The end of the timing chain saga

[Rich911E]

Well, for those of you who have been following my weirdnesses about redoing my timing chains, I can report I spent the last two nights replacing the timing chains and it seems to have worked! Thanks again for all the help. I turns out that the newer factory master link timing chains did the trick and took up all of the excess slack.

Things I learned:

1. You cannot put the chains on the cam sprockets without turning them, so forget my last post about trying to do this without turning the cams.

2. There is NO way to do this without retiming the cams.

3. You do not have to remove the cam boxes, but it does make feeding the chain a lot easier (did one each way).

4. RETIMING THE CAMS IS A PIECE OF CAKE! To think I was worried about doing this makes me more mad than anything else! Anybody with and IQ above 30 can do this in about an hour!

5. If you turn the camshafts 45 degrees outboard on each side (when it is at the firing positions for #1 and #4 respectively) you can rotate the engine without hitting the pistons. (At least on this engine and supposedly on the later Carreras as well).

6. I found an instruction that says to make sure the closed end of the new master link is pointing in the direction of the chain travel. Don't know why, but it said it was important and so I did it.

7. John Walker is always right!

Thanks for all the help. If anybody else has any questions, I'll try to answer. The bottom line is the cam timing is a piece of cake, so if you have any hestiation about rebuilding a motor because of this, forget it.

Rich

[82SC]

good to hear it worked out!!!!

wait...in your last thread I suggested, from personal experience, it might take a couple tries and a few hours to do your first cam timing....

so I have a sub-30 IQ????

hahaha...just kidding...I like to hear sucess stories

MJ

[kstylianos]

Rich,

Glad you found the problem.

The reason for installing the masterlink in that fashion is in the freak event of the ML hitting something in the chain case. If the open end faces the rotation of travel, it's possible that it could pop off. Maybe a non-issue w/ Porsche engines where the slack of the chains are constantly being taken up by the tensioners, but this is common practice on mororcycles where the chains constanly loose slack and flop around.

[keitho64]

Rich

GREAT NEWS! Glad to hear it worked out. Every time I went to call you this weekend something else seemed to happen.

So how many miles have you put on it? How is it running? Did you drive it to work today?

I am glad to hear this worked out and you can enjoy the car again. Now drive it, drive it, drive it and DO NOT WORRY!

[Superman]

Yep. John sure is.

[APKhaos]

Studley work Rich.
You had some of us worried when you started hacking the chain case to clear the floppy chain!! Great to hear that you got it done right, and looking forward to hearing about you rocketing down the road with your new donk screaming behind you. Rebuilders know there is nothing better!

[Doug Zielke]

#7
In John We Trust!

[Superman]

And congratulations on a fairly difficult project. Not one I'd want to do for fun. And I agree that cam timing is a cake walk unless of course, you're doing it wrong.

[Rich911E]

Thanks all for the encouragement and advice. I am looking forward to getting the finishing touches put on it and driving it. I will take it out tonight after work for a quick drive, get everything up to operating temperatures for a while, and set the carbs.

MJ: Thanks. I have the sub-30 IQ for worrying about so much an bugging the guys on this board with what amounted to me being a chicken for no reason!

Tony: I know the hacking the case was hokey, but hey, it sorta worked (NOT!).

Keith: I am not going to let you out of town next time without finishing these projects! Would have been more fun with you here. But now I have no excuse for not rebuilding the 2.4 and 2.0 liter motors! See you in a week or so in ChiTown. Any news on a Pelicanhead day away from my relatives?

Charlie: Thanks for the info on the link direction. That makes sense.

Superman: It wasn't the easiest project, but the worst part was worrying about the silly cam timing and trying to avoid it when it turned out to be the easiest part of the whole project. Getting the cam box on and off was more time consuming.

Thanks again for all of your help and advice.

Rich

[Wayne 962]

So it seems like a very loose chain was the problem - most likely caused by those mechanical chain tensioners...

