One of those days
 

It was raining the other day and I was Bored. What better than to adjust the valves on the Porsche. This had not been done for approx 12 months so this was a good opportunity. But it soon turned to well almost disaster. Look whatwas found after the first exhaust valve cover was removed. A bl**dy broken head stud:(http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298539455.jpg
There is no other option here that to drop the engine and replace this/all studs. By the way this is a wide body turbo look alike 911 in Australia with 151000 km on the clock. I suspect the valves guides are also shot as oil consumption is about 1 litre per 1600 km. And there is some blue smoke on start up and when you pull up at a traffic light
Lets see what we discover

Ian,
First, welcome to Pelican SmileWavy
You will find a lot of help here.
Sorry your first simple Pelican project turns into something so major.

Search Pelican and you will find a lot of info and support for easy recovering from this “almost disaster”.
Think positive as a good excuse to bring the ’87 M491 back closer to new.
This might also be an opportunity to upgrade the A/C.


Then you can address the wind noise. :D

Again, WELCOME.
Pictures please.

Best,
Grady

Wellll, you at least dont have a long piece on the cap nut...
Bruce

Grady, Bruce.
Thanks for those replies. I have already update the air con, by installing a huge condenser in the rear whale tail and installing a modern evaporator and compressor. On a hot day here in Australia of 38-40 degrees C it is a pleasure to drive this 911.

This weekend I intend to drop the motor. I will document as I go and see what I am up for. Attached is a couple of photos

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298589875.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298589978.jpg

And looking good..
Bruce

one of those days now an engine drop
 

Well this weekend I am preparing to drop the engine on my 911 re the broken head stud. I have had my apprentice machinists/boilermakers produce 3 specialist tools, namely my version of the engine holding fixture to mount to a conventional engine stand, a lifting bar to literally lift the rear of the car up after the engine is dropped using an engine crane, and the Zed block for adjusting cam timing. The young lads did a fantastic job on these tools. The engine holding fixture I have never used before, along with the Zed block, but I am confident they will be fine. The lifting bar I have used before, and it works great and saves some time. I have attached a photo of these 3 devices. And I have just thought of another tool they have made which is the clutch aligning tool. I forgot about this one but it is in my garage somewhere.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298701014.jpg

Ian,
Thats weird almost exactly the same thing happened to me 3 weeks ago except for the rain. Dropped the lower valve covers to discover #4 rear most stub sheared. Dropped the motor replaced the studs and re-assembled. Just back from a short run this morning with wife and youngest daughter squished into the back to a nice little fresh produce market and she is running beautifully. Good luck with the project and those boys did a nice job of those tools;)

one of those days, now the engine drop
 

Sunday I dropped the engine out of my Porsche. Total time taken was 5 hours to have the motor/gearbox sitting on a pallet trolley. And all completed single handedly. The thing I did notice was the amount of oil present at number 2 &3 inlet valves once I had removed the intake manifolds. All other inlets looked dry, but is this a sign of worn valve guides? Given the mileage of 151,000km I suspect to find the valve guides are shot.
And the other thing I have discovered is it looks like I have the dreaded Alusil cylinders. Note this is only by counting the number of cooling fins on the cylinders. As I strip it down further this should become more evident

one of those days engine strip down
 

Started dismantling all engine components over the last week and this weekend.
All up the hours to date are 31 hours. During the last 7 days 26 hours were spent to get to the long block.
Included in the above is cleaning the heads and some measurement of valve guides/valves. The conclusion is that the guides are past their wear tolerance as I suspectedhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1299401170.jpg

One of those days - split the case or not?
 

I have seen this question come up many times on this forum. Now I am faced with the same issue.
The arguments for include - your 80% of the way anyhow and you can address any other issues you may find.
Arguments against include extra cost.
One other reason for is as I understand it the cylinders and pistons need to be removed such that heat can be applied to the inside spigot where the cylinder is pushed into, to break the seal on the head bolts. To me once the cylinders and pistons are removed this is a great avenue for dirt to enter the lower engine crankcase, so for piece of mind it almost becomes a must. Another reason is I am unsure whether this engine has been apart before. There are no records of this in the files. My suspicions are that it hasn't given the evidence of minor oil leaks from a number of places around the crankcase. These leaks can be fixed by splitting.
Any comments?

once you're down to the case, it's about another hour to get it all apart, and more money for bearings, rod bolts, ramps, chains and whatever else looks tired.

