Seahawk 356 project:

[Zeke]

I can't take any credit, but thanks. The car had damage from a collision with something on the ground, speed bump or parking lot bumper. Not sure.

Denis may have to take it by a body shop to make sure everything is straight under there. I put in a battery pan but didn't finish the job. I'm sure the suspension and critical points are all fine, the damage was forward of all the steering, etc. Just a good bump from underneath.

I tried to make a piece that was needed and the joke was on me. Read this for a quick giggle The car is drivable, but that's all I could do.

As Paul said, Denis is the director of the project. And doing a fine job.

[speeder]

Haven't had a lot of time to post photos lately but here are a few, this should be a big week for re-assembling the engine and car. My last post on this thread was dropping-off the engine at the machine shop where everything was measured/checked and crank was polished, etc...

All measurements were fine on the case, (very important), crank had been turned one repair size on rod journals and 2 repair sizes on mains. Case was still standard, (never align-bored), and fortunately not in need of same. Each repair size on crank= .25 mm.

To give you an idea of how precisely this was done in the past, the main journals measure 49.5046 mm. (Original size is 50 mm). They were not worn and the crank was simply polished for minor signs of wear/use. The case is the original numbers-matching piece and is in great shape.

The transaxle was removed while the engine is out and sent off to TRE Motorsports for an overhaul and re-seal, fortunately it only needed bearings refreshed and a general *once-over*. They do first-class work. I'll get some pics when I go to pick it up today or tomorrow. I also had a lot of parts powdercoated black by a great PC guy across from TRE, engine tin and swing arms, etc...

First order of business is cleaning the case properly. The general wash that it got at the machine shop is only a starting point, you need to still clean and check all passages and mating surfaces, etc... (I know...I say "etc..." too much).

For case cleaning, I use my WW2 surplus gun-cleaning kit that I actually bought at the Porsche Literature and Memorabilia show and swap meet several years ago from one of the big 356 parts sellers. Never knew what I'd use it for, how's that for a coinky-dink?


I almost forgot...when I got it back from machine shop, one of the oil pressure-relief bypass pistons was completely stuck in the timing case, which is the front cover (rear-facing when in car), part of the 3-piece case. God only knows how long it had been like that but it needed to be drilled and pulled-out w/ a tiny slide hammer by my machinist. The last guy who "re-built" this mill really did not know his ass from page 9 and I discovered that he had the two springs reversed in the 2 relief bores. (One in main case and one in timing case). Easily rectified now but just one of many small eff-ups that will be corrected in this new overhaul.

Old piston after removal:



The two springs, (they are almost identical but not):

[speeder]

How did I know which spring goes in which hole, you may be wondering? Am I some Porsche super-jenius who has the measurements in millimeters of every oil pressure-relief spring in every engine they ever made memorized?

No. I would not have a clue which one goes where if not for a couple of indispensable books and some real 356 super-jeniuses that I have on speed-dial. One of the books is this great, seminal text by Henry Elfrink from the late '50s. I have the 3rd edition, printed in 1965 with all pertinent info to this motor.


It's very much like a factory manual but even better in some ways, IMO, because of his wonderful exposition. (He's long-winded...like me on this thread). Here is the specs on the two springs for Paul's motor:

[speeder]

One of the springs is 2 mm longer than the other and has thinner wire. The last guy had a 50/50 when he guessed which one went where and he rolled snake-eyes. It does matter, because it deals w/ oil pressure. I'm not sure what effect the stuck one had but it wasn't good.

I proceeded to clean the case my way, including cleaning all of the old adhesive from mating surfaces and studs and cleaning small passages. I use a very fine flat stone w/ WD-40 type spray to clean flat mating surfaces, it is a very mild "surfacer" that will catch any burrs or tiny high-spots on flat aluminum.






I do a final clean w/ etching-type alloy wheel cleaner to get a *better than factory* finish on case parts:

[speeder]

I'm about to assemble the crank and rods, then install in case along w/ cam and followers and put case together. We got some beautiful forged pistons from Duane Spencer @ Shasta Engineering and a stock 356SC cam. The cam that was in the motor was an old Racer Brown grind, (a name from way back in the time machine), and not even close to optimal for this engine. I checked the flywheel-to-main bearing clearance and did some minor balancing of the rods over the weekend. I got a cheap digital scale from Harbor Freight, (really accurate), and got scientific:

The pistons w/ pins turned out to be very well balanced w/ (2) @ 443 grams combined and (2) @ 444 grams combined. I will put the heavier two nearest to flywheel, opposite each other of course. This is only a 5500 rpm motor so this may be overkill but WTF, I want it to be smooth.

[speeder]

I weighed the pistons and pins separately and matched them to get my 2+2 sets:

[speeder]

The rods weighed-in @ 463 for (2) of them, 462 for one and 464 for one. I shaved a gram off of the heavy one and called it a day. Now I have (3) @ 463 and one @ 462. I studied where the factory seemed to shave them and noticed that the heavy one had a little more meat right here, (in yellow), so I dremeled off a gram from all 4 corners of that rod. It was extremely minor:


There are a lot more pics of spring plates/torsion bars/etc. but my battery is dying and I need to get to work so more later.

