Seahawk 356 project:

[Racerbvd]

WOW Dennis, you are the man!!!

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Shuie

Very cool. Thanks again for sharing all of this.

Where did you learn how to work on a 356? Are there any go-to books that you can recommend for someone who has never really worked one of these cars? I trailered a numbers matching C coupe home Friday that I will be putting on a rotisserie and doing A LOT of work on. I'm sure I'll use this thread as a reference in the future, but I was wondering if there were books, websites, etc., available that are worth buying or reading?

TIA

Um....well...ahhh.............

I don't actually have any 356-specific knowledge. At least I didn't before tackling this project.

I know 911s pretty well, though, and they were designed by the same people. So was the air-cooled VW. Basically just be careful and try to pay attention to the way things come apart so that you can remember how to put them back together later. I do have some engine-specific knowledge including air-cooled experience, (rebuilt my 911), but I've learned a lot on this car. It's brilliantly and logically designed for the most part, so it's really not bad to work on. I do not know how to rebuild a transmission so that was sent-out to TRE Motorsports where they have a guy with the right skill-set and experience for the job.

Factory manuals are the best books for any mechanical job but they are very expensive and getting rare for these cars. I wish I had them. I've made due with a combination of good 356 books. My absolute favorite is the Henry Elfrink book from the 1950s, (with several updates/revisions), that I mentioned earlier on the thread. It is very close to being a factory manual and very well-written. I have the 1965 edition:





Another absolutely invaluable resource, IMO, are these compilations of 356 registry articles sold under the title, "Technical and Restoration Guide". the articles are written by guys like Vic Skirmants and Harry Pellow, (The "Maestro"), they are the most knowledgable 356 people (formerly) on earth. The other book is the "356 Performance handbook" by Duanne Spencer which has a lot of info in it as well but is not a repair manual per se.



Here is a sample of the 356 TaRG:

[speeder]

And thanks for all the kind words. I think that I'm doing a good job but I'm very slow and luckily Seahawk has not completely lost the plot on this thing. He's been very patient and understanding.

Tomorrow, I need to put the motor in my PU truck and take it to a place that works on large diesel trucks in order to get the gland nut for the flywheel torqued-down. I considered the *long pipe* method discussed in another thread but you really need a 3/4" drive socket and breaker bar, neither of which I have. I broke my 1/2" drive ratchet trying to remove an axle nut a few months ago w/ the long pipe attached. Thank you for Sears lifetime warrantees.

The gland nut is the only thing holding the flywheel on and it is not reverse-threaded, so it could un-screw itself if not sufficiently tight. That would make a loud noise on the highway. The original factory spec is 260 lbs./ft., I have a much stronger aftermarket gland nut that can be tighter. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that it should be 300+. I could go to the tire shop with the 3/4 impact but I'd have no idea what the actual torque is, so off the land of the giant torque wrench.

Here is the new gland nut, it's a chrome moly piece from Scat Enterprises that Duanne Spencer swears by in his book. It is supposedly unbreakable.


It also has a roller bearing for the pilot bushing. Overkill? Maybe but it should be quiet.

[speeder]

I read an interesting but scary story in the book of 356 Registry articles about a mysteriously over-heating engine that turned-out to have a major blockage in the oil cooler. It did not leak, (the usual way that oil coolers fail), and oil still flowed through 1/2 the cooler. The car was fine in normal driving but on a long summer journey, it over-cooked.

We have the latest/greatest 912 cooler on this engine and it looks fairly new-ish but I went nuts cleaning and testing it after reading that article. I could not find the exact capacity of the thing in any literature but that did not stop me from cc'ing it anyways and doing some strange procedures with it. First was cleaning it, very straight-forward:



Then, I cc'ed it with clean solvent and rinsed several times alternating with compressed air in both flush directions. Finally, I set it upside down for several days with clean solvent to the very brim to see if it went down any. If there was an oil clot in it, the solvent would at least permeate it over time and go down in level slightly. It never moved one beaver hair.

[speeder]

I mentioned the nice powdercoating work, here is a shot of the pulley. Porsche put nice little indents @ TDC, 5deg. and 180 from top which is TDC for the other 2 cylinders. Makes it really easy to adjust valves. I had to gently chisel the marks after the PC filled them, I put a tiny drop of paint in them to make them easier to see once the engine is together and installed. Who knows how long they'll last but they can always be re-done.



