Hi all,

Well here’s the deal. I bought a 1976 Porsche 911S Targa from a girl who's father passed away recently. It was a long range sale so I had a local shop (from her location) inspect the car. Well everything checked out good (little oil leaks) and shipped the car to CA for a total cost of roughly $10,000.

After having the car for a few weeks the shifting was EXTREMELY ROUGH! No big deal, It ended up being the shift couplings and was fixed at a very reasonable price.

Now the big problems starts, two weeks after getting the gears working properly the Porsche begins to smoke on the inside!! At first when I researched it most were saying it was the "oil return tubes" and that oil was leaking on the heater core causing it to come inside the interior. I took the Porsche to my mechanic and he said it was caused by the leaking on the engine, the Valves/gaskets were replaced and a few minor oil adjustments and it was no longer leaking any oil or smoking inside the vehicle.

Now a day later I drove the car approx 40 miles (round trip) and by the time I got home my engine was smoking! Not a very dark smoke, but more like steam, or very white smoke. It began to misfire (popping noises) while idling. Also, about a mile out from my house it began to bog down when I ever so slightly put in the gas pedal. (like it had no power) - Fuel system?

I have become very stressed and frustrated with this Porsche, I feel like I'm dumping money into it and getting NO results. Every time something is fixed another problem begins. The Porsche idles @ 1000 rpm's when you first start it up, and after driving for awhile it progressively idles @ 2000 rpm's and misfires, and has the white smoke. Does anyone know what's going on with my 911?

This is my first 911 and to be honestly I don't have much experience fixing or working on this car. I own a 944 and have never had any serious issues with it for 7 years! Please if anyone can tell me why it's acting up after being driven for a short period of time I would appreciate it. By the way, after first starting the car it can idle for 30 minutes, REVING UP, whatever and NOTHING goes wrong. No smoking, backfiring, or high idling. Please help!?

 

Ok, you can't buy a car that is 30 years old, and expect it to be perfect....especially not a 10k 911. This is never going to be a car you just get in an drive, unless you do some major work to it and get it in top notch shape.

I take it the white smoke is coming out of the exhaust? I would first pull and check all your plugs, cap and rotor. Sounds like one of them might be suspect. If those are all good, then I would do a leakdown and compression test on the engine and see what those results are. That will tell you a lot about the condition of the engine. These engines are pretty easy to work on, the basics still apply.