Take apart myself or...

[dgagne]

Hi,
Need some advice.
I will be getting my 69 911T engine rebuilt in the near future. It is out of the car. I am wondering what your thoughts on whether or not I should take it apart myself then bring it to the mechanic or just leave it all up to them? I want to learn a bit by taking it apart, just not 100% confident in putting it all back together myself.
Thanks for any insight.
Derek

[89turbocabmike]

Derek, get a copy of Wayne's engine rebuild book and read through it at least a couple of times. I think alot of your trepidation will disappear! You CAN do it yourself, learn alot and know exactly how your engine was rebuilt. After working on mine and understanding the attention to detail required, that I either must do it myself or find a really good mechanic(and gladly pay a premium rate) who will! We're also here to walk you through it! rgds, Michael

[dtw]

It is doable both to tear it down and to reassemble it.

However, if you do decide to have it professionally rebuilt, make sure to consult the mechanic before you disassemble the engine. I know my wrench would not accept an engine in boxes and many are the same way.

[dgagne]

Hi,
Thanks guys!
I have all the books, have been reading them for over a year. This has been a long project with full body restoration which I have also done myself. The engine is the last part before the paint goes on the car!
Well today my curiosity got the best of me. I have stripped it down to the core. All other parts are off. Monday I will call my mechanic and see if he would be ok putting it together if I decide not to put it back together myself.
I will keep you posted!
Thanks,
Derek

[earossi]

Tear down and re-assembly of your T engine is fairly straight forward. I would advise NOT tearing it down and then taking it to a mechanic. Doing it that way, the mechanic will not be able to organize the hardware to assure he's putting it back together correctly; and, taking it apart is a portion of inspecting the motor which will be lost if you take the mechanic a box of parts. And, lastly, unless you are extremely meticulous in bagging and labeling all the parts, your mechanic will waste time trying to figure out what goes where.

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

Do it yourself. Send parts out to be worked on if necessary. Take pictures and make notes. Bag all parts and label them to know where they came from. You will be surprised as to how easy this is! You can re-assemble the parts and know that everything is done correctly. There is nothing like the feeling of having done it yourself! And then there is the bragging that you did the work! Oh, and your spouse will be happy with the money saved!

[mtelliott]

I read the books, had past experience with rebuilding engines, etc. If it wasn't for a friend that had done it, it would have taken me 3 times as long and many more sleepless nights.

I loved every bit of rebuiding, but it was definately labor.

Second the opinion of checking with the mechanic. Might even ask if you can help in the disasembly. Most mechanics won't allow it but you never know. Taking it apart gives you a great sense of how it all works, much more than reading the book. As well, you learn what all the individual parts are for and the basis for their importance.

[earossi]

I agree with MT. I used to live in N. Virginia, and dealt quite a bit with Autothority in Fairfax. When I told them I wanted to do a rebuild myself they provided advice and recommended that setting the cam timing was the only item they would recommend doing. I did the disassembly, had Autothority handle the head work, and had them handle farming out the machine work on the crank, con rods, cams, etc. Then I spend a winter reassembling the motor. Took it in and they set the cams but provided instruction as they did the work. The only mistake I made was incorrectly installing the plug wires in the distributor cap....which is fairly common. Wasn't smart enough to figure it out, so had the car towed into them, and they found the problem in a few minutes (they must deal with a lot of dummies like me!).

And, when I did the job, I did not have a resource like this BB to help me work though issues...........basically used the shop manuals and advice from Autothority. Today, you could post any questionable items on this BB and get good answers.

Go for it.

[aigel]

See, even a guy like Ernie that switches wires on the distributor cap can rebuild a flat six. Sorry, Ernie, I couldn't resist.

Seriously now, if you don't rebuild it yourself, leave it together. I doubt the mechanic will be happy to start with a pile. Much diagnostics can be done during disassembly and every engine builder has their own way to store parts etc. I wouldn't even attempt to talk the engine builder into accepting the engine in boxes.

Just my two cents.

Cheers, George

[Superman]

My mechanic accepts motor parts in boxes. In fact, I took him parts in baggies, carefully labeled according to exactly where on the engine it came from. In some cases, he agreed this information was important (cylinders and pistons, for example need to go back where they came from), but most of those baggies got sliced and dumped into a pile. My point here is that if your mechanic has an appropriate amount of experience with these engines, he will already know what goes where.

I agree with those who are suggesting you rebuild this engine yourself, sending parts out for machining. You perhaps are not aware that you have done the hardest parts already. The most complex parts of the engine are the ones you have already removed. The closer you get to the center of the engine, the less parts there are. When you split the case, you'll see a crankshaft, an intermediate shaft and an oil pump. That's about it. The head banks can come off as a unit (three heads bolted to a cam housing with the cam still in it).

It's a fearful event for many folks, but I would not miss a chance to do it again. Kinda like child birth. I did not want to see one, but now that I have, I'd jump at the chance to see another. No jokes, please.