So, picking up where we left off, it is spring of 2021, the 911 is a roller, the Canucks are trash and the engine is in a series of boxes.

My stomach still has butterflies thinking about the next steps that were about to be undertaken.

I had read Wayne's engine building bible a few times, scoured the forums, gotten sucked into the black hole of the "Sealant Thread" and watched the incredible Canary Files a few times.

I was as ready as I would ever be to do my first engine assembly. Sure, I'd changed head gaskets and adjusted valves on my race bikes, degreed cams and measured P to V, etc. but never a full rebuild.

First thing I did was diligently clean the crank in preparation of reinstalling the distributor and timing gears.

Ensuring my wife was gone for a few hours (the #1 key to any successful rebuild) I grabbed a baking tin, some 10-30 and fired up the BBQ to heat the gears in their oil bath.

Much success, zero fires and 1 completed crankshaft was ready for rods.

Vancouver Dry-Ice blasted my transmission for me. Peter and Ludo are really good guys. Peter has a number of exceptional Porsches.

Cool, I reached out to them over the holidays but didn't hear back. I will be more tenacious as it's time to bring the sexy back to the underside of my car.

instagram works best.

Back from a hiatus of reinstalling wiring and trying to catch up on other work.

So, as we have seen, the mud daubers did a real number on the whole car including the heads and engine cases. The heads were so bad I had to pay a cleaning surcharge as part of the rebuild.

The engine cases went through the washer at the machine shop 3 times and did not come clean.

There was an attempt at dry ice blasting and that didn't work.

I then took the cases to the Langley U-Blast where I spent 25 minutes using the Soda Blaster in the ModUBlast cabinet on just the outside of one of the case halves.

I was using Soda for fear of contaminating the oil passages with anything other than Soda.

This was the result of my efforts.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643599297.jpg


Seriously, this stuff is basically concrete.

At this point, I had 2 choices. 1 - Leave the cases as is (lame) of 2 - change to a more aggressive media (yikes).

I'm not a very smart man, so naturally I chose a more aggressive media and used glass beads as that was what was on hand.

Following glass beading, I pulled all the oil gallery plugs and used compressed air to blow out all the passages.

Fueled by paranoia, I spent the next 2 days cleaning and recleaning the cases. I used a simple green and water mix, scrub brushes, bottle brushes etc. to try and clean every nook and cranny. I soaked the cases, switching from one clean tub of water to the next. I power washed inside and outside, spraying out all the oil passages.

I repeated the whole process at least 10 times.

To speak frankly, I was f*cking scared of ruining the motor with blasting debris.

The end result of all the cleaning work was that I was now ready to begin assembly of my 3.2SS street motor.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643600951.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643600951.jpg

Standard Glyco main bearings were fitted to the cleaned case.

I was about to install the Glyco intermediate shaft bearing set I had, but they a slight amount of corrosion, likely from sitting, so I picked up a set of bearings from my local Porsche dealer.

As noted earlier, I had already installed the rebuilt rods to the crankshaft. For the rods I used Clevite 77 tri-metal bearings and ARP rod bolts.

I was making progress, but also still quite nervous.

I carefully laid out all my tools, torque specs, fasteners, sealants, books, bible, O-rings, seals and gaskets and felt as confident as I ever would be.

I had read Wayne's book a few times, as well as the sealant thread and felt as good as could be expected.

I ultimately landed on using Hondabond on the case perimeter mostly because it was a material I was familiar with from use in Powersports.

I was able to source small packets of Dow 55 for the O-rings from a coffee supply house in Canada. Basically the size of a ketchup packet, it was perfect.

Here goes nothing!!


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643602240.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643602240.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643602240.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643602240.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643602240.jpg

I didn't take a lot of pictures during the engine assembly, mostly because I was pretty focused on getting the bolts torqued in the right sequence etc.

With the case halves bolted together, I installed the Supertec studs and got the pistons and cylinders installed.

One thing I thought was pretty interesting was the consistency and quality of the Mahle Motorsports. IIRC, the weight difference from the heaviest to the lightest piston was a difference of 0.6 of a gram. In addition, I didn't need to file a single piston ring as they were all in spec and all had an identical ring gap (each measured with their own cylinder).

Pretty boring pictures, but its amazing to me just how nice the heads cleaned up. I didn't worry about having the heads ported, but the ports were cleaned up a little bit just as part of the rebuild process.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643615482.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643615482.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643615482.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643615482.jpg

A clean engine assembly is a beautiful thing...

