KTL, what paper gasket are you talking about here?

Thanks for the tips all.

Woodruff key install was nowhere near as hard as removal. A few light taps with a drift and it was home far enough for the sprocket to clear it.

Kevin I checked the paper gasket and found it to be vvveeeery slightly misaligned. I'll take a pic tomorrow with my good camera for your opinion. Mike - he's talking about the wankel shaped paper gasket that mates against the camshaft housing.

meanwhile I took a look at the idler arm bushings. They show the type of discoloration that wayne warns of in his book, however there is plenty of bronze meat left and there is no finger drag. what is the recommended action?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384574430.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384574440.jpg

Things starting to take shape. I did a dry-run of the parallelism measurement. Will pick up a 16" combo square tomorrow and ask the wife for a few minutes garage assistance. Note sleeping GTV in the background. Gotta get this motor back in the porsche and pull the MIG back out of hibernation...



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384574628.jpg

Yeah the three hole pesky gasket that goes behind the cam cover plate and seals the cam bore on the cam housing.

Those bushings don't look great but not horrible. If you can't feel anything with the fingernail test, i'd not worry about it. I would guess those bushings don't look much different than the rocker arms. How does the shaft in the chain box look?

The shaft in the chain housing had some staining on it that i cleaned up with 0000 steel wool. No finger dragging on it either. When i ultrasonically cleaned the chain housing something 'ran' and streaked on the inside. I initially thought it was some zinc chromate plating but when i spoke to bob at anchor atlantic, who also sells ultrasonic cleaning chemistry, he was extremely doubtful that my hf us cleaner would strip plating. Are the bushings on the idler of uniform composition or is there a coating and a base metal that has been worn through?

I took a closer look at the left side idler. It looks like the idler bushing has somehow transfered some of its material (bronze I presume) to the chrome or polished steel post. Whereas this came right off with 0000 steel wool on the right side, the left is a bit more stubborn. There is corresponding wear on the bushing itself. I don't have a very deep understanding of bushings like this and their behavior and what might lead to seizure of a dangerous condition on a street motor. Obviously I'd love to hear "steel wool it and put it together" as I'm getting close to wrapping this thing up. But I would like some honest opinions. There is nothing that catches one's fingernail, but if you run the pad of your finger over the post you can feel a slight difference in smoothness between the steel and bronze patch.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384630196.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384630225.jpg


Meanwhile I picked up a 16" combo square and removed the IMS cover so I can check parallelism. Someone eyeball this for me and tell me if I'm setting the mic on the right surfaces of the IMS endcap and sprocket?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384630330.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384630346.jpg

Well I decided to clean up the idler arm posts and do a test fit. Feels perfect. Since these are not rotating or heavily loaded parts, I can't see any harm in slightly wide tolerances. Assembly goes forward. Need to get a bigger c-clamp to compress the tensioners before re-installing. All new o-rings and sealing rings have been installed.
Both chain boxes are assembled. Once I get two rocker arms installed I'll be ready to time the motor.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384656828.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384656841.jpg

Meanwhile I'm looking over the remaining new parts to be installed, comparing them to the old. I somehow forgot that I did not order new hard lines for these cam/tensioner oil lines. There was certainly some weeping around these lines but its hard to say where as there was a pretty uniform film on them. Did you all do anything to address these hard lines besides using new sealing rings when re-installing them?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384656962.jpg


After ordering the wrong D/S heater cable and realizing the right one is $30 I said no way. Rather buy the tools. So I got this funny little wire bender and some .047" music wire. I've never bent wire before, but it can't be that hard, right? If anyone tries to give you a line about how "nothing's made in america anymore" send them to The Malin Wire co and the (damn I forgot) midwest mom n pop co that make this little die cast bender. care of mcmaster-carr. total bill: $12

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384657043.jpg

You mean the gasket behind this plate??



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384661120.jpg

If this leaks doesn't it just leak into the chain housing where there is oil anyways?
Sorry if this is a stupid question.

The 911 motor really makes you think. Not always clear whats 'inside' and 'outside' so to speak. If the paper gasket leaks, oil will leak between the cam carrier and chain housing.

Nothing else except I had to bend the tube (for alignment) on the driver side.

The T was about 1" off.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384690833.jpg

The cams are timed. The rockers are in.

A few questions to help me sleep...

I timed the cams with the tensioners in place, but the tensioners had been compressed a few times to install them so they were relatively speaking slack. I observed that the valve overlap number tended to reduce when I manually (pry bar or clamp) increased tension on the chain, so I shot for the upper end of the factory range of 1.1-1.4mm. My dial indicator is inches so I'll use those numbers. With no auxiliary chain tension, I got both sides to .054in, which tended to reduce to .050in when the chains were tensioned. The average of the factory range is 1.25mm=.049" however I've read that on account of chain stretching its good to aim slightly high on this adjustment. Sounds okay? For the record, this is really not that hard. The procedure itself is dead easy. If you didn't have to deal with things slipping in relation to each other, it'd be doable inside 10 minutes. For what its worth, I think it'd be worth it to have TWO z-blocks so you can see where both cams are at the same time. I happen to have two dial indicators.

