Pelican Parts Forums - Engine Pull install rebuild lessons learned

Someone told me there are a million mistakes to be made rebuilding a 911, I made some of course.

Did all the wrenching myself (except the tranny rebuild). Had lots of help in answering my questions here and from a secret guru. I am taking about a '78 SC motor here.

Here are my lessons learned:

1.) Be sure to disconnect the throttle cable from the bell housing on the tranny!
I bent my bell housing, and messed up my throttle rod bushings. Car still worked fine when done, but working on accelerator rod/bushings now :o

2.) Same for the speedometer line on the transmission (disconnect it). No harm done with mine except I worried if I'd messed it up.

3.). I took lots of photos, maybe take twice as many as you think you need.

4.) The air cooling tin on the cylinders were a bit confusing to me. I took photos of the installed original, good to take some additional ones along the disassembly steps. I got mine in wrong once and corrected it. I checked them against home alone 3.0 post (#17)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-engine-rebuilding-forum/866572-home-alone-3-0-a.html

5.) I needed to install my crank on the flywheel in order to get the swing 90 torque on the rod bolt closest to me. Probably could have found another way had I not been worried about the stretch. Of course since I did not get to the final stretch with the crank laying on the table all was well anyway.

6.) I had an allen socket fall apart and it went down the spark plug hole while I was tightening an allen nut on the cam holders! Get good tools, the ones with allens nuts to hold in the allen wrench in the socket are not the best.

7.) I lost track of the hose on the back of the air boot and it was pinched in back some. This caused me some difficulty in moving the engine and tranny about to align with the mounting holes. Keep your eyes on this hose or take it off and add on later.

8.) I spent too much time looking for my parts, my organization method might have been better thought out. (Complicated by tear down for painting too)

9.) The clips on the JE pistons take just the right technique to insert them with the stomski tool. Can't imagine doing it with anything else.

10.) Watch for the clip on the ball on the throttle assembly on top of the engine. Part similar to 6a in the PET.

11.) Do new bushings on the throttle assembly with the engine out, mine seemed okay so I left them, might have been the wrong idea.

12.) Be sure to lube the fingers which go into the throw out bearing and inside the throw out groove too. I bought a tube of the sach's lube!

13.) buy a scope-wifi-camera, it was a life saver for my sanity. My memory is not as good as it was 40 years ago. I could check and be sure I did what I thought. Nice one for 40 bucks.

14.) I found the stomski tool very helpful for checking the chain orientation (cam shims). Even with the tool and some pretty good calipers, I needed to check the distances many times to be confident, I was right.

15.) Loved the repeatability of the Stomski tool for setting up the dial gauge for cam timing, and get a digital gauge if it's your first time. They are not that expensive.

16.) I was surprised the JE piston ring set for my car were not already at the right gaps. I had to file all them except for the oil rings. Get the tool for it, forget about the filing method if your a novice like me. Fifty bucks for the tool for filing rings

17.) I have a leak in from my oil fed tensioner covers, thinking I should have planed the cover flat (against glass) as suggested, I just went with the gasket and some 574 on it. It leaks some once the engine gets warm, maybe it will correct itself when I switch from the "skiny" 5-30 wt breakin oil to 20-50 oil.

18.) I found one of my rocker shafts got stuck after I tightened it to the recommended torque. I did not realize it at first, somehow I did not bend anything, just double check the rocker motion after tightening the shafts.

19.) I found the 3M o-ring stuff, was great for install of my RSR seals. Never tore one so I sent my extras off to a friend.

20.) ask all the dumb questions you can, you learn a lot

21.) Pay close attention to the routing of the fuel injection lines around the heater motor. I got a bit confused and routed them wrong at first. My photos here were not great either.

Lessons taught:

23.) Put some permatex gasket sealer on the seals for the oil pump (just a tad) to keep them in place when mating up the case halves.

24.) Send your oil pump off to supertec to have the flow increased

25.) You can use an air wrench to spin off the large nuts on the SC cams, but will need a torque wrench to get them on correctly (for me, Ive got 964 nuts now, any one need a giant socket :D).

26.) Removing the key in the cam is a snap with some cutter pliers (much easier than a screwdriver for me)

27.) There are pictures of the through bolts in the wrong orientations around. The acorn nuts go on the (I have to go look) 1,2,3 side (except for the ones in the oil cooler area).
This orientation best matches the machining recess for the o-rings IIRC.

28.) perform multiple trial runs of putting your case halves together (without the sealant). Get some help holding the chain up with an allen wrench, one time the chain got a bit pinched and I could not determine why it would not close up!

29.) of course read the books and research here on the forum too

Now that I've completed the 911 rebuild, it's time to rebuild a VW engine ;)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!