-Wayne

[ttweed]

So Rich- are you going to bring it out to the 5/24 autox at the Q? Let's rock and roll!

TT

[Rich911E]

Wayne: Yup the chains were definitely stretched. As you say, most likely by the mechanical tensioners.

Tom: I would love to but I am having the fun of visiting relatives in Chicago. Hopefully, I will be getting together with other PelicanHeads back in Chicago for a day out. Perhaps the Go-Kart track with some guys back home. I hope to get it there soon.

Rich

[ttweed]

Originally posted by Rich911E
Tom: I would love to but I am having the fun of visiting relatives in Chicago.

Well, family should come first, and at least you will be able to find some good pizza there.

There's another one in July- maybe then...
TT

[Rich911E]

Well, I figured I would give you guys who have suffered through this ordeal an update.

I spent the weekend getting the car tuned up and the carbs balanced, setting the timing, etc. and it really goes! MUCH more power than the old 2.0 engine and HUGE amounts of torque down low which you really feel in the back of the seat. It really comes off the corners much harder and pulls easily uphill in 4th gear which is something the smaller engine never did. No G-Tech numbers yet, but the butt-o-meter provides a 0-60 in the low 6 second range. The exhaust is clean and no leaks!

For review and for other interested 2.7 swappers:

GENERAL: The car is a 1969 chassis with a 901 gearbox and 215 mm clutch. The clutch seems fine with the power but no reliability data yet. I got info that this is what others are using with their 914/6s and even 914/V8s so it should handle this relatively mild motor. The engine fit just fine (of course) and there were no issues with it fitting in and hooking up. (The cam chains were another issue!) The car now has the Carrera hydraulic chain tensioners and new master link timing chains from Porsche. I also used the newer oil restrictors to the cam boxes. Setting the cam timing was quite easy.

ENGINE SETTINGS: The engine is a 1977 2.7S motor with the stock 1977 CIS S cams (PN14430L/14440R) and headers and single outlet SS Bischoff muffler. It has 40IDA3C webers mounted on the PMO manifolds which are special to this application. I did go with the PMO carburetor settings (thanks PMO) and they seem to be just about perfect. I have posted these before, but since I am recapping here:

Idle Jets = 60
Main Jets = 135
Air Correctors = 180
Emulsion Tubes = F26

The venturis are still the 30 mm venturis but PMO suggested should be 32's but I haven't gotten them yet. I used the factory air cleaner assembly (it seems to work as good or better than the watershields to me and it has a place for the breather hose).

IGNITION: I am using the stock distributor and points but have a Mallory Hy-Fyre (like MSD) box. I am running the NGK BP5ES spark plugs (PMO suggestion) gapped at 0.035". Ignition timing is at the factory setting of zero degrees (Z1) with the vacuum advance connected (that's what it says on the fan shroud!). Hooking up the vacuum advance substantially improved the low speed drivability (from stoplights, etc.).

HEAT: I am currently running only the engine oil cooler which many have raised as probably insufficient while others have said it would be OK. The heat problem doesn't seem to be an issue so far. I drove it around quite a bit yesterday (it was pretty warm, in the 70s) and got on it a bit and it stayed right at 180 degrees. As I said earlier, I took pains to make sure I ducted as much air as possible to the oil cooler and minimized any leaks around the shroud and since I am running headers I blocked off the places where the air goes to the heat exchangers. I also used the larger diameter 2.7 liter crank pulley and the stock alternator pulley from the 2.0 to speed up the fan a bit and used a 245mm fan belt. I don't know how much this helps, but it seems to be OK for the moment in the limited amount I have driven it. I will add the front mounted oil cooler to be safe soon and before any track events plus it puts another quart of oil in the system.

Thanks again to all the people who offered their encouragement and support and ideas. If I have left out anything or have any questions, please drop me a line. I will post real numbers when I get them along with some MPG and driving impressions.

Rich