Hi TJ I'm sure another listee with a BenT for 911s will comment... Aircooled 911 engines were simple enough, and I'm not by any means saying all or even most are at all bad! I love 911s myself, though I've never had the opportunity to drive one. Certainly you hear again and again that the 911 is the world's best and most practical sportscar... though I bet the Honda NSX is better in most regards, looked at objectively, with no bias. I have heard from more than one source that the 2.7 was troublesome. This doesn't mean that every example will give trouble, but the possibility is always there... generally 911s have an excellent (unofficial) reliability record. Of course, the old Honda CB450 Twin get a horrible reputation for unreliability, based on ONE batch fitted with with unhardened crankpins... but this was utterly undeserved (I regularly took mine to over 14000rpm, and mine was OLD (1971) and thrashed when I got it, and it never missed a beat). So I'm willing to be convinced that 911s were NEVER unreliable! No real bias here. And the 915 and later trans are great, I believe... hence my purchase of a 930 Turbo G50 for my SVX conversion. I have real trouble imagining a stock 2.7 doing a sub14 quarter... you sure it was stock? Personally, I'd go for a 3.0 if I could afford one... a bigger (later) car would be beyond my dreams. For a VW conversion, certainly tn aircooled 911 is the way to go for an older van (Split or Bay). Any Vanagon would be better off with a watercooled; the aircooled Vanagons are easy to fit a water cooling sysytem into, as they were designed for it from the start. The 3.3 Subaru SVX production stopped at 24000 cars, 14000 of which were sold in USA (despite some US websites saying 14000 were made). So they are pretty exclusive. A lot of engines come into this country from wrecks in Japan... used for jetboat racing and light aircraft. -- Andrew Grebneff 165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand <andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz> Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut Friends don't let friends do Windows |
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