A little motivation to work in the garage falling from the sky outside to remind me that summer is on the way. Moving at a much slower pace than anticipated but finally mounted the engine to the stand last night so I could begin attacking the right bank. Sprayed some PB Blaster on the head nuts to soak for a few days or weeks... depends on how quickly I move but based on the progress so far maybe a month? :)

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Whats all that white stuff in the trees?SmileWavy

Good luck with the rebuild Andrew, and thanks for all the input and help.

Thanks Peppy. Hoping it goes back together as smooth as it came apart. The timing chain and cam/cam housing bit was a pita.

Heads and cam towers ready to go to the machine shop. Sending cams out to webcam for a regrind. Wallet getting skinnier. :-)

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Dropped the heads and cam towers off this afternoon at Exotech in Plaistow, NH. Looks like I need at least a grind on the seats, intake stud replacement for 1cm longer, stem seals and a thorough cleaning.

Meant to send the cams out to Webcams this week but didn't get around to it. Going to try to ship out tomorrow.

Going to start cleaning the case up as we turn the corner to reassembly now. Still need to change out the piston rings and scotch brite the bores. Making progress anyway... slowly.

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-Andrew

There was a time back quite a few years ago when a bunch of after market "Dilavars" hit the market place. I remember that the engine guy at Ogner P&A in the San Fernando Valley (north of Los Angeles) put a set of them in an engine, torqued them, and went home for the night. It was reported that the next morning he discovered that three had broken during the night. Don't ask me why a P-car dealer was using after market parts, that was never satisfactorily answered.

But, in about the same time period, we heard of other occasions where shops had to take an engine, that they had done, back down to replace the studs. We had a very honest salesman, at a very large parts house, tell us that we were very smart to insist on o.e. parts only.

I wonder if it's possible that the OP's studs were some from that fiasco?

Hi Pete,

You may be correct. The Dilavars in this engine were installed in 1991 in Massachusetts; perhaps sharing the same aftermarket source though as the shop in California. The car was garaged since and not exposed to salt or corrosion and the studs could pass for new still as I'm removing them. The epoxy coating is perfect.

I saw you're selling your 911 - good luck. I found I had tired of playing with turbo and modern efi so I sought something different and came across the carb'd 911. I understand the need to mix things up so good luck and I hope you enjoy whatever you replace it with.

Regards,
Andrew

Allright... some progress but still waiting on more bits and probably won't have everything (cams specifically from webcam) in-hand until March 10th. Picked the heads and cam towers up from Exotech tonight. Quite satisfied with the appearance of the work done as it was a thorough sorting/servicing.

-Cut Valves and seats, confirmed guides within spec, new stem seals installed.
-Replaced intake studs increasing length 1CM to allow the Porsche Mail Order carburetors to hold more than 2 threads
-Installed Eibach 20444.212 (Set of 12) High Lift Spring 31.75 mm 17.3 mm 90 lbs @ 36 mm 277 lbs @ 23.3 mm 12.7 mm
-Resurfaced/cleaned all heads
-Cleaned cam towers, removed and evacuated oil tubes/carriers

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Purchased the hydraulic chain tensioner kit to update from the mechanical style chain tensioners but they shipped to my sisters house 3k miles away. Those should be here within the next week or so. All for now, more to come as we begin the reassembly.

Hydraulic tensioner kit has arrived finally.

Camshafts have shipped to WebCam.

Was in a hurry to get the cams out to webcam due to the expected 2wk turnaround and couldn't find my rockers to pull out the sure-to-be damaged single piece that would have ridden the worn lobe. Fished it out this morning and will be sending it out for repair/plating on Monday. From cylinder 1 exhaust:

http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/q...psbe827151.jpg

Elephant's foot:

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The weather was great here today... sun was shining and warm so I had the garage door open to let some light in and to motivate.

Fan cover is going to need the red paint completely stripped as it's bubbling up and flaking off. I expect the paint was not high heat capable... I plan to body match the shroud with engine temp (500*F) capable paint.

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More interesting was the cleaning/disassembly I did today. The engine was quite the leaker and from many different places even though it had been sorted and resealed. I've learned to expect that it would be normal to leak in a place or two but this baby was snail trailing due to about every cylinder base leaking which didn't make sense... until today.
Here's why it's leaking... the last time the engine was rebuilt they powdercoated the case including the surface where the cylinder base seals. This would be the equivalent of powdercoating the deck of your watercooled engine block before putting the head gasket on and bolting down the head. Here you can see a curl of the powdercoat that was trapped between the gasket and case... oops!

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Coming clean after a few hours with Wd40, brass brushes, shop rags... finished up with compressed air to get grime from behind the studs. I'm not going for concourse detail on this car as it will get driven so just cleaning up and getting as much of the loose powdercoat off as I can get to.
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Some BrakeClean and scrubbing to remove all paint/powdercoat from the case sealing surface on cyl 4. I'm taking a measurement to determine the shim height needed for proper clearance/deck height.

All coating removed:
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Cleaned up the piston and jug for the mock-up and measurement:
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Piston on with no rings and wrist-pin 3/4 of the way through for ease of removal after measurement taken:
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Dropped the jug on ensuring the surface that rests against the case is perfectly clean:
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Took a long time to clean and disassemble... still need to go get clay/solder to glue to the top of the piston before bolting the head on and to determine measurement. I'm using the old head studs to take this measurement for convenience. I'm planning to get the order placed with the host for the correct base gasket/shim size to bring the engine to the 1mm clearance spec and then continuing to clean, remove the old studs, install the new and wait. Talked to Webcam on Friday and the cams are now expected to ship next week. I have plenty of work to do before I need the cams still... they're nearly the last part needed.

