Hate to hear news like that. Any idea of how it happened with all the work being done?

Here is a picture of the spark plug. Obviously something got sucked in there and damaged the tip. While every effort was made for this not to happen, unfortunately it did. There was 5 years of tree droppings deposited on the car. It's amazing this is the only cylinder that was damaged.
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Kablamo thanks to an acorn or something. Should be a simple fix (fingers crossed) or you can just dump that lemon and sell it to me cheap

"Something got sucked in?" No air filters? WTH? How does this happen? What do you mean by "every effort was made for this not to happen?"

Sorry if my tone is harsh, but dang. This poor beautiful car has been so poorly treated it's heartbreaking.

A velocity stack nut or washer bomb. Given the price, there's plenty of room for fixes.

Remember he had a shop clean the carbs

What are the odds the piston isn't ruined? Or the cyl? Or the head?

Yikes, that's more likely. Shame when someone 'fixes' something and does more harm.

I remember when we finally sold our '77 Malibu Classic Wagon after owning it for 30 years to a kid. He had a shop "give it a tune up" and it burned up w/in a week.

I have dropped my fair share of washers etc over the years down intakes.. Somewhere someone didn't do a count when it was time to put back together.. It happens just unfortunate..

Ouch. If that's what happened, doesn't the shop have some liability?

Don't shoot the messenger.
I'm just telling the story.
As far as who is at fault? The PO, the current owner, the mechanic? Who knows. Who cares? Damage done - time to move on. Lesson learned - you can never be too careful.
Dave

Engine out
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Yep, $h1t happens.
Stuff backs out all the time, my brother had some nuts back out and juuuuust miss going into the valvetrain on his 930. I had a carb bolt backout and luckily not get sucked into my 356 intake. For every one that gets down there there are probably 5 that just miss.

Hopefully it's not too bad and only needs a new plug, valve (or two) and maybe a piston.

Damage to the piston.
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With even coverage like that, this engine was run for a very long time. Like thousands of miles.

I'd agree, this has happened over a long period of time.

Whoa not good..

Funny that it went this long,OP must have changed the plug and not worried about it,surely someone would have noticed it running on 5 cylinders...they don't run real nice ,ask me how I know after leaving a lead off one spark plug .
Time to find another piston if the bore isn't .

Did you find a piece of something in there? That looks like extreme detonation damage.

Detonation damage would burn away the edge of the piston / ground strap of the spark plug.

I once repaired a Buick V6 that burned only one piston. Two spark plug wires that were next to each other in the firing order were arcing to each other. I forget what cylinder but with a 1 6 5 4 3 2 firing order, when 6 arcs to 5 , the ignition timing to 5 is way early.

Were all the spark plugs same brand / number? The previous owner may have been feeding it plugs. A different brand would reinforce this.

I've repaired countless engines over many brands, this damage didn't just happen yesterday.

Nothing was found in the cylinder.
All plugs were the same brand.
Replacing the one cylinder, piston and valves on #5.
All other pistons and cylinders okay.
Dave
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Whatever was in the cylinder escaped shortly before tear down or fell out during tear down. Detonation won't cause the ground strap to bend.

Finally got chewed up enough and passed out the exhaust,don't believe it is a recent thing,reason such a cool car got parked up,it must of sounded really horrible running surely.

While the motor is out, painted the engine compartment. I love the look of the fresh Phoenix Red single stage.
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Dave

Can't believe I missed this story when it was originally posted. I just read through it all and am amazed.

Guessing the PO parked it under the tree because of it running on 5 cylinders and didn't wan't to put the effort into fixing it.

Regardless of this "problem", you could invest $10K into this car and would still be a steal of a deal. Extremely jealous of the new owner, a bit sad for the original owner who would love to buy it back, RIP to the previous owner, and very happy to see the car getting another chance at life.

Thanks for sharing this story!

Just to be clear, to those who just tuned in, I'm not the owner of this car. I'm posting the story for a friend I met through the local VW club. If you think this is a deal he recently purchased a 71 911 T from the original owner that was parked in the garage since the '90s. for high 4 figures. It needs paint but, it's all there and very little rust, engine turns and the interior just needs to be cleaned up.

So, you must be wondering how he is so lucky to find bargains like this? He's owns a landscaping company with accounts in several towns. Sometimes the homeowner has the garage door open, or the subject of cars comes up, and before you know it, there's an opportunity to purchase something. I know a mailman that has had luck scoring great items that would otherwise never see the light of day. It's the old "being at the right place at the right time."

Dave

I remember seeing the build threads on this car here. Cool car for sure, glad at least it made it back onto the board.

On a separate but related note, I'm always worried about dropping stuff in the oil tank filler. Anything that goes in there circulates thru the engine first before going into a screen... I know on the 3.6 they replace the oil cooler with a filter, but has anyone ever put a screen on the oil filler neck?

Well, this project has taken a complete 180º turn.
The original plan was to find out the history, which we did through this forum. Thanks all (especially the PO) for all the information regarding this build. Then the plan was to get it sorted mechanically and drive. You can toss that out the window. Since there was a major engine problem which required removal, the project has shifted to "as long as I'm in there I might as well........"

The following has been done while the motor and trans were out:
- Clean and paint engine tin
- Sort out wiring in engine compartment. Re-wrap harness
- Paint engine compartment
- Paint rear trunk

Future projects:
- Install new rubber where needed
- Install engine and trans
- Strip front and rear deck lids
- Fix rust on driver's side fender
- Prep entire body for paint
- Paint entire car.

There is nothing as satisfying as seeing fresh paint, especially Phoenix Red. By the way he is using single stage paint for this project.

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I still am considering that red for my car.. It is a very nice color..

Phoenix red is more orange than red.
Tangerine is more red than orange.

Both colors are awesome on a 914.

Dave

More progress this week:

#5 cylinder repair complete
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Carbs rebuilt and ready to install
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Dave

Engine back in today.

Getting ready to fire up.
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Looking swell. I think the owner is going to really enjoy the car once the power is back.

Now on to the bodywork.

Stripping the rear deck lid.
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This is all coming along very nice. I am happy to see this car coming back to life like this.

Bodywork and prep for painting continues:
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Work continues on prep of body for paint:
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All the flair seams were cracked. Re-fiberglassed to reinforce before painting.
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Oops, found some more rot. Order replacement and will weld in.
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50 degrees today and sunny. Rolled it out to get a better look.
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Windshield out
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You should weld up the warts on the front of this car. They don't look right on a flared car AT ALL.

Carry on.

Paint prep/bodywork continues:
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looks nice; I don't really like the front warts either but just my opinion

Please indicate what you are referring to.

Dave

The side markers are referred to as "warts".

Car is really coming along!

Hmmmm, I will approach the subject with my buddy. My gut feeling is that they will stay but, we will see.

Dave

Lose the warts please! Nobody wants a wart on their face, hence the name for those lights around here. If you have to ask, your gut isn't trustworthy! Would you like some kimchi? A tasty probiotic.
(just poking fun but... )

With all the work he's doing he should get rid of them. They are not on any of the original GT's and they do look off.

Point well taken.

Dave

I think they may have been retained on (some of?) the M471 street cars destined for the US, though. There's a photo of one in Brett Johnson's book, I believe. The light is moved forward and down, as the original location is now part of the flare.

--DD

Rollbar installed.