What could be more on-topic than the tools we use?

DRO? Showoff! :)

DRO functionality is so cheap and accurate these days. I was looking in an old Metrology book at the vernier calipers used to get finer resolution back in the day. . . I suppose after much practice (an apprentcieship worth) one got used to it. These days things like digital dial indicators are so cheap and take all the guesswork out of following the clock needle around and around-- AND you can zero the off-side one so you can dial in the cam timing perfectly side-to side!

Keep the good stuff coming. . . a worthy interlude.

Hello mate!...yes, you're right, the DRO's - even the so-called "budget" one I'll get, are so functional, a lot slimmer than they used to be and good value for money, it's almost rude not to, apart from slightly spoiling the old-skool classic look of the lathe. But that's irrelevant detail, it's there to do a job not look pretty ;)

Ah, I don't think you can substitute digital aids for sound base knowledge; like basic arithmetic we teach our kids, you could argue there's no point since every gadget/device they touch can do all this for them, but unless you understand the fundamentals of how it all works, and piece those individual components together, then you can never truly be confident in what you're doing.

Just finished restoring a massive vice I was given (for a drink) the other week....god knows how old it is, but it's from a local steel fabrication company that went bust a few years ago. Lovely old thing, nicely painted, degreased and ready for mounting on a floor mounted pedestal that I'll fabricate. No bench that I have is man enough to hold it! (I'll save everyone the pictures - its just a vice, haha). I feel like that bloke in Vegas on that tv show. Quite rewarding and cathartic!

Quick update time:

DRO plan didn't work out; I went up to the company that sells a variety of systems but the gauge that would fit on the back of the cross-slide would have covered the access slots that you need to get to, to alter the top-slide angle (eg for chamfering). No elegant way around it, and frankly, they're bloody ugly things to have bolted to a traditional looking lathe, so for once, didn't spend any money.

However....

The 1ph > 3ph digital inverter I bought to power the lathe, it turned out, wasn't *really* what I was after. The device I bought would allow frequency changes and connection to a remote "pendant" for start/stop/speed control, but it needs to connect directly to the 3ph motor, ie., not in front of all the control systems like the apron fwd/rev lever, the emergency cut-off mushroom switch, etc. Wasn't too happy with this, as I wanted to retain the original functionality of the switchgear, I've got a full gearbox for speed control along with dual speed motor, plus the hassle of re-wiring.

Time for Plan B. Spoke again to Drives Direct, who also do a 5hp capable "plug and play" unit that does exactly what I'm after, a pure 3ph supply that the lathe connects into, no additional rewiring, and the original switchgear is retained (it can cope with the back EMF)...but, it's more than 2x the price. Except it isn't, because I also needed a SINE generator and RFI filter, due to age of the motor (>30yrs old). This prevents me transmitting, ruining my neighbour TV watching. So, a complete system was what was needed, all custom built into a rather nice EMC shielded cabinet, along with dual 16A 3ph 3+Gnd sockets to supply both the lathe and the pillar drill.

I was due to be in the locality to the guys supplying the kit on a business trip, so I arranged to return the previous unit by hand, and despite not expecting the new system to be ready in time, the guys worked until midnight the night before, so that I could collect it the following evening. A very pleasant surprise, not often the case these days!

Anyway, here it is; you know you've spent too much when there's more than a smattering of big yellow labels. It's very weighty, so 2 handed job but it's getting installed tomorrow (er, later today, as it's now 4.00am) --->

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Apologies again - completely off topic for an engine build thread - hopefully I'll get back onto that very shortly. I must finish this project first though, otherwise it'll be yet another unfinished job.

Cool! The shielding box is a nice touch.

Do you think they still drive around looking for unlicensed TV sets?

:D I'm not sure....last year we finally had the switchover from traditional analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting...still uses the same aerial but hooked up to a DVB box (unless you're a satellite household)...don't know whether that means the man-in-a-van can drive around and catch the unlicensed in the same way as before - I'm sure it's all just a matter of a dB batch run to filter those who've not paid, then go hunting for them....

Finally!...some progress on the engine. It's been a VERY busy few months - I resigned from my job on Monday, so am currently on "gardening leave" before starting another in January. Had lots of interesting diversions this last few months as well, including researching and buying a new track toy and then handing back my company car on Tues and having to replace that (which was last weekends project). So, now that is out of the way, plenty of time to get more stuff done on the Porsche.

