[MBradbury]

HI everyone,

Once again, thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions and support. Just to finish this one off.

I read the responses with interest. Just a couple of remarks from my side to help clarify why I didn't think it necessary to perform the plastigauge first time round. Firstly, this engine rebuild is not being performed because of any component failures, although seat of the pants feel suggests power is down a bit. The rebuild is an attempt to increase power substantially by means of a 3.0L to 3.2L short stroke conversion with 964 cam regrind. The car already has all the bolt on performance enhancements, e,g, SSIs. Obviously, while everything is apart, it's a good excuse to replace, refurbish many parts e.g. valve train, etc. It is my firm belief that the case has never been split during the car's previous 85k miles. The previous owner's looked after the car and it shows no sign of any butchering (until now). Knowing this, together with the almost perfect state of the bearings when I broke the engine down led me to perhaps a false sense of security. In retrospect, I should have measured the ID of the assembled conrod bearing and I wouldn't be worrying now. I measured just about everything else when the case was split and all is within specification.

To Wayne's comments, I did check the lateral movement between the condrod and the crankshaft and it is within the specification as listed in his engine rebuild book.

This rebuild is not over by a long chalk. I have no doubt more questions and progress reports will be posted soon.

Thanks
Mark Bradbury
1983 911 SC 3.0L, soon to be a 3.2L short stroke.
1988 Carrera not so soon to be a '73 Carrera 2.7 lookalike.