For those wondering, the small plug in the bottom of the head was to block off the air injection ports that previously lived there.

Great story so far!
Any chance you still have the engine yoke? I'm rebuilding my 2.4E...

what o rings have you used on the engine case through bolt, hopefully green Viton ,right?
ivan

I do. It will be for sale. I see you are in Edmonton, send me a PM and we can work something out. I also have an engine stand if you don't already have one.

Correct - all O rings were Green Viton. Same as Oil pump. Crank seal was Viton from Kaco. RSR rocker seals from Wrightwood.

I used green viton wherever I could.

Oh, and I'm not saying the previous owner was riding the clutch, I'm just saying it got a wee bit toasty....

Luckily I had sourced a new flywheel and Stage 2 KEP aluminum pressure plate to hold all that POWAH!!!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643677433.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643677433.jpg

Seeing how nicely the cerakoted wheels and door handles that I got from Jonny042 turned out, I thought I would give it a whirl.

I picked up some materials from Cerakote in Oregon and had them shipped to the great white north.

I used the bake on finish, but since I didn't want to be murdered or divorced, I had to improvise. Luckily, Costco was made for just such an occasion.

I measured the dimensions of the fan, fan housing, valve covers and timing covers and found an 8 slice toaster over that would do the trick. $80 and an hour later I am ready to make some bad decisions.

I tackled the valve covers and timing covers first.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643728647.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643728647.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643728647.jpg

Cerakote is great and quickly becoming my new friend. I have that exact same oven, also! Hahaha...

Next step was to grab some square stock steel and sand paper so I could highlight the Porsche lettering and valve cover ribs.

I used bolts on the lower covers as there was some interference with the headers.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643730421.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643730421.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643730421.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643730421.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643730421.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643730421.jpg

I used a slightly contrasting colour on the fan.

I was really going after a look that was subtle, complimented the Chalk paint, and looked like it *could* have come from the factory.

From the start, the theme of the build was a cross between a gentleman's hotrod and a GT3 Touring (if it existed in 1979).

At the end of the day, I'm learning lots and enjoying most of the process.

Here's the motor all buttoned up with the 46mm PMO carbs and Clewett twin plug goodies mounted on top.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643731384.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643731384.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643731384.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643731384.jpg

Outer shroud is same colour as valve covers. Fan as you can see above is slightly different shade.

Your concept and execution here are superb imho. Wonderful result

That looks great. How did you prep the fan and housing? Soda or more glass beads?

Mark

Great work!!

Fan and housing was fine aluminum oxide.

Jb weld to fill the pits and corrosion, hand sand, cerakote

My gauge bezels had some corrosion from the moisture that was sitting in the car.

I disassembled all the gauges, cleaned the glass then very carefully media blasted the bezels in my small blaster at home with fine crushed glass.

I then used the same cerakote as the fan blades to coat the bezels.

I'm leaving the dash painted, so this is close to the installed look. The flash on the camera makes the colour look much more bronze then it actually is.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643757997.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643757997.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643757997.jpg

You are a brave brave Pelican. Isn’t it amazing how lovely 911s look despite all that nastiness lurking underneath! I agree with previous post, best post so far in 2022. Thanks for the browsing pleasure and Porsche fix!

So moving into the interior, after much research, I ordered an RSR carpet kit from Lakewell in the original black sliverknit material.

I've come to realize that some of the higher end/more respected suppliers aren't always the most DIY friendly solutions. The carpet kit from Lakewell was just such a product.

The quality of the material is excellent, but the instructions are non-existent. None of the pieces are labeled and none of the instructions are provided. I followed up with them and they told me to watch the videos on their Youtube channel.

2 problems with that "solution":

#1 - The video is not of an RSR kit, so the tricky parts that are around the rear seat area was not helpful. Their RSR kit does not contemplate retaining the rear trim panels.

#2 - The video quality is so poor it is basically useless. The lighting is extremely dim and it looks like it was recorded using a 1980s offbrand camcorder.

See for yourself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLCUjCgsWQw

I had also ordered a full interior from Carbone, including new Nurburgring seats, rear seat bottoms, dash trim, front RSR door panels and reupholstery of my rear side panels.

This was another headache. I fully paid in March of 2021, order was completed in December of 2021.

The door panels took a few months to arrive (3 IIRC), problem was that the pull strap was the wrong colour and they didn't put a hole in the panel for the lock circle thing. So, pack them back up and send them back to Poland. Customs aggravation (not their fault) ensues.

Seats are backordered at BF Torino, but the seat bottoms and fabric trim were not included in the first order or the replacement shipment when the fixed door panels arrived.

