I'm rethinking my 914 fetish. I got this hankerin' fer an air cooled engine.
First I looked at VWs but they're too tin-can-ish. The 914 seemed like a
good compromise between fun & economy but I think I want to push the fun
frontier a little more. I still want a car that's relatively reliable &
economical so I've been looking at late 80s - early 90s 911 targas. Here's a
great example: http://tinyurl.com/mmzq7 Any thoughts? Any informative
websites to help with my 911 education in terms of models, features, years?
Thanks.

"solarsell" <no@none.com> wrote

rennlist.com

FloydR

You're in the right neighborhood...but you want to choose from 1987-89.
These cars have an upgraded, hydraulic assisted clutch/transmission,
improved A/C, and numerous other detail upgrades.

On any preowned Porsche...have a comprehensive pre-purchase inspection...as
it can save you thousands in repairs. It's better to pay a little more up
front than buy a "money pit". The only semi-chronic problem some of the
'84-89 cars had were exhaust valve guides that wore out early. However,
this was not on every car, and it's easily determined by a good inspection,
compression check, etc.

Oh...you do NOT want an '89 Carrera 4....or any 90-92 cars. They had other
problems. You'd want to skip up to '96-98...and some of those are still
pricey.

Good luck and regards from Texas...

"solarsell" <no@none.com> wrote in message news:PUPVg.274$HP.155@trndny08...

Guru wrote:

Buy the latest that you can afford, no?


Sound advice.


But not all of them had the major head leakage problem. Because of this
knock on them, many solid cars can be had very cheaply in this year
range (90-91). Just make sure the other fixes were done (flywheel,
distributer vent, etc). Incidentally, I was not aware that these issues
extended to the 89 C4.

You'd want to skip up to '96-98...and some of those are still

IMO, you can go 92/93 and up and be just fine. The 95 only had an
alignment issue which is easily handled. OBD-I allows it to be chipped
with ease to match the increased power of the 96.


Regards from Seattle. - DS

solarsell wrote:

As a follow up on the 964, here is part of my email with a fellow P-car
enthusiast:


---
....the 964. I almost bought one before I bought the 993. The 89 was
the first of the C4 line, while the C2 was the old body style for that
year. In 90, the new 964 C2 was introduced without head gaskets on the
3.6l engine. The engine ran slightly hotter than predicted, so the
heads would warp a little and cause oil to seep and leak. This problem
was fixed in 1991 and a dealer procedure was in place for any cars
exhibiting this warping. Not all cars were affected, but all were
susceptible. I think it was an owners choice to have the procedure done.
The reasoning (then) was that if was not manifesting itself after
several tens of thousands of miles, the chances of it happening were
slim, but it does still happen [which means that it needed to be done!].
So, the trick is, ask. If it had been fixed, then it is not an issue.
If it has not been fixed, it may manifest itself, or it may not, but
it should drop the price accordingly.

The dual-mass flywheel was another major problem. This only affected
the 1990 cars. If the original faulty DMF was left, this may manifest
clutch problems, but it is the flywheel that caused it. The fix was to
fit the C4s with the DMF from the Turbo and use LUK as the new supplier
for the C2 cars.

The dual-distributer system was produced without a vent to exhaust the
ozone created by the spark and this would rapidly deteriorate the
synthetic rubber belt that kept the distributors in sync. Bad stuff if
it broke! [and a very easy fix]

So, if these fixes were done, then these cars are great! Like I had
mentioned, the knock on them means that awesome deals are out there for
folks wanting a newer 911 cheap.

---

So, really, the bulk of these issues only covers the 1990 cars. And
there is no issue if the fixes were done and documented.

DS
95 993 Coupe