Home Built engine build. Saving the unsaveable.

MFX · 03-28-2017, 10:15 PM

Hey guys,

I thought it would be better to start a new thread specifically for the engine rebuild.

As many of you may know I have sent my engine parts to LA, to Performance Development. They have been busy cleaning up the parts and seeing what we have to start with.

The current prognosis is not great. The half-witted apes who "rebuilt" (and I use that term very loosely) the engine previously have butchered it. Essentially the engine obviously had pulled head studs, like every other 2.7, but it was the way they went about "fixing" them that was the problem. It looks like a the original stud holes in the case were drilled out by a blind man using a potato. These have been overdrilled in a few cases where it has cracked the case. They then proceeded to half insert some helicoils. From there it looks like they went down to the local hardware store to find new case bolts. Obviously, because the holes in the case weren't square, they couldn't get the head bolts to line up and screw in. No problems, they just re drilled oblong holes in the heads, and cylinders to line up.

Now I know what you are thinking. The whole engine is basically a throw away. Well in many cases it would be, but it doesn't have to be. What if the engine was matching numbers to a rare car (or to be honest matching numbers to any aircooled 911 these days). Well thankfully that is what Performance Developments do. So although my engine is not matching numbers, they are willing to look after me to save me the money of buying something else unkown, and they can demonstrate what level can actually be repaired and to a standard that will last.

So that is where we are at for now. The mind still boggles at how stupid some people can be.

Jase77 · 03-29-2017, 01:33 AM

Hi Jeff,

Dear God! That's some world class level of f*ckwittery right there! It is an eye opener when you see what lengths people will go to.

Fingers crossed it can be saved/reworked and won't cost you a gezillion dollars.

Keep up the cool videos by the way, very entertaining.

MFX · 03-29-2017, 03:00 AM

Thanks Jase. Even the guys at Performance Developments, who have been building engines for 30 years, have never seen anything so stupid. I am glad they are on the case though

boosted79 · 03-29-2017, 09:12 AM

Unbelievable

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

Good God al'mighty!

Still ain't going to be cheap, sorry to read your troubles OP :-(

Best wishes,

911 Rod · 911 Rod's Garage

Wow.
Good that you are making things right.
I hope you only paid core value for it.

turbobrat930 · 03-31-2017, 05:25 AM

Neil at PD is a great guy. You are in good hands.

MFX · 03-31-2017, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbobrat930

Neil at PD is a great guy. You are in good hands.

He has been really going above and beyond for me. I can't sing his praises high enough. Looking forward to heading over there and meeting him in the flesh in a few weeks

Neil Harvey · 03-31-2017, 02:13 PM

Before you sing my praises to high, let me tell why we got involved. Its kind of a selfish reason.

We are car lovers too and have the same passion for cars as the rest. Unfortunately that passion dims some when you work in this field all day, every day. We especially love the car part as we do not work the car part, only the engine.

Anytime we see something like Jeff's project our interest gets tickled. We wish we could have the time to do something like this. And, to do everything ourselves, which today is rare. So when we saw what Jeff was under taking we got involved. This is our "fix" or itch we needed to scratch.

We are not known that well in the air cooled world, however we have helped many in the past. This is our way of paying it forward to someone who we have huge admiration for and who we feel could use a helping hand in an area that is not normally DIY work.

In the spirit of Jeff's project, we are going to have Jeff come here and do a lot of his own machine work. But ahead of that we have to save what he has.

I'm sure Jeff will keep all updated on the current progress and we intend to start a blog on our web site under our current projects. This is a project we intend to have fun with, again.

BTW, thanks Brad for the kind words.

Neil Harvey
Performance Developments.

txhokie4life · txhokie4life's Garage

Sounds like good folk! Good luck

sixbanger · 04-01-2017, 04:56 AM

Do I smell MM

MFX · 04-22-2017, 08:41 PM

A bit of an update on what is happening with my butchered engine parts. Neil at Performance Developments has been working away repairing the heads at the moment. They repaired the worst head first. "..The insert is threaded into the head, so it cannot move sideways when the head gets hot. It couldn’t move up or down as the cylinder would stop it on one side and the head washer the other.."
So it is looking a lot better than it did before.

[IMG]https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18055928_1814217798899227_6466868938268852603_o.jp g?oh=90a8d7b1d26da9bbdab1fc77920484c0&oe=59994FDC[/IMG]

[IMG]https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18077041_1814217792232561_6805502801780956388_o.jp g?oh=c740d505eb37baae5ce3d8c4cac5a707&oe=598DFB9C[/IMG]

boosted79 · 04-23-2017, 04:30 AM

That is some nice work.

porschetub · porschetub's Garage

What's the plan for the case ? oversized inserts perhaps,the cylinder in that pic looks like it will need replacing,OMG what a mess hope you get it sorted looks like you are in good hands .
Keep up the good work Jeff.

MFX · 05-10-2017, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porschetub

What's the plan for the case ? oversized inserts perhaps,the cylinder in that pic looks like it will need replacing,OMG what a mess hope you get it sorted looks like you are in good hands .
Keep up the good work Jeff.

I have been working on all of that stuff this week here in LA. I will cover our whole repair, etc, in this weeks video (probably be a day later as I will be travelling back to Australia and I don't have a Friday this week

).

Tippy · 05-11-2017, 04:45 AM

You can simply TIG weld the hole, drill, and tap.

MFX · 05-11-2017, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tippy

You can simply TIG weld the hole, drill, and tap.

If only it were that simple. The hole is too deep to just try to fill with weld and if you weld in an insert it will not have the penetration. Add in the fact that the case is magnesium and you see why we didn't do that.

Tippy · 05-11-2017, 07:10 AM

Oh, didn't catch it's Mg.

Here's a thought. Mount case on a mill. Find stud center and bore hole until you can put a large insert in (bore, then tap). Then, machine spigot to dim.

Not easy, but worth saving case.

MFX · 05-12-2017, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tippy

Oh, didn't catch it's Mg.

Here's a thought. Mount case on a mill. Find stud center and bore hole until you can put a large insert in (bore, then tap). Then, machine spigot to dim.

Not easy, but worth saving case.

That is exactly what we did. The biggest issue is that the hole they drilled was so far from where it was supposed to be. But now we have repaired this one (the worst one) the rest will be a doddle.

MFX · 05-12-2017, 07:17 PM

I have just arrived back home after a very packed, amazing week in Los Angeles. I spent the bulk of the time at Performance Developments, where Neil, in the spirit of my build, got me on the tools so I could do a lot of my own machining.
His knowledge is amazing, after spending 12+ years working in the Brabham Formula 1 team building engines, leading to 2 world Championships. Then moving on to Andial (the predecessor to Porsche Motorsport in the US), and TRD.
I have learned so much, in one week, and have gained a much better understanding of what good engine machining and building entails.
Here is my video of the week. It is a bit longer than usual, but I just had so much to cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCOS4weqDdw