I retightened all the heat exchanger bolts, and I still have that exhaust leak. It seems to come from drivers side, and I could feel hot air blowing from the heat exchanger. I am wondering if one of the heat exchanger headers broke from the motor resting on it at some point?? This is a long week-end, so I am thinking about removing that passenger side heat exchanger to take a closer look at it.

Aurel

You guys were spot on: you can see on the picture below where my clapping sound was coming from. Now, I need to figure out why that happened, and how to fix the issue...the bolts were tight, but maybe surfaces were not flat enough.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211737217.jpg

Aurel

Hmm, you had your heads done, correct? I'd of thought they'd check the surfaces, but maybe not. The only thing I can think of, if there is an issue with mating surfaces, and the nuts were tight, is maybe double up on the gaskets? I'm sure someone with better ideas will pipe in on this.

Problem solved. It was the heat exchanger flanges that were not flat. A flat file took care of it, no more exhaust leak.

Before:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211754118.jpg
The fix:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211754150.jpg

Aurel

Nice job...!
But why have they become warped?? Any idea?
-wierd...:confused:

30 years of heat cycling and corrosion, I suppose...

Aurel

Aurel, glad to hear it worked out! I'm sure once I start putting stuff back together I'm going to be running into little mishaps. :eek: Nice video BTW!

How does it sound now? For some unknown reason, the warm start problem has gone away, but I am still going to replace the fuel accumulator and the fuel filter that I already ordered.
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7UaBcW7r67s&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7UaBcW7r67s&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Aurel

Much better!

Thanks Ed,

What did you end up doing about your cam tower leak?

Regards,

Aurel

Sound's nice and smooth, congrats!!

I've not touched it yet...it really is minimal, but it is there none-the-less. I'll probably pull her later this year, maybe around Christmas time. I'm too busy learning the twisties here in California.

Sounds excactly like I remember mine did before..!
Enjoy!

Aurel
What little tips can you pass along for the benefit of the non professional engine builder? Sounded good.

Well, I hope it will keep sounding good for a long time, and also push strong ;).

Some advice that comes to mind:

-Take your time, enjoy the process and the learning experience.

-Use this board, and the search feature. 95% of the time, someone has run into the exact same problem you have.

-Take plenty of pictures, especially all angles of your motor before you start unbolting things (CIS in particular).

-I should have used heat to remove my piston wrist pins, they are a little tight sometimes.

-Get the right tools, they make your life so much easier. Two that I found very useful were the carfstman bolt extractor kit that I used on my headstuds, and the 13 mm articulated socket for the heat exchanger bolts.

-Use powder coating instead of HT paint on your sheet metal. I just discovered my HT paint gets dissolved by fuel :(.

Aurel

First driving impressions
 

I took her for a 20 miles drive this morning, half highway, half small roads. The outside temps were very hot, ~ 95F. The motor temperature went barely over the mid-mark, oil pressure was fine, engine sound good, idles well, restarts well when hot now. No smoke too, which is a big relief as I rerung alusil cylinders, and it looks like the rings are sitting properly.

The low rpm torque is good. My only concern is that the engine is less happy revving than before. It does not feel like it wants to jump to 6k rpm as it it used to. I did set my cams (DC15) at 2.0 mm, that is the most advanced of the range (1.8-2.0 mm). It almost feels like I would never hit the rev limiter with that setup. That is a bit more boring that I wanted...I wonder if playing with ignition advance and waiting for the motor to totally break-in will make a difference. Otherwise, I may have to retime my cams at some point...

I just have one question for the experts: Is there an easy way to predict how many rpms the max power band is shifted if I retarded my cams to 1.8 mm instead of my current 2.0 mm setting ? Would the difference be noticeable?

Aurel

I experimented a little more with ignition timing tonight. At 0 deg, the car is a dog, wrong direction. So I went a little past 5 deg, maybe 7-8 deg, and it seems to really pick up more rpms. The cam timing is probably OK, but the ignition needs to be a little more advanced than factory. How far can I go is the question. I`ll leave it as i for now. I haven`t measured the timing at 6000 rpms, I think 35 degs is the max allowable.

Aurel

:) Nice thread bud.

Thanks :)!

I`ll try to update every once in a while on how the motor breaks in, then how long the alusils last...
I get a little puff of smoke at startup, but it clears out immediately. Its a Porsche! I am still using 10W30 for the break in (flows so much better!) but I will switch to 20W50 for my fourth oil change.

I took her to work yesterday, 60 miles round trip with some idling in traffic. No problems!
She stays much cooler than she used to. I still need to check my total advance at 6000 rpms. John says 32-34 deg BTDC should be good. Right now, I can tell the motor is not giving all it could.

The rebuilt gearbox is also a joy to use, no more noises, 1st and 2nd engage without giving a fight. Third is a little hard to engage, but it`ll break in. In the interim, a little throttle blip in neutral works great.

Aurel

Car is still running good!
I`ve uploaded all the pictures taken during my rebuild in google Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ad8588975/30LRebuild

Aurel

I got a gas leak on the 3 inch hose bewteen the gas tank and the fuel pump. Probably caused by clamping the 30 year old hose when I replaced the fuel pump. No big deal to replace, but I hate that gas smell in the cabin.

