Finally my 2.7 RS rebuild is complete (warning: many pics and long)

[Ho Hum 74]

Folks,

I thought I'd share some of my journey with all of you.

I started off with a nice '74 911 which had a rather special (at least to me) 2.7 with MFI, 9.8:1 JE pistons, Elgin modified cams and a rough and ready sports muffler. My first track experience in the car (2 months after purchasing it) ended in a spun #3 rod bearing, a damaged rod and crank.



Needless to say I was bitterly disappointed. Little did I know that the folks on this board (Chris Streit and Souk) would give me the confidence to re-build this little guy. I had re-built a Beetle engine before so I felt I at least knew what a crank looked like and how an air cooled engine worked.

Removal and teardown was fairly simple. I just followed Wayne's book and things were as described. I was very concerned about removing the head stud nuts as I heard they could easily be damaged. Fortunately they came off without drama and none of the head studs were damaged.



I bagged everything and wrote down as much as I could. I also suggest the use of a digital camera as it was essential in making out a few connections etc. later on.





The most challenging thing about this project was trying to determine what mods to incorporate on the 7R case, what to upgrade and what to machine. I found out lots about my engine. Firstly I spent a few days trying to work out why the photo in Wayne's book about the oil bypass mod was different to mine. I thought my car was a '74. Well it was, but it turned out that the case was somewhere between '75.5 and '77 because the oil mod was incorporated already. Measuring the bearings suggested that they were line bored one size over. I didn't think that this was an issue but I can now testify that oversize bearings for a 2.7 are not easily found. I had to by them from two different vendors as 'each' parts. One quoted me over $800 (std bearings are about $80!!). I finally spent about $400 on these little babies. Thanks to Ray Atchinson for tracking these down. I found a good used crank (Thanks to a wonderfully responsive and resourceful Jerry St. Germaine) that was in spec and a rod to replace the one that was scored by the spun bearing. It was tricky trying to find a rod that was in the same weight group as my others. Another difficulty. Machine work I had done was to refresh the rods with new small end bearings and make new case plugs. The old ones were removed for cleaning the case.



I also had the heads cleaned of all the carbon deposits and had various items bead blasted (fan, timing covers, valve covers, etc.). All in all I had about $700 machine work done. That and about $1,300 in parts were the total costs of the project.

I did have a moment when I took some parts (timing housings and valve covers) to get sand blasted. The guy told me, "Yeah, we do lots of auto parts". I got them back and they were totally shot to pieces. He must have used "Black Beauty" on them or something. He even was so kind as to shoot the insides of the parts so that they'd make a nice tight seal...not! What was this guy thinking? My machine shop salvaged the valve covers but the timing chain boxes and covers were scrapped. Thanks again to Jerry -parts meister- St Germaine I found a couple of boxes and covers. A simple bead blast made them look as good as new.

I sent out both my oil coolers to Pacific Oil Coolers. They do aviation oil coolers and they did a really great job of cleaning, repairing and testing my coolers. Everything came back spotless.

(more to follow)

[Ho Hum 74]

Assembly

The assembly process was suprisingly simple. It took about two weekends of moderately paced work. Cleaning all the parts and the case (damn case...) was longer, more tedious and more dangerous, as you will read later.

After locating all the parts and being in a position to start the assembly, my trusty buddies Chris Streit and Souk came over to help. We had the short block complete in a few hours. The flywheel seal was a little tricky and wanted to pop out. IT was fairly dynamic over the time of the assembly and did settle down. One thing I would not do is put Curil T on the seal. You'll see why later...







The next weekend I assembled the long block and timed the cams. This was really the only tricky part of the assembly. After some investigation I realized that I had modified S cams by Elgin Cams. A quick call to them gave me the info I needed to time them: 4.5mm at overlapping TDC. Which is quite a bit different from standard. My trusty neighbor and beer drinking buddy, Matt, helped me time the cams. I must say that two engineers doing this was a bit of overkill. We were way to anal about getting the timing just right with both sides being within a 100th of a mm of each other and spec! Needless to say we did this a few times. Other tricky things included measuring the deck height and valve to piston clearances.




Another day of assembling the accessories and sheet metal left me with a completed and fresh motor. I was beside myself.





(More to follow)

[Fishcop]

SWEET! "Please Sir, can I have some more?"

[Bill Verburg]

Nice, proper color and all!

