Ups and Downs and the generosity of others

I continue to be surprised and heartened by the willingness of others to lend a hand with no expectation of compensation in this little Porsche community of ours.

I've now gotten a little farther having added my cam chain towers.  I had to make a judgement call due to finances not to spend the $800-1k that new Carrera Tensioners go for.  But when I pulled mine out of the bag I put them in 6 months ago and started to fiddle with them I noticed one could be compressed quite easily by hand and the other could not.  I posed this question to the community and was quickly enlightened that the easily compressed one was certainly not operating properly.

I put the picture above on my build thread on Pelican and I also sent a little side question about the same to our local Porsche whisperer.  He quickly diagnosed by the pictures that BOTH of my tensioners were woefully sagging but told me if I'd put them in the mail to him he'd rebuild them for me.  So off to him they went the next morning.  Here is where I found out what several of the little o-rings in my seal kit went to (nothing is noted anywhere just where each thing in these multiple plastic bags go)  apparently these ARE meant to be rebuilt.  I'd like to note that although every single resource reading up on a rebuilt says you just plain HAVE TO replace these babies with the later version I've now heard from several old hands that they are perfectly serviceable (and I'm going w/ that since I now have a nice new set and don't have all that extra $ laying around burning a hole in my pocket.

He sent me this little exploded diagram, I had tried briefly to disassemble them without getting too far and was all too happy to take him up on his offer to fix them for me.

And here is what I got back, quite a difference:

Current thoughts:  I'm somewhere between awe that my car seemed to run as well as it did, and relived that I think I did stave off impending disaster when I took her off the road.  My chain tensioners were both not doing their job, they had failure collars on but they were installed backwards so doing no good whatsoever.  I had 2 fully broken springs with fragments roaming around the case, I kinda assume there were other springs [that are now all new] that were sagging and ready to pop.  I had 1 valve not seating properly and all my exhaust guides were worn.  And I haven't gotten back there yet but my airbox has a huge crack in it (no wonder I've fought so many FI tuning issues).  

I'm getting closer, still need to step it up as there is a show in late March I'd like to be driving this wonderful beast to.

Everybody likes a little head

What?  You thought I meant... Nooo, I was talking about CYLINDER HEADs you sick B@stards!  I am slowly getting somewhere, I've been ultra fastidious (per all recommendations) in my workspace and each part that gets put together, making sure to wipe my work surface down regularly and each part gets clean wiped before assembly.  I've covered everything with some thick plastic each time I've left it at the end of a work session. 

I found out why it's suggested you cover over the open parts during piston->rod assembly first hand, had at least 2 or 3 of the snap rings go flying off that would have landed right inside the case, Wayne doesn't seem to suggest much in his book that doesn't have a good purpose.

Here is the right side complete.  I spent some time cleaning up wire wheeling and re-painting the cylinder cooling tin even though I know it won't see too much of the light of day, just seemed the right thing to do.

Presenting my clean and lovingly assembled long block as of this weekend.  Cam towers are next

Here's a shot of the parts I got back from the machinist, 1 out of spec valve (wasn't seating properly) all the exhaust valve guides (3 or 4 were worn out of spec) and all the valve springs.  Obviously the 2 on the left were broken, the rest replaced as I figured how far behind could the others be and I don't want to do this again soon!

The dead of winter

My sad little plaything sits, cold and dusty.  I feel a little twinge of guilt each morning I glance over as I plop down in the thoroughly modern yet completely boring Asian daily workhorse.  But her rear-end is up in the air and her engine sits, looking like an exploded parts diagram, closer to the wrong end than the right.

I have succumbed much too often to the cold, gray gloom which produces no motivation for even the things I want to do.  I received a shot in the arm yesterday in the form of fully rehabilitated three-liter combustion apparatus from the metal magician.  I shall strive to finish what I started [much] sooner than later and rediscover my Cheshire (or perhaps defecate consuming?) grin which makes my commute oh so much more enjoyable.

Forward progress....

 Today was what felt like actual, real progress toward a running engine.  I got over a hump I'd been on for several weeks due to schedule, holidays & apprehension of a timed step to seal up the case which will forevermore affect my garage floor.

  It went surprisingly well, I'd digested a dozen forum threads and read (and re-read) the engine manual several times so I'm hoping I did it right.  I heeded the warnings of clean clean clean, I laid out all my bolts/washers/nuts, sockets & torque wrenches (w/ pre-set torque values) all in order so I could proceed quickly without stopping.

I made the rod & chain supports out of $5 worth of strip aluminum from the Depot, worked quite nicely.

 And finally I get to see again a mated case.

Just a little note, as opposed to the way I showed my engine mounted to the ebay yoke when I first mounted it I mounted it flush against the bell housing this time (as I think is intended) .  I will of course have to take the engine off the stand to attach the oil cooler but I think this is a whole lot more secure until I get to that point and I'm hoping I can just save that and the cross pipe till the end and just mount them before the install.  I shall report as I learn more.

And the project is put to bed for the night, trying to be careful to make sure I keep it all wrapped up since I started the actual reassembly so as not to introduce garage dust into these elements I've worked so hard to get clean.

Heeding Warnings

Today I find myself at the bottom of the dis-assembly process and hereafter beings the journey toward a clean, brand new engine ready to maniacally head down [hopefully] a good 100k miles of blacktop.  After reading about 400 times to clean clean clean, then clean a little more, I first completely cleaned my work bench.  Then I spent 5 hours scouring my case halves.

After crossing off soaking for 24 hrs in Dawn, Purple Power (good but not pretty to Alum.), and even the Dishwasher debacle I have found magic in 100% Mineral Spirits and Carb cleaner.  The EPA may not be thrilled but I don't plan to do this again for a long long time.

3± Decades of Greasy Grime removal

It may not look like it but this is a massive step in the cleaner dimension, I spent 2 hours this afternoon with Purple Power, a couple of wooden scrapers and a couple of stiff brushes knocking chunks upon chunks of greasy crap from my naked engine bay.

I'm going to do a little more and may try gunk and see if it gets a step better.  I've found Purple Power to be great but learned the hard way (read the directions dumbass) that it's not kind to aluminum.

What you see here is my wife's fluffy white leetle dog, while she was at the gym the furry kids and not as furry one were outside with me.  As I stepped back to admire all of my hard work I watched her stroll by looking like an extra from the 101 Dalmations.  A big "oh shit" later and me and said fluffy white dog are entrenched in the shower with copious applications of GoJo.  In case you are wondering GoJo does indeed restore black greasy hairy dog back to white fluffy dog.  I had her blow dried and brushed before the lady of the house returned :)  I did tell her about my mis-adventure because I figured I deserved credit for my efforts at making her fluffy again.

cleaning greasy parts myth 1

I've read one can clean valve covers and other greasy parts in the dishwasher (as long as the lady of the house isn't paying attention).

WRONG!

*** It took 2 weeks of dishes for the grit to be gone, and the didn't even get remotely clean, epic fail!***