How to buy your 911 twice, one box at a time...

[schnellmann]

Part I - Introduction

This thread is my attempt to give back to this forum in some small way. I’ve taken far more than I have given over the past 3+ years, and I’d like to start to turn that around by documenting some of my successes and failures. And while nothing in this thread is will technically ground-breaking, I hope it’s entertaining for you and informative for both of us. Plus, I’m counting on you guys to check my work. More in that later…

In the past year I’ve undertaken a number of major projects on my 1988 Carrera including a complete suspension refresh, a number of “while you’re in there” projects and the project currently draining my wallet and soaking up time - the total rebuild of my tired 3.2 into a 3.4L twin-plugged hot rod.

It all started in June 2004 when I bought my Carrera. I’m ashamed to admit I never introduced myself to the board at the time. I never even posted any pics of my car. It was poor form, to be sure. I can’t even really say I did it on purpose, because I didn’t even realize the faux pas I had committed until a few weeks after my purchase, and by then it seemed too late. But they say better late than never, so here I am in my best Jack Olson pose:



I won’t post any gratuitous pics of showing the svelte and glowing curves of my 911’s fenders - at least not yet. I think those should come at the triumphant (hopefully) end of this story, and we have a way to go yet.

[schnellmann]

So now that we’ve been properly introduced, and before we get to the main event, let me tell you a little about the suspension refresh. Pretty much every piece of rubber in my 167K mile suspension was weary and weak. All the rubber was deformed and cracking, the torsion bars were soft and sagging just a bit and after a half dozen of track days (yeah, it’s kinda like heroin) I knew something had to be done. So it’s something I did…

I’ll summarize the parts I replaced:

• Bilstein HDs (F), Bilstein Sports (R) replaced the leaking and creaking Boges.
• Sanders Engineering hollow t-bars (21mm/28mm) replaced the soft and sagging originals
• Elephant Racing Polybronze bearings replaced the deformed and cracking rubber at both ends of the front control arms.
• Elephant Racing monoballs replaced the deformed and cracking rubber at the top of the struts.
• Elephant Racing triangulated strut brace.
• Elephant Racing Polybronze bearings replaced the ovalized bushings in the spring plates, and Elephant Racing monoballs are now at the little end of the trailing arms as well.

This was a monster job. It took me about 6 weekends to do it all, and it was grimy, greasy, back-breaking work. That said, none of it was particularly difficult to figure out. Chuck Moreland at ER is awesome, and his stuff is top-notch, as are his instructions. It’s just a lot of twisting, scraping, heating, swearing, and fretting. I’m not intending to post any pictures because this same type of project has been posted dozens of times before. But I will enumerate a list of things I wish I’d known before I started but found out along the way (after lots of research and questions).

Lesson #1: if you have a G50 and you want to replace the trailing arm bushings (neatrix, ER, rubber or whatever) forget about trying to do it with the motor in the car. I tried. And tried. And tried. Nope. On the passenger side, there’s pretty much no way to get a 22mm socket on the nut that holds the arm in place. Actually, there is enough room for the socket, but not for the breaker bar you’re going to need to twist it. Impact socket with u-joint extension? Nope. Offset box-end wrench? Yes, but I don’t have a lift and there was no way I was going to get enough torque on that thing laying on my back. And even if you get the passenger trailing arm out, you need to get the driver’s side out too. And on the driver’s side, there’s even less room because of a half dozen lines and cables.

Bottom Line: If you have a G50 car, just drop the engine and transmission and have the trailing arms out in 15 minutes or less. I spent 3 days trying to get those damn trailing arms out of the car with the engine in, mostly because I was too chicken to take it out. But as it turns out, engine drops really are not that big of a deal, even by yourself. It just takes some patience and a Bently and/or Wayne’s book. I used both. 


Lesson #2: Oil return lines can be REALLY hard to remove. Feeling a sense of both elation that I was moving ahead and fear that I was about to take the insides out of my beloved 911 and put them out the outside, I began disconnecting lines and wires in preparation for the drop. The last thing I had to disconnect was the engine oil hard line at the back of the motor.

This one:


I don’t think that line had been disconnected in, well, forever because that thing was *stuck*. After 2 cans of PB blaster, one MAPP gas canister, one totally bent and scarred 36mm Pelican oil line wrench, a 24inch pipe wrench, a 15” crescent wrench and 3 Dremel cut off wheels (don’t ask) I sank to a new emotional low. Not only could I not disconnect the hard line, but because counter-holding the hard line while twisting the rubber line’s 36mm nut is next to impossible, I’d completely crimped the hard line, so I knew I’d be needing another one. Oh well, one more $100 bill bites the dust. And not only would I need another line, but I’d be acquainting myself with my extremely rusty heat exchanger barrel nuts as well. Ugh.

