I was wondering what you guys think of the following situation? Is this something to stay away from? or is this not really a big deal? Does this need repair and how much would that cost?

I went to look at a 911 2.7 liter engine to give my 914 some extra muscle. Some work had already been done on the engine, including a valve job. Looked good at first sight However, both cylinder heads had some internal damage on one chamber each. The cylinders and pistons must have been redone cause they had no damage at all. Cylinders and case looked fine (no pulled studs).

The owner could not give much info on the engine cause he bought it as part of an entire (project) car. The work on the engine had been done by the PO he bought it from.

Back to the heads: it looks like a valve broke off and gouged the combustion chamber. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures. There was some damage that extended near the head gasket area. The gouges are pretty deep but the sealing area seems wide enough to give plenty of remaining flat area to seal. I could not see the valve seats cause the valves were installed. The head were blasted clean and new valves installed suggesting work had indeed been done.

Due to the fact that there was damage on both heads (totally neglected engine?) and that the owner wanted to sell off his project car (what's wrong with it?), I played safe and made a low bid which he didn't accept.

Any advise would be very much appreciated .... Please keep in mind that I'm not an expert at this - you probably figured that out anyway from the above.

Thanks!!!

911 cylinder heads don't come in 'boths' - they come in 'each'. there are 6 individual heads, although i'm guessing that what you're seeing is a PO who's taken a shortcut by removing each bank's set of 3 heads still attached to its cam box.

what i can't tell from your post is whether the valve GUIDES were replaced. if someone just stuffed new valves into worn guides it won't be long before this happens again - a significant amount of 911 cooling occurs by transferring heat from the valve stem into the head - without a really close tolerance fit there, the valves (exhaust, especially) overheat and fail.

damaged heads can be replaced individually, but it seems to me like you have MANY unknowns with this set of parts, which means you could be in the position to get a good deal if you've got the time and money to deal with what you may yet find. the basics of 911 cylinder head buildup can be done by mere mortals but stuff like valvespring installation requires a fair bit of close-tolerance measurement and attention to detail. actual seat, guide, and port work needs to be done by someone who knows what s/he's doing, with all the right precision machine tools. i'd go with Jerry Woods, or whoever Competition Engineering recommends.

were the connecting rod bearings replaced? it makes no sense to have the cylinders off and -not- replace the rod bearings - and probably have the rods reconditioned. 2,7's have hard lives anyway and if there were no pulled studs you may have dodged a bullet on a warped case, but it's always a possibility... for my money, Competition Engineering is the place to go since they have all the tools to surface, align-hone, and re-deck a mag-case 911 block.

'ordinary' 2,7 heads should be plentiful - i'd pull all 6 individual heads and send 'em off, replace what needs it, get good quality valve guides if they need 'em, and go from there. a mildly built 2,7 can be within a few HP of a 3,0 SC engine and it will be significantly lighter. it will -not- be as durable - it's hard to beat a 3,0 on that score...

do you want a headache?

How much is a good set of heads? I wouldn't get it if the price added with new/good used heads is too high.

Getting a bargain on a motor, but not being able to enjoy it isn't worth all the effort you'll go through.

my 2 cents.

If it's any help, I paid 500 bucks for an almost complete
2.7L longblock. By the time I was done going thru it, I had about 4500 bucks into it (DIY) but there were no damaged parts.

I wouldn't mess with damaged heads. The individual heads are fairly easy to come by. The cost is in the rebuilding.......my tab was 800 + from EBS.

if it helps -- EBS doesn't actually -do- anything. they package and resell parts and subcontract services. they're very knowledgeable about what they do and particular about who they sent work to.

cylinder heads go to Dave Capurro at C&C Fuel Injection in Reno... you might get a break going direct - or it could be that EBS gets the good rates because they broker so much volume there. worth checking out anyway.

[lived in Reno, done business direct with both EBS and Dave Capurro, all good guys.]

All good points guys. Thanks for the advice. $500 is what I tried but he didn't want to let it go. I'll try to get some prices from the links you all sent and then decide what to do. Just don't want to be stuck with a piece of junk.
Thanks
Johan

Don't mess with 2.7 liter engines--they're a load of trouble to begin with. Adding damage to the engine makes it more of a situation to run away from. Don't buy an engine you have to rebuild like this--spend a little more for a good used 3.0 liter. You'll enjoy it more and you'll avoid the headaches of the 2.7 catastrophe. In the end, you'll have saved money with a 3.0.

I disagree about the 2.7 engines. I do agree that if the case is shot etc... look elsewhere, but if done right (case savers etc...) they are a fucking blast. I have ridden in two 914-6's with 2.7's and they both had mucho torque and rev'ed to the moon. Do like JP and find one in good shape, thats the trick

Alas, all too true. Send your 2.7L motors to me and I'll dispose of them properly.