Trakrat's 3.2 Engine Rebuild

[KTL]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

hmmm.... what do you mean?

I think he means their turnaround time can be quite long. But i'm guessing he may be thinking of another Porsche machine shop with the initials CE.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by KTL

I think he means their turnaround time can be quite long. But i'm guessing he may be thinking of another Porsche machine shop with the initials CE.

I hope so. My biggest fear is sending out all my parts to a machine shop and having the parts 'disappear'.
Unfortunately I have bad karma when it comes to customer service so it makes me nervous to send everything and have it left there for months.

[KTL]

I don't think we hear those kinds of stories about Ollies. But i'm obviously not privy to everything everybody does with them. Nonetheless throughout my years here on the forum I don't recall hearing any "I sent them my stuff months ago and haven't heard boo since" stories about them. Their reputation is really good and well deserved.

[twickes]

Ollies is amazing. You have nothing to worry about unless you "need everything right now." They're lead time is about 2-3 months.

[75 911s]

FWIW. Heard a lot of good things about Ollies as well when I researched my 2.7 rebuild. Also lead time increases over winter months due to all the winter projects in cold climates.

[bpu699]

Weird. I got my rods back in a week... Very pleased with the workmanship. Shipping was a tad high and they only do COD which added cost...

That was a month ago...

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by bpu699

Weird. I got my rods back in a week... Very pleased with the workmanship. Shipping was a tad high and they only do COD which added cost...

That was a month ago...

So how exactly does COD work? I'm confused on that... do you send them a check in the mail and once it clears they ship everything to you?

I'm only familiar with this process back in the early 90s when I would drive down to the local USPS to pick up something that required payment there.

[bpu699]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

So how exactly does COD work? I'm confused on that... do you send them a check in the mail and once it clears they ship everything to you?

I'm only familiar with this process back in the early 90s when I would drive down to the local USPS to pick up something that required payment there.

Driver rings your doorbell, you hand them a check. It adds about $30 to the shipping amount. So shipping/COD was about $80.

The cost of the machine work was reasonable. More than the local guy wanted, but I really wanted a Porsche expert to do it. Its not like I can just go out and buy another set of rods cheap if a mistake is made.

Until this purchase, I haven't paid COD in 30 years. I wonder why they don't accept credit cards? I would think the risk of a bounced check is much greater than that of a credit card payment...

But the work was spot on best I can tell, and turnaround was fine. Maybe the longer waits are seasonal?

[KTL]

I've bought a few sets of gears from a great fella Steve Alarcon here on the forums. Reason he does the COD, and not just because he's old school, is he wants the buyer to see the parts before paying. So if you aren't happy with what's delivered, you refuse the delivery and keep your money

I think COD also has to be certified payment and not just a personal check? My purchases with Steve were a big chunk of money so it made sense to use a cashier's check from my bank.

[Trakrat]

Ok all... latest update. I'm hoping to split the case and loosen the rods next.

Also....

I'm getting ready to ship out parts to Ollies.
I've called there twice and they are ALWAYS informative, communicative with me, and patient with all of my questions.

So I'm going to ship the following to them:

Cam Towers
Camshafts
Pistons & Cylinders
Rods
Heads
Case
Crank
Flywheel
Clutch cover
pulley wheel
fan
fan housing
valve covers
timing chain covers
oil cooler
oil pump


Pretty much the entire engine.

A few of reasons for sending them so much stuff:

1. I don't have anyone local (that I trust) who does any machine/cleaning work.
2. I've found some metallic 'dust' in my oil as its been draining from my engine, so I am going to need every oil channel cleaned thoroughly.
3. I also need some things cleaned via bead blasting. Apparently Ollies does a 2 step bead blast process that helps seal the surface to keep from corrosion.
4. As for the camshafts, they do business with Web Cams and can help communicate (translate) my idea for power delivery to Web Cams to profile them correctly.

