1984 911sc

Hi, all. First of all I have to admit that I really don't know whole lot about Porsches other than my experience with a 62 VW. Hence I am here to ask some questions. I have this opportunity to purchase a 84 911 SC. I need to go look at it but I think the car has been stored for the past several years and the body and interior are in great shape. But the owner's representative, (actually this is an estate sale) says the motor runs great, but the clutch is bad, and it is because of some kind of oil leak from the rear, actually in this case the front(?) of the motor. I putted around and found out that aftermarket clutch is around $300 or so and $1000 for a OEM Porsche clutch. Anyways, my questions are,

1) What do you think is a reasonable market value for a well running 84 911SC in Northern California?
2) Where do you think that oil is leaking from? Do you think it is hard to repair?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

There are a few things that you have to remember when buying a porsche. Oil leaks are generally not good :(

First you have to get things straight, is it a 911sc? which is usually the name given to 911s made between 1978 and 1983. Or is it a 1984 911 with motronic injection? This is pretty easy to find out, a sure fire way is to take a peak under the hood and see what the engine looks like. If you can see the intake manifold (look at ebaymotors for comparison pics) its a 84 with motronic. If there is just a big black box ontop of the engine its a 911SC.

As far as clutches go, I personally wouldn't go with a "cheap" perfromance clutch, but at the same time, I feel ya. OEM clutchs (by sachs I believe) aint exactly cheap. For some quality parts either go to www.pelicanparts.com (http://www.pelicanparts.com) or www.performanceproducts.com (http://www.performanceproducts.com) (the later is a bit on the expensive side).

Now the oil leak part....Have a qualified porsche mechanic look at it, haha. I know thats probably not the answer you are looking for, but when making an investment like an old porsche. Thats the best way to go. It can be something simple like a bad hose, or it can mean that you have to have an entire engine overhaul.

Hope everything goes well for you.

Well any leek on a Porsche isn't good, I had a problem with my 944 ended up rebuilding the engine when all I needed was a new rear seal but it needed it soon anyway. Thankfully my 911 hasn't needed anything as of yet but I may do a complete refresh before the next season starts.

Hi hxgaser, You mentioned a estate sale and that the car has been stored for several years., Well first you need to find out if the engine runs as good as they say, if it does then the clutch may set you back around 500 - 600 without labor, the signature of 911's is usually an oil leak from the oil return tubes, the rubber seal cracks with the lack of use and else resulting in leaks, that is if the that is where the leak coming from, they run around $15.00 each for the OEM non collapsible ones and kinda of difficult to replaced (times 4), or go with option B and install collapsible ones (probably 30-60 each), very easy without removing engine. If you are machanically inclined this is a walk in the park, even the clutch, if not it could end up been expensive. Nevertheless if you buy cheap it could turn out to be a lot of fun. Good luck, RAY...

The leak can be any of the above previous posted replies. More common for people who don't understand the 911 design is to check the oil level incorrectly (as in normal cars with engine stopped) and then overfill with oil. The result is overfilling the oil reservoir will cause excess oil to come out the breather tube and one see white smoke billowing out the exhaust as well as a big mess in the lower part of the engine. the other common leak is for the oil pressure sensor to leak above the top of the engine near the front bulkhead of the 911 engine compartment. That is a 20 dollar part which unfortunately is difficult to replace since it is buried under the intake manifols (most engine rebuilders will routinely replace that part while the engine is out for clutch or other work. Other than a main oil seal leak the other oil leaks for those engines prior to 1989 are confined to warped valve covers, oil return tubes seals, pulled heads from broken studs, bad oil lines , or worst case cracked engine case (big bucks for rebuild)). have a good experienced porsche mechanic check the car out before buying and you should be all right with the best used car deal in the world. The car as is is worth around $12000-$15000 with the issues you described.