my not so good porsche story

[cjmurph]

This may be a bit long and generally I'm a "glass half full" kind of guy but, I'm on my knees with this Porsche so far.

April 09 my wife of 20 years invited me into a barn full of garbage to show me a car that she thought looked neat. I had been playing with mopars since my youth and had sold my last roadrunner in 08 vowing no more bloody greasy knuckles for awhile. That and the fact that I just couldn't afford to do them right. I'm not a good mechanic and I kind of learn as I go. Wife and mechanically challenged Dad think I'm a genius because I keep local lawnmowers going for my elderly neighbors and grandma.
(sorry, get distracted easy).
So I get to the barn and there is this car covered in 3 inches of dust garbage and hay (yes real functioning barn). I wipe down the cars backside and I see Porsche letters and tell her it must be an old 911. The registration sticker states '92. She states she thinks it's neat and really gets heated when I tell her the top is soft so I think it comes off. I have had no previous experience with Porsches. Never sat in one and don't think I even looked at one closely in the past. No offense I just stayed with American muscle.
She is clearly in love and persuades the previous p/o (widow) to part with car. The deal seems fair and we agree to make it a joint resto. Nothing fancy just a cool summer runner. Thankfully, I discover pelican and the adventure begins.
I hate body and interior work so my wife has the direction to do the interior. I thought I was getting off easy due to the incredible amount of rodent feces in the car. She scrubbed and worked almost daily cleaning the car and prepping interior. She stripped it with minimal help and read every article from pelican that I could send her. I'm really starting to appreciate the engineering and beauty of this car.
Meanwhile, I found a friend in Harvey Weidman and tried to adhere to his bits of advice.
Tires were bought to simply make it easier to move around.
Wheel quick refinish.
I drained fuel tank.
replaced fuel line.
pulled and rebuilt zeniths
changed plugs and wires
cleaned marelli
Oil and filter change..
Then tried starting the car. By this time my wife had completed the interior and I was thinking we were right on schedule.
Well the car didn't run for beans and wouldn't start without help.
I decided it was either timing or carb and dug into both. The marelli cap was off for all those years confirming what the widow had told us that prior to being parked, the car wasn't running well enough to pass smog. Harvey loaned me a good dizzy for my system of elimination and I found carbs to be major culprit.
Rebuilt the carbs again and found some marelli parts to replace my suspect spring plate.
Car started running a bit better and actually got a 5 miles spitting choking drive. Second time I hit the brakes the car reminded me that Mr. Weidman had told me to replace brakelines. They looked so good from the outside, hah. So brakelines it was.
Started the car again and once again car was running badly. Decided to again inspect carbs closely. After re-install car would not run. While shaking my head, wife states she can't hear the fuel pump buzzing anymore. She was correct. Another wasted week and I removed fuel pump and cleaned it hoping it would work due to the expensive replacement. That lasted for the next start and I had to tap it with a hammer to do that. Researched and bought new pump killing the return line.
After new pump install, car seemed to really run well and I was able to start tuning a bit. Still blowing hay and oil out the exhaust. Understandable due to the previous marvel oil I had been putting in the cylinders to gently break her in.
We take car on a decent 5 mile ride and I hear noises that sound like bearing sounds with clutch. Clutch seems to be working great, just noises.
Come home and tune some more. We take car for a slightly longer ride, 15 miles and noises are getting louder. We get stranded when the throw out bearing decides to destroy itself at the most inconvenient of times (freeway exit). Tow is called and I start researching.
MY FIRST MOTOR DROP.
Goes fairly smoothly. I find the culprit and change out bearing. Clutch looks worn so I get one of those as well. Flywheel looks horrible so I have it ground to the minimum and I decide to make it work. New stretch bolts, new pilot but can't afford a pressure plate. Reasssemble and now I feel like a seasoned pro. While I'm at it I read and study all the things I should do while I have everything out of the car. Decide to venture into my first valve adjustment. Seems fairly straightforward and only had 2 of them (#6 and 5 intake) that really needed any minimal adjusting.
Upon completion, I reward myself by buying a new (to me) bursche exhaust and discard to old ansa.
Really excited to put it back in and I work late into the evening to make it happen.
The next day I summon my wife to turn the key. Re-assembly went pretty well. Missed the hanger/guide for the clutch cable but nothing major. Everything is a go and she turns the key.
The car starts better than ever and rumbles beautifully. Good oil pressure. I'm quite sure it was the biggest smile I've had in a long time. Car is idling nicely, very minimal backfire or pop. She comes to the back of the car and pats my ass. I tell her that we have yet to test the clutch so don't get too comfy yet. Idle starts to slowly lower and I use the carb linkage to keep her up. We are just about to get in for a drive and test clutch adjustment when I give it a blip to about 4 k. The car gives back a loud clack bang bang but is still running.
I can't move and my feet are in cement. My "much quicker than me Wife" turns car off and asks the infamous "what was that?".

