reliability of 1990-94 911?

hmm, after reading in the news group some I think I find the answer to my questions. what a shame, too bad. the 911 that I was looking at was a

--cut-- > Oh...you do NOT want an '89 Carrera 4....or any 90-92 cars. They had other problems.

But not all of them had the major head leakage problem. Because of this knock on them, many solid cars can be had very cheaply in this year range (90-91). Just make sure the other fixes were done (flywheel, distributer vent, etc). Incidentally, I was not aware that these issues extended to the 89 C4.

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Then you missed the continuation of that thread which clearly states that the problem was fixed in 1991.

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The 89 was the first of the C4 line, while the C2 was the old body style for that year. In 90, the new 964 C2 was introduced without head gaskets on the 3.6l engine. The engine ran slightly hotter than predicted, so the heads would warp a little and cause oil to seep and leak. This problem was ***fixed in 1991*** and a dealer procedure was in place for any cars exhibiting this warping. Not all cars were affected, but all were susceptible. I think it was an owners choice to have the procedure done. The reasoning (then) was that if was not manifesting itself after several tens of thousands of miles, the chances of it happening were slim, but it does still happen [which means that it needed to be done!]. So, the trick is, ask. If it had been fixed, then it is not an issue. If it has not been fixed, it may manifest itself, or it may not, but it should drop the price accordingly.

The dual-mass flywheel was another major problem. This only affected the 1990 cars. If the original faulty DMF was left, this may manifest clutch problems, but it is the flywheel that caused it. The fix was to fit the C4s with the DMF from the Turbo and use LUK as the new supplier for the C2 cars.

The dual-distributer system was produced without a vent to exhaust the ozone created by the spark and this would rapidly deteriorate the synthetic rubber belt that kept the distributors in sync. Bad stuff if it broke! [and a very easy fix]

So, if these fixes were done, then these cars are great! Like I had mentioned, the knock on them means that awesome deals are out there for folks wanting a newer 911 cheap.

outstanding info! thank you very much. I'm going to pull the plug on this baby this weekend. now,, to find a good radar detector :) I really didn't have a need for one in my Ghia's .