Are we having FUN yet? I AM! Wanna join in?

[Granite 944]

My wifes gotta work this week, but I DON'T. Christmas vacation week for ME! So, I made a list of things to do to my '83 and started today (rather late in the day, butt, I did get started). First up, rear wheel bearing R&R, followed by, gas tank removal (about time I get 'er out, and see where that leaky is coming from), and head gasket R&R ( a little coolant getting into #2, and I need to do all the vacumn stuff under the intake along the way). I'm a heck of a dinker, so, we'll see how far I get with all this.

Heres a few pics of what I got into today, with more fun a coming!

If anyone is bored, looking for a place to make a drive to, wanna wrench with me or harass me, or wanna see my 914.... massive project I've got in the garage and just starting to think about, or maybe even if your looking for a few early 944 parts (I've got like 30 some large rubbermaid boxes full of parts from a couple of the 3 parts cars I have), THEN.....come on down! I'd love the company/distraction/harassment! I kinda like anyone who’s into these Porsche cars, for some reason.

PM me if interested, and I'll give ya my address.

Heres a few of those pics of what I played with today.


We ain't a grunting getting this nut off!


Ya think there might be a little water intrusion on this pass. side bearing assy?......just maybe?


Completed dismantle, with a few of the "key" tools I used to get there.


Everythings cleaned (except caliper assys., e-brake assy., and drive axles...I know, I'll get 'em later). Spacers, splines looking good, just gotta make sure of OD fit of the bearings. tommorow.....wish me luck! That outter, on drivers side came out, WAY to easily, no brass punch needed on that one! I just pulled it out by hand.... real easy!!

[Granite 944]

Well, I FINALLY got the wheel bearings done and over with! Butt, as I've said before......... I DO dink around a lot! And, I get a rather late start.....most the time...hehe....what the heck!.....I'm on vacation.....right!

This is the 2nd time I've done this on one of these cars, and must admit, I'm a little dissapointed with the final result so far on this one.

I knew there was a little "play" in the stub shaft splines to hub splines (but, no real "visual wear"), but figured at 350 ft lbs plus, this wasn't gonna be the cause of any real play, top to bottom on the wheel/tire, when installed, like I started out with on this car. I did find out that the outter bearing bores in the control arms are hammered out somewhat, top to bottom (both sides....the castle nuts WERE fairly loose, when I started this). After a good wipe down/clean up, and finding out that I could easily, slip the new bearing in the control arm outter housing, and seat it by hand, I could rock the brand new bearing in the housing top to bottom, but not side to side. Ok, housing is hammered, so I know I need to aquire much better control arms, with good outter bores in them for the outter bearings (in the future). As a temporary fix to this, I did center punch/peen the outter housing for those bearing OD's, and used some locktite retainer adhesive on the outter race of those bearings, and drove them in. I could easily slip that bearing in and out of the control arm prior to starting this process, without anymore than using my hands.....everything dry!

What I don't really remember, is, if, there is supposed to be any play, up and down on the wheel/tire assy. AT ALL, when all is good, and assembled. I recall, that there should be NO up/down movement, when all is good. I've made these bearing/wheel assys., MUCH, much better, but I'm still a little leary of the longevity of my "fix", and dissapointed at seeing ANY slop in the wheel up/down after it was done, as I don't remember that, being the case, the last time I did one of these cars (been a while ago). Maybe there was a "slight" up/down movement to the wheel/tire, and I just don't recall that?

I've got tons of pictures and such along the way in doing this, but I really need to get onto the other projects I've got slated for this week. Tranny, and gas tank removal IS next, and I'm running out of time! Oh well, its ALL GOOD.....anyway!

[Granite 944]

Well, yesterday I started in on trying to find out what and where the leak in my gas tank was at ( I've been driving the car on no more than a 1/2 a tank of fuel at a time for several months now).

