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

Nakeder by the day

My hasty forward progress will end shortly (like 2 days from now) as [thank god] my wife and son will be back from a week trip to the great white north.  But until then I've been getting somewhere.

 Just in case you are wondering they aren't kidding about that note in the engine teardown book about keeping a oil catcher under the engine.  It's been dripping out through multiple rotations and left angles for days.  Mentioning Wayne's 911 Engine Rebuild book, I will call it gold about now, one MUST have it, read it a couple times and then expect to keep it open and greasy in this process.

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Engine Yoke essay:

Here is a shot of my engine yoke, it IS a Porsche yoke and is crafted well and sturdy purchased on the bay of evil.  After reading enough favorable reviews on Pelican about it vs. the (3 times as expensive) other version I went ahead and got this one.

I think it's fine for the person such as myself that hopes not to be using it on a constant basis but I can see/justify from an engineering aspect why the other is more expensive.

One must make little spacers to use it on the right side of the case and not hinder the oil cooler.  I'd feel better if it was mating fully w/ the bell housing though.  I'm going to try to come up with something and/or re-situate it on the left side and see if it works any better.

Note:  initially I had my oil crossover pipe still on and I couldn't get the mount on the left side at all w/ it attached.  Which means if I move the yoke to the left side that pipe will have to get re-attached after the engine comes off the stand.  This shouldn't be an issue but? (what the hell do I know).

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One must be inventive when one works alone :) :

I'm waiting for someone to email me w/ choice words on my methods but it hasn't happened yet.  I don't really have anyone around that has much interest in helping me w/ these exploits (or that I feel I wouldn't be imposing on) so I end up doing it solo (noted before).

Since I'm not actually the super hero my 4 year old thinks I am (sad day when he figures out the truth), unable to lift 3 liter engines in the air w/ a single hand.....What you see here was my clever [in my head anyway, and hey!  it worked] method for getting 500lbs of Porsche magic on the engine stand.

I have a tranny jack which has a very high reach and a fairly large plate.  [nervous as shit!] I got the motor up high enough to slip the stand over the yoke.  At this point I had the forethought to realize once I put it down the tranny jack would be trapped so I placed my car jack under the front of the engine stand.  Once I (very slowly) let the tranny jack/engine/engine stand combo down I just had to jack up the front an inch or so to slip the tranny jack out.

Where there's a will..... :)

More to come, I'm still waiting on that pelican order so I can attack the cams and valve springs and continue down the rabbit hole.

Everything is going to pieces

Induction is off, the dissassembly continues

Now the bad news :(

 I noticed a new and disturbing noise the last time I drove my car, a distinct, RPM variable, always there knock emanating from the middle of my motor.  I've mentioned I like this car so I really didn't want to turn a disturbing noise into a rod hanging out of the block so I haven't driven her since :( (boo).

So as to not have to re-type an on-going saga, see my Pelican Parts thread asking for help and advice.  I video'd and pictured everything along the way to here this morning:

Here is the video of the sound I'm worried about:

It's in the thread but so far the only thing I've found is this:

Which of course has freaked me the poo out.  It is a piece of broken valve spring, the problem is that I've not found which one, sooo...is it a past repair or??  Hence the picture above.  A valve spring "shouldn't" produce the sound I have going on but I'll have to dig further.

I'm going to open this puppy up and fix whatever is going on so I can go back to beating the tar out of it with a big grin on my face.  I'm a full subscriber to the theory of beat on it, if it breaks it needed to be fixed anyway, it broke, something needs to be fixed :).

Now for an inkling of good news.  Before I dropped the motor I did a compression test and leak-down test.  The numbers are great, the cams I've been able to peek at inside the valve covers are also in beautiful condition.  I get the impression this motor is in good shape.  It seems to have been put together not terribly long ago, I have zero history which stinks but here is the time where I figure out just where I'm at.

A pic of the dirty engine out of the car:

And after an initial degreasing: 

So I'm caught up to today.  I'll be updating my findings soon and hopefully be reveling in the open road again.

OK, the good news

I spent the time from my last post up until July washing and driving my favorite toy. I drove it once or twice a week, to work, to business meetings, to dinner, etc. I love this car!

Here are a few updates from memory:

 Previously I lamented my broken speedometer, well too hell with it, technology rules:

I found a small suction cupped cell phone holder, it mounts nicely to the glass of the speedo and I have an app called Ulysses Speedometer on my android that is great.










  There is such a thing as "too low"

 For the record I've been guilty in my past of subscribing to the "there is no such thing as too low" theory, on probably half a dozen cars I've inacted this intentionally. I purchased my car quite low, and I do like the look....however.... I discovered a month or so before having to park it that the inside half of my front tires were smooth as a baby's leetle a$$, while the outsides looked like they had thousands of miles left in them (I've probably put ±3k miles on her since purchase)

If you recall a previous post I taught myself how to align the rear after finding similar wear problems (and bought new tires). So I went in to align the front only to find it was positively maxed out for camber. (hmmm) I did some searching and found out that my car was close to 2" below "Euro Height" (according to measuring tips from Wayne's book) I raised it up 1/2" and now the inside of those tires are no longer squashed to the ground.

I took it for a drive and wow! The tracking is so much better, it's wonderful! The teenager still inside me is upset but I plan on raising up the rear and possibly the front a smidge more. This being my first 911 I didn't realize how much better she could feel (I thought it was fine before) by being closer to the way it was designed. I plan to find a happy (for me) medium meaning I doubt I make it even up to the lower/sport "Euro Height"

Then I ran into trouble......Read on

It's come to my attention....

That I've not been paying attention. Nice to know someone other than me seems to read this :) I will catch up in several posts shortly. Today:

Glenda is in need of exploratory surgery, she's been stuck in the garage for the last 2 months because I've been afraid to make a new knock worse and haven't had much time to work on her.