Midwest machine shop?
 

Hola,

Any suggestions on a reputable machine shop for 911 case work in the Midwest, Wisconsin in particular? I'm planning on rebuilding the engine for my '73 911t this winter and I got a quote from Ollie's, but they are about 4 months out and I was hoping to start sooner. I still may send it to them, but if there is a good option I could drive to from WI that would save on the hassle of shipping it. Thanks in advance for the info!

I haven't found anyone local for case work. For a mag case I'd just ship it to Ollie's. Four months goes by fast and you'll sleep better knowing it was done right.

You could try Eurosport Midwest in Bensenville. They bored out my crank case a couple years ago. But I'm not sure to what extent they go with case work.

I was watching an auction on BaT this morning, a 1970 911T with a 2.7 engine and other mods. It looked like pretty good work. It was done by a place called Joe's Garage in Milwaukee. Several commenters highly recommended them. I have no idea how good they are, but at least that's someone relatively local to you, and if they don't do case work, you can ask them who they use. Another recommendation was Accumoto Motorsport in Madison who built the 2.7 engine in the car.

I have no personal interests, yada, yada...

That may still happen, just wanted to explore all reputable options. I've been chatting with another shop owner that reached out to me from this thread, definitely looks/sounds like they know what they are doing and have a much quicker turnaround time (2 weeks), but looks like they may be more expensive. But as they say...good, fast, and cheap...pick two.

I saw this shop in my research, wasn't sure if they did their machining in house or sent it out, good to hear an account from someone that had them do some machining. I'm going to reach out to them and see what they can do. Thanks!

I watched that BAT auction too, looked like a very nice build! It was good to see a good comp of how mine should end up to see what the market looks like currently. I've also heard good things about Joe's and Accumoto is one of the best in the country with 911 builds. I don't think Accumoto does their machining in-house but I'm going to reach out to them to verify and find out who they use if they outsource. Thanks!

JK, pm sent. Madison WI, Mark

FYI, Accumoto is part of Kelly-moss racing.

JK, just read the post on this engine forum about Craig Garret (Cgarr). In Grand Rapid, sounds like great service and price.

I saw a few posts that indicated he did great head work, wasn't sure about cases/etc. I'll reach out to him to check though, thanks!

Accumoto is done - was absorbed by Kelly-Moss. Kelly-Moss is focused on full builds for street cars. If they have any machining abilities it will be focused on turnkey engines.

Joe's garage is awesome (I was one of the commenters on Ryan's 2.7 auction) but they're only assembling engines as far as I know. No machining capabilities.

Interesting...and too bad, can never have too many options when it comes to good local shops and the bigger they get, the less personal they become. Kelly Moss obviously does great work, but so did Accumoto and it's nice to have options. I did reach out to Kelly Moss a few days ago and haven't heard back...as you alluded to, I'm probably too small of a fish for them to waste time on.

I've heard good things about Joe's too, but I'm going to save the money and build this one myself with the help of a good machinist or two.

As an FYI, it sounds like Don's Machine Shop in Kenosha WI has experience machining our motors. It sounds like they do a lot of 911 head work, but also have experience restoring cases. He said they can't align bore, but said in his experience not many of them need it. He said they send them out to another shop they have a relationship with if they need an align bore though. The gentleman I talked to definitely sounded knowledgeable, I'm likely going to go with them and will report back with my experience.

JK , stop it ! just send your case to Ollies , You want it align bored back to standard - Ollies is the best , and they once told me this , over 30 years and they have received only 3 mag cases that did not need align boring back to standard because of the magnesium being warped . Unfortunately , I think some people don't know enough to appreciate their work .

I definitely know Ollie's has the best reputation when it comes to machining these cases, that's why I contacted them first. But after talking with a lot of different "experts" in building these motors, it sounds like there are a lot of ways to skin the cat. Neil Harvey seems to disagree with Ollie's align bore process, and another member on here I've been chatting with said he has built 100s of Porsche motors and has never had to have an align bore on the mains. I definitely appreciate Ollie's capabilities, just question if I truly need their expertise or if I can keep it local.

Reach out to JP Werks in KC. He's been doing some stuff for the Porsche Classic Center in Atlanta and is REALLY good with cylinder heads.