As for #3, I contemplated just having someone local to do the media blasting. However, after searching on these forums, I found quite a few pictures of people having their fan blades pitted and broken from a poor blasting experience. I'd rather have some place that has media blasting experience with our cars to do the work.

I'm also going to send my injectors out to Advanced Fuel Injection to have them tested and cleaned.

[bpu699]

Originally Posted by KTL

I've bought a few sets of gears from a great fella Steve Alarcon here on the forums. Reason he does the COD, and not just because he's old school, is he wants the buyer to see the parts before paying. So if you aren't happy with what's delivered, you refuse the delivery and keep your money

I think COD also has to be certified payment and not just a personal check? My purchases with Steve were a big chunk of money so it made sense to use a cashier's check from my bank.

Not sure the delivery guy would b willing to let me open the package and look before paying...

I paid with a business check... wasn't a MO or cashiers check...

[Ken911]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

I hope so. My biggest fear is sending out all my parts to a machine shop and having the parts 'disappear'.
Unfortunately I have bad karma when it comes to customer service so it makes me nervous to send everything and have it left there for months.

they had my cam towers less than a week. I called in advance sent a cashiers check to cover cost and shipping they were back in a few days. Excellent work.

[Trackrash]

Sounds like a good choice on bead blasting. I was at a machinist friend of mine's shop recently who showed me a set of heads someone blasted that looked awful. Might as well have used sand on them, rough and porous looking. IMO blasting needs to be done right.

[KTL]

Wow that's a lot of heavy stuff to ship to Arizona. All that work to pack them securely (make sure to pack the heavy things like they need to be bomb proof) would make me want to coordinate a road trip vacation to Arizona!

A fantastic way to ship heads is to bolt them back-to-back on a piece of wood and that wood is sized to fit "precisely" in the box. cgarr does this for all the heads he services

[bpu699]

Originally Posted by KTL

Wow that's a lot of heavy stuff to ship to Arizona. All that work to pack them securely (make sure to pack the heavy things like they need to be bomb proof) would make me want to coordinate a road trip vacation to Arizona!

A fantastic way to ship heads is to bolt them back-to-back on a piece of wood and that wood is sized to fit "precisely" in the box. cgarr does this for all the heads he services

Recently got my heads back from Craig, he now packages them in separate cardboard boxes with packing material. Mine had the studs removed, maybe that effects packaging? Was very secure, well protected...

Surprisingly, shipping was way cheaper than I thought. I believe it was about $60 heavily insured, through FedEx. Cheaper than driving it to a machine shop in Chicago... and a better result.

[KTL]

Probably has encountered problems with the studs if the side of the box gets hit? I'm going to bring him my heads and some other stuff pretty soon. Just have to get it on the calendar and get approval from the CEW (Chief Executive Wifey) to take a day for a visit with Craig & his brother Denny for beers & pizza & laughs.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by KTL

Wow that's a lot of heavy stuff to ship to Arizona. All that work to pack them securely (make sure to pack the heavy things like they need to be bomb proof) would make me want to coordinate a road trip vacation to Arizona!

A fantastic way to ship heads is to bolt them back-to-back on a piece of wood and that wood is sized to fit "precisely" in the box. cgarr does this for all the heads he services

That's a good idea with the piece of wood used to reinforce the box.
I was planning on just reinforcing the boxes with extra cardboard and bubble wrap to keep them in place inside the box.

The only pain is shipping everything in multiple boxes and determining the insurance value on everything.

[cgarr]

The wood added to much shipping weight besides I didn’t have anymore kitchen cabinet shelves to cut up (wife is pissed) so went to double boxing I hate wood work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mikedsilva]

Originally Posted by cgarr

The wood added to much shipping weight besides I didn’t have anymore kitchen cabinet shelves to cut up (wife is pissed) so went to double boxing I hate wood work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

haha, that was funny

[Trakrat]

Finally got the case apart... Had an issue with the orange, rubber ring that was stuck on the case.
Also missed one nut that I couldn't figure out where it was... took me about 5-10 minutes of looking at every corner of the case to find it. It was covered in grime was the problem.