Found the Source of the intermix

[Dharn55]

Fond the source of my intermix problem which happened last September. Car sat most of the winter, starting the removal and teardown of the engine two weeks ago, an hour here and an hour there.

Crack in cylinder head at cylinder #1, by the inner exhaust valve. You can readily see it in this picture. I am told this is where they are usually found, either at cylinder #1 or #6, which is essentially the same place in the head casting.

So now I ned a cylinder head and I should be back on the road soon!! :P

[C2951]

Good job! Here's mine:

Edited April 27, 2009 by C2951

[JeTexas]

How many miles did you have on the motor when the intermix began?

[phillipj]

Good to hear you found the problem.

Keep us posted :D

[Dharn55]

I had just over 50,000 miles on mine when the intermix was discovered. I am talking with two machine shops that have experience with these cracks. With one I did not even have to describe the crack, as soon as I tild him I had a cracked head he told me exactly where it was (#1, at the inner exhaust valve sprng seat extending down the sparkplug bore) and said he has fixed many of them, cost $500-$600 including a valve job.

A new head list for $2,695, Susnet sells for $2,294, but they are in Germany, so a month away unless you want to pay a 20% permium to Porsche for expedited shipping (why should they stock parts locally when we all know how rare failures are :lol:

There are a few used ones out there, but 1-3 heads are harder to find (fail more often than 4-6) and are going for $1,000+ it seems, with no real warranty.

[phillipj]

Pardon my ignorance but looking at the crack it seems difficult to fix. How would a machine shop do this??

[Loren]

Pardon my ignorance but looking at the crack it seems difficult to fix. How would a machine shop do this??

I think he said they are replacing the cylinder head.

[geoff]

In case you haven't seen it, take a look at http://www.986fix.com/ to see how one guy fixed his cracked cylinder head

[Dharn55]

Actually I am debating between a new head, a used head or the repair of thie cracked head. The masnine shop I talked to in Costa Mesa is the one familiar with these cracke and they say they have repaired many. It seems like it would be hard to do, but they say they have a way to do it.