I've heard bad noises before and the best I can tell her is "that is a bad noise". She questions my raising the rpm and walks off. (Funny she never questioned me raising it to set timing in the past). I get a wrench and turn motor over by hand. That's good. I wonder about tensioners but it has the upgrade done by previous owner. I now question my valve job. It seemed so easy.
The noise seemed to come from the right maybe #6 so I removed covers and checked. Everything seemed good. Thinking I need to remove covers I decided to redrop motor. Everything again went smoothly except I had put new gaskets at the axles and for some reason they were a pain.
Dropped motor and pulled tin off and removed tensioner covers. Both appear good. Finally decided to remove left valve covers and when taking off the lower, a broken exhaust rocker (#3) fell out. AHA. I found it.
My intitial process went to how to repair rocker. I pulled all the plugs to make it a bit easier to rotate motor. Put #3 at tdc and noticed that #3 intake had way too much gap at stem end. Decided to peek into sparkplug hole and found pieces of rocker around spark plug. Interesting, I'm not sure how they got there. I've had some much needed guidance with a friend who suggests I question why valve is not seating. Starting to make sense to me but I can't quite understand what to do next. Really just wanted to put rocker back in. I again request the assistance of my wife to turn motor over while I take a peek.

#3 piston is not travelling. Kinda explains the faint tink I could hear in the motor while cranking it over by hand doesn't it.

Rod, pin or bearing I can only assume right now. Yes, I'll get to it someday but we've had less than 25 miles in over 14 months on the car so far. Lots of work and very very minimal reward.
I appreciate the forum letting me air it out. I enjoy pelican and have made some good friends in the porsche circle. I've read others and it does seem to help knowing your not alone.

[KNS]

I admire your willingness to keep forging ahead, difficult to do when you've had so little time in the car to begin with. Perhaps someone local can swing by and offer some help...

[sailchef]

Wow, you have really been persistant, and its awsome that your wife enjoys doing these things with you.

Before you get any more aggrivated I would step back and take a break. Cover it up for 6 months and go to a few Porsche events in your local as spectators to build up the enthusiasm ,and also to get some more ideas. Have some Porsche Fun with out all the hard work. Then when you just can't stand to see your car sitting anymore, GET BACK TO WORK.

[Winter]

If you're reading this and have not clicked on cjmurphs "garage" link, you'd best do yourself a favor and check out the condition of his car when he made the purchase!

You've done an amazing job cleaning her up! AMAZING!

At this point, you're obviously frustrated. But what about finding a used motor to drop into her, so you can get on the road. Then rebuild your original engine at leisure? At least you'll get the joy of driving for the rest of the summer.

Besides, look at it this way. Things could be much, much worse. How bad? You could have sent the car to Motor Meister!

Good luck and don't give up.

---

Tom '75 targa

[cjmurph]

This is probably why I posted. I needed a little advice/support. Thank you.

I pretty much have indeed resolved myself to finding another motor. In fact, I have a good line on one right now. Our investment so far has exceeded what we expected but I have enough auto experience to expect the unexpected. I don't have funds to just "have er done". Not to sound too proud because if I did, I probably would.

I'm looking forward to learning with the engine on a stand, taking my time and getting better acquainted with the inner engine workings. I'm pretty unexperienced but I think between pelican and friends I can figure it out.

The kicker is kind of interesting. We have only driven the car less than 40 poorly tuned miles and yet, nor my wife or I have never been so impressed. The ride was amazing and the handling just so unique to anything I've ever experienced.
If I listed my previous rides they would be a pretty far ranging muscle car collection that would make most proud. Yes, lots of previous sells that I can regret. I must have been the only mopar man that couldn't make a nickel.
My first ride in a porsche was with Harvey and yes it was awesome.
I'll stay the course. Made some good friends. Not to generalize but the porsche crowd has been more receptive than I had ever imagined. No offense, I had visions of grumpy golfers previous to this adventure.

So funny the motor meister. Yep, like many I looked once and soon after learned from this forum not to look back. More importantly, I 've learned that I can do this. Patience is tested but I think as we get older, patience gets easier to obtain.

Great appreciation for those that have travelled this path before me. My wife ad I look forward to attending many of the event's listed in the forums.