Bottom Line: After several beers and some sleep I had an idea… why not just disconnect the line at the thermostat!?! 5 minutes later, the line was off. Counter-holding the hard line in mid air while trying to apply enough torque to loosen the 36mm nut is next to impossible if your line has not been disconnected in a while. If you have a front oil cooler, consider disconnecting the same line at the thermostat instead. You have to counter hold the line there as well, but at least it’s supported, if just barely. You have to be careful as the thermostat is aluminum and you can break it. I used a block of wood wedged between the body and the thermostat to keep it from bending and flexing. Also, the thermostat threads gall pretty easily, so you do run the risk of ruining it simply by taking the oil line off, but it may be your best/fastest/only option.


All in all, the front rebuild was a piece of cake compared to the back rebuild. But I did get a chance to adjust the valves, clean up the transmission, replace the CHT sensor, delete the AC (everything – I never bothered to charge it anyway) , replace the leaking breather gasket and a couple other hard-to-get-to vacuum lines “while I was in there.”

Was it worth all the work and expense? Hell, yeah! It was like driving a totally different car. At the track, between this work and my new Toyo RA-1s, it was like night and day. I’ve only had 2 track days on this setup so far, so after I have a couple more I’ll post some more in depth opinions and Lessons Learned.

Of course, now that I have my 16x7 and 16x9 Fuchs shod in Toyos, which are not so good for street miles, I needed to get another set of wheels. What will I get? Fikses? Nope. Lindseys? Nope - Rota Foxes! Subydude and UPS says they are on the way. This is one of the reasons the gratuitous glamour shots will come at the end.

Now, if you need an even better view of my flailing slide down the steep, slippery slopes of Mt. Porsche, read on…

[schnellmann]

As I think I said before, my car now has 167K on the odometer. I have about 4 inches worth of paperwork for my car – it’s always been very well taken care of. When I bought it at 150K, I had a leak-down done on the motor. All cylinders were between 5-8% COLD. Not bad… not bad at all. In fact, I’m not sure it gets better than that.

But I was starting to use a fair amount of oil… maybe one quart every 900-1000 miles. When at the track, I can see some blue smoke when I decelerate and when I shift at, say, 6000 RPM the guy behind me gets the (lightweight) James Bond treatment. Yep, you guessed it folks, it’s the exhaust guides. How do I know? You mean besides the smoke? Well, remember when I replaced my engine oil line I had to remove the driver’s side heat exchanger to do it. I peeked up at the exhaust valves, and they had a fair bit of black crust on them, as well as some carbon caking in the header pipes themselves.

But not only that, I have a high mileage motor that I am driving the snot out of at the track more and more often. How long before I miss a shift? Will the 18 year-old springs keep the valves off the pistons? How many times can I bump the rev limiter before one of the original 9mm rod bolts commits a violent suicide?
But most importantly, how the hell can I (almost) keep up with the 993s and the RS Americas at the track?

Must… have… more… power.

I considered my options at length. Rebuild or transplant? Transplant or rebuild? Let’s see… I can get a 964 engine in “low mileage” but still unknown condition with a transplant kit and a new exhaust set up for around $9500. Or, I can get a Varioram and all the accoutrements for around $11,000. I read and read and read. I even called the good Dr. Timmins for prices and availability. He had both a 964s and 993s available… all “low mileage.” Damn. Be careful what you ask for. I waffled. I vacillated. I flipped, and then I flipped again.

But in the end, I couldn’t do it. I just could not fork over 10-11 large for a motor in unknown condition. I know it makes all the difference who you buy from, but still… I didn’t want to end up in this situation. The link is below, but all you really need to read is the first sentence:

“Well, I wasn't planning on doing a rebuild.” Go here for the whole tale - 964 3.6l Engine Rebuild

Plus, I’ve secretly (as far as my wife is concerned) wanted to rebuild my motor myself. So one day I last September I just decided to jump in with both feet. Hell, I’d already had the engine out a couple of times… how hard could rebuilding it be? ;-)
So after a ton of research and a number of phone calls and emails to this forum’s go-to guys (JW, Steve Weiner, Henry Schmidt, Steve Wong and John Dougherty) I came up with a plan:

• Retain the Motronic system (I still have to pass emissions for a few more years)
• Dougherty’s DC-19 Cam grind (Motronic-friendly, slightly hotter than the 964 grind)
• Dougherty’s performance valve springs
• Twin plugs via a 964 distributor and Andial splitter
• 98mm pistons and cylinders, <=10:1 compression
• Raceware rod bolts
• Carrera HEs with a Dansk pre-muffler and an M & K 1in/1out

So I made what was to be the first of about a dozen orders to Pelican about 8 weeks ago, and I then began the removal, teardown and cleanup. It’s been a long, greasy, grimy and occasionally tedious road (I’ve spent days and days in front of my HF ultrasonic parts cleaner now). But I am almost ready to begin the build.