Ok, so in between my last proper engine update and the updates I've written about the lathe/workshop/3-ph supply, etc, I also was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, and successfully negotiated a swap of my aftermarket Turbo S rear wing for a genuine 3.3 Turbo rubber lipped wing. I'd been casually hunting and enquiring about one since I bought the car, in my attempt to return the car to it's stock look. My pal Brian was instrumental in me swapping mine for one on his mates car. Very happy, as it was more or less mint condition apart from some light paint blistering on the centre section. The colour was completely wrong (burgundy metallic, can't remember official name) so it needed a complete strip and respray anyway, but nothing cracked or snapped. The rubber lip itself is also mint, no cracking, pulled studs, divots or anything like that.

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A strip down of the innards (how many fixings?!?) and we're ready for the transformation. My pal Shaun the painter did the honours with the centre section, as well as re-painting the deck itself, which looked a little 2nd hand from some abrasion of the aftermarket wing. He's done an absolutely cracking job, very pleased.

I dropped all the wing fixings over to my plating shop a week ago, along with another box of non wing fixings, plus all the ally piping, oil catch tank and various brackets to be black anodized. I also asked them to re-colour the blue anodized pipe fittings - you may remember - I don't "do" blue on this engine, it has to be a little more discrete and match the rest of it.

Very surprised to find that when I just happened to drop in yesterday to add a few more bits to the list, that the gold passivated items were complete. All the aluminium items are also now polished and ready to be blacked.

All the remaining items to be powder coated are also now in the hands of Windridges, where Dale and the guys I'm sure will do another fine job. Included in this batch are some of the new wing pieces, but two of the bigger items here are:

• the rear tinware, which has needed a fair amount of reworking to accomodate the GT35 and it's pipework
• the dry sump oil tank

This tank has taken AGES to get stripped; used the last few dribbles of Nitromors that I had (white in colour) which did a good job on a small section. Bought another tin (now green in colour, and far smellier) and it barely touched it. I'm guessing that the Health & Safety Executive have had their way and insisted on less methanol content :rolleyes:

So, a day spent with the angle grinder with wire brush attachment....and lots of elbow grease to get in the nooks and crannies. Even though the coating shop are very good, there's no way I want grit anywhere near this item, nor incineration for fear of distortion or damage to the brazed pipework. So, after all that, it's spotless and all we're going to do is degrease it and then powder coat in 30% satin black.

Last night, whilst on flood alert (as was most of the east coast of the UK....tidal surges after midnight), I got some of the plated items refitted. Finding it very strange (and hard work) trying to remember what-goes-where, how I designed a particular part to fit, and so on. Hoping it'll come back to me!

Today I had another productive morning with Simon from Si-Leck, the chap making the engine wiring loom for me. It's been exactly a year since he came over, made a mock loom and then did his CAD drawings for me to view. So, I went over to his place today to recommence this part of the project - very useful it was too. Simon has made subtle changes to how he manufactures the looms, which will be to my benefit, as well as us covering off every sensor, and having a rethink as to whether we could route it better, save a split in the harness, and so on. Net result was that we have made some significant improvements, which Simon is in the process of re-drawing over the weekend.

We're now (hopefully) going to be using a couple of MIL bulkhead connectors (as used on Apache's...) to interface cabin loom to engine bay. Also, we're going to have an auxiliary loom in case we want to add more sensor inputs in future, as well as a separate loom for the small water pump which I'm using to cool the turbo and WG's. Two really neat Deutsch 5-way connectors (they really are tiny) are going to hook up both EGT feeds and the boost control solenoid. These will be bulkhead mounted onto the sensor bracket....which was over at the plating shop....!! Thankfully I caught them just in time, collected it and will rework this weekend.

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All wiring is going to be uber-thin Raychem, along with their really flexible heatshrink and nuke-proof (almost) heatshrink joints/elbows. Hoping we can get this built around the Christmas period ready to be installed onto the engine before lifting the engine up into the chassis.

