Eric's "Budget" 3.0L Build

[detroit]

I found a bit of time over the long weekend to plod away on me engine. I've been wanting to clean up the cylinders, so that's one thing I tackled. I degreased them, blasted all the exteriors with walnut shells, and then went at the bores with red sctotch brite pads. I'm not sure my photos will do them justice, but they look really nice. Now I just have to measure the bores, to make sure they're in spec...

[detroit]

Here's a question for the pros.
I disassembled the fan/ring/alternator assembly.
As you can see from the picture, the top fan blade is broken. I'm not all that concerned about the reduction in cooling, but how sensitive are these things to imbalance? I seriously doubt that the small amount of mass will have a significant effect, but feel I'd be a fool for not at least asking...

[Harpo]

MB911 I believe is the guy that can repair your broken fan

[detroit]

I'd like to give a shout out to Auto Electric International of Southfield, MI - 248 254 2082.
My alternator had a lot of axial play, so I took it up to AEI Thursday to get it rebuilt. I set it on the counter and the guy said matter of factly, "Oh, I think I have one of those on the self." He wandered off, and half a minute later was back with the remanufactured example you see here. I didn't even have to tell him what it was...
$132.50 out the door. Pretty cool.

[jpnovak]

Love local shops like that.

I used to have one long ago. I walked in and he said... "what year 911?"

[detroit]

Well, progress has been slow, but not non-existent. I've got some of the bits such as the fan ring cleaned and stripped of paint/powder coat, so that they may be Cerakoted.

I also tracked down some suppliers for part machining/refurbishing. Craig Garrett will be doing the heads for me, as well as a few other bits. We had a chat the other day. Nice guy. And being in Grand Rapids, I can drop off the parts on my way to the family cottage.

The crank was done by Moldex Crankshaft of Redford, MI.
https://moldexcrankshaft.com/

What a cool place. Joe, the owner, told me they've been there for sixty years. They specialize in making cranks from billet. For anything. He showed me around the small shop. There are no NC machines, just monster war era Monarchs, etc., and cranks of all sizes and configurations in process. As it turns out he even used to build prototype cranks for my old Advanced Engine group at GM...
Anyway, I dropped mine off last week for a mag and polish. Picked it up yesterday. Hundred bucks.

[Emo993]

Nice build, thanks for sharing. Mark

[G450X]

Craig did my heads a few months ago, he did great work. I have an ‘82 SC and sourced early large port SC heads for my pending build. I am using WebCam M1 cams (William Knight suggested) and sent the specs to Craig so he could put in proper springs. He used TRW parts and checks everything that goes in due to some lame “OEM” or factory parts that have popped up recently (rocker arms come to mind).

I am on a budget as well and I have been sourcing parts for several years to ease my “rebuild” pain. I plan on asking John Walker to perform most of the delicate assembly work and to check the critical parts specs since he has a well earned reputation for expertise, quick work, and for being very fair in his pricing.

Good luck with the build. These cars great fun, that’s a beautiful 914, 5 spoke Fuchs complete the “power look” on a 914. I had a ‘76 914 2.0 in the 80’s, great little car.

[detroit]

I wouldn't typically get excited about a box of fasteners, but the Supertec head studs that arrived yesterday represent a pretty significant investment. I was therefore rather delighted when the big brown Oops truck rolled up to the end of my driveway.

Thank you, Henry!

[detroit]

My lava flow like progress continues...
I disassembled the heads over the 4th of July break. Not because Craig Garret, who will be rebuilding them for me, requires it -he doesn't, but because I wanted to see the ports. I figured that they'd have have a sharp edge between the cast ports and the throat cuts. My intent was to smooth out those transitions. To my surprise, however, Porsche did a really nice job blending that transition. I guess you can do that at the relatively low volumes that these cars were produced.
Something else that surprised me were two broken intake springs...
I figure I'm going to replace all the valve springs at this point. Any recommendations? Pelican appears to offer a few variants with a wide range in pricing. I haven't determined a cam grind yet. They will be lumpier than stock, but nothing too racy. Valves will be stock or similar, so valve train mass won't be significantly different to how it rolled off the line.

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by jpnovak

Love local shops like that.

I used to have one long ago. I walked in and he said... "what year 911?"

My friends dad owns a shop like that in SA.

Rebuilt mine for $120 out the door.

All new bearings, custom slip rings, new voltage reg, new hardware, and bead blasted and had it done in a day.

[detroit]

So, apologies to anyone who was hoping to learn something from this thread back when I started it two years ago. I work slowly. And, as it's been a "budget" build I've spread all the purchases out over time, so as not to completely exhaust the bank account.
I now possess most everything required, have been restoring/rebuilding various sub-systems, and over this 4th of July holiday actually commenced reassembly...
Thanks to a few folks who've helped get me this far.
Henry Schmidt, Glenn Yee, and Paul Abbott all have all been gracious enough to provide their time and advice without any guaranty of financial benefit. And then there are the multitude of others who've supplied parts and/or services. It's taken a village...

Some pics of this week's progress...

A local outfit called Moldex magnafluxed and polished the crank for me. Craig Garrett resized the factory rods.

The oil pump was sent to Glenn Yee for rebuilding/porting. He also supplied the gears and timing chains.

[detroit]

A few more pics...

[detroit]

Hmmm... I attached three, but only one showed up...
Methinks they're too big to post.

[detroit]

Okay, I've reduced the file size...

[detroit]

The pistons are Carrillo. I've no idea how people typically install the wrist pin retention rings on them. Those little buggers are stout. I couldn't install them by hand even on the bench. There's no way in hell I'd have accomplished the task in amongst all of the head studs.
After pondering the issue for a spell I turned to Youtube. Thankfully, Mahle produced a video showing how to install their circlips. They're fundamentally the same as Carrillo's though a lighter gauge wire. The guy used a tool which I was able to machine up on the lathe (and mill). It worked awesome, though I had to then create an extension for it as the engine stand's yoke prevented access to the wrist pins from that end...
Making the tool cost a few hours, but it was well worth it.





The circlip installation tool...

[mikedsilva]

nice!

[AcidGypsy]

Good to see you posting progress again! I've been following this post for a while and your progress with it.
As a fellow Detroiter & 3.0L owner, it would be good to have a local resource to ask questions to when I get back into town.

I also have had discussions with Craig on refreshing heads. He seems like a great choice. Is that who you went with?

Looking forward to more updates, keep em' coming.

[detroit]

@AcidGypsy, yes. Craig rebuilt my cylinder heads as well as resizing the rods. I bought the valves and springs from Henry at Supertec, and had them sent straight to Grand Rapids. He did a lovely job.
I sent him the heads with the head studs still installed. I left the studs in the cam boxes and case halves when I sent them out for cleaning also. Everything came back beautifully clean, but all the studs were stripped of their plating. I had been drooling over the pictures of motors that Henry had posted, and thought, 'I can't spend all this money and put it back together looking like that!' So, I pulled every stud on the thing, and sent them all out for plating. It was a beast of a job, but cheap. Replating everything on this engine cost sixty bucks. The results are well worth the effort.

[detroit]

Here's a before, during, and after of the cam boxes...