Today's adventure started with a trip to Home Depot Motorsports but they didn't have acid core in larger than 1.5mm. So off to the next best place... Walmart... glorious.

Picked this up from the crafts aisle; not my first rodeo doing deck clearance measurement with putty as I've done this method before on a VR6 we took 1mm off the top of the block for performance. That engine drove for almost a decade including 7yrs in Phoenix before the owner sold. It's an easy method and gives you the measurement... I know there are clever people building contraptions to take the measurement with a dial but this also works.

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Arts and crafts:
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Roll the piston down in before installing the head and torquing down:
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Turned the engine 5 times and removed head; result:
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Caliper says I have .68mm clearance now. Not looking to be a hero finding the last hp by running .93 so ordering .5mm from the host. That should put me at 1.18mm with a bit of a margin for safety.

Don't mind me... taking pictures all along the way of the minutia.



More cleaning tonight of the hydraulic tensioner chain covers and all the pistons... sigh. My fingernails are all black... but parts now look as good as I can get them. Tried wearing gloves but didn't notice pin holes once they started ha. I've ordered SharkHide from Eastwood to coat all aluminum to keep the corrosion at bay. Should be here next week about the time it's needed.

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Took a picture after I finished the first one... which was worse.
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Dropped off the metals that were all desperate for Powdercoat; some aluminum could use blasting for cosmetics. From initial inspection most of the tins were painted with a brush in places previously. The paint is all flaking and loose... full professional blasting and professional coating will be applied to all.

Lead time 2wks minimum but hoping for the air deflectors to be done inside a week so I could begin reassembly of the bottom end before then. Parts are with Good Hues in Derry, NH.

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More parts for reassembly arriving from host and other sources:

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Viton case seals and .25mm / .5mm cylinder base gasket sets... TBD which is needed for the jugs en route.
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As many know, I decided to ditch the Mahle RS p&c's due to material issues around the head stud failures and my desire for a more scientific solution.

Moving forward with iron cylinders. These came in a few weeks ago. Qsc look fine and measure dimensionally as a very near match externally within .006mm on my caliper for critical dimensions. The jugs have the bore confirmed as true at my local engine machine shop as well as double checking the height to ensure they all truly match.


The pistons appear to be a replica cis which means aftermarket cams with additional lift will be a problem unless you want to machine the valve reliefs. I have new webcam GE40 cams with high lift so I have ordered JE pistons.

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Mahle RS and qsc side by side:
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Qsc 92mm 9.5:1 911 piston:
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Cams are back from regrinding and look great... this was previously the part I thought would come last but now the hone for fitting the pistons is holding me back.

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Stripped the shroud and painted it along with the rear engine mount crossbar. Looks like the shroud wasn't scuffed before paint last time which might explain the flaking. It was glassy smooth underneath almost.

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First of the stay-cool bits for the heads arrived. Billet upper valve covers which are a bit heftier than the OEM items and also utilize a newer style captured gasket instead of the old style sandwich gaskets that are known to leak big time. These are available from the host here. The lower valve covers were produced separately; had the machinist (Mark) create a custom file for a flat top so as to better accept heat sinks welded on. Items are from http://hargettprecision.com/

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Finished the heavy cleaning of the case - the amount of grime that continued to loosen and come off was impressive.

http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps83b79e1d.jpg

Quick mock-up over coffee to gain clearance measurements for heat sinks a couple weeks ago. Bolted together a head, cam tower and the header to get a better idea of how much room there is to work. Seeing it laid out, which as it sits is how it will appear in the car, shows the sink will be right over the exhaust. A couple of the bottom fins of the sink will be trimmed to allow an air gap if necessary. The header pipes will be then be covered with ceramic coating and header wrap. There are other headers manufactured that don't extend into this area like the SSI do but I would like to keep cabin heat which is sucked off the header using the stainless shroud.

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Heat sink material arrived. Huge.

http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps86e17f57.jpg

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ARP Head studs installed tonight:

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Starting on replacing the case through bolt o-ring seals... popped one off to make sure the previous engine builder didn't slather them with RTV as some manuals recommend. Got lucky, he installed them dry.

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More baby steps... finished up the top row of case through-bolt seal replacement. Many were leaking oil from behind...the o-ring seals were installed over the paint/powder coat just as the cylinder base gaskets were. To make matters worse most weren't lubed/greased by the last engine builder so they smeared and were destroyed during installation.

Supplies for the evening...
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One of a few that came out in one piece:
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One of many that smeared/were destroyed during previous assembly:
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Because there is an oil feed jacket behind many of the bolts I didn't want to get debris from cleaning the outer surface when prepping for the new seal. Not sure what technique you would call this but I stuffed a small plug of paper towel into the hole and covered it with my finger while packing it with the through bolt from the opposite end. Gave a nice seal and just pushed it out with the bolt once I was done cleaning.
http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps2ae3bc99.jpg

New viton seal lathered up with the Krytox GPL 207:
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I used a sharpie marker cap to get the new seals over the threads during installation. With all the cleaning and prepping it took me about 5hrs to do the top row. :eek3: At this pace it should be back on the road in 2015.