The Beautiful Puzzle: 1987 3.3L 930 EFI Build

[CaptainCalf]

New sprockets are in so I should have those HIGH lift Super Cup cams timed by next week

[PFM]

Capt,

Were the old idler gears hurt? The new ones look nice but unless the chains were aligned funny they usually look good.

Great thread by the way.

[CaptainCalf]

Originally Posted by PFM

Capt,

Were the old idler gears hurt? The new ones look nice but unless the chains were aligned funny they usually look good.

Great thread by the way.

Thanks!

Yep, one was worn pretty good otherwise I wouldn't want to pay $100 each for new ones

[350HP930]

Hmm, there is something so appealing about shiney, freshly machined precision parts, but then again I'm a little biased, lol.

I'd assume you could have gotten away with the old ones unless I missed something when I looked them over, but since she's your baby now I can't blame you if you want to err on the side of caution.

I'm getting ready to disassemble and add some shimming to my new lathe to correct a half a thousandth misalignment that most people would just live with, so who am I to criticise, lol.

[CobraJet]

Originally Posted by CaptainCalf

New sprockets are in so I should have those HIGH lift Super Cup cams timed by next week

Having never seen this done on a Porsche, I'm very anxious to see how this goes. Keep up the good work and great play-by-play accounting of this!

[CaptainCalf]

Originally Posted by CobraJet

Having never seen this done on a Porsche, I'm very anxious to see how this goes. Keep up the good work and great play-by-play accounting of this!

thanks Mr. 428

[CaptainCalf]

I've gotten some things done sine last update.

here's the difference between the old tension sprockets and the new ones:


As you can see the bushings were toast and the wear was very noticable...My guess is the parallelism was off. With the help on Mike over at JB Racing I have the chains nearly perfectly parallel with one shim on left and 2 on right.

More pics and the left cam is dialed in at 79 thou at overlap...tight side nxt.

[ErrieKruger]

I stand in awe ! Amazing thread - so many great ideas and practical applications.

[CaptainCalf]

Originally Posted by ErrieKruger

I stand in awe ! Amazing thread - so many great ideas and practical applications.

Thanks! Necessity is the mother of invention

[CaptainCalf]

Mike at JB Racing turned me on to this 8mm Allen modification to make it fit in the right tower for torquing the #4 int valve rocker shaft bolt to 175 in-lbs.



I just don't think I couldda got the cams timed perfectly w/o 2 dial gauges...the spec is +/- 6 thou, but I was able to nail it dead on! It's like I always say it's better to be lucky then good

[CaptainCalf]

I was fortunate to get the oil lines off the thermo w/o damaging the alum threads using lots of PB Blaster & a big hammer

here's what she looks like with 24 yrs of dirt


tools needed


clean thermo


I'd like to remove the two plugs and inspect the innards of the thermo/pressure valves, but it wont be easy. Anybody have any luck getting those plugs out w/o damaging the thermo?

[WERK I]

Pretty easy. Put the arrowed items in a vise and then use your leverage to loosen them by turning the valve body. Another thing to check while its apart is to put the parafin cartridge in very hot water ( >185* F) or the whole assembly in very hot water and check to see how far the thermostat valve opens. There have been some that only open partially.

[CaptainCalf]

Originally Posted by WERK I

Pretty easy. Put the arrowed items in a vise and then use your leverage to loosen them by turning the valve body. Another thing to check while its apart is to put the parafin cartridge in very hot water ( >185* F) or the whole assembly in very hot water and check to see how far the thermostat valve opens. There have been some that only open partially.

Will do and thanks!

[CaptainCalf]

Glad I pulled the tank cuz the oil level gasket was so far gone it just crumbled and the level indicator is DIRTY. 25 years of dirt...if you have an original tank this is what your level indicator looks like

I will be ordering a new one and a new gasket from our host when I finish cleaning up the tank.

[JFairman]

Have you removed those 2 round plugs on the external thermostat housing yet? I'd like to see the tool for those.
Mine have teeth marks on the edge that look like someone used a pipe wrench or big channel locks to get the side one off in the past. Or maybe they clamped it in bench vise with serated jaws like someone mentioned above.

I restored my oil tank a couple years ago too. Rinsed it out with clean mineral spirits and then shook it alot with hot water and Dawn dish detergent inside and then rinsed it out with a garden hose.
Then taped the exit hose from a shop vac to one of the hose connections and let air blow through it for a while to dry it out. Taped it all off and sanded down the outside real smooth and spray painted it black. Looked nice and too bad it gets dirty fast from the rear tire.

I put in a new cork gasket under the oil level sending unit with a little hylomar smeared on it. Very similar cork gasket goes under the fuel tank sending unit. Mine has 125,000 miles on it and the sending unit was clean when I removed it. Maybe a previous owner had replaced it or maybe oil changes were done more often and that kept it clean.

If your oil level gauge doesn't correlate with the dipstick level you could bend the steel arm the float is on to calibrate it. That would be hit and miss though.

Good luck with it al.

[CaptainCalf]

Funny you should ask cuz I've tried both the above recommendation with a vise and a bladed 1/2 socket, but those suckers must be welded in there so I've decided to replace it...

[JFairman]

You could try clamping the housing in a bench vise and heating it up with a MAP or Propane torch to make it grow a little.

Then carefully try a big pipe wrench with sharp jaws or big channel lock wrench to remove one or both of those plugs.

[CaptainCalf]

Good idea I forgot about my torch

[WERK I]

Capt'Calf,
I'm surprised that didn't work. Did you clamp the caps in the jaws of the vise and turn the body of the thermostat? If you did, geez, those suckers are really torqued in there!

[CaptainCalf]

Yep, they are welded in there at this point...I'll try to maniutalte them with heat next!