Regarding the rockers: I've read and watched numerous things about the need to install these central to the rocker not central to the asymmetrical casting. After following bentely and various other tutorials as best I could, the alignment I'm seeing is that the shaft is slightly proud of the shorter end of the cam housing casting. This corresponds with a wear mark on the shaft from their previous life. Just want to make sure they're not supposed to be flush with the shorter side of the casting.

What are you all using to torque these down? I have a 1/4in drive torque wrench but had a real hard time finding 1/4in drive hex key sockets. Think i'm going to cut an allen key and insert it into a 8mm socket. I'll use the higher 16 or 18ft-lb number for torque per bentely / john walker respectively.

Per some on this board, I installed the rockers nearly dry, just a tiny bit of assembly lube on the leading end of the shaft to help it go in. Installation was pretty straightforward. made sure to always point the 5mm end "in" towards the galleys.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384735277.jpg

Yes it's the circular paper three holed gasket that seals the cam plate to the chain housing and also seals the cam plate to the cam & rocker housing.

Not a stupid question at all. Very good one actually. The cam plate has two seals on it.

1. Big fat o-ring that seals the chain housing to prevent splashed oil from leaking past the large circular opening for the cam plate.

2. But what about the camshaft itself? It's sticking into the chain housing thru the hole in the cam plate and there is no radial seal (radial seal = similar to crankshaft seal) or o-ring installed in the hole.

So the paper seal has to seal the end of the camshaft two ways. It prevents splash oil from inside the chain box from leaking thru the hole in the cam plate. It also seals the pressurized oil coming from the camshaft housing.

That pesky paper gasket is a very important one!

Yep slightly proud of the thin casting is fine.

I have a 3/8" drive in-lbs torque wrench. If you only have 1/4 drive, can you get a 1/4 to 3/8 adapter from your local tool store?

I use a really long 3/8 extension to torque the rocker shaft bolts. For the 8mm end that you counterhold, I took a cheap L-shaped 8mm hex key and cut the length of the bend much shorter.

I have torque wrenches in every size under the sun, what i don't have is a hex bit short enough to fit in the galley. Are you saying you install one rocker, torque it by extending all the way thru the cam housing, do the next? What about the last one? The 5mm side is supposed to face the galley from my understanding. As luck would have it I'm missing my 5mm 1/4in drive socket so I can't even do my cheap and dirty idea. Looks like HF might be receiving another $5-10 of my money...

Yep

http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/q...psb64b7fe6.jpg

And what about the last one? Since I knew I'd need a solution for that one I installed all the rockers finger tight already, and adjusted the valves.

Yep I extend all the way with a really long extension and a 6 in. one put together. Last one I probably install not per the normal recommendation. The recommended orientation is based on the idea that you can remove the rocker shaft with the engine in the car. If I ever have to remove a rocker, even at the track, my engine comes out so easy that it just makes good sense to pull out the engine & avoid all the swearing trying to get the rocker out with engine installed? :D

But seriously, I think I install the last one "backwards" because i'd rather torque it to what I can measure, rather than guessing at it by hand with the hex key, for the reason you mentioned- can't get a torque wrench in there.

Well since I'd like to be able to check the torque on these at my first valve adjustment post rebuild I'm going to see if I can rig up something to torque them in situ. Oh yeah also, I really don't want to un-do work!

Not to belabor things too much but here's the cam housing paper seal issue I previously mentioned. Lapkritis discovered his was funked up after I suggested the copper sealant may have caused some sticking & misalignment.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-engine-rebuilding-forum/738419-specific-question-arp-head-studs-2-7-magnesium-case-insane-6.html#post7456800

So it's always a good idea to look between the chain box and the cam housing after you've installed the cam plate. If that paper gasket looks to be hanging out from the cam housing too much, you're almost guaranteed a bad leak.

Boy you really are trying to give me nightmares for a SECOND night in a row... ;)

I wish I had dry fitted this gasket, taken pictures, refitted it with sealant and torque and taken pics again to compare. The pics in the link your sent certainly show the cam seal WAY further out of whack than I'm recall seeing. I'll bring my good camera to the shop tonite and upload some views showing the amount of stick-out I'm seeing, which is just a lip. I "stuck" the gasket to the alum thrust plate with a light coating of curil-t, then sent the alum plate home with all three bolts in place to prevent the gasket from clocking. I realize the shorter sides of this thing can move. boy oh boy do I not want to see a leak here. But truthfully, don't know what I could have done any better. Everything was clean as could be, just a light touch of curil and even pressure on the alum cap, torqued to spec.

Well give it a look. Better to catch it now instead of after you fire it up!

I think you should be OK. My most recent leak was with the copper sticky stuff and the replacement was carefully Curil-ed in place and no more leak. Others have suggested 574 case sealant but I think the Curil T works ok.

A handful of us locals have done it with the green goop for years and good results. Some of the guys on here who run pro shops have cautioned against the Curil for reasons similar to the copper fail pics. When I said the Curil has worked well for others I personally know, they said they've had mixed results and went with the 574. My opinion, the Curil or 574 allows for some "slip" and the gasket can settle in place w/out getting hung up by tackiness.

Sounds to me like you're going to be OK. You did right by having the bolts in place to help maintain alignment of the gasket as you set the cam plate in place. Just take a look to be sure.