I got ambitious yesterday early, stripped out the 1/4 window/side trim/hatch carpet and such, dropped the transmission out, and what do you know, it was staring me right square in the face right after I dropped the tranny out. I SHOULD HAVE noticed this before I even got that far. Though, when I looked months back for it, all I could really see at the time was a wet spot, coming down the tank in that area. It sure wasn't as noticable as it is now.

Its a crack in the under part of the tank, which looks like it may have been caused by a previous tranny install, where they jammed it up in there so far as to ram it into the tank? I'm just guessing.





I didn't plan this out all that well as it seems, since I hadn't looked the spare tank I had taken off of a parts car over, real good, or even looked at it recently, till yesterday. It also has what looks like a crack in it, on the top, AND I couldn't believe all the rust from storing it. I should have cosmolined the bare metal surfaces when I put it in the shed over a year ago.






I have two tanks out near the garage, one is the rusty/cracked steel tank, and one is a plastic tank, both from parts cars I've stripped out some time back.

I have one more parts car that has not been stripped completely yet, so.....I decided to play musical cars again, move the 914 out, the other '83 parts car in the garage, strip the tank outta that one, keeping my fingers crossed that the tank in it is a good usable tank.



Well, I'd better get out there, and GIT-R_DONE.

[Granite 944]

Got the tank outta the parts car this morning, and it looks MUCH better as a donor than the other one. However, it seems to have a double fracture on top of it, like my other "spare" one had, also (besides all the rust). Seems like this is NOT all that uncommon with these steel tanks. See
Gas fumes? Tank leaks? Read this.

I gotta find a shop that can do a bang up job of welding this for me. I don't think I want to even try going down the road of the epoxy repair, as I really don't think I wanna re-visit this issue on this car. I've got at least one other car, that now has me thinking it has the same problem too. It has a fuel smell problem also.

Any suggestions as to local shops that could weld this up, or any other thoughts/suggestions, are welcomed! Thanks!

If I can locate a shop to weld it up, maybe I'll just downjack the car a little, and start on the headgasket project, while I'm waiting on the tank repair.

[Granite 944]

I just took the decent parts car tank down to my local "Stan's Radiator" shop. They have it now, and after much discussion about it, they are going to fab a copper patch, and solder it in place. Estimated cost.....$65.00. I can live with that. Now, we'll just see if it ends up being a good repair or not. I should get the tank back by wednesday, hopefully back in by end of next weekend. I guess I need to get on with the head gasket replacement/vacumn stuff, I'd like to do, in the meantime. :roflmao:

Anyone know exactly what these parts (valves) are in this pic from my parts car? Do they ever go bad? Can they be checked for functionality? Should I even care about 'em? They are mighty accessable right now, and I'm really not to keen on what they are, or their function in the overall fuel system. I suppose, I need to get the manuals out, and take a looky-peeky. I'm assuming, they are nothing more than check valves? It looks like the early cars have a "built in", non removable, expansion chamber in the C pillar, vs the later cars having a removable, plastic one. Any info on this would be cool too! Ok, I'll get into the books/resources too.




I don't know WHAT, this nit-new would do without all the resources/experiences of all the members here and other discussion boards! Soooo.........THANKS!

[Granite 944]

Yep, I started the head gasket thing! God, am I a dinker!

Got her downjacked to a comfortable height, stripped off the manifold, did a bunch of cleaning on the engine (don't ya just HATE working on DIRTY/FILTHY engines.... ). That upper balance shaft/aft O-ring, is in for a total silicone sealing! Don't ya just love that design! Crappy O-rings.....why there? Its a leaking like a seive, what a mess! Wish I thought to take a pic of what it looked like before I started cleaning under there. I will be replacing the O-rings on the oil filler tube also, along with replacing the DME temp. sensors harness wire connector, a broken thermo-valve on the back of the head (damn....someone must have GLUED that vacumn fitting on! ).

I got to this point, and left it. Tommorow is another day. Lots of dinking today!
tommorow, I'll take off the belt sprockets, rear cover, clean some more, drain the block, and FINALLY take the tower, head off. OHHHH, we're having fun now! Ya think I should paint, or powdercoat that camtower in black? I did one in paint, maybe go for the powdercoat?

