Chapter 3: Picking Up the Pieces
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. -- Edwin Abbott
Well, I spent a lot of time talking and getting advice from some real Porsche experts. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me out, especially on the rennlist. After much deliberation, I decided to send all of the pieces of my torn down motor to Roy at Motormeister for analysis.
A big truck came to my house one day to haul the whole mess away. Then about a week later, the telephone rang and I had a list of all of the problems with my motor. It looks like I must've dropped a valve in cylinder four, possibly due to a worn out valve guide. Roy still thinks I missed a gear. I swear, Roy, I didn't miss a gear. It just…… happened!!
Here's a summary of the damage:
On September 30th, after Motormeister was able to assess the damage, I received this Build Sheet, which shows exactly what I'm getting and how much it's going to cost me.
Roy sent me some pictures from Motormeister of my reconditioned engine pieces. I put them here for you all to drool over. Click here to see them
Well, the story continues. I wound up assembling and disassembling the motor three times! The first time, I didn't seal the case properly in one spot by the crank pulley and wound up with a nasty leak. The second time, I neglected to install the oil seal between the left half case and the scavenge side of the oil pump. This was puzzling for awhile, because it resulted in an overheating condition and weird oil levels. Both of my mistakes resulted in tearing the engine back down to splitting the cases to fix, so you could say that I've become quite familiar with assembling and disassembling the Porsche 911 motor!
I have put some pictures of various stages of the rebuild below. I am not going to present a step by step pictorial because I believe that the prospective rebuilder will need much more than my limited expertise in rebuilding the Porsche engine. Please use these photos as indicators of what the engine should look like in various stages of assembly and not as a rebuilding instruction manual. The prospective rebuilder would be advised to refer to the factory service manuals and Bruce Anderson's fine publication, the Porsche 911 Performance Handbook -- those two resources were the only reference material I needed for the rebuild. Also, instrumental to my success were the wonderful help and assistance I received from lots of very knowledgeable people, namely Lee Marks at Motormeister and several people on the rennlist, especially Walt Fricke, Bruce Abbott and Jim Williams. Thank you all, I couldn't have done it without you.
As of this writing on August 17th, 2000, I have about 600 miles on the motor. It’s almost broken in and runs like a charm. And, guess what? -- No oil leaks -- it's completely dry. First time I've ever seen that from this car!!
Here is a shot of the completed motor -- ready to go in the car.
Here are some pictures of the rebuild, with commentary by the author:
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Here is a shot of the crank ready to be assembled, and below, the finished product. I have learned to set all of the parts out for each assembly, and no extra, avoiding the case where you wonder whether parts have been inadvertently left out. |
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Above is a shot of the engine stand modification to fit the motor. Two flat washers cut in half for each arm makes the American-style engine stand fit the Porsche engine just fine. |
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The photo to the right shows the right half-case assembly. All of the parts (Crank, Intermediate Shaft, Cam Chains and Oil pump) are in the case. The next step would be to apply the loctite 574 case sealant and install the left half case. Note that I have indicated the seal that was accidentally omitted during the second assembly of the engine. |
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The shot to the left shows the case halves assembled and the high-performance head studs inserted. |
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This next shot shows that the pistons and cylinders have been installed. The first cylinder head is being installed. Notice the cylinder hold-down nuts. They are a very handy item to have during assembly. |
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Check out the intake ports above. They have been nicely ported and polished. |
Left is a complete set of heads on the motor, ready for the cam housing, and below, looking in at one of the stainless steel exhaust valves through the exhaust port.
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These next few shots show the completed long block, with pressure-fed tensioners, which I added to the motor during the rebuild. |
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One item of note, both the cam timing and sprocket alignment procedures turned out to be easier than I expected. Both the factory manuals and the Performance Handbook explain these processes quite well. The first time I did the cam timing, it took me 3 hours. By the third time I was down to about 5-10 minutes. I got the timing to within .01 mm the last time. |
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Here's the motor nearly complete. The fan and shrouds have been installed, as well as the distributor and spark plug wires. Still left is the induction and exhaust systems.
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Here is the completed motor again, ready to go in the car. Yes, that's a B&B twin outlet exhaust system. |
Below is the completed long block from the rear of the engine, ala page 131 in Bruce Anderson's Performance Handbook. Never thought I'd get this far. 
