Rebuild is done! Tom and Jimmy strike again! pics...

[wente]

My rebuild (87 w 139k) is done, and my engine is back in the car and running perfectly after a short wait. Thanks to Tom Amon and Jimmy Deering of MobileWorks. Their service is like no other, and I was able to do my own work on the carcass while the engine was gone. What was done? Top-end, plus clutch, flywheel, rod bearings & bolts, new head studs. replaced 6 intake valves, 2 cams, rings, 6 rockers, machined the heads, new valve guides, g50 upgrade.
While I had the carcass in the garage, I did the brake lines, shocks, new tires, cleaned the transmission and gave it a fresh fill of mobile 1 (man that was easy!) and put in new parking brake shoes.

Anyway to the photos:

the teardown begins


we found two marginal exhaust valves due primarily to cracked intake gaskets






The return of the engine!!!


nice new clutch and flywheel!

It starts right up!


oops - almost forgot the mandatory pic... I installed Bilstein Sports while I had the chance!

[wente]

here's a before pic - when tom & jimmy did the drop.

[M Scahfer]

thanks for the pics!! Looks like the oil thermostat was leaking a bit, enjoy the "new powerplant".

[slotcar]

Wish we had guys like that here...looks like nice work.

[Wil Ferch]

I'd like to "try" a guess.....I'm looking at the pic of the nitrile glove holding the cylinder barrel...form that I'm deducing ( guessing) that the P/C set was Alusil...right?...not Nikasil.

Let me know the answer...and I'll let you in on the secret of what I'm looking at. Some here ought to know !!

Wil

[911carrera1984]

can we schedule him for a cross country trip?
looks good.

[MysticAlpaca]

I know prices vary from job to job and no two are a like, but what was the ballpark to have your project done?

--bill

[MobileWrks]

Hey El, good looking pic's...

Case prior to prep..

Blinging...

In the garage..

[cgarr]

Originally posted by Wil Ferch
I'd like to "try" a guess.....I'm looking at the pic of the nitrile glove holding the cylinder barrel...form that I'm deducing ( guessing) that the P/C set was Alusil...right?...not Nikasil.

Let me know the answer...and I'll let you in on the secret of what I'm looking at. Some here ought to know !!

Wil

OK, Ill ask, how do you tell from that picture, I am getting ready for a rebuild and it would be nice to tell if I have Alusil or Nikasil cylinders??

[tsuter]

Alusil....... OMG!!!! Somebody was clearing stock???

[Wil Ferch]

There was an on-going debate on how to tell these apart from the outside...

....toward the end of our discussion, we thought Alusil had 10 fins but NO vertical stiffening bar...and Nikasil had 11 fins plus the stiffening bar..

Inconclusive...but the best answer (so far) is that both had the stiffening bar but Alusil had 10 fins and Nikasil 11.

I counted 10 + stiffening rib in the photo....

-Wil

Ps- so what was it.... Alusil?

[Shuie]

Nice work! Sometimes Im so jealous of you guys in CA. Having services like this available to you is invaluable. It must make playing with these cars so much more enjoyable.

[wente]

hmm - I never knew they used alusil in the later cars - that's interesting! so could that potentially effect my longevity? I didn't do upgrades, I just wanted a very reliable daily driver to last me another 18 years.
yes, it had a small leak around the thermostat, but the worst was up at the chain tensioner housing in front of #1 - interestingly, none were bad enough to even cause drips on the floor. The primary indicator that made me do this job was when it started eating 1qt in 250-300 miles. I went as long as possible, but figured it was time, and from the looks of the valves, it was just in time. Two of the cams had totally messed up lobes, and the biggest surprise to me was the intake gasket cracks we found. I had sprayed gumout & water down there and was never able to detect the leak. but it really was bad on #1 and #5... not to mention that my throwout fork was almost ready to destruct and the needle bearings were heinous. Tom had the real porsche g50 upgrade drill tool, which was quite impressive. It really did a nice job of keeping it straight for the upgrade. all in all, I'm glad I was able to make use of Tom and Jimmy for this. I wanted to do it myself, but having it done by the pros certainly took less time. I drove mines road yesterday and had a blast. still keeping the revs down during the break in, but so far it's running sweetly and I have not seen a drop of oil! yay!

[andial951]

Glad to see another happy Mobile Works customer. Jimmy has been working hard on my 951. He has already fixed a lot of things another shop screwed up.

[911Atlanta]

Congratulations -- great job, and I am very jealous ! What a great feeling, I'm sure, especially with the enhancements/repairs you got to do yourself on the shell. With my '87 at the same level of oil consumption, I'm probably not more than 6 mos. away from needing a very similar rebuild -- what ballpark $ cost are we talking about ?

Thanks and congrats (and thanks for the photos) !

Dan

[rlane]

Just dropped the engine in my 78 for a top end job (Dilavar is the devils work) and wondering how the mobile werks crew gets the case so clean?

[wente]

I'd say you could get a similar job done somewhere in the range of $4-6k. but, it really all depends. I had some surprises, you will likely have them too.. ymmv.

as far as the cleaning goes, I'm not sure what jimmy uses aside from brake cleaner. I had good luck using citrus cleaner on the gearbox. Just make sure you rinse well or you can get some oxidation. I misted the important parts with some light oil to prevent rusting on the splines etc...

[cbeers]

Ellsworth, Mobile works rocks, period.


Any connection to the winery / vineyards??

-Chris

[MobileWrks]

Hey RLANE, i us some stuff called awsome. Funny thing is they sell it at all 99c stores. Put rags in a areas,corks etc. Let it soak for a night, afew wire brushing then water hose it off... That stuff gets out cig stains on head linner,blood etc.. GOOD STUFF....

[rlane]

Thanks Jimmy..I will hunt for it!