Fingers crossed! *NM*

The long and winding road that goes back to my engine dying on my '01 base two years ago may be coming to an end.

My independent mechanic informs me (I'm not a tech guy, as you'll see) that, I believe, a shaft on one of the valves snapped, sending the valve down into the cylinder where, not suprisingly, all hell broke loose and the engine froze. as I was driving. He showed me the pieces inside the cylinder.

The repair, he said, is not worth the money. However, after shopping around the area and looking at several unsatisfactory engines, he found one with 80K on it for $4,500 that he really likes. The plan is that he will take that engine and give it a final check -- any vulnerable parts on the engine that are better on my original engine will get swapped into the new engine, and he'll replace the clutch as long as the engine is out of the car (I have about 100K on my current clutch). The whole deal, he says, should not cost me more than $6,500.

This is something of a gamble, but I think it's worth it, as does my wife, so I'm going ahead. I've been dealing with this guy (Euro Imports in Arlington, Va.) on one or both of our cars for years and he's a solid, very professional guy, does uniformly excellent work, which he stands behind.

I really hope this works out. As some of you know, I've been whining about not having this car for a long time and really miss it.

At the same time, Mark Focke, John Eberhardt and several others have been quite generous in advice in board messages and private emails, so really, thanks for your help.

I hope that within a few weeks I can leave what will have become a temporary lurker status and go back to being a full member.

I can't remember, does anyone have any thoughts on what sort of watch a Porsche driver should wear?