Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91834 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review

Customer Reviews

Excellent!!
This book is one of the most impressive productions I've seen in a long time. The care and precision taken with the photos is simply amazing. The writing is very logical, and is easily digestible even for a guy like me who doesn't own a Porsche and has never rebuilt an engine before. The many summaries (eg, parts costs, machine shop costs, must-replace components, etc) and "group photos" of related parts was very informative. I especially liked that Dempsey attached actual prices to the various parts and machine shop tasks, rather than wimping out and saying "prices vary". Of course they vary - but now at least I have a ballpark idea.

I found a lot of the info to be generally applicable, ie, many of the tips and techniques helped me doing major engine work on a Toyota recently.

The book does an especially good job on explaining common problems, their root causes, and the tradeoffs with the various fixes.

The lengths to which the author goes to keep a pristine work environment are stunning.

My only complaint was that it was a bit sad to learn that a)the cost to rebuilt the typical 911 engine is $8k, and (even worse), apparently that only goes down to $6k if you do the labor yourself.

It would be great if the author wrote a similar book for a 3-series BMW. There's probably a larger audience of guys who can justify rebuilding a "practical" car like a 3-series, versus a 911.

An encouragement and guide the weekend mechanic
I have always had the desire to buy and rebuild a 911. However, because of the Porsche mystic of being a high performance sports car I thought the reality of me performing the regular maintenance, not too mention rebuilding, on 1 911 was beyond my capabilities. After reading Mr. Dempsey's 101 Projects for your Porsche 911 I felt confident performing (and now do perform) all the maintenance on my car. I bought Mr. Dempsey's How to Rebuild and Modify Your Porsche 911 Engine 1965-1989 book hoping it would provide me with the same knowledge to take the next step in working on my car. Although I have not rebuilt my engine, Mr. Dempsey does not excellent job in describing the tear-down and rebuilding process which has help me gain a better understanding of how the 911 engine works. Furthermore, Mr. Dempsey's website, www.pelicanparts.com, provides a wealth of information to supplement his two books. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about the 911 engine with a desire to perform more of their own work.

Great detailed info, a lot of opinion, very retentive
Wayne has put out another good how-to book packed with great detail and very specific step-by-step procedures. This book fills in most of the details left out of the other books covering the subject, and adds in a number of the latest updates that should be done.

The down side is this book gives an all or nothing approach, with no allowances for low-cost rebuild appropriate for a low value car, or a partial rebuild for a race motor. The list of parts that must be replaced is excessive and out of line with most engine rebuild books, and even the factory work-shop manuals. His recommendation on machine shops is to go to the most expensive one in the country. The procedures for cleaning are extreme, and time-consuming, and not realistic for a shop interested in making money or an individual without unlimited time. There are also a number of number of recommendations made that are still up for debate in the 911 community.

I have rebuilt a number of 911 engines, and this is a must have book if you are planning to do one yourself, but take some of the recommendations with a grain of salt.