Steadily thinking of a few more jobs to add to the "immediate" list, one of which is that I'm hoping to have the use of an industrial hot pressure wash system, so that I can give the underside of the car and the suspension items a good old clean. Don't want to be doing this once engine/box are back in, but it will make life easier when moving onto the suspension and chassis work in a few months.

Rocket electrics. . . befitting a rocket!

Nice to have you back. I know the feeling. . . a three year project turns into an eight-year restoration. . . . what was it McQueen said? Racing is life, everything else is just waiting?

Anyway glad to hear from you and we're looking forward to more photos when you can!

Welcome back, mate!
Those tiny Deutsch connectors are sexy cool.
Sounds like you're in the home stretch now! :-)

Hi John, yes, you're not wrong, but I feel I've got the mojo back now.

Bought a whiteboard over the weekend to list out all the jobs left to do; far better than relying on memory, and then haphazardly going at jobs as-and-when they occur to me - the trouble is, the list is loooong!

Sensor bracket is now modified for the above Deutsch bulkhead fitting. Dropped it back, and unexpectedly was given the first "sample" part from the black anodizing batch. The guys were a little concerned that the welding rod used to fab the intercooler pipes may not be "plating friendly". As it happens, I reckon it's come out rather nicely --->

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Also had to drop off (the inevitable) one part that I overlooked for powder coating - all the other stuff has now been incinerated and/or cleaned ready for coating; hoping that this may be ready fairly soon. If I can get the plating and coating work back before Xmas, then I think we can make some serious progress.

So...holding formation at the moment - appreciate there's not much interesting stuff going on for you guys to read, lots of work in progress - stick with it!

Heeey! Hello mate, you snuck a cheeky post in there while I was writing the ^^ post!

Yup, hoping to be on top of most of the stuff now - next major task, I think, is going to be to decide what to do with both the fuel and oil lines.

Oil lines - keep the OEM stuff where possible, or bite the bullet and buy new OEM hoses, or make some custom ones up using parts from Think Auto (my usual supplier). Swaying towards the latter option here.

Fuel lines - don't feel particularly comfortable using the existing front>rear pipes as they're now 20yrs old. Could make some new lines using PTFE rigid bore hosing, or I may have the option to get some new "stock" lines that are made by Porsches OE manufacturer (but not via Porsche)...hmmm...need to crawl under the car and give it some thought.

I can't remember now what material Porsche used for the 964 fuel lines. Was it different from the 930's/3.2's/SC's? If so, is it likely to be something that has a 20yr lifespan (like rubber), or is this stuff good for a long while yet?

Getting a lot of the jobs done today. Most satisfying so far is the start of the wing rebuild. Can't finish it just yet, as there's some parts with the powder coating company, but to give you an idea, got the ribber lip in place, lined up and tightened, along with replacing the foam strips on the underside to prevent the grilles from abrading...a lot nicer with freshly replated fixings:

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Also rebuilt the oil thermostat unit, new cover on the front, thermostat opening temp was checked last year when I stripped it:

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Starter motor - which was functioning perfectly - has now been given a make-over. Removed the solenoid, gave it a good clean and a regrease. Easier to get the angle grinder wire brush on it with the solenoid out of the way. It did look so manky that I was toying with the idea of just buying a new Bosch unit, but as it came up so well, I'll save that £250/300 for something else!

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Some other jobs that are now done:

• Installed cam chain cover blanking plugs (now black anodized)
• Turbo oil pump fittings now installed
• Grilles for the rear wing wire brushed, etch primered and satin black painted
• Air Con pump cleaned - just needs the clutch/pulley respraying
• Stand off spacer for sensor bracket now anodized and installed with rubber cotton-reel

...trouble is, I seem to be a whole box of parts missing :eek: God knows where they've gone whilst I've been doing the workshop build project. Hmm, I'm sure the answer will come to me over a beer. And a chilli...

BTW - Has anyone else noticed that Photobucket now sucks?

Uploading pics taken on the iPhone now renders a low resolution version (e.g. the pic of the burgundy wing further up this page)....anyway, am now switching to Flickr to see if its a better hosting option. Interested to hear if anyone else has noticed this (or knows how to fix Photobucket....I know you can change upload settings if transferring from a PC/Mac, but doesn't seem to be the same setting for the iPhone app)

Okay, missing parts box now found - under my nose with other rubbish on top of it. Thanks God, loads of goodies in there that I wouldn't have wanted to try and remember/replace.