By the way...........HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! BE SAFE!.....HAVE FUN!!

Pics include my garage companions! Bernie and Porsha (she's the all black one....WHAT a SWEETHEART!!) ......I love 'em BOTH dearly!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[Granite 944]

BOY! I sure screwed up getting in these last two pics!


This MY REAL, LIVE, PORSHA!





Heres my BERNIE boy! (brother and sister, almost 14 months old......NOV 2nd, birth date). They were both born, the same day my father died last year. Pretty special, to me! Long story, but its my dads doing.....I just know!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[Granite 944]

I got out to the garage again today! (I just wish I could get a paycheck, playing like this!).

I took a couple of transmissions down to my local car wash, and blasted the grit/grime/grease off of them. Now, I'm not so afraid to touch 'em. All new seals are in store for the one going back in my '83 (input, both output, and even that little shift lever seal).

I got the front sprockets, pulleys and covers off the engine, did a little more cleaning on the block, then pulled the tower and head. And, even as hard as I tried not to break anything, I broke one of the hex head bolts on the back of the head that holds the water tube to heater valve! Oh well, sure isn't the first, or the last one I'll break.

Just for grins and giggles, I thought I'd post a pic or two of the process I used to remove that broken bolt from the head (after I got it on my bench, of course). The pic is of a spare head that had the same exact, broken bolt in it. I removed the one from the target head, and then thought about doing the other one, since I was already set up for it, so I took these pics.

For what its worth, I think it's a good idea to cut a piece of sheetmetal, shim, or in this case, aluminum flashing I had left over from a home project, punch a hole in it, and use it to protect the aluminum gasket surfaces below that vise grip from possibly getting scarred up by the vise grips while turning that bolt out. I'm also very lucky to have at my disposal an acetelyne torch outfit. The propane bottle torches, generally won't throw out enough heat fast enough to do any good in this type of application. I've removed many a broken/frozen bolt just this way. Start by heating up a large area around the targeted bolt to be removed, and work the heat closer towards the bolt (NOT ON IT), keep a little pressure on your vise grip while your doing it, and you will feel it release, and start to turn out. Get-R-Done.

The head I removed from my '83, I know this about so far. Its been removed and machined before, the head surface has been shaved, and is measuring at .932¡¨. New head is a S/B of .948¨, and wear limit is .928¨ (give or take). It appears to be the stock size gasket under it, though FSM says to use the 1.4mm gasket. It has passed my 15 minute wet leakage test. (I use PB blaster to flood the tops of all valves, and then look for leakage underneath). Tomorrow, I'll be removing the valves and springs, and checking the valve guide wear (I have been getting the obvious puff of blue smoke on cold startup). I'll probably just end up doing a quick lapping of the valve seats, putting on new guide seals, and of course¡K¡K..all that clean up! I will be using the stock sized head gasket under this head. Corrosion pitting is at most, very,very little (seeing as how this head was done once before already, what a surprise! ). And what surprised me a little more than anything else was, I could not see anywhere on the gasket, any indication of water seepage into any cylinders. I WAS expecting to see indications of leakage into #2. I must have just thought I saw a little coolant in that cylinder with my borescope a couple months back. Oh well. It still is a good, overall drill, if nothing else. And, I really need to seal this engine up anyway from all these little oil leaks! I still think its much easier to pull the engine out of the car, do all this work, and then put it back in. I think, from now on, and what I've experienced before, this IS, how I'll do it, instead of doing while in the car like it is right now.










And, of course, the oily, greasy head that I'm working on.

[Usmellgass2?]

Enjoying the posts from here at home. Your dog could easyly be a pup of my old friends Conjac and Brandy! I'll have to get some pics scaned. He didnt come from a breeder in Malaga Wa did he (that would be me)? I need to do a clutch, reseal and manual rack conversion on mine some time this winter. Keep up the good work!!

