I would leave the plugs in. Any residual oil in the cylinders that is there from assembly (there should be a good bit of oil since you don't want it to crank "dry") will be spewed out the spark plug holes and make a mess of your cam housings. Motor will crank over just fine with plugs in. Just make sure to put a charge on the battery!

Be sure the plug wires are in proper firing order and the number one is plugged into the number one terminal. It will save time, heart ache and homicidal thoughts after an engine drop, or so I have heard. Hope it all goes smoothly.

Scott

Well, she started. Turned her over for about thirty seconds and saw about 3 bar fairly quickly. Put the plugs in, reconnected dme relay, turn her over. Nothing. Flipped speed reference sensor plugs (thanks Kevin... But damn i thought i did a good job of labeling those, oh well) purrrrrr. I only let her run for a few seconds to test for leaks, etc. I was waiting to fasten down the cvs etc just in case i had a geyser and needed to redrop. So far so good. If i sound less than ecstatic its because I dont want a 'mission accomplished' moment... Want to run her hard before i declare victory. But... Feeling good.

Does putting her in first suffice to hold things down while the cv bolts are torqued?

Just set the parking brake. Best with two people since you have to move the wheel a bunch while you tighten the bolts.

CONGRATS!!

Need Video. I'm very envious!!

Congrats Rus!! 79 days from drop to lift. Excellent work.

E brake will do it for the cv bolts.

Finally before it gets to cold to work outside.

Excellent, with the weekend coming time to relax, help yourself;

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1386323666.jpg

Snow/Rain coming all weekend here in CT...... :(

good job! most excellent indeed...

Great news - Congrats! I hope you got some video... I totally understand your inclination to reserve the celebration, the mark of a man of science.

For the CV bolt install - I had my wheels off, so I used the crowbar wedged between the wheel-studs trick to hold the axle still while I torqued the CV bolts. This way I could do it single-handed (just like this pic borrowed from a CV rebuild thread.)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1386346858.jpg

Using a couple of long extensions, I did the whole operation on each side without having to get up once. Tighten a bolt, reposition the bar, tighten a bolt, etc...

Good luck!
GK

Congrats Rus. Glad I mentioned the reference sensor swap!

Similar to Smoove's trick for wedging the axle, I use a screwdriver inserted into the brake rotor vent. You place it so that when the axle rotates, the screwdriver wedges itself against the caliper. Then you don't have to fiddle with a long prybar or get out from under the car (if you were to put trans in gear or set parking brake) each time you want to rotate the axle

I use a screw driver in the brake caliper for a one person job on the CV bolts -- of course
the wheels need to be off . . . ;)

Regards,

Me and Roy think alike............ :D

Thanks for the kind words and tips all. This has been quite an odyssey. I started out looking at it as no big deal compared to the bare metal restoration I have idling in my garage, but as I got closer to completion the weight of doing everything right became quite intense. After all, nearly any oil leak means a re-drop. I'm certainly not out of the woods yet and do plan on posting a thorough recap, costs, observations and BIG acknowledgements & thanks after this weekend's shakedown..... but til then stay tuned for more questions!

Forgot to ask -

Is the little cloth covered vacuum line coming off the brake booster T in this pic related to the cruise control? I removed the cruise control throttle cable (don't want/need it) but can not for the life of me find where it connects to. I made a note on teardown "where does this go!?"

Can I just cap the nipple on the T?

BTW the pic was from before I connected the main leg of the T

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1386361071.jpg

Yep that's for the cruise vaccuum source. Just cap off the nipple with a short section of hose plugged with a screw if you can't find a good rubber cap.

Shakdown
 

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Took her out for what the Germans would call a probefahrt and was met with all good news. Clutch feels amazingly smooth and I swear shifting has gotten better, even in 40 degree weather in a not so hot car, it felt very nice.

Motor pulls strong and clean. I didn't take her past 4500 but found nothing amiss. Bursch BX1134 'quiet street' & cat bypass sound great. I get some minor popping on decel, which I don't mind at all, actually love, but want to make sure this is par for the course with a testpipe, not indicative of fueling problems.

Oil pressure looked a-okay, temperature built up nicely.

It was truly a rewarding drive, and more than anything just great be behind the wheel of a 911 again.

However.

Then I parked her to finish some heating ducting work and noticed a steady leak coming from the rear of the P/S exhaust valve cover / chain housing. The oil seems to be pooling in the little recess in the chain housing and then dripping down. You can see a drop about to fall in the pic below. I'm hoping this is a rocker leak not a cam seal leak, which would be a lot less fun to remedy. I'd also be a bit frustrated because I got the seal very well aligned, used a bit but not too much curil and was using the WW Racing gasket kit, in short, not sure what I could have done better.





Your thoughts?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1386441482.jpg

Looking at this picture from assembly it unfortunately seems like if the leak was coming from the rocker it would not gather in the semicircular recess in the chain housing where I believe the drips are coming from (need to look closer) but rather would drip between the two? Would the valve cover gasket cause it to jump over there for any reason?

At what pact do rockers leak? When the car is running at pressure I'm getting not a gush, but certainly a metronomic drip.

Could this be a valve cover leak?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1386441922.jpg

Suppose it makes most sense to pull the exhaust valve cover off to see if the rocker is leaking. How far cocked to the side does the car have to be to prevent a stream of oil coming out? At ten miles, I'm not quite ready for my first oil change.

It could, where you cannot see it on the side. I would thigh it a bit further down before taking the cover off.

I cleaned the area up then put this piece of cardboard in the gap between the chain cover and heads/cam carrier. The side shown was facing the chain housing, and was wet at the top near the cam seal. I didn't see anything on the other side. So unfortunately this is looking like the cam seal. Okay, take the motor back out, I can handle that. This is why I didn't let myself get out of the project mentality.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1386451590.jpg

What is vexing me is the cause of this. I looked all around the paper gasket and can't see anywhere it is obviously misaligned. Would the O-ring cause this leak if pinched? I used the green viton type and installed it with a film of motor oil.

Is the paper gasket the only type available? Pelican Parts - Product Information: 930-105-197-05-M17

Was Curil-T the wrong gasket dressing? I used a very light coat. Presuming I got the orientation of the paper gasket right, what else could I have gotten wrong?