Engine Rebuild question. First post in years

[synperkaya]

Okay...I haven't posted since around 2006 and retired in 09 from the Army. I have a question from that time frame...IE..before I deployed, I was doing some maintenance when I noticed a broken head stud.. so i literately retired the car and put it away in 06...my question is that my 1981 SC only had 73k miles...can I get away with just pulling the motor and replacing the head-studs..since its low miles, to be honest I can rebuild american V8's all day long even a AGT1500 gas turbine M1 tank engine. but it seems that opening the case of a 3.0 liter engine might be to much for me..and I would hate to farm out the engine for an 5-8k rebuild price..any help would be greatly appreciated..

thanks
al

[Flat6pac]

You can pull it down. I recommend you do the heads and do a reseal because it's 35 years old. You have to pull the cylinders all the way to shore block to get the bottom row of studs
This is an 80 im setting cams this afternoon, check the valve lash again and close it up
Follow the work on (home alone with a. 3.0)
Bruce

[Amstaff]

I recently completed a 3.0 rebuild because of broken head studs. Click on my name and check out "rookie rebuild"

Lots of pictures��

[Speed Buggy]

Thank you for your service.

[michael lang]

The nice thing about this forum is that it is filled with a ton of information. Even if you have zero experience of any level of rebuild you can access just about any piece of information you could shake a stick at. Tom and Bruce have great threads about their rebuild, I have to be honest, if it weren't for the info avail here in this forum I don't think I would have gone as far as I did. You have to be careful though, the WYIT (while you're in there) bug will bite and it leads you into a whole other rabbit hole. I started just wanting to install 964 cams and replace the exhaust, it ended up being a complete top end rebuild but without this forum, I never would have the confidence to go that far on my own. We as a group will help you along the way, and don't be afraid to ask even the simplest of questions. Best of luck on which ever you decide.

[boyt911sc]

Originally Posted by synperkaya

Okay...I haven't posted since around 2006 and retired in 09 from the Army. I have a question from that time frame...IE..before I deployed, I was doing some maintenance when I noticed a broken head stud.. so i literately retired the car and put it away in 06...my question is that my 1981 SC only had 73k miles...can I get away with just pulling the motor and replacing the head-studs..since its low miles, to be honest I can rebuild american V8's all day long even a AGT1500 gas turbine M1 tank engine. but it seems that opening the case of a 3.0 liter engine might be to much for me..and I would hate to farm out the engine for an 5-8k rebuild price..any help would be greatly appreciated..

thanks
al

Al,

My very first engine rebuild was a '78 SC with 70K miles with a broken head stud 20 years ago. There was no Pelican forum at that time, no one to call or ask, no available reference manual except Haynes, no digital camera, etc. things have changed over the last 15 years. The Internet, digital camera, U-tube, Pelican forum, etc. make everything now easier for DIYers like you and me.

Back then, I opened up the engine and replaced the broken head stud, installed new piston rings, lap the valves and sealed the engine. If I remember correctly, the expense was under $500. I strongly suggest if you are not planning to have the cylinder heads sent to a machine shop, atleast lap (grind the valves) so they seal well. I did the lapping myself.

The car was turned to a track car used by myself and my son for many years without any problem. These engines are very robust and could stand years of hard driving experiences.

Tony

[synperkaya]

Thank you very much for your response...The only reason why I would consider this action, is simply the fact that as Boyt911sc mentioned that technology has changed dramatically and this website with the Mods are a helpful resource..the idea of photographing and digitally recording the rebuild process for Pelicans to see and give advise is the only real reason why I would consider trying to repair the head studs.
Thank you very much for all the input.. and any other advice on the head stud repair is great appreciated.

Al

[Speed Buggy]

You're in the right spot. A lot of these guys build engines for a living or just a hobby. Good luck. I hope you don't have to drill out exhaust studs. Grrrr.

[rockreid]

same boat as you. I had some experience with typical Audi 4 and 8 cylinders and my old straight 6 '67 Mustang way back as a teen. I had not touched anything like my 2.4T 911 engine before. I used Wayne's Book, and it was very good at detailed instructions for a newb like me. Not to mention, my engine was already taken apart and plopped into tin coffee cans randomly by the PO so I was working totally blind.

My motto has always been to spend the $$$ money on the correct tools instead of paying for someone else's labor if I can help it. Yes, I did have to fork over a good chuck of change for various tools like an engine crane, stand, the correct Porsche engine holder, cam tools, etc etc. Probably around $1500 or so in total expenditures. But way less money than quotes I got for someone else to assemble it.

So now I have a gnarly set of tools (Jeff Spicolli voice) and the experience to tackle other Porsche projects when I want for far less money than I strongly recommend Wayne's Book here at PP if you don't already have it. oh- and I did have to drill out an exhaust stud. Not fun. At all.

[synperkaya]

As I mentioned earlier, at the beginning of this thread that I was pulling my SC out of retirement to repair my head studs situation, I was looking for general information of personally rebuilding or sending it to get it rebuilt. as part of my research, I emailed the local Porsche owners group president to see if they had a member that I was willing to pay to consult, (IE..check my work in the rebuilding process) of course I was willing to pay his price for his time..Well the Group president personally called me, I thought he would email me, to tell me that no real Porsche mechanic in San Antonio would provide consulting service and or help anyone in that manner and they are rare in SA, he made it clear to recommend it to be send it out to the local Porsche repair shop, as a matter of fact he recommended a shop that he personally had his race car rebuilt..I told him that it was not the shop I was avoiding, that all I wanted to do was to get the satisfaction of the rebuilding it myself and was hoping to have some local input..his comments were, you better get a book and start reading...I guess I wont be joining the local Porsche club..I get treated better by the local Gear head clubs who have no problem in helping... go figure.. Al