[Granite 944]

Originally posted by Usmellgass2?
Enjoying the posts from here at home. Your dog could easyly be a pup of my old friends Conjac and Brandy! I'll have to get some pics scaned. He didnt come from a breeder in Malaga Wa did he (that would be me)? I need to do a clutch, reseal and manual rack conversion on mine some time this winter. Keep up the good work!!

Thanks for the kindness!
I love my doggies! No......I had them shipped down from ALASKA! Can ya believe it! I love this breed! Smart, intelligent, JUST....loveable!

[Granite 944]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YEP! Like a BAD dream, I'm BACK!.....or, at it again!
Damn!, I've got to got to work tommorow, and I've got a LONG WAY TO GO! Hehe!

Rough cleaned the head, did the valve guide to stem check (per the HAYNES manual, not the FSM, as I thought it was in). Looked REALLY good to me! PLEASE correct me, if ya think its NOT good! Stem to valve guide movements of .006" to .009", with one at up to .0012". Looking good as far as I know. I've got more cleanup to do to it, AND the block, and I had a heck of time cleaning that tower gasket off! I think I know why. It was glued/adhesived on, due to gouges in the metal due to an improper tool/process used to scrape the gasket off! I used a gasket remover, and carefully scrapped it off,using WAY to much time involved doing it! It wasn't me! I'm gonna have to use a sealant on the top of the head, to make sure it isn't gonna be a leaker too!

Pics below of some of the processes I did today.

This is how I remove valve springs.


Close-up of the micro-countersink/shaver part, that I use, that I mentioned earlier.


No, its just the picture. You don't have to heat it very much to get the rubber to soften and release easily.


As per the Haynes manual (NOT the FSM, as I first said/thought), is MY set-up for checking the lateral valve guide to valve stem clearance.


Yessir!....I'm anal! Inquiring minds (or is it NO MIND!). I had to look at the forward and aft play/clearance also. NOT in the Haynes manual.


This is how I lap those valves. God I LOVE that drill motor!


I learned something else today. Notice how the valve guides are like threaded at the top. I've only seen them either smooth, or with a single grove in them. I guess I DON'T have to use an adhesive on the new valve guide seals, I'm gonna install.


This is a pic of a head from a parts car I have. (from under the bench, from an '83 car). Notice that it is a smooth topped valve guide, just like what is in the TSB that says it requires adhesive/glue.

This is an after pic of the transmissions, that I took down to the local car wash and sprayed the crap outta! I was to embarressed to show the pic of what they looked like before (besides, I forgot to take a before pic. hehe).



Did I ever mention. I HATE DIALUP!!

Have a great NEWYEARS!!!

[Granite 944]

Gas or Fuel Tank Smells,Leaks,Repairs,Full Tank,Inside? (I made this statement, for "search function" reasons).

I just picked up the fuel tank that I took to my local radiator shop for repair.

First of all, I want to extend a BIG THANKS AGAIN! for the thread started by Neil, on the Pelican discussion boards regarding this “fracture” situation. I may never have even noticed these fractures in the top of the tank (under that long expansion tank) without someone pointing out the fact that it “could” be a “common” problem area. I agree, it sure looks like it may very well be!

See his thread here………..Gas fumes? Tank leaks? Read this.

The real and most prominent problem with the tank in my ’83, was a fracture in the lower end of tank, just above the transmission. It occurred after having the car for a while (I wasn’t getting the leaky/gas smell, with a full tank in the beginning, right after I got the car). I believe it was a stress fracture caused by jamming the transmission up into the tank, causing a small dent in it, during a previous install. So, be forewarned, about installing your transmissions, and the possible delayed problems from this! These steel tanks are not very thick, and they are not galvanized in or outside.

The tank I had repaired here as a replacement, was from one of two early parts cars that I have. BOTH, of these tanks had these fractures. The target tank that I need to replace, thats in my ’83 is still in there, waiting for this replacement to get ready, so I haven’t verified that this one also has this type of fracture(s) on the top of it. Butt, I SURE won’t be surprised! (now, I really wonder about the tank in my avatar car, as I haven’t completely solved that car’s gas smell issue). Regarding the parts car tanks, I’ve seen one fracture on one tank, and a double fracture on this one. Combined with what Neil has said, and shown, and from what I’ve seen, AND from what the repairman at the shop said, I truly believe this is surely not an uncommon thing! According to my repair shop, it sounds like Jaguars have a more severe problem of manufacturer’s build process tank problems, then Porsche does. So keep this in mind! Fractures like this, are SURELY not uncommon, and it doesn't take much of a such a small fracture, to get these "smelly" problems.

