strange...
I personally know of several carbed 944HC kits in the US that have over 30-40,000 hard miles on them each with no problems. one guy recently upped it to the BCM 966HC kit because the 944HC kit was so rock solid. It's a beast!
You said that the HC piston etc. was all broken up. Did they look into what caused this? Wish/hope they can find the root cause.
[Edited on 28-4-2005 by edwyun]