Several follow-ups later and the seats are being completed and get shipped. Front seats show up and they are the Lemans and not the Nurburgring. FRUSTRATED. Time to box the seats up and send them back to Poland. The seat shipment was also missing the rear seat bottoms.

Customs clearance chaos ensues again.

December arrives and the custom seats, seat bottoms etc. all arrive. It's been an 8 month aggravation, but OMG is it ever worth it.

Carbone posted some pictures of my seats etc. on their Instagram. I haven't installed seats or doors yet as the rest of the glass needs to go in, but this interior IMO really brings home the gentleman's hotrod theme for me.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643761638.jpg

Seatbelts and hardware are all brand new as well. They were ordered from Seatbelt Planet. Really nice product and product support. The door pulls are matched to the seat belt

So folks, that pretty well brings us up to the current state of the project. I've replaced the min tunnel, front trunk and lighting harnesses with new harnesses from Restoration Design.

The execution on the harnesses is very nice, however there isn't any labeling like Timmy does on his or instructions like Kroon. It's nice to support a Canadian company, but a more user friendly approach would have been nice.

Dennis, who is an absolute pillar of the Porsche community went out of his way to help me out with my wiring. Turns out the issue was simply pushing the wire through the wrong hole (that's what she said).

In what was a big achievement for me, I got the car to crank for the first time in 17 years. I wanted to make sure that the car would build oil pressure and that there weren't any preliminary leaks.

To ensure I wasn't relying on a 43 year old pressure sending unit, I installed an analog oil pressure gauge in its place.

Much Success! With the lower plugs pulled to allow the motor to spin over a bit faster, it took 4 seconds of cranking for the needle to start moving (less than that for the light to go out) and after 8 seconds of cranking the motor had just over 20psi of oil pressure.

It was a pretty good day.

Next is to finish the fuel system which is all stainless braided PTFE lines and AN fittings. My plan is to let it circulate bypassing the carbs so I can ensure no leaks and that any debris in the new tank is caught by the filters before it gets to the carbs. I'll clean the 2 reusable filters before hooking the carbs back up.

Nothing like the satisfaction of the sounds of the first crank.
Especially when all goes well.
Guess we’re all going to have to wait for more installments of this journey….
And yeah, finding the right hole is important. ;) :)

Short video of cranking the engine over. This is no lower plugs and an IMI Hi Torque starter.

https://youtu.be/y_mqsku9pvg

If you see something, say something! My first rebuild!

According to Kevin Hart, even a crease will do...

Great work.

Coming along beautifully!

Also, I have to second your comment about Dennis, he is a huge asset to this community, saved my bacon numerous times during my rebuild 👍

BEST engine/car rebuild thread ever. And there have been plenty of top shelf stories on here. You obviously do have some skills, and total kudos to what you took on and have achieved.
Looking foward to the final chapter - the purring of a sweet engine in a newly rebuilt car.
You won't be parting with this anytime soon.
Alan

The RS carpet needs a solid modern tutorial. I agree the Lakewell video is ancient and a different carpet set. Great work as always. Need more pics of the carpet install if you have any.

Still working on the carpet!

I've also converted from the badly corroded throttle rod to a marine Teleflex cable. Just working on bracket at engine side.

What a journey. Thoroughly enjoyed the time I took to read it... obviously you're more than the stereotype bean counter.... and fellas he's gots an excellent wife...he only mentions her once. How many of us used the oven or washing machine when they "run an errand"? LOL. This one is up there for nomination for the yr of the rebuild. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it being an ebay buy... I wanna hear the story when you told you wife you bot it on ebay... I can hear the "you bought what on ebay for $23K while you were what? drinking???" I know when I bought mine 30 some years ago while I was on biz out in southern Cali, and came home and told her what I bought, she said "no you didn't" hahaha surprise! I'm pregnant! I too agree this type of posting after the fact makes for speed reading... kudos and nice job Focker and thanks for sharing.

What a project!!

Beautiful work

Please forgive the dumb question,

1. What's the reason for doing a carb conversion as opposed to EFI?
2. How difficult was it to do the ignition upgrade?

I ask because I have a 79' SC also and A) want to do an ignition upgrade (cop) and B) want to do a modern fuel injection or carb conversion myself.

I cannot stand how cluttered the engine bay looks with the CIS, heater blower motor, etc and I believe a better ignition/fuel system would really wake up the motor in terms of response.

Your engine bay looks amazing, really loving this build thread!

Thank you,