Thanks! I had never heard of them, just checked out their website and the owner sounds very knowledgeable, cool story. I'm going to give him a call today and get more info. Thanks again!

I saw my name mentioned here. I never find fault with other places as there are many ways to achieve the result.

I did speak to JKarow and I would have suggested to him, it is my opinion that narrowing the cases is never my first choice. We always cut the cases oversize once we know we can obtain the necessary bearing shells. Narrowing the case opens up a lot of other potential issues.

But we have done this narrowing before when we had no choice. If fact we have even cut the main housing a lot larger and inserted an insert that was then cut to the standard size. As I said, there are a lot of ways to achieve the result. I just favor limiting all of the other potential issues whenever possible.

We do this line bore work but not at the volume that Ollies do. We are not a production machine shop. We do all of our machine work inhouse and for those that want a lot quicker turnaround we can accommodate.

Bearings are hard to find as we struggle with this as well. We have found ways around this, re cutting the tang grooves on the opposite side of the main so an earlier shell can be fitted. We are also in the first stages of having main and rod bearings made.

All of this takes time, so in the meantime, go with whatever achieves the result you are looking for.

LN Engineering has greatly expanded their machine shop services https://lnengineering.com/machine-shop-services.html. Never used them myself, but you could give them a call. I believe they're located in Momence, IL.

Hi Neil,

Thanks for chiming in here. I, in no way, intended to infer you were bashing the work Ollie's does, simply, as you stated, was using our discussion as an example that there are more than one opinion on how to true these cases. Ollie's definitely has the best reputation in machining these cases as a production facility, and Neil left me with the opinion that his shop does the most comprehensive work on these motors in a smaller scale fashion. Additionally, I've talked with a number of other machine shops and engine builders related to my build and have heard a number of other opinions on what is needed to build a reliable mag cased motor. I don't necessarily think anyone is right or wrong here, rather there are a number of opinions on what is necessary depending on the goals of the build. My hope is simply to find a shop locally that can help me achieve my goals, but if that isn't achievable Neil or Ollie's will definitely be my choice. Thanks again everyone for their insight here!

-Josh

I reached out to LN and they do not have the capabilities to do all of the work in house at this point (can't align bore or balance yet). For reference for anyone else considering LN, here is what they told me they could currently do...

We currently are not set up to line bore the cases, but we can do the time-serts and decking of the block. It’s in our expansion plan, but we’re not quite there yet.



We can check the crank and polish the journals and can also resize and rebush the rods (with new rod bolts) – that will not be a problem for us.

Our engine balancer just was delivered and we just need time to wire it in and get up to speed on using it, so we will also be able to offer this service shortly.

Our cylinder head shop is up and running and we can offer full cylinder head rebuilds and upgrading, including porting.

I also finally got in touch with Kelly Moss in Fitchburg WI today. It sounds like they still do some individual performance jobs along with their full custom build work, including full machining work. The gentleman I talked to said they could/would do my machining work, most of which they did in house but they also had another local machine shop they worked with to do that was beyond their capabilities. He said his machine work guy actually went to the other local machine shop and did the work along side him and dictated the specs. Their prices seemed competitive and he expected a 3-4 week turnaround depending on what they had going on. Considering their proximity and reputation, Kelly Moss looks to be a good option for those needing case work in the midwest.

I got in touch with JP Werks today, sounds like they have full mag case machining capabilities in house. His prices were very reasonable and he estimated a 3-6 week turnaround time depending on their other projects. He mentioned most, but not all of the cases he trues need an align bore, which he has the capability of completing. He sounded very knowledgeable, definitely looks like another good option in the midwest.

I talked with Midwest Eurosport outside of Chicago today as well, it sounds like they are a full service mag case machine shop as well. Their prices sounded reasonable and it sounds like his current turnaround time is 2 weeks or less. They also rebuild 915 transmissions, gave a rough quote of $2k-2500 in labor and about $1k in parts for the average refresh on a 915 that hadn't experienced further damage. That seems to be the going rate from what I have found, and he said he expected a 10 day turnaround time. Another solid midwest choice it appears!

https://eurosportporsche.com/