EDIT: The light rod is 462, not 461 grams. I have (3) @ 463 and (1) @ 462 now. The Porsche factory allows 3 grams variance/tolerance so we're way ahead of the game.

[speeder]

Here are a couple spy-shots of the trans being put together @ TRE last week:

[crustychief]

Wow, it is coming along nicely!

[djmcmath]

That's gorgeous! I love the attention to detail!

[speeder]

Things are coming along nicely, albeit slowly. There is something about a 356 project that is like a black hole, time-wise...100s of small delays that make work stop until a missing 0-ring is ordered, etc...

An example would be completely dry-assembling the engine to measure all combustion chamber-related clearances, from deck-height to piston-to-valve and piston/head clearance, etc., etc... Some of this is done w/ modeling clay on tops of pistons, assemble/turn motor by hand/disassemble/measure/re-assemble. We changed pistons and cam, the heads have been cut in the past to an unknown degree. There is a dearth of printed information on the exact stock measurements of a 912 head, (which it has), so measure away I went.

The last guy to assemble the engine was an absolute jackass, it's a testament to the heartiness of the Porsche that it ran as well as it did. He had extra spacers under the cylinders to compensate for shaved heads that were not necessary according to my measurements. At least not with the 356SC cam that I installed, who knows with the goofy off-brand cam that was in it.

Spacers are essential if needed but CR-robbing if not. This whole chapter is a LONG story and my time has been short to deal with it, so it dragged-on for a while. It's now sorted-out and the engine should be completed Monday. I still need to finish setting-up the axles on the the (newly rebuilt) transaxle and install it, then the engine goes back in and away it goes.

I have dozens of photos of the job and tried just now to set-up a Picassa album to post them all on and put a link here. For some reason, Picassa does not want to download onto my computer right now, I'll try again later.

Here are a few randoms, sorry but I do not have time to caption them all.

[speeder]

Did not have valve job done because it did not need one, evidence of recent head work so had machine shop disassemble heads and check guides, (excellent), plus measure springs, etc. I neglected to have him clean-up the combustion chambers, (my oversight), they were not terribly bad w/ carbon but it became an issue once precise measurements were needed re: piston/valve/head clearance.

Sooooo....., took them apart and cleaned them + lapped valves. The last pic in previous post is one clean/one dirty valve. It turned-out that the valve springs measure perfect but they were shimmed all wrong in terms of installed spring height. There are a couple of (slightly) varying specs on this, we went with stock 912 spec since they are 912 heads and cam. The original 356 spec was 1 mm less on exhaust valves. At any rate, the last guy had them off by 2-3 mm and not even all the same. That's a ton off. My guy did not measure them, he assumed that they were alright and simply re-assembled heads as they were given to him. Good thing I had to take them apart!

The valve seal is excellent on all valves, other than dirt/carbon, they were like freshly ground. Dirty vs. clean CCs: (I used a soft wire "cup" on drill that put a chrome-like finish on them):



Lapping valves:



Measuring installed spring height:

[speeder]

Some axle tube/ T-bar shots:

[speeder]

I had a lot of parts powder-coated black and the guy did an beautiful job. (Bill @ Ajax, right across street from TRE Motorsports). There are certain parts that should not be PCed because of the stripping method used which is media-blasting. Anything that holds oil, generally speaking.

Therefore, the axle tubes were hand-stripped with wire wheels, manually cleaned and painted. Same with oil-filler tube for engine, etc... Other suspension parts and all engine cooling sheet metal was PCed. I'll get pictures up of that stuff later, it's beautiful.

The inside of the torsion tubes have a light coat of surface rust, not bad at all compared to most original 356s but must be addressed, IMO. Who knows when in hell it will be back apart like this. After a lot of thought and some advice, I have a plan of attack for them that involves getting a wire brush inside and then painting the interior of tube with red-oxide rust-inhibiting primer. (Same as used on T-bars).

Here is the inside of rear torsion tube:


You can see the shot rubber bushing in this pic, original to car(?) We have all new ones plus new Konis in the box to install:



My first assault on the tube was to cook out any moisture w/ a heat gun, turning it on for 20 minutes and then off to cool-down, several times over a period of days:

[speeder]

Here is the engine as of last night:

[speedracer]

Great job Denis. Things look to be progressing nicely.

[Les Paul]

Any particular reason for that choice in shocks?

[Shuie]

Very cool. Thanks again for sharing all of this.

Where did you learn how to work on a 356? Are there any go-to books that you can recommend for someone who has never really worked one of these cars? I trailered a numbers matching C coupe home Friday that I will be putting on a rotisserie and doing A LOT of work on. I'm sure I'll use this thread as a reference in the future, but I was wondering if there were books, websites, etc., available that are worth buying or reading?

TIA

[djmcmath]

That's incredible! Thanks for the update.

I only hope that when I'm in a position to do a restoration like this, I can find someone with your skill to do it. Wow.

[Tim Hancock]

Lookin good Denis!