One of those days engine strip down
 

Well the engine is totally stripped now. The intermediate bearings are showing copper, have to be replaced. Have sent the heads to a specialist in Australia to be rebuilt. Cylinders are Alusil as suspected. No wear evident by measurement or ring grooves etc and certainly within tolerance. Piston ring end gap is .026 inch on number one compression ring (limit is .031) and .027 inch on number 2 compression ring (limit .039). I have a real delema here. Do I re-ring and take the chance it works or do I reuse the existing nearly worn out rings. Measurement of main and rod journals show they are all in tolerance and journals look excellent. This car has obviously had regular servicing.
Orders for replacement parts has now been replaced. Now to clean and clean everything as this forum talks about. I am now at 40 hours approx. spent to date, excluding reading documenting etchttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1299885349.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1299885597.jpg

one of those days engine strip down
 

Well I spent all weekend cleaning and cleaning. I am quite happy with the way the crankcase came up, but it was a lot of effort.
Total time so far is now up to 60 hourshttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1299997471.jpg

one of those days parts
 

My initial parts order consisted of cylinder gasket kit, cam line replacements, 993 head studs, and sheet metal hardware.
I now realize I require more items including solid return tubes, chain ramps, flywheel bolts, intermediate shaft bearings, rocker shaft seals, case through bolt o-rings and ARP rod bolts.
These are just items for a basic rebuild. I hope I now have the lot. Is there a list anyone has, excluding items like bearings, pistons, cylinders etc.

Wow! Good job with cleaning your case, Ian. What did you use to do that? Method and cleaner type?

Anyway, yes there are many parts you will need for the successful rebuilding of your engine. Do you have Wayne's book? Wayne's book is very handy, as well as the factory manuals and Bentley.

I am enjoying this thread and look forward to the updates as the job progresses.

Just so you know, I am rebuilding a 1978 3.0L engine right now and have put over 120 hours into just cleaning parts. So, far I am only about 3/4 of the way with that part of it. I am a little over zealous when it comes to cleaning, but I am in no hurry since the 3.0L in the car is still running strong.

Good luck with your project!

+1

Some of your studs look brand new too, almost like they were replated.

Do tell!!!

One of those days engine cleaning
 

Ed and Cory, thank you for the replies. Firstly I have no parts cleaner home made or otherwise and there is not one locally I could find to do cleaning. I tried engine degreasers (useless) carburettor and brake cleaners (OK) petrol (known as gasoline in the states) great for external grease or caked on oil. Finally settled on POR-15 Marine Clean diluted 1:1 with hot water. It is recommended for engines and removes varnish back to bare aluminum with fantastic results. It took 3 goes followed by pressurized tap water and air dry. Machined surfaces I applied high strength paint remover & used a small wood chisel. Then polished the surfaces with 600 grit wet & dry using CRC (a spray lube). The bolts have just been wire brushed and rubbed up with wet and dry. Oil ways are squirted out liberally with Brake/carb cleaner followed by tap water then high air pressure many times.
I am happy with the result. Looks good. The proof will be an oil tight case on close up.

one of those days cleaning
 

Ed, Further to my earlier reply. I am stunned how many hours cleaning you have spent to date. While I am only early into it I fully understand from reading the forum how cleanliness is so important. My project originally started as a snapped head stud. Now it is a full engine strip down. I want my baby back on the road again as quick as possible. I have limited funds but always thought I would track the costs and the hours spent. By the way i still have a lot of cleaning to go while I wait for head repairs parts etc. Do you have any photos of your hours of toil?

Oh no!
Don't track the cost! ;)

Looks like everything is going well.
Interesting thread/pictures and documentation.
Have you decided to re use the Alusils?