Another productive day, lots of odds-and-sods jobs now wrapped up. Got a little further with the rear wing; applying the edging tape to the grilles - did one, doing the second this evening. The one that's done looks great in situ.

Biggest job today was one I've been putting off for a while, and that's replacing the soft rubber bush in the tail of the gearbox. In the last order I put into Chris @ Turbokraft, I got him to ship one of their very nice CNC'd replacements. If memory serves, it's very similar to the 964RS item, mostly solid with a polyurethane type centre spigot:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5490/1...55902c4802.jpg

Removal of the old one was "great" fun - used my tried and tested method of cutting the inner rubber out, then gently sawing the outer steel cage in 2 places (from the inside, out) to remove a section. Then gently tap the outer cage, thus folding it on on itself. Could've heated the outer tail housing with butane gas torch - if I had some gas! - wishing I had gone and got some after smacking my screwdriver holding hand with the hammer. Twice. Cue the blue cloud.....

Anyway, it's now out:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5511/1...408b652d87.jpg

...the edges cleaned up and lightly dressed, quick polish of the inner face and we're ready for installing the new TK item. This is an interference fit, by the looks of it, so the new bush is currently in the freezer. Tomorrow I'll get some butane to heat the tail section. There are 8 bolts in the kit; 4 for the permanent bolting-up of the 2 halves, and 4 for (what I think) using as draw bolts...longer than needed but used to align the 4 bolt holes (2 on each half, offset by 90deg to each other. Nice) whilst installing.

Also quickly offered up the single black anodized I/C pipe I've got back, just to see what it looks like....very pleased, has that slight looks of OEM about it....

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More progress to come this evening...time to refuel...

Forgot to mention above, but in tandem with the uprated gearbox tail housing bush, I also ordered one of FD Motorsports "Golden Rod" shift rods; it arrived very promptly ages ago (in fact, I can sense that Mark will very soon be chasing me for my original item...), it just needs installing. Maybe another job for tomorrow....

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5531/1...60f09d9816.jpg

As you can see, it has the solid UJ at one end, thus very similar to an 964RS item. But a fair bit cheaper. And gold.

If you have a look at robt964 thread 964 refurb on rennlist he replaces his fuel lines with a braided hose looks a good solution about page 12 on the thread

Great, thanks, will Google that in the morning ;)

What a great thread! Thanks again. I got in contact with Rob through the night w.r.t. his hoses, very helpfully he replied by return, as did Chris @ TK; think I'm going to hoist the car up and assess - so long as the original lines look ok, and the rubber ends can be changed by the guys at Think Auto, then this should work out a fair bit cheaper.

Another pretty productive day....

The gearbox tail section bush was installed with the help of my Brother and a bottle of butane gas. Anything that's an interference fit that involves freezing and heating always fills me with dread - one shot at getting it right or a world of pain trying to fix it.

It put up a little opposition, but it's in with all bolt hols aligned perfectly. Unfortunately, my OCD is in overdrive, as the logo isn't quite straight...the sheer panic when you take the plunge and put a frozen item into the hot casing! I'm not about to try and rotate it. Sorry Chris.

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All my Mikalor "Supra" clamps arrived today; got the chimney breather pipe back in place, fixed to my custom bracket and spacer on the intake. A little OTT to use Supra clamps on this part, but hey, not a lot more expensive than good quality stainless jubilee clamps, and I really don't want anything letting-go at a later date -->

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I also got the phonecall to say that my anodizing is finished. A quick dash down the road to collect these parts -->

Turbo oil drain tank
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Intercooler outlet > eGas throttle body
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Sensor bracket
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I got quite a bit further this evening, building the sensors back onto the bracket, hooking them up to their respective feed hoses, and also re-attaching the hoses and BOV to the IC pipework (pics to follow tomorrow). Looking forward to getting the IC back onto the engine (and finally binning that HUGE box that's taking up half my office!)

No prob`s Rob is doing a cracking job refurbing the whole car ! there`s been some epic 964 threads this year, yours included

Gaz

You're too kind!....trouble is, mine isn't a "this year" project, it's been going on since mid 2011!! :D To the point where everyone's given up asking when it's going to be finished, lol.