Pulled my engine and found a surprise!, AKA "Dammit!" Options

[Andy]

Pulled the engine and trans out of my project last weekend and found a little surprise waiting for me. FWIW the longitudinals (sp?) have no rust issues, the battery tray was replaced with aluminum some time ago but it doesn't show much damage under that either and it's all factory paint in the engine bay, except...

(IMG:http://www.anschlagen.net/rust/rsuspass.JPG)
Now I'm no Porsche expert, but this looks pretty wrong to me. It looks like it was cut (rust removal?) and slathered in rust inhibitor. I'm guessing it's supposed to look more like the other side.
(IMG:http://www.anschlagen.net/rust/rsusdriv.JPG)

Well, one more item on the project list! Anyone dealt with this? Ideas? Opinions? (Other than I might be smart to part out this car and find another one... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) )

[Dave Bell]

If Mike Z put a scab plate on the rocket and said it worked... I am telling you it worked. That car had Euro 6 with 200+ HP and Mike drove the the tires off that thing for years on the street and track and then sold the car about 4 years ago to a guy that lives about a mile from my house and there is no issue that I know of. I saw a torsion bar break on the car though... a manufactured product that was installed... of course the scab plate might fail some day.. or it may be the scab plate, if put in correctly, is stronger than the original. Believe it or not, that is possible too. I have done some non-factory weld repairs on 914s that I have no doubt are stronger than the factory original set up. It doesn't look as pretty, it may not be as light, but it is stonger, it is not going to fail and it was cheaper and it was faster.

If you have to have the original look and you have the time and money, go for it. If you don't care about factory look, you can come up with something even stronger and cheaper. It ain't rocket science. Perhaps something more than a scab plate and you could build in some additional bracing to the suspension ear that would make it stonger. Or you could do both, go with the factory piece and bracing if that is what will give you the most confidence.

By the way Mike, I saw the rocket about 2 weeks ago. Tom has still has not fixed a fuel pump problem he has had for a numer of months... just a waste watching that car sit around. Hopefully I will get him to 914 run in the next few months and motivate him to get it back on the road. That car is still the most fun 914 car I have ever ridden in ... still love it.

- Dave