I'm pretty solid on whats's next but I could use some advice on shipment of a motor. Who have you used? Can I simply have them meet the owner at the designated address and they can load and drop at my residence?

[Pillow]

Good determination! Any car sitting that long really needs completely gone through, just the way it is.

If you have not already done it, the calipers can be rebuilt in a snap. Cheap and easy.

I would dump a used SC motor in there and jet the carbs accordingly. Good bang for the buck and reliable. Did I mention reliable?

Good Luck!

[Laneco]

Your car is a 2.2 (70-71) provided that's the original motor. Certainly sounds like it is. We've bought a couple of engines from people, one on this site, a couple on ebay and some in person. Mostly exceptionally good experiences, but two very notable and very ROYAL screwings as well (motor meister victim).

If possible, always do a pickup yourself. They aren't real heavy, two fellas can load one in a truck by hand. If the carbs/fan/alt is off, Steve can load one with just me helping. If you need to ship, go down and open a Fed-Ex freight account. You get a huge discount. I just got a quote from Colorado to Oregon for $360, got a pennsylvania to Oregon for less than $600. We get about a 60% discount from Fed-Ex freight. Make sure the engine is crated because inevitably something gets stacked on top.

The early engines, 2.0 2.2 and 2.4 are pretty easy to interchange. Maybe 2.7 too but they are ones to examine with care (can be very good or VERY $$$ bad). After that a few things crop up that add to the cost/details of an engine swap. Not real hard, but definately a bit more (e.g. flywheel on a 3.0 and tach on a 3.0).

Stick around, don't give up, you've already proven both competant and tenacious plus it sounds like your wife is really cool. The people on this site will help you out and steer you in the right direction. Think of them as a Pelican arm (or wing!) around your shoulder.

angela

[Rob B]

How you doing Medford, we're just up the road in Grants Pass(Black '86 Targa)
Rob

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by cjmurph

Not to generalize but the porsche crowd has been more receptive than I had ever imagined. No offense, I had visions of grumpy golfers previous to this adventure.

I may have just found a signature. This is awesome.

As was said above, stay the course. The end results will be worth the time and effort you've put in. Great story. Don't lose faith.

[zippy_gg]

What you have here are the following:

- a love story with a great wife who loves Porsches
- a love story with a Porsche

You know they are love stories when they don't make sense sense dollar-wise... or otherwise!
You are now going down the slippery road, joining the club!
Keep us updated on your progress!!!

[pioneer1]

Hi; I loved the write-up. Keep the chin up and laugh when you turn on the defroster and the mouse comes out!

[Zeke]

Beyond what I would do anymore. Most here would have parted that car in an instant.

Good for you if you're having fun, but don't lose sight of the economics.

[NOLAsc]

Wow.

Inspirational.

I can't wait to read the shining, driving-the-thing-with-uncontained-excitement post.

[barndoor]

This term "Barn Find" has been used to death lately,It seems like any car with expired tags is a Barn Find these days......
This is a REAL "Barn Find" and this pic is the proof !

[KarlCarrera]

That is a barn find. Did Mt St. Helen's rain on it?

Karl
88 Targa

[Jagshund]

Originally Posted by cjmurph

I had visions of grumpy golfers previous to this adventure.

Haven't been to a PCA meeting yet, eh?

[barndoor]

Hey Rob B
you don't live off Summit Loop do you ?
I saw a black targa in the neighborhood the other day...

[TibetanT]

Hey, nice barn find!

Your wife sounds like my wife, she can diagnose any car's problem by listening to it run.

You both did a wonderful job of starting the restoration process, so don't loose faith now. I bet we all will be reading about this car in Excellence magazine a few years from now when you get back from a PCA event and win a prize.

Good luck and have fun with the car!

[cjmurph]

Yep, that pic was after we cleaned up a few things for the previous p/o.

Thanks all so much for all the comments. It is empowering and we could use it.

"Zippy" couldn't have stated my sappy story any clearer. This is a love story and we are really glad to be part of the club. I even took a pic for the engine drop thread. Gotta post that one.

Haven't been to a pca meeting yet. Was kinda holding out until I could drive to the porsche it.

Murphy's law right? I should be used to it.

[steve911T]

CJMurph, your last statement says it all. Murphy's Law, I should be used to it. Well, owning a 39 year old car, everything you touch is basically Murphy's Law and I am very used to it. Don't give up, pull the motor, fix it and when you pull the motor out, remember Murphy's Law. My wife laughes when I tell her a project will take x time, she always doubles it and is usually on the low side. There was a post a few days ago about the stupid things we have done to our cars, I did not respond because I did not know where to start. Good luck. Steve