I have lots of people that don't know or understand this and expect their investment in the IMSR to cure everything, but thats just not the case.
I prefer to apply the retrofit to lower mileage engines because the return on the investment is much better. I look at things from a liability aspect for my company as well, its counterproductive for us to do these sorts of procedures on a Porsche that has 150K miles. If I do a procedure on a higher mileage engine I thoroughly evaluate the engine before we apply the IMSR to include pulling the sump plate, doing a good sniff test on the oil, running it on the dyno and looking at the over-rev counter. The last thing we need is to touch an engine thats questionable and have it fail, because the IMSR
will get the blame.
I learned long ago that high mileage engines can at times break if you just "mess with them" and thats the last thing we need. The fact is anytime any shop touches a car and that car has a failure of any sort in the short term after the shop repaired it, the shop is going to get the blame and thats not a game that I play.. Not working with every car that comes our direction is one of the ways I built a reputation and it is necessary when maintaining that reputation. There are many others that will take the risks and they need every job they can get.
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I don't understand how a total engine rebuild would ever make economic sense on a $9-16k car that could be replaced for that. Emotional sense is a completely different story (peace of mind, more power, more mileage, "its my Porsche", etc).
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ALL of my current engine build clients are keeping their cars, I don't know of one car with one of my engines installed that has been sold after I built the engine. My engine cost more than the car, but thats nothing new with Porsches. I have provided engines that cost more than TWICE what the car was worth 15 years ago when working with the 914 and even the 356. That continues today with the 914.
The prices of engine replacements for these cars won't be getting any cheaper.. Fact is when the cars were newer and worth more the engines cost LESS, which defies convention. This engine is a ******************** to build, it requires special tools and an assembler that is very anal and attentive. If you drop your guard with an M96 it'll last 5 minutes after you start it for the first time.
Thats why its key for us to get the knowledge and resource material for the DIY owner to do the work themselves. Our first book should be done in Spring 2010, I wrote a chapter last night :-)