I have travelled back over to California and I am finally getting into rebuilding my 911 engine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw5IZBULjGU&feature=youtu.be

Great news Jeff,

Been keeping up on the other video series, I’ll check this out tonight.

Good stuff there Jeff. Any specs on the cams themselves? Your numbers for required valve seat pressures for a pretty aggressive cam came up pretty much exactly how mine did. Most springs around for these engines are WAY overkill.

I built a pretty much identical engine but with 39mm intake port with a DC65 cam on MFI and it ran fantastic, so much so that my personal engine (on EFI) is about ready to go with same specs.

Neil is of the same opinion that most have way too much pressure which is just giving away power. As for the specs on the cams, you can order them from Neil, but he is keeping the exact specs under wraps ;)

Well understood! Yeah about 7-8 months ago I had an engineer I work regularly with in Australia run the numbers (component weights, cam ramp speeds etc) and design a modern spring. It is a shame how so many parties just didn’t want to listen to what was objectively required when the numbers were out. They just didn’t believe it for whatever old school reason. Even with very aggressive ramp speeds it was determined not more than 70lbs on the seat was ever needed, and not more than 230lbs at full lift safe to 8000-8500rpm. We also found the inner valve spring is incredibly overstressed when something much beyond what a stock design is employed. I think Mittel Motor knew this years ago which is why their engines are pretty much the record holder for most power from an old 911 motor.

Day 2 on the 911 engine build and we get the heads done and the rods onto the crank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fZjfe-PobY&feature=youtu.be

Day 3 of my 911 engine build and I am removing the oil tubes from the cam towers and gapping rings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XOltypezfk&feature=youtu.be

It was fun having Jeff here this past week. It gave me a chance to get back into the shop and play with one of these engines. I don't get the chance anymore, so any time I can I will take the opportunity.

We had some unexpected issues that we had to take care of. This unfortunately took up time we wanted to spend going over assembly procedures.

The tang on the new factory bearing shells was on the opposite side of the shell, so we had to machine new grooves into the bearing saddles. Some extra thread repair work on this old mag case was also required.

We did go over the correct way to rebuild heads, set up the valve springs properly, measure all of the parts and calculate the clearances, spend time to gap the rings with care showing and explaining just how important this task is. I made a point to explain that this part of the build is most important and the one task that is often taken for granted and not a lot of care given.

We managed to assemble the lower engine case, measure the static compression and measure the piston to valve clearances. As these Pistons are a brand new design, we have some adjustments to make on one valve pocket and lower the compression. Showing how we do this and the importance of doing this before the rest of the engine is assembled was important.

We did go over the cam timing of these early engines, and showed just how simple it is and that the fear and anxiety often thought about this task, is completely false.

One of the things I stressed to Jeff is the importance of good workmanship. Breaking the assembly into individual tasks, cleanliness, and having only the tools that are required to do each assembly task on the bench at one time.

Overall, I hope Jeff had a great time here and learned how we do this and debunked a lot of the myths that are attached to the rebuilding of these engines. They are one of the simplest engines to rebuild but with any engine rebuild, basic attention to detail and leaving nothing to chance has to be adhered to.

We are now going to offer more contract rebuild work on these engines along with repair machine services.

Neil
really good insight into how to assemble these engines. Thanks for putting so much time into this and allowing us to see inside your shop.
Hoping jeffs vids will also show which sealants were used for case joining etc... there seems to be a lot of opinion just on this topic.

In my opinion, there is no "right" one, even though some have made it about one particular brand over the rest.

I believe its more about how you prepare the sealing surfaces and how you apply whatever you use. Often I see where sealant whatever is used, is used in excess.

If the sealing surfaces are lapped and prepared correctly, it results in micron's thick between the two surfaces. The rest gets squeezed inside or outside.

One thing that is wrong in my opinion is where sealant is put on the bearing saddle supports on both sides of the inner case. You have 0.002"+ total main bearing clearance, 0.001"+ on either side and now you have added more with the sealant. And, I have seen where the whole bottle was emptied onto each side of the case halves. You only need enough to seal the two halves and no more. Use with care.

This past week has been absolutely invaluable. I have learned so much, and I am hoping to continue to use many of these practices and some of the work ethic in future projects. I have been blown away by Neil's knowledge and experience, but also by his problem solving and development skill. It is amazing seeing many of the much more complex projects that have been and are being developed in that shop.
I hear many people sing the praises of this or that engine builder, and even if they are very through, 95% are really just engine assemblers. I have been very very lucky to have been able to have a peek inside this world and I will be ever grateful to Neil for the experience.
If you want to know it is done right, without any cut corners, I cannot recommend Performance Developments highly enough.

My last day at Performance developments, and we finally get onto assembling the bottom end.

https://youtu.be/8-m04Cuamos

At least with an anaerobic sealant it will NOT harden unless totally absent of air, thus any that isn't squeezed out of the main webs is indeed just filling the microscopic gaps in the material itself. Loctite 515 (grape jelly consistency) is a fav in the Ferrari community for similar uses. 515 has more flexibility yet higher tensile strength than 574. Win win

Thanks for documenting this one guys. These sub 3L 7r mag case engines are my personal fav 911 engines, glad to see they're finally getting some love.

so are they installing the remainder P&C set (once your piston ring gets replaced) and then shipping it out to you? Or just shipping the completed bottom end case to you?

I also have a question on your 'assembly lube' that you use throughout the build. Is it all the same or are you using differently lubes for different applications? And what exactly is the assembly lube (so that I know what to get for my rebuild)?

All of the assembly lube we used was the same stuff. Not sure what the brand is though.

Neil has a couple more things to work through as far as piston clearances, etc, and then I am getting it shipped back to me, basically how you see it and I will complete the assembly in Aus. There are still a bunch of things to sort out as far as EFI, etc, goes, so we are not finished yet.