Tyson Schmidt, master of all things Porsche -- even when he's got to work in a driveway. And in those shoes. 
The Schedule
Tyson got in late on Thursday, but wanted to get the new motor apart to see if we needed specific parts -- so we could get them on Friday. In fact, we did, and circumstances conspired to have us looking for a list of seals, filters and a new clutch after lunchtime on Friday. Who came to our rescue and made sure a truck got the parts to Pelican's location before the end of the day Friday? Wayne of Pelican Parts, of course. He made it look easy. I'm very grateful.
That's my 80-year-old Dad working with Tyson.
On Friday, Tyson pulled the old engine and started transfering pieces over to the new one. The engine had some surprises, unfortunately. We learned there'd been a fire in the engine bay, at some point. Some parts that were damaged we were able to grab from the 964 motor. Some I had to go back to Wayne for.
The new motor is in the car.
Saturday was the big day. The new engine was in and Tyson went through the all the electrical connections. The evidence of fire had us nervous, although the damage was pretty localized. Still, when it came time to crank, the engine would not start. It's the thing you dread when you've shelled out your hard-earned money for an engine from a stranger. But Tyson stayed on task through it all, isolating each piece of what needed to be going on in order to identify the failure.
We found that flames had been drawn into the intake -- they'd melted and distorted the screen on the MAF and covered the sensor itself in black carbon and other gunk. Pelicanite James Shira was at the house for a lot of the work and he graciously spotted me some components from his own Tyson-Schmidt-built 1995 993 motor so everything could keep moving forward. First up was his MAF sensor.
Still, the engine had spark, and also got the initial rush of start-up fuel, but then the signal to the injectors was simply not there. Next up, the DME itself from James' car...
Now, it was Sunday by the time we had the new DME in hand, and Tyson's fiance had been very graciously making do without her man for longer than anyone had expected at this point. She was a trooper throughout, and the payoff came early Sunday when James' DME went in, and -
VROOM!
We had a lift-off. Fire problems and some missing pieces and a bad DME notwithstanding, the engine fired up without smoke, ran quiet as a kitten once the oil had pressurized the hydraulic valve adjusters. 200 miles later, I'm still grinning from ear to ear whenever I'm sitting in the car. (It's like falling in love all over again.)
Running! The make-shift exhaust is simply the 993 cat -- and some tips from the hardware store.
This has been a Pelicanite project from day one, and Ingo Schmitz is currently seeing if he can repair the DOA DME unit. James has been so busy with work that he's let me hold onto the loaner box (thanks, James!).
I've wanted to try a Steve Wong chip for a long time, and he's going to customize one for this car on the dyno when the DME is ready. I have to say that I'm already spoiled, though, since James' DME already has a Steve Wong chip in it. Even without the chip being custom matched, the engine runs great. The lightweight flywheel has already with James' programming. The first thing Tyson noticed was that my taller-than-stock 2nd gear suddenly feels appropriate for the car. With the 964 motor, you had to lug a little when you were coming up to speed in street driving. (My car has a very tall second, stock third, very short fourth and basically a regular fourth as a fifth gear, which keeps the ratios close for track driving).
The only downside has been the after-sale relationship with the seller. He acknowledged that there'd been a fire that he hadn't told me about, refused to do anything about the damage to the MAF sensor that it caused, refused to do anything about the dead-on-arrival DME unit, and didn't do anything about the pieces that he said he was sending but never showed up. I've never had an experience like this through three engines and over a decade of buying parts for my car. I gave him repeated chances to try to address the situation and got nothing in return.
On the plus side, though. I've got an engine that feels very strong, has none of the idling issues that my 'flat five' was having in its final months. And the intangible-but-really-cool part of it was getting to be there to see Tyson do his thing with no lift, sparse tools and a complete map to several overlapping generations of 911 components all up in his head as he worked. He knows these things inside and out -- and also has a genuine and driving passion for the 911 that you can see in everything he does. It's a blast to watch an artist at work.
I'll post updates as the new chip goes in and then have a complete report from the car's next track day,
September 22nd at Willow Springs.
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