[Ho Hum 74]

Installation

We were about to find out if we could install this baby. Matt and I took a sip of courage (I think it was Corona this time) and continued. First was to get that 450 pound little guy off the stand. Two very bruised arms later and we had it on the jack. My wife's only moment of the whole thing besides that fantastic moral support was to align the jack. It was a nice gesture and not taken lightly!




Slip it under the car and off we go.



Here's where my excitement made me neglect to read the instructions carefully enough. We just could not figure out why the engine, no matter how hard we tried, would not go that last half an inch to get the nuts on the transmission bolts. A quick call to the ever vigilent Christ Streit put us right: We totally neglected to align the clutch fork with the throw out bearing!! Once we go this right the whole thing was a cinch and she bolted right up.



We quickly celebrated by punishing a few more Coronas and when we ran out of limes decided to hit the sack. A great moment......if only it ended that way!

I spent the whole of the next day hooking things up. Fortunately my other car buddy John Howe (who deserves more than just a pat on the back for his stamina) swung by to help out. It took that long. I don't know why but it just did. There were so many little things to check and re-check, then look at photos and finally I got to the point where I could turn it over. This was the moment we were waiting for. The plugs were out, the oil was in and I could finally pluck up the courage to turn the key. As I turned the key there was a clunk and nothing more. Huh? I couldn't understand it, the engine just would not turn over. I put a # 19mm wrench on the pulley and tried to give it a turn but it wouldn't budge. My heart skipped a beat. Could I have mis calculated the valve clearance?

Another call to the professor a.k.a. Chris Streit found all sorts of suggestions. Then while he was talking I remembered using a pressure plate bolt turned into the flywheel during the assembly process as a help to turn the crank over. Once this was turned in too much it hung up on the case. I had a feeling that this was happening. So I dropped the engine again.



We found that one of the pressure plate bolts was longer than the rest and was hanging up on the case!! Weird. Anyway, with a new one in the engine turned over and we put it back in the car. That took us most of the day. We were exhausted and sunburned.



(more to follow)

[Elombard]

Very nice, and for a very reasonable sum. I wonder why the bearing spun? Possibly anything to do with the over size bearings?? How common is it for people to do that with the case? You are gonna be one proud pappa when that bad boy is back on the road!!

[MotoSook]

Oh com'on Tristan type faster! Waiting for the rest is like waiting for a Star Wars Prequel...you better type boy...TYPE! We want to seeeeeee!

[Ho Hum 74]

I'm trying Souk....you know how long it's taken me to get to the point where I can even write this post??? I've been waiting a LONG time!!

[MotoSook]

I'm proud of you buddy...now get back to typing!

[Ho Hum 74]

Firing it up

OK, so where were we? Man, it went in so easy the first (actually second time). I can say that now because it's come out twice since!! Don't get scared, you get used to it. I actually caught myself saying to some of my BMW buddies the other night, "Yeah, so tomorrow I'm going to drop my engine, pull off my flywheel and replace the flywheel seal. Let's see, if I start at 10am I should be able to shoot some beers and catch that Cubs game at 2pm!"

So, without re-attaching the bumper, I started to install the spark plugs. This took a long time because I suddenly found out that I had to drive to Sears and get an elbow adaptor. Installing plugs is just not the type of job you want to be doing when all you can think about is hearing this raspy, angry little bee fire up.

Finally, knowing that there was good oil pressure I decided to give it a whirl. Turn of the key had the engine cranking as normal. It had been a long time since I had heard that sound. But no firing.....oh great, now what?

Quickly I determined that there was no spark. I just could not work this out. Finally a call to the professor put this right. Now you know why I call him the professor? 'Cause he says to me, "Oh yeah, check that you have constant 12.5 V to the white wire going into the MSD (aftermarket ignition). Chris doesn't even have a MSD on his car!! The guy's a freak. 'nuff said.



So I check the white wire. Guess what? No 12.5 V. Great. Why's that? Well, I found that when your car's wiring is over 30 years old you actually ask that question more frequently than you'd like.

OK, let's try this: Get a pair of jumper cables. Hook up the positive from the battery terminal. Strip an old piece of speaker wire and attach to the white MSD wire.

I was getting back into the car when my neighbor comes over and says, "So is this thing going to fire up?". I said, "I just don't know, anything can happen". I turned the key and after a few turns if fired and rumbled to a halt. Wow!! I was electrified. Another turn and the same result. On the third time it just burst into life like a VERY angry little bee. I brought the hand throttle up to 2k on the tach and just grinned. I just could not stop grinning. Wow! It's ALIVE!!!



