Project Mickey Mouse - Build thread of 79 SC I bought on eBay

[Focker]

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.

[Focker]

Originally Posted by ab1752

The U Blast place is what I am after, thanks! Now if they could only add a dry ice U Blast machine we'd be set...cheers

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

[ab1752]

Originally Posted by Focker

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.

[Focker]

Originally Posted by ab1752

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.

[Focker]

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.




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.

[Focker]

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




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!!

[Focker]

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.

[Kraftwerk]

A clean engine assembly is a beautiful thing...

[Focker]

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

[Mr Beau]

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

[proporsche]

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

[Focker]

Originally Posted by Mr Beau

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

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.

[Focker]

Originally Posted by proporsche

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

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.

[Focker]

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!!!

[Focker]

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.

[Joesmallwood]

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

[Focker]

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.

[Focker]

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.

[Focker]

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

[Quasimoto]

Originally Posted by Focker

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.
.

Your concept and execution here are superb imho. Wonderful result