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thorrall

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Everything posted by thorrall

  1. Probably the most important thing is to have an experienced Porsche mechanic drive the car, for an extended period if feasible. If there are any serious issues he should spot them fairly quickly and perform follow-on tests if necessary. These cars have few problems although a high mileage car may exhibit need for some repairs. Perhaps the most common issue is oil leaks which may involve some moderate expense to resolve depending on their source.
  2. I had a 1978SC and later on an almost identical grey market 1979SC, both of which I daily drove including winters, the '78 to 130K miles and the '79 to about 180K miles. I bought both around 50K miles so I don't know their histories before that. Other than routine maintenance which I did fairly religiously, I had very few issues with either car. I did have to rebuild the transmission around 100K miles on each car. That was not too expensive at the time - around $5K for each as I recall, but it would probably be more today. So I would try to find out if the transmission had been rebuilt or get some kind of warranty on it if possible, but if it shifts easily, you probably won't have a problem anytime soon. If not, a good private Porsche specialist should be able to tell whether it's due to something minor like the bearings in the linkage, fairly common, or whether it's internal. The rear end was getting noisy before I sold the '79 car. I didn't have that repaired so I don't know if that portended anything major or what that might cost. I had no internal engine problems with either car, although there were some minor external issues from time to time. Despite being made of "100%" Thyssen steel, I did have some visible rust around the headlights at higher mileages due to trapped dirt, but that's here in salty New England. If I hadn't driven them winters there may have been no issue with that.
  3. I'm currently driving an '86 (essentially same as '85 mechanically) with a little less than 60K miles and recently had the shift linkage repaired at minimal cost when I complained about slightly hard and imprecise shifting at a regular maintenance interval. This is my fifth car with a 915 transmission in well over 400,000 miles and a period of 40 years (my first was a '70 911T), and I was prepared for the worst, having had to rebuild transmissions on two 911SC's in the eighties, although not until each had well over 100K miles. However, replacing a nylon bearing at the base of the shifter cured the problem and I'm happy to report that the car now shifts as well as any of my cars at any time, which is to say very well indeed. My mechanic tells me that two other nylon bearings in the linkage also notoriously deteriorate with time, although mine were fine so he did not have to replace them. It's possible those had been replaced by an earlier owner since I don't have good records from him and bought the car at ~ 52K miles. My impression is that a lot of the negative criticism of the 915 is related not to the transmission itself but rather to these shift linkage plastic parts not being replaced after a considerable period of time and use. That said, Porsche had some reason to switch to the G50 in '87. It may have been simply production cost, or it may have been that the increased torque planned for future cars at the time was to be better handled by the G50, or somewhat better feel, or some combination of all three. Certainly the fact that I never had to rebuild any 915 transmissions on the 2.0 and 2.7 cars and did on both 3.0 cars leads me to believe that steadily increasing torque was a consideration, and the 3.2 has even more torque. So, in summary I would say a G50 transmission would be nice but I certainly wouldn't turn down a nice example with the G15, nor would I pay a large amount extra just for a G50. Besides, God intended that reverse should be over and down :D.
  4. Hey CurbSmurf, I had a '74 for awhile so I thought I would reply. '74 was the first year that had CIS, except for a few in '73. That is probably moot if the whole engine was replaced. Mine worked fine in any case. My head studs did pull out, but again this is moot if you have a 3.0 which, if memory serves, the first ones were '78 and the head stud issue was probably resolved by the factory by then. I had '78 and '79 3.0's and never had any head stud problems, even though both were driven to well past 100K miles. I think '74's are a classic year. However, I would second Loren's caution about the body not being galvanized. I do live in the Northeast and have driven 4 911's as semi-daily drivers on our salted roads. My '70 showed rust early on and the '74 started showing rust at the base of the windshield, also fairly early on (at ~ 6 years and maybe 70K miles) and I sold it because of the rust. Maybe if it weren't in salt it wouldn't be a problem, but these cars were definitely prone to rust. I had this problem even though I didn't drive these cars on really bad days in the winter when salt was the worst. Neither of my galvanized '78 and '79's had rust problems, even though I drove them similarly to pretty high mileages. I'm a very conservative driver, but both 3.0 liter cars had to have their transmissions rebuilt at ~ 100k miles. If your car has the original 915 transmission, I would plan on having to do that sometime. I think the 3.0 liter engines just had too much torque for the 915. Be aware that most '74's came equipped from the factory with a very tall 5th gear (it was just after the '73 gas crisis) and lower gear ratios were spaced accordingly. That is a two-edged sword. It gave great gas mileage but compromised performance somewhat. Nevertheless it was great fun to drive. Good luck on the '74 or whatever you end up with.
  5. The previous owner of mine had a new top put on that doesn't fit all that well either. Is there any way to determine the manufacturer on mine?
  6. I just purchased a very nice 1986 Turbo Look Cab with whale tail. :jump: I had a thorough and favorable PPI done by an expert Porsche shop that told me it was pretty rare. I read in one place that only 8 were made that year, but that seems a little hard to believe. Does anyone have an authoritative number? I am interested how many were US and how many were ROW. Also whether the whale tail was standard on Turbo Looks or an option. Thanks
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