Newbie engine teardown/rebuild - advice always welcome!
 

Well, continuing from my newbie engine drop which was relatively painlesss ( http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/823477-true-newbie-engine-drop.html ) I move on to the teardown and rebuild thread. I apologize in advance as my terminology is weak and simplistic :)

This is where I left off
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psrbomklca.jpg

To start off, I have read through the books by Wayne and have all the appropriate tools for the majority of the work. The special porsche tools are on the way. I am bagging and tagging and labeling and taking pictures so hopefully I have everything sorted and recorded.

I started today by removing the fuel injection system (the top half of the engine) while it was still on the ATV jack. The process is straightforward, however not as straightforward as the books suggest. I thought I'd remove 12 bolts and it'd be off, but you need to unplug certain connections (mentioned in the books) and label them and make sure you clear the harness out of the way. You also need to disconnect the oil hose which is directly under the injection setup. Once that was cleared, the whole thing just came of and I put it on the shelf.

The next step was removing the exhaust, so when my buddy arrived we jacked up the engine onto the engine stand. For the record, I am using a generic stand adapter which works perfectly fine.
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...pssbfx2ka9.jpg

Needless to say, the bolts of the exhaust were shot and I will not be using any of it again so we cut the muffler off.
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psae436634.jpg

We managed to get most of the bolts off the heat exchanger but here is the big problem - one of the allen bolts stripped, so basically the allen top socket now rotates by itself. How do we get around this? I've seen threads were people welded another bolt to the existing one and then rotated them together, but is there any other tried-and-tested way?
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps9113ad52.jpg

Once the heat exchangers are off then we can take the engine and engine stand into an air-conditioned room to avoid working in 40c weather :eek: Sorry for the lousy pics but we can only work in the evenings

Use an impact wrench and an extraction tool. You can pick one up from your local sears. If that doesn't work drill them out but make sure you are careful not to drill and damage the heads. Very expensive to replace damaged heads.

Find a 'friend' with oxy welding skills
 

You may be able to get in there with a Dremel tool and a carbide bit to cut a chunk out of the round nut so you can split it with a chisel.

Heat &/or welding is the usual way of attacking these frozen nuts.
If you are removing the engine to fix broken head studs - you are probably going to need Heat treatment again to get those out.
So find somebody with oxy welding skills to help you when needed.

Good luck
Peter

PS: I live in a hot country too - but we learn early to wear protective shoes or boots when doing this sort of work :eek: Working in bare feet is very risky.

can't see an ozzy jandle in sight ??????,whats with the shoe police:D:D:D:D:D:D

Thanks gents..

Anyone ever try to use epoxy or gorilla glue and a sacrificial allen key to remove these? I think thats what we are trying next... barely enough access to get a dremel in there.. I'll try to pick up a torch on my way home today..

Zelrik, aren't crocs good enough? :D

Hmmm - sorry to be the Shoe Police, I wont do it anymore ( I am actually wearing crocs as I type this ;)

Try & find a slightly bigger size in Imperial (not metric) for your sacrificial tool and grind it too fit or maybe a TORX.
I do recall a tip I read sometime about using abrasive cleaning powder (from kitchen?) to help with grip in the head!! I havent used it myself yet.

My epoxy of choice is JBWeld

Good luck with it
Pete in crocs

Bought some reinforcements

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...pstxfirx8h.jpg

A friend actually used gorilla glue to attach a sacrificial allen and it worked. He says that stuff is very strong. I bought the allens and the glue, so we will see how it goes.. and heat should help

Turns out I didn't need to use anything other than the new allen key. The old ones had a rounded ball bottom and these were straight. I fit it, hit it with the cheater bar and the stud/nut broke. There is still enough on there to remove and replace the stud. Might as well replace all of them when putting the engine back together, with new headers and a nice 2 in 2 or 1 out exhaust.

Took me all of 5 mins to finish the job
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...pssf3x9wvl.jpg

Next step is the harness, shroud and fan.. will reread Waynes book before proceeding further

drop links
 

Good progress!! Waiting for the next instalment.

One other suggestion (no not shoes again :) ) is that I noticed in your engine removal thread that you had squashed drop link ends on your rear anti-roll bar.

Today I just removed my squashed ones to see if they were OK - but they were NOT . The rubber inside was worn away & metal was touching metal.

You will soon be ordering a lot of new parts, so I suggest you add new drop links to that list.

Peter in his crocs

That is the beginning of a slide that ... costs money, and a lot of trouble, when you wake up a sleeping dog. Next month, you will be posting on how to drill out broken exhaust studs in the heads, and can you "please borrow a drilling rig?"

Presumption is the killer.
Then we have a bunch on here that will suggest you throw unnecessary crap away... like that exhaust system.......(do not know who that might be LOL )
Dont be afraid to ask !

This board is not like "most" where 18 year olds flame on.
Very little of that crap here unless you go way way dwn stairs to politics.........LOL

That is definitely on the purchase list, thanks Pete!

What to do? The stud broke.. and since this is a longer term project, I don't mind doing it slowly and doing it right.. I never said this was a budget build :)

aye aye captain :D not throwing anything away yet, but I have a garbage pile which I will revisit down the line..

Going to start working now.. plan is to remove the harness, fan and shroud tonight..

Great progress today - no surprises thankfully! Removed the harness, shroud, fan and oil line and got the engine into my little airconditioned room. Now I need to clean up the room and make good space to start the actual teardown!

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psgfn3yfui.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psss9duuhm.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...pspgo6iklq.jpg

I'm probably going to start ordering the must-change items soon, such as gaskets etc. Any input on must-have upgrades would be appreciated! Looking for reliability rather than power

So you don't want to hear about my SSIs and 964 cams? Really?

I ordered the rebuild kit from our host, which was certainly more straightforward than trying to pick all the necessary individual items from the catalog. When you order, talk to the customer service folks about what you're trying to accomplish and I bet they can steer you in the right direction.

Ok you talked me into it, tell me more, but not about the SSIs since I'm getting rid of the heat.. don't need it.. going for headers hopefully.. are the 964 cams a direct fit?

Post a close up picture of the engine harness. Looks like there are some spliced wires visible. Not a good thing. :)

Will do once I'm home (new wire harness is on top of the list either way ;) )

I spent most of todays allocated time (meaning the time my wife allowed me to work) on cleaning up the work space, removing the plugs and the valve covers. The plugs seem OK except for cylinder 2 which is a bit blacker than the rest. Thankfully everything seemed OK under the valve covers and I didn't find any broken studs.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psk3ixo4gd.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psvpkkczvj.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psd660uesq.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psuj1rtmqa.jpg

I know someone who can help you with that! :)

Still moving slowly and methodically through the teardown process. I removed the crankcase breather cover, oil pressure sending units, tstat, oil cooler, cam oil lines, and front chain housing cover. Everything went smoothly except some of the studs holding the chain housing cover came out. I need to wait for the cam holding tool before I can proceed further.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psd9m9o7ep.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psweovce3d.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/n...psq2rmd7f3.jpg

Tomorrow I'm going to raise the front of the car on jackstands, give it a good wash, remove as much stuff from the engine bay as possible (MSD, oil tank, oil filter/accumulator) and scrub the area down. I will also try to drain the fuel tank. I want to paint the engine bay area black to get a cleaner look, and also remove and clean the fuel and oil tanks and repaint if necessary.

Hopefully I'll be able to get all new fuel lines from one of the members here, as well as a new wiring harness.