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!***

Good tools make all the difference

I think I've finally learned the lesson (only took about 40 years) not to buy cheap tools.  I happen to have a pretty well stocked tool collection, dozens of wrenches, sockets in 3 drive sizes, air tools etc.  This engine rebuild I've embarked on has caused me to add to that with about $400 worth of tools I either was missing or (bulk of that) are completely specific to the assembly of a Porsche engine.

Well I nutted up and every task so far has gone smooth as silk, no buggered nuts or stripped allens.  If you are reading this doing research for doing the same here is the short list of what you can expect you simply HAVE to have:

-A full complement of metric sockets (in 1/4, 3/8 & 1/2)  I have deepwells of 13, 15, 17 in 1/2 drive that I've purchased while doing this to get to some tricky spots.  I've got several extensions for each drive size (including a 9" and 12" in 3/8 and a 5" and 3" in 1/2) that have been imperative.  I have a 1/2" breaker bar and I can't tell you how many times I've used my 3' long 1" piece of pipe (smoothly breaks loose something using a 3/8 wrench, 1/2 wrench or the breaker)

-A good (don't go to harbor freight for this next few!!! Please, ask me how I know) set of allen keys AND a solid set of allen drivers in 3/8" (metric obviously)  Mine are Husky from HD.

-A long shaft 1/2" drive 10mm allen (if you have heat exchangers, I don't, you need a long shaft 8mm as well) - special ordered for ~$20 each

-A 12mm 12-point driver, I heeded advice and special ordered this one too, got a snap-on (~$30), nary a stripped 12-point (looks like a complex allen) in a spot you DO NOT want to strip out a bolt.

-A Camshaft tool, looks like a boxed ended deep socket, must be ordered on-line

-A Crows-foot Wrench, goes with the camshaft tool

-An engine yoke - here I cheaped out and ordered one from a guy that makes them on ebay that was decently reviewed on Pelican.  It has worked fine for the casual user (I made a previous post about it).  I'd buy it again, and was ~$170 less than the true awesome one.

-An engine stand - another spot I guess I cheaped out but it seems standard fare, this was a Harbor Freight one for ~$50.  IMHO HF is great for some things you just have to have an understanding of the importance of certain items and/or what's disposable vs what NEEDS to last.

Lastly I bought myself a transmission jack.  I actually got it from a local pawn shop for pretty cheap, it was a HF one I determined later.  It goes up much higher than my other (large) jack and has made doing this totally alone possible.  Others have said an ATV jack works nicely.  If I hadn't gotten this so inexpensively I was thinking of getting a ~$150 jack table from the great HF.

And here is where we are today :)

Found my broke valve spring, yay!

My HF stand and inventive flywheel lock, there is also a picture of the 12pt socket and where you need it

A thing of beauty