[targasc1980]

Hi. I just want to share the story of my summer long undertaking, and where it stands now. I'm a student, and I go to school 300 miles from home. While I was home for Thanksgiving, I discovered some broken head studs in my Dad's 1980 SC that he hasn't touched for years.

So I decided that when I came home for summer I would take it down to the case and do a top end overhaul, as the engine had 130,000 miles. The process was really great fun, and I enjoyed it the entire time.

I ended up having to split the case, because as my machinist(he did a full valve job for me) and I were removing the studs together, one of them broke right at the case, so he had to drill it out. My machinist said the bearings looked great, so I reused them and left the rods on the crank.

Assembly went pretty smoothly, except for one thing: I used a brand new torque wrench when tightening down the case perimeter bolts, and I didn't realize how subtle its click is. I overtightened one of the nuts right next to the sump, and totally stripped it, so it wouldn't hold any torque, and I couldn't get it off because it just spun on the stud. I called a local Porsche mechanic I know, and his opinion was that if we replaced the stud and nut and torqued them down, that it wouldn't leak. In retrospect, I should have just separated the case halves, and started again. But instead, the mechanic welded the nut to the stud so we could take them both out, and replaced it with a new stud.
My goal was to be able to drive the car before I went to school, and I was really set on it. After so so much effort trying to finish the thing before I left, when I started it up, it started leaking from the whole section of the case parting line near the stud that wasn't torqued when it sealed.

I was pretty disappointed, as now I'll probably have to do pretty much the whole process over again before the car is ever ready for the road. I kind of feel like I failed, after putting in so much time, but it doesn't help to think like that. I did have a lot of fun, and I'll probably do a lot more of an actual overhaul this time rather than just a repair. I found myself wishing I did these things as I was finishing up the project. New bearings, rod bolts, check all the con rod bushings and rocker arm bushings, etc...

Anyways, thought I'd share. Does anyone have any ideas of how to fix the problem without taking the whole thing apart again? I know I could try snugging up the nuts a little tighter but I'm not very confident that that would work. Either way I won't be able to try anything until I go home for Thanksgiving.