I just cannot tell you what this felt like. I was ecstatic. Note the wire running from the front...



(more to follow)

[vash]

damn star war reference is perfect! now get back to typing mr lucas! this story is friggen great!

cliff

[goat]

Amazing. And great detail.

[MotoSook]

***** eat'n grin if there ever was one... LOL...

[Ho Hum 74]

Damn. Got to go to a conference call. There's more to this story and I promise I'll post more as the week continues.

Tristan

[Thomas Owen]

Excellent writeup and congratulations on a job well done. Post more when you have driven around the block!

[MotoSook]

Originally posted by Ho Hum 74
Damn. Got to go to a conference call. There's more to this story and I promise I'll post more as the week continues.

Tristan

Ha! Just like a Lucas film...some actor got hurt or a script rewrite or some other excuse! LOL Now we have to wait until next summer for the conclusion...

[JTO]

Come on! Tell us more about the seventy-four!
Troy

[Ho Hum 74]

Thomas,

Oh, I've driven more than around the block! After 250 mile this baby went right on the track...but that's part deux!

T

[Ho Hum 74]

Oh, you want stories?

How about, "This car put me in the emergency room"? by Tristan J

I'd get up really early to work on my engine because my girls sleep like hibernating polar bears sans the snoring. About 6 am on a Saturday I would creep out of bed, put on the kettle for a cup of tea (yes, I'm of English decent so tea's very important), and then crack open the garage door. This particular Chicago morning the mercury still hadn't reached 30. A quick glance at my internal garage thermometer told me it was 49 degrees or so. Jeeze, far too cold to work. I saw a great propane heater at the professor's house so I had bought one at Home Depot earlier. I wrenched the propane tank valve open and hit the igniter. A nice little roar filled the garage. Heat (and hence finger dexterity) would soon return. After a mug of Five Roses (er..did I tell you I was South African? No? Well that's the tea we drink) and my trusty bowl of Cheerios I faced the garage. Slipping on a J J Cale CD it was time to go to work.

Now that morning I was going through the unpleasant task of cleaning more parts. This, like I said is one of the more unpleasant tasks of the whole process. I had purchased some new brake cleaner. Now this stuff is nastier than a shot of Stroh Rum (the good old German 160 proof stuff) And don't ask me how I know, I just do...ok, back to the task.

I knew there was something amiss when I was going through latex gloves at a furious pace. What's the deal? It was the brake cleaner. This stuff just ripped through latex like a ...like a...dare I say it, light saber!

So by now the propane heater had been on for a while and I had gone through half a can of brake cleaner, J J Cale was singing, "If your thing is gone and you want to ride on
Cocaine. Don't forget this fact you can't get back Cocaine.
She don't lie
she don't lie
she don't lie
Cocaine."

I'm starting to hum along and find that I'm really getting into it...a little too into it. What's in this tea? I stand up....hmmm. I freaking buzzed.

My head was swimming and to be truthful I felt a little nauseous. I went inside and my wife was just making the kids some breakfast. I told her that I thought I was not feeling too well. I said I hope I don't have carbon monoxide poisoning. She immediately grabbed the CO tested and plugged it in. The thing went berserk. OK, call the quack. Next thing you know I'm in the emergency room trying to explain to a rather nice looking admissions nurse that I was rebuilding a 30 year old Porsche 911 engine and that I may have exposed myself to CO trying to keep warm in my garage. "Why would you do that?" she asked with a hint of condescension. I was too goofed to formulate a good argument. "Just get me some oxygen" I snorted feeling that my chances were dashed. Plus the cologne I was wearing, CarQuest Brake Cleaner, was probably a little too manly for her sensible taste.

They hooked me up to some good old O2 for an hour, took some blood and returned with the results. "Good news, you're CO blood levels are less than 1% and the allowable limit is 1-4%. You're free to go. Just leave $825 at the front desk". Not really, but that was the final bill. Who said working on Porsches was cheap anyway?

So after all that, it was the brake cleaner. Like I said, nasty stuff and I probably lost a few brain cells along the way. I called the professor and he said, "Jesus man, be careful. You've probably killed off enough brain cells for an entire year of binge drinking".

Damn, I'm an idiot sometimes.

T

[Jim Richards]

Tristan, this has made for some of the best reading on the board. Great stuff! And that pic of your *****-eating grin (or was that from your brake cleaner episode? ) tells it all.