Aurel

It doesn't take much of a leak to make you notice - even a little wet spot will do it. However, it's fortunate it has an odor, like natural gas for your home. If it was odorless, we'd be in a world of potential hurt.

Sherwood

Here is an update: slowly, the motor started to develop a pop pop noise at acceleration, and it felt like a cylinder was not working well. At 1,000 miles miles, I retorqued the heads and readjusted the valves. One of the intake valves on passenger side was very loose, and the heads nuts were not very tight everywhere. Now, the sound is gone, and the motor run great again. I feel releived !

Aurel

Why were your head nuts so loose? I've always been under the impression that when most guys go in to check head nut torque after a build, that there's been nothing to be done, for the most part.

How pleased are you now ?
 

Aurel,
I recently read through the entire story of your re-build, congratulations !
While it sounds like it took longer than you initially planned, can you estimate how many hours it may have taken ?
How close to your original budget did you come ?
How satisfied with the results are you now ?
I'm considering something similar with an 82 SC and would be very interested in your thoughts now that it's complete.
Thanks & Enjoy your ride !
Mster

Hi Mster,

I had not added the costs yet, so here we go:

Tools $264.35
Stand $40
Gearbox work $2,567
Heads work $1,310
ATV cart $60
PP#1 $1,057
PP#2 $586
PP#3 $338.55
PP#4 $219.10
PP#5 $94
Total $6,535.80

Clearly, only the top-end work would have cost ~ $4k, but the gearbox rebuild was a big chunk.
By doing the work myself, I got both done. A pro would have charged that much for just the top-end.

As far as time, I did not keep track of it. A rough estimate would be 5h/week on average for 24 weeks ~ 120h maybe...

I am quite happy with the result, although I have a few leaks and still need to have the mixture adjusted to pass emissions.

Aurel

Update: I replaced the pressure fuel line, which was leaking just after the fuel pump. What a transformation! The car starts immediately, the motor has more power and uses less gas. It looks like I will get 400 miles on the gas tank this time.
I suspect I did not have enough fuel pressure in the CIS before that. I also backdated the heat and rebuilt the pedal cluster. Replaced rear sway bar drop links; I can feel the difference in handling too. My next project is to try a cat bypass...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1223983290.jpg
Aurel

Great looking motor! I'll be referring to this thread when my 2.0T...

Peter

Update: I`ve added 1 quart of oil at 113,550 miles. My last oil change was at ~ 111,300, so I consumed ~1 qt/2250 miles. Not bad, eh!

Virtual dyno results
 

Update: I used the accelerometer in my ipod touch and the app dynolicious to measure my hp output during acceleration. With a weight of 2760# and a drivetrain loss of 15%, it says 202 hp :).

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1230911507.jpg

Sweet! Cool to see a graph of that app!

So are you getting 0-60 in 8.2 seconds or were you not going WOT?

Excellent results!

I noticed something "new" on your oil filter...what is that a magnet?

I slipped the clutch during launch in 1st gear, which cost me ~2s on the run. My best run was 0-60 in 7.58s, but the hp numbers came lower. With some practice, I hope to get in high 6s for 0-60. Need to find an empty road for that ;).

That is a cool collar, not really needed anymore, but it cannot hurt. A magnet to catch metal particles is a good idea too...

Saw your other thread too. I may have to get the iPod Touch. Really cool app!

This thread made my night!

Great job!

Aurel - I was hoping for an update on your motor, not sure if you have run the car this winter yet or not. I am planning to do a top-end this fall ('09) and am also hoping to re-ring my alusils. I know that on this board re-ringing alusils is as controversial as religion and politics, so really don't want to go there.

Can you give us an update on number of miles on the rebuild, and your current compression and oil consumption? You indicated that you prepped the cylinders with scotchbrite/hone. Can you provide a little more detail on the cylinder prep/cleaning process?

I have seen a number of people indicated that they have successfully re-ringed alusils (and many unsuccessful). The common thread seems to be cleaning with scotchbrite only - no abrasive pastes, no grape or stone hones. The only thing is the threads die after the rebuild and I have seen very little longer-term assessments.

Thanks.

Greg,

I now have ~4,400 miles on the rebuild. I`ve added one quart of oil since the last oil change 3,400 miles ago. The car does not smoke, I have not checked compression but it feels all right. I have driven it a bit this winter, and I will install a cat bypass this week-end.

The cylinders were prepared by cleaning with brake cleaner, then honing with scotch brite pads on a flexible hone spinning slowly for ~1minute with large up and down motions. No abrasive paste was used. Then I cleaned again with brake cleaner and installed Goetze rings. So far, so good :).

Aurel,

Thanks for the update. Your low oil consumption is amazing, I am around 500 miles/qt. I think you nailed the correct alusil re-ring procedure. I am still months away from my rebuild, so I hope you don't mind if I check back for a further update. Thanks again.

wow nice story to read!.....