Moral of my long story here
1: Total cost of this repair: $47.12 (including tax)

2: The process he used to repair it:

Finished grinding down to bare metal, a larger area, cleaned well, drilled 1/16” holes in each end of the fracture(s), used 18 ga. Copper sheeting, and molded the patch to cover area completely, and soldered it in place using a large hot iron block.

3: If, you DO remove your fuel tank, look it over, very, very carefully for these very tiny fractures. Especially, around areas of the contours created by the stamping/manufacturing process of the tank.

4: If your having fuel smell problems, and have exhausted all the other “easier” fixes first, you REALLY need to consider this one!


Here is the pic of the repair. I'm gonna clean it a little more, and spray it with an undercoating paint. Should be........a repair that I NEVER have to re-visit ( I hope!).
[img]http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads6/DSCF00011136428508.jpg[/img

[HardDrive]

Reading your posts....god I am a slouch....

[Granite 944]

Originally posted by HardDrive
Reading your posts....god I am a slouch....

Just so there is no doubt in your mind as to the kinda "slouch" I AM........I haven't done squat with this car other than pick up that tank, since I went back to work last tuesday! I might get in there again, come next sunday? This just might take a whole bunch of time to get finished, now.

[nize]

hahah this is awesome.

any chance you'd have a spare iceshark kit or help me duplicate the one you already have? i wasn't fortunate enough to get one while dan was still alive and now i'm kicking myself for it.

[Granite 944]

nize,

I sure don't have a spare kit, butt.......if your willing to wait till later this spring of summer, I bet we can get together, and duplicate the kit. Maybe not as well as Dan originally built 'em, but I'm sure it can be done alright. I've been thinking of putting a kit together (eventually) for my '83 anyway.

[nize]

sure thing, do you have the full boat kit? no doubt it would cost more duplicating it, but at least it will still be the lowest cost for the best light.

[Granite 944]

Nize, I do have the full boat setup. It also has the fog lamp upgraded wiring/relay also. It does not have the aux. positive cable kit nor Dan's aux. ground kit. I made up my own aux. ground cable. We'll have to get together sometime, and see what we can make out of all this. :)


Well, I haven't gotten all that far with my car this week. Mostly cleaning, checking, prepping and painting. I did get the head all cleaned up, checked over, and reassembled, so it is ready to go back in. I've also order a new set of Koni shocks for the back of this car. It currently has a mismatched set of Boge under there, and one appears to shows signs of leakage anyway.

I decided to paint my cam tower like I've done on my other car, and forgo the powder coating. I'm going to use a different tower from a parts car (its in better shape, externally), but will use the same cam and covers. I dismantled the tower, and discovered that the previous owner (or his mechanic, if you’d want to call him that) had done just a wonderful job of reassembling this tower with the cam carrier beat to death, the key itself beat to death, and even the front of cam gear worn and ugly! Upon removal, the key was installed with the bad side down into the camshaft, even though that carriers keyway was not going to be a very good fit anyway! I WILL be replacing the carrier, the cam gear, and the key of course! At least the camshaft itself looks alright.

Picture shows the ugly carrier block and its nasty key on the left, camshaft key looks good, and the replacement carrier and key I will be installing on the right.

WHY! Do people DO CRAP like this!? I just can’t see ANY justifiable reasoning behind such crappy work and reassembly. :eek:




:D

[nize]

good deal. i know of at least five other 951 owners who are interested in the lighting upgrade, so we would also have some group buy ability when the time comes.

[Bleyseng]

Come on, get that 914 back into the garage before its all rusty like the spare gastank!