I have a major *ATTABOY* for anyone who can tell me exactly WTF these "ball-check" deals are in the valve covers. I cannot for the life of me figure out what they accomplish(?)

[speeder]

Lastly, for now, are a couple pics of the measuring I referred to earlier. This is measuring the valve/piston clearance by putting modeling clay on piston, assembling engine and turning by hand, then removing head and checking:


The clearance turned-out to be perfectly fine w/o spacers, glad I did not just put them back in. Paul paid good money for a set of 9.25:1 forged pistons, it would suck to reduce the CR unnecessarily.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by speeder

I have a major *ATTABOY* for anyone who can tell me exactly WTF these "ball-check" deals are in the valve covers. I cannot for the life of me figure out what they accomplish(?)

I think they are early positive crankcase ventilators (PCV) Rather pop the gasses past the ball-check than blow an oil seal, or worse

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by speeder

I have a major *ATTABOY* for anyone who can tell me exactly WTF these "ball-check" deals are in the valve covers. I cannot for the life of me figure out what they accomplish(?)

356Talk :: View topic - Crankcase ventilation

Shoptalkforums.com • View topic - Crankcase Breathing

And Charles Navarro wrote.
"A note about valve covers: make sure each head is vented to the air cleaner or
preferably, to a catch tank, and you use the steel reinforced valve cover gaskets,
installed just with oil, sold by Vic Skirmants at 356 Enterprises. This will save you
the hours of grief we encountered with my 1883 on the dyno, sucking in valve
cover gaskets..."

Just trying to help.

[Zeke]

Forgot the credit for Charles at L&N Engineering.
http://www.lnengineering.com/hotrod356.pdf

[speeder]

Thanks, I just can't see where they vent to. I'll have to take a closer look at them.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Paul is going to have one hell of a car when you're done Denis.

[YTNUKLR]

I need a facebook "like" button. I'm kind of speechless.

[Rufblackbird]

absolutely amazing...waiting for the next installment on the torsion tube cleaning

[speeder]

Didn't get a lot done today except for getting the gland nut torqued-down. Some smart friend suggested that I needed to take the engine to a place that works on semi trucks and other large diesels to find the big 3/4" torque wrench for the job. The factory spec is 260 lbs./ft. and the current wisdom from some respected engine builders is to go tighter, as long as you use the right gland nut. The SCAT chrome moly one we're using is supposedly unbreakable, I am not willing to test that claim but I decided that it will be 300+ lbs.

Believe it or not, this is less than at least one builder recommends. I remembered that the only big truck shop I know of happens to be owned by a very respected Porsche guy, Marty Metarian. He is the chief driving instructor for POC, (the racing org. that runs the best school/licensing program in SoCal), and He had helped me out in the past when I rebuilt my Powerstroke diesel. I called him up today.

"Hey Marty, do you have a really large 3/4" torque wrench?"

"Yes."

"How high does it go?"

"I think that one of them goes to 600 lbs./ft."

"That'll do."

So I put the 356 engine in the back of my truck and drove out to Van Nuys to Von's Diesel Repair. Here is the torque wrench:




I kneeled on the opposite side of the motor and he asked me how much torque.

"300."

"Click-click".

[speeder]

That's an expensive tool.

[Rick Lee]

That wrench looks sickly expensive.

[speeder]

Almost certainly worth more than my truck.

[Flieger]

Glad you found a tool that worked out for you.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by speeder

Almost certainly worth more than my truck.

Denis, I'll trade you a brand new Snap On TQR600E (the exact one you pictured) for your *sweet* Nissan/Datsun King Cab

Deal?????

[maxnine11]

re: BFTW
bid away ! Snap On TQR600C 3/4 Torque Wrench L872 With Case 600LB - eBay (item 230562501582 end time Dec-18-10 16:50:08 PST) if you just have to have one .
I think they are a little under a thou new from Snap On

Denis, somehow i missed this thread until now.
Thanks for the very informative and entertaining posts.
You are doing a great job.

Good luck with the rest of the project!

max