Happy 2026. What a great start to the New Year with completion of the initial valve adjustment and inspection of the valvetrain. I've put on about 250 +/- miles since first start. I've made a conscious effort to run this new engine at various RPM's and doing my best to put it under load climbing hills and also deaccelerating in gear to help seat the rings. No issues. New build runs like a champ.
In November 2025, I was satisfied with the 250 miles on the build and dumped the oil. With a good friend's advice, the plan to move forward with was to adjust the valves and make sure the top end was within spec and ready for the next 3,000 miles or so. I also knew this would be a good time to change out oil tanks as my 912E appeared to have a 911 Turbo oil tank with a few extra fittings. One was weeping a tiny amount of oil - and both fittings were filled in with JB Weld or something similar. They did a good job - as it lasted 20+ years or so. But, I found a local, nice replacement SC oil tank (I think) and cleaned it out thoroughly along with a coat of fresh primer and paint before swapping these two tanks out.
Next step was to order a STOMSKI RACING SR097 valve lash adjuster tool and small 0.25" range Dial Indicator. If you're ever looking for the best engine/ transmission mounts to the finest precision specialty Porsche tools, then look no further than to Stomski. Nice gentleman and bad @ss offerings...
So, on New Year's Eve, my buddy Tad240, here on the Pelican, brought his expertise and pragmatic approach to my valve adjustment job as I wanted to help make sure that my initial valve adjustment on this big $$ investment rebuild was as good as it could get. We quickly got acclimated to the Stomski tool and checked all valves to get them to .004" or 1/10th of a MM setting for intake and exhaust valves. I think about 12 of the 24 valves needed a slight adjustment to bring them back to factory spec. We also checked and tightened all rocker shafts with their new RSR seals to help make sure they were secure and ready for the next 5,000 miles or so. Some were perfect and some needed to be snugged up with their 5mm and 8mm allen sockets.
We got all that work done on the last day of 2025 - and then today --- I reassembled the motor with new Wrightwood Racing valve cover gasket set and re-installed the Patrick Motorsports headers that had previously prevented the lower valve covers from being removed.
The collector pipe of the headers had previously been wrapped with Amazon's finest, lol, header wrap. Today, I wrapped the closest primary pipe on LH and RH headers to help protect the lower Audi COP's as I imagine they will see high temps due to close proximity to the stainless steel headers.
Popped open my newest, favorite local IPA - Fullsteam Brewery of Durham, NC's Rocket Science - and added a total of 11 quarts of dino - Driven 15w50 HR1 oil (non-synthetic) to continue the break-in of this new engine before switching to the Driven GP-1 semi-synthetic about 1 - 2,000 miles down the road.
Then later today, I put about 50 miles on the EFI 3.2 with a trip to Angier, NC's best Irish Pub for take-out. This little 912E has a new angry attitude that I'm not unhappy about!
I feel like I reached a milestone and can now enjoy this engine a bit more as we hope to put the next 2,000 miles on this engine sooner than later.