I spent about two hours a side on my case. Some, I guess, are easier than others.[http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1300286907.jpg

My rebuild has 5,000 miles on it and it runs perfectly. I wish you the same success and hope you don't mind as I relive it all thru your thread. Great progress so far.

As for the budget, the money will be well spent on your hot-red 911. Thanks for the photos.

one of those days
 

To all you guys that have commented thank you for the comments and support.
To Lindy I have to say your case is a work of art. What cleaning procedure did you use. I am still working on the other half although almost done.
To Bill I am going to re-use the Alusils. I cannot measure any noticeable wear in the cylinders or pistons. The rings however are 80-90% of their wear limit. So what to do. Normally I am not a gambler but I don't have loads of money. SO my decision is to re ring using new Goetz rings and keep the old worn ones. If it all works then I get lucky. If not I have the old ones although they will not go back in the same position although I have documented which piston they belong to. Incidentally the Local Porsche people will sell me genuine rings for Alusil pistons but they are bloody expensive.
And to Ed yes I do have Wayne's book, plus Bentley and I have learnt a lot from the many people who contribute to this Forum.

Hey Ian:

Yeah, I thought you had Wayne's book. I can tell by the beautiful job you are doing. And, you are right about all the wonderful people on this forum whom share their respective experience to help us all get good results. Just when I think I have learned enough, something comes along to remind me how inexperienced I am...such is life.

As far as my high number of hours clocked cleaning, I must admit that since I am in no hurry I am cleaning the parts as they came off the engine. In other words, as I disassembled the engine each piece was then cleaned.

But, I am certainly going to try your methods for cleaning the engine case.

I will post pictures, when I get my camera skills "fixed." LOL

Ian,

Mine were just easy to clean, I got lucky and there was no coked oil staining. One thing I found is that it's easy to obsess with parts cleaning. The goal is to make sure there is nothing that will come off a clean part like grit or dirt. Also, if the part has a mating surface that requires a gasket or sealant, it needs to be perfectly clean of anything other than the metal it's made from.

Details are important but if you have a stained case and you're hell bent on getting the stain off, it's only going to be a cosmetic gain and nothing more. The motor won't run any better because it looks like something out of an ER. I got way too detailed with my cleaning and wasted a lot of time.

Enjoy the build!

Lindyhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1300372584.jpg

one of those days
 

A friend of mine that has an oxy/acetylene set is not available for another week. Why did I require him? To put some heat on the crankcase spigots to break the thread seal on the head studs. Being impatient as I am I though what the heck I will try the stillsons on the broken stud. Guess what it came out with little effort. So I continued on. All studs came out with the stillsons and NO heat. 4 required a little more effort than the others. Sometimes in this world we get lucky eh.
See photo of the old studs and the new 993 studs which have just arrivedhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1300402113.jpg

If you chase the threads in the case be careful and don't use a tap. There are some useful threads about what to do and what not to do.

Lindy

One of those days update
 

All the spare parts are arriving in droves. Still waiting on the ARP rod bolts and head reconditioning before I can start reassembly. In the mean time there is always more cleaning to do. I have sent some of the engine tin to out be powder coated. Black of course.
Regarding engine case sealants I have read all the threads and have made the decision to follow Henry's recommendation. While there are a number of different ones he suggests the one thing he has is experience with many of these engines. That is good enough for me. So I am currently sourcing all these various sealants

One of those days ready for assembly
 

Well I am finally happy with the cleaning of all parts except for the final squirt with brake cleaner, clean wipes and compressed air on actual assembly.
Had the apprentices at work last week make some rod holding tools as per Wayne's book.
I have trial assembled all the rod and main bearings and checked with plastigage. Everything checked out fine.
My recorded hours spent so far now total 82.5 hours.
Now I am ready to assemble all the rods to the crank using new ARP rod bolts.
The birth of a new engine begins!

