Almost there...

Did Mark Motshagen do the restoration of your fan & housing?

I just did my 964 too.. not that far ahead. I noticed that a lot of the bolts for the engine tin are a special "triangular" cross section.. ie not perfectly cylindrical.
Yet when I ordered new ones from my local porsche centre, I received normal perfectly cylindrical ones.
I still used them, since they are all nice and shiny :)

Hey Frank - yes, he did - they are stunning, too. Looking even better with the stainless Rennline fan strap that came in a box courtesy of the previous owner. My shroud has some patina, though.

Good to know. I sent mine to him about a month ago. What was your turn-around time, not that I'm in any hurry? I may want to drop by to take a look when it comes time to decide on color.

Whew, it has been a while since I have posted. Somehow this project has stretched out a lot longer than I ever imagined. Life intervenes...

Also, I did the rear suspension, changed out the torsion bars for one size up, added Carrera adjustable spring plates. I redid the soft fuel lines front and rear, and plumbed in the new EFI fuel pump.

This last weekend I got the MFI throttle bodies and stacks assembled and installed on the motor, along with the crossbar and linkages.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...psymxt76zw.jpg

I hope to get the remaining odds and ends buttoned up and the motor back in the car in the next couple weeks!

What an impressive thread! Thank you so much for documenting all the process. It's very nice to read the problems that a home mechanic finds as you go along and helps keeping my expectations in check for a similar project I'm planning to do at some point.

Looking forward for details about the EFI setup and tuning.

A very eventful weekend! Huge thanks to Jamie and Bill who came over to make it rain! Bill and I had installed the clutch yesterday.

Today, we finally got the motor off the stand - put some 2x4s on the ramp of my four-post lift, and set it so we could lift the motor and support it while removing the stand.


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...psqvz7nsze.jpg


With the motor on the ramp and the stand out of the way, we spun the motor around on the 2x4s, then lowered the ramp to the exact same height as a motorcycle jack. Once in place we began to carefully slide the motor a little at a time, one-by-one transferring the 2x4s onto the MC jack. It sounds more complicated than it is, we got the motor onto the jack very quickly.

Then, things got off track a little. We filled the gearbox, then went to mate it to the engine, and it would...not....go....on. Clutch misaligned? Tried loosening the pressure plate bolts, getting it exactly centered, tighten, nope still wouldn't go on. Took it all apart, whoops, the clutch disc was the wrong one, must be for a 901, not 915. Doh! Long story short, we found the one I had removed from the car at the start of this rebuild, and it was in decent shape, plenty of meat on it, so we put that one in instead, and it slid right on. We scavenged some studs from another case I had lying around, and managed to get it mated and bolted on. Originally, we weren't going to put the motor in today, but with the gearbox on, we all looked at each other and said, "Let's git this thing in the car!"


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...ps1dpcefak.jpg


No, we didn't forget the last-chance engine bay photo...


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...psyvy5cagz.jpg


Here is Jamie rolling the jack into position.


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...pscpjct2sb.jpg

Raised the MC jack as high as it would go, then lowered the car on the lift down onto the motor.


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...pscpjct2sb.jpg

If I were to do this again (perish the thought) I would have cleaned off my rolling toolbox and put the motor on there, so when we lowered the car down, we would still have lots of room to work under the car to get the trans mount bolts in place. Still, it went in just fine, Jamie was able to persuade things into the correct position and get them in. Then, it was up top for the motor mount bolts.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...psci42gwxg.jpg

Here is the motor in place. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally have reached this point, it has been a two-year journey. I remember thinking I would get this done in a couple of months.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...psbfwuafkf.jpg

Here is the view from under the car.


http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...psl8tjcz2o.jpg


Still plenty of work left - reconnect clutch and throttle linkages, oil lines, and of course, the EFI installation. But I am elated to at long last have the motor installed in the car, and I can't thank my friends enough for helping me get to this point today. I am savoring the moment!

Great to see it all (most) back together, John. Now on to EFI set up and then start and tune. Fun project you have there, going to be a really interesting coupe. Let's see, 3.0 motor, MFI hardware, electronic FI conversion, Ferrari seats, should be a rocking good ride!!😄

Congratulations on completing the motor assembly and getting it back in the car. When do you plan the initial start-up?

Congrats! I can't wait to hear this car run....and go for a ride!

It all depends on how long it takes me to get everything hooked up. I have deliberately avoided deadlines because I didn't want to add stress to the project. In retrospect, that has probably been why it has taken so long.

Still, it is hard to plan when you get partway through a task and then have to stop and order a part, which injects more delay. For example, after we got the motor in, I searched for and found my throttle linkage rod, and noticed it's pretty worn at the loop end. I'm sure it would work, but I ordered a new one.

Still, seems realistic to be firing it up by August 1, right?

Made some more progress yesterday. Bill somehow thought to check to see if we had the trans mounts properly installed, and found a thread on the forum here on that very topic. If you look at the pic above, you can see they are bolted to the bottom of the crossmember, which is incorrect. I re-installed them correctly, on the top.

I hooked up the clutch and shifter, and started cleaning some of the remaining parts - oil crossover, half-shafts (and ran out of degreaser on these). It is amazing when you have an oil leak how it gets everywhere. As if the half shafts need any help being messy. Hey, at least the hardware isn't corroded - I had some of the nastiest looking hardware ever come out of the cleaner gleaming like new.

I pulled the rear anti-roll bar out of the frunk, and found that all of the bushings are shot, and ordered new ones. It's amazing how these seemingly minor tasks can eat up a day. Still, the frunk is now empty of major components, and with the shifter and clutch somewhat operational, it almost feels like a car again when I sit in it.

Looks like all my images are still showing, but I just found out that Photobucket is doing away with their free image hosting, and charging $500/year to host images like in this thread.
I hate to think of how many threads on this forum and others will lose their photos.

When I put my motor back in, I didn't bother about installing anything like sway bars or drive shafts. Just enough to get it in and do the camshaft break in.
Lucky too.. cos I had an oil pressure switch decide to fail, and leaked oil EVERYWHERE!!

Motor came out again, right after cam break in...

Mike -
Sorry to hear that. You make a good point. I have a lot of work to do yet getting the EFI going, so my time might be better spent on that to avoid having to undo all that later.

John,
You spoke too soon about your photos. A big chunk of them are now MIA:mad::mad:

I knew it was coming. Really annoying, but Photobucket is in the death spiral. Not surprising, I suppose - just exactly what was their business model? The worst part is letting their subscribers know like this. Their site had become really obnoxious with all the ads. It was fun while it lasted.