I have all parts except the pistons and cylinders in my possession, and what I don’t have is (finally) on the way. The case, rods and crank are at the machine shop now. My parts are organized and clean, and I have begun installing the twin plug electronics. Finally, I catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel…

I’ll wrap up this post with some pictures of my progress to date:

Motor coming out:
[img]http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads11/IMG_63791196045953.jpg
[/img]



On the stand. Damn... Alusils (I knew before I opened it):


Pretty clean in there. You can tell it's had a lot of Castrol from the golden hue, I'm told:


Crank & bearings looks pretty darn good:



The insides are now on the outside:


Now the fun really begins. My "cleaned and ready" parts cache:


Fast forward to the completed heads and the newly rebuilt dizzy. They tell me two holes are better than one:


Cams and refurb'd rockers:


The Andial splitter's all wired in:



In the next installment, I'll post my progress and some gratuitous interior shots...

[ischmitz]

Very nice - subscribed....

[Shaun @ Tru6]

impressed! sub'd for the whole story. curious about using stock Carrera heat exchangers. always thought they were a limiting factor in hp gains.

[Pkaaso]

Very nice work.
I'm along for the ride.

[SCWDP911]

Can't wait nto see the whole enhilada

[schnellmann]

Shaun,

It's probably true about the carrera HEs being a limiting factor. But I'm going to try them for now. I already have the Dansk premuffler and M & K. Plus emissions testing is still a factor for me, sadly. With this setup, I can swap in the stock cat in 30 mins or so every two years.

I have it on good authority that SSIs are too small (1.5" primaries, carrera HEs = 1.675" primaries with with a big difference in exhaust path length L/R).

So basically, that leaves me only the really expensive options as I need to keep my heat. Even though I am in Seattle, it has been in the upper 20s the last few mornings and I like seeing out my windshield as I drive.

My need for heat leaves me only a few options I am aware of. From a cost perspective, at this point I am looking at getting a set of 993 HEs and flipping the flanges. Then I'd get a a flowmaster or dynomax, or possibly the B & B stainless setup. But I hear a lot of bad things about their mufflers.

Probably whatever setup I end up using for the non-emissions times I'll end up having to get pipes fabbed for a muffler.

On second thought... anyone know where I can rent a mandrel bender?

[Blanco]

very nice... I'll stay tuned after these brief commercials.

[SCWDP911]

Is there more info on another thread someone could share about the 993 HE's? I had not heard of that mod before.

[Wayne 962]

Very cool, you're making a run at my job!

-Wayne

[deshetlr]

I took this off a thread earlier this week. This system looks impressive. Don't know about performance however. It may be a nice alternative to SSIs.

[450knotOffice]

Great read, Troy!! I'm going to watch this intently.

[schnellmann]

Scott,

Funny, I saw those earlier today or maybe it was yesterday. They look great... impressive in fact... but I think the price was like 1800 GBP. That would put them north of $3600 not including shipping, etc. Yikes.

I can still get a set of 993 HEs, flip the flanges, get a muffler and have pipes fabbed for less than $1000. Even new the 993 HEs are not nearly as shiny as those things are, though.

[burgermeister]

subscribed. I will live vicariously through this thread what time, family and budget won't permit for a few years yet ...

[DCinVA]

Good story. When my 3.2 rebuild time comes along, I too will be considering a few upgrades, like a set of 3.4 P&C's, cams, etc. I will be following along to see how this turns out.
Thanks for sharing !

[Joe Bob]

Originally Posted by v8_ranch

Is there more info on another thread someone could share about the 993 HE's? I had not heard of that mod before.

Arrrrgh, thread hijack.....What do you need to know?

993 HEs are larger tubed than the SSIs HEs commonly used on back dating the 2.7, 3.0 and 3.2s so that they can use a dual in banana muffler. There is a HP gain for the 2.7 and 3.0....not much for the 3.2.

It's a bit hard to plumb in a cat but it CAN be done. I have posted pics of my custom set up a few times....

The 993 HEs need to have one side exhaust port/head flanges re-oriented so that they fit. Ingo has access to a jig to have them done. The prices on the 993 HEs have gone up of late.....so look around.

[ianc]

Excellent thread and very well-written; a pleasure to read!

Waiting for more!

ianc

[schnellmann]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I'll try to post a new "episode" or two each week.

[911boost]

Very nice work Troy. I am interested in your progress.

Bill