Ian great news. I also had in excess of 80 hrs in cleaning and prep work for my rebuild. It is an exciting and informative process which you will enjoy I am sure. I had a few wobbles during mine but if you take it slow and follow Waynes book you should have no issues. The area I found the trickiest was cam timing but there are a bunch of great threads on that one. Enjoy cant wait the see the rebuild pictures....

One of those days Alusil reringing
 

In one of my early posts I stated the rings were near their wear limit. What do I do? I have read all about re ringing Alusils and am now going to attempt it.
With my cylinders I have tried using Mothers mag wheel cleaner and polish along with grey scotchbrite on the first cylinder. I used the scotchbrite by hand with several cross hatch strokes both ways across the cylinder wall to replicate what a hone would produce. Then washed the cylinder in hot soapy water, several times dried with Kim wipes and air. When no more residue came on the Kim wipes I was happy that all the old lube/particles had been removed from the cylinder wall. This convinced me to move onto the remaining 5 cylinders. I will use the Goetz rings, although the local Australian Porsche experts told me they could source rings for Alusils for the price of $642.00 (too dear for me). Only time will tell whether you can successfully rering by this method.

One of those days Heads
 

Got the reconditioned heads back last night. Boy they look like a work of art, cleaned with new guides etc.Now they just have to be assembled. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1302131059.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1302131092.jpg

One of those days head assembly
 

Assembled all the heads this weekend, well almost until I either lost a valve stem seal or I didn't receive the full set. All came up good. I valve still to go.
The other thing I noticed in checking my reuse parts is that one of the oil pressure relieve valve springs is about 4-5 mm too short. I don't know how critical this is, I believe that it just means that oil is dumped into the crankcase rather than go through the oil galleries at a lower pressure.
Next step is to fir all the rods to the crank using my new ARP rod bolts.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1302478913.jpg

The spring that goes in the bottom should be around 86mm Do you have one about that long?

One of those days
 

Craig, I don't have a spring that long. I have to order 1 more valve stem seal that I seemed to have misplaced, so I will order a new spring at the same time.

One of those days
 

With Easter coming up along with ANZAC day and Picnic day, plus my wife is working over this period, I now have an ambitious plan to assemble the complete engine and have it installed back in the car by the end of April 28th.
This all assumes that I havent misplaced any other parts or nothing else untoward shows up. This time should allow replaing the oil pressure relief spring plus another valve guide seal. I have all the case sealing components (using Henry's much publicised method) plus all the other spare parts that I require.
I know this is a tall order but you have to have a goal to work to.

one of those days update
 

I have now assembled all the rods to the crank complete with ARP rod bolts and stretched to spec. Installed the oil pump into the case with new intermediate bearings, installed all main bearings complete with Moly lube and closed up the case. All in all I was happy how the case closing worked at my first attempt. I did not appear to have too little or too much adhesive or squeeze out on the surfaces. I guess time will tell weather it leaks.

Total time now spent is up to 92 hours. Over easter i will install the pistons, cylinders, heads etc and it will start to look like a new engine.

one of those days assembly
 

During the week assembled the first 3 pistons,cylinders and heads to the block. On track at this stage to meet my goal barring any stuff ups.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1303372050.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1303372158.jpg

Looking good. Soon you'll be timing the cam which is a truly momentous point in the build. Keep after it.

Hey, that's Wakefield!

You:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298589978.jpg

Me:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1247986914.jpg

Hope your day ended better than this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1247987272.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1247987320.jpg

Good luck on the rebuild. I found using PR Tech for machinework VERY expensive but Rich and guys are very precise. Do not use Wynn's, the heads they rebuilt for me had to be re-built.

Good luck!

One of those days engine assembly update
 

I've made good progress over Easter and at 5:00 p.m. Sunday night the assembly now consists of all pistons, cylinders, and heads installed. The rocker arms, shafts complete with seals ( bit of a fiddly job) cams, sprockets and cam covers are all installed. I have just finished timing cylinder number 1 to 1.25mm see photo attached. Number 4 to do tomorrow and then complete the rest of the engine.
Total hours to date is 124.5 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1303628565.jpg