Problemoes

[Dakota]

Hi All
this is no critisism (is that how its spelt) of this article but 356 engines often wear all over, that is to say when you start digging into them you find that many parts have reached the end of their lifespan at the same time unlike 911's where quite a bit can be re-used, sometimes excessive end float is not merely wear between the flywheel and the main bearing but is the main moving in the case, a quick check can be made by overshimming the flywheel to bearing clearance so the flywheel locks up against the bearing, you obviously do not apply max torque to the fly bolt but just nip it up. By locking the flywheel to the bearing you can then see if you can still lever the crank back and forth or even twist the bearing in the case, any movement means stripping and some costly pain in the arse remedial work or a better case, if the security of the bearing is not checked you may not be getting a correct idea of the clearance between the flywheel /shim/ bearing resulting in the flywheel biting up on the bearing when everything gets a bit toasty. Also if all the top end is apart its not much more effort to pull a con rod out and take a look at the big ends , a healthy rebuilt top end puts more load on the bottom end and can quickly finish off tired big end shells, its fiddly getting the rods in and out but not impossible. Its also a good idea to take a look at the internal clearance of the oil pump, that is the end float of the gears and also the condition of the drive dog that fits into the end of the cam, oh and take a good look at the cam too for that matter as with the cylinders off the cam lobes can be checked for pitting and wear etc.

[roy mawbey]

Those points are very valid. If the end float has been excessive for a long period of time then that end play has been transmitted though to bearings etc, which will wear out those items much more quickly than if the clearance was correct. ( That's why I was interested in knowing what the clearance was before you corrected it.)

If the mains were very badly worn, I guess you would have heard them Mike and you did say at the very beginning of this thread the engine had been running well until the problems started. Hope it all works well for you when it runs.

Roy

[mycar]

Evening all, thanks for the encouragement, it`s all going very well ....Though I would like to point out that all this is just my Big Engine Adventure and really isn`t any sort of reference material..... If you know what I mean.

Good.

So, no progress this week, far too busy celebrating Mrs Mycars 21st birthday (again). There was a danger she would be expecting her engine, replete with ribbons, installed in her car so she could go for a birthday drive. Instead I rendered her to a foreign land and plonked her on a beach... She`s going to want to drive this car soon though.

To answer the questions about end float, we started off 0.25mm adrift but replacing the old washer with a new 0.95mm brought the end float back to 0.14mm, slap bang in the middle of the range recommended by the Maestro himself.

John, the pistons and cylinders were not in bad shape, there was quite a bit of carbon on the pistons but the only real problem was number 2 cylinder which bore the signs of a broken ring sometime in its past. However, all the rings were present in this incarnation.

Mike, by the time this engine (83315) was manufactured, the thermostatic oil valve was deleted and the cavity blanked off. I see over on the registry somebody came up with a clever piece of engineering that fits in the hole and enables full flow filtration....



looks like a great Idea, not sure anybody is actually manufacturing it. Any wisdom greatfully accepted.

Bill... how d`yer fancy a holiday in Harrogate. In a ideal world we would have split the case and started from scratch. The argument for doing this is pretty compelling but after spending time inspecting what we had, the descision was made not to. The end float was deemed not tooo disasterous, the cam lobes were in fine condition, most likely the followers are too. As for the oil pump, thanks for the pointers, I`ll look into it.

Mike.

[mycar]

Right then, we better get on, the end is in sight, all down hill from here... what could possibly go wrong ?

Well for a start, the new shiny reconditioned generator arrived... without terminals. I did think I might take it to pieces and sort it out myself but thought better of it and so off it went, to whence it came and we had a cup of tea and unpacked the carburetors whilst we waited. If you remember we serviced the carbs on page three and they scared me to death, a mere seven pages later and after a load of reading, I decided to start from scratch. Zenith 32mm NDIX carbs are marvelous things, they look complicated... but I can work on them, which means that either they`re not that complicated... or I`m a technical genius, you decide.

Anyway I sent all the bits that needed plating away and set too disassembling the bodies down to their componant parts. I did stop short of removing the butterflys from the throttle bodies, they were fuel tight, air tight and light tight when closed, so I left them be. To avoid vapour blast media getting into the throttle spindles, the throttle bodies themselves were cleaned painstakingly by hand, ultrasonically cleaned, then painted gloss black, the original finish... apparently. Anyway that looked a bit low rent, so I overpainted in matt black, which looked class. The carb bodies were vapour blasted, then ultrasonically cleaned along with all the jets.... and, well I could bore you for three paragraphs on what you can do with Zenith carbs, needless to say the trick is to get them as close to new as possible and they work better than you can imagine. Want to know more ? I`ll hand you over to Ron LaDow, (we are not worthy)...

http://porsche356registry.org/resources ... etors.html

And Ron isn`t the only voice, A quick search over on the 356 Registry offers a seemingly endless supply of Zenith info... Franny Brodigan is another of my favourites. And if you fancy taking thing further....

http://porsche356registry.org/resources ... etors.html

I did indulge my self with the carburetors, I wasn`t in any rush, it wasn`t an expensive thing to do and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here they are ready to bolt in place



The calibrating of the accelerator pumps, the how to measure point 33cc that drove me to distraction on page seven, was of course described by Ron. Fold a drinking straw and tape it, mark a line 3/4 of an inch up from the bottom and that`s point 3 of a cc. With the accelerator turn buckle working like it should, it`s easy to dial in the amount and set the carbs up correctly so that when you put your foot down... you take off like a scalded pig. . Incedently, the lock nuts on the accelerator pump links are 5.5mm.... who has 5.5mm spanners?.. well I do now of course. The springs are new from Porsche, the amount of information about heat treating springs during and after plating can clog your brain. New Springs are just not that expensive. And so it was, the carbs were bolted to the manifolds, which were bolted to the heads and we waited for the generator.

Bye the bye, if you`re the type of chap that wears a slipper I can whole heartily recommend those made by the shoe maker Church. Their suede slipper with the lambskin lining is a remarkably comfortable piece of footwear. Despite the need for a `wearing in period`, the like I haven`t encountered since being chafed by new pair of Clarks Commandoes in 1970... and the fact that they will be the most expensive pair of slippers anybody has ever bought for you, trust me when I say, they are without doubt the finest slippers known to man.

No good for gardening though. A cheaper pair of rubber soled moccasins would be my choice here.

Then, just as we`d given up hope of the generator ever arriving, the generator arrived, with a full compliment of terminals and so we bolted it to the fan and the pie dish, strapped it down to the sparkly polished genny stand with the golden strap (ahem !) and slotted the whole lot into/onto the engine. I should say here that as time has gone on, to relieve the boredom of waiting for stuff, more and more of this engine has been gold plated. It started as a nod to the Maestro with a gold plated dip stick ... but then the Generator strap, coil bracket, filter housing strap.... pulley halves, pulley nut, carb rods, oil cap clip, all became victims of my auric obsession. And then on Ebay, one evening, a genuine gold plated Harry Pellow pie dish turned up



Woof.

Can you belive it, it was like Harry was looking down from on high, egging me on in the bling department. Funnily enough there was only one other person bidding, golden pie dishes must be a limited market, so one sneaky snipe later it was mine... all mine. Mwah ha ha.

My exhilleration was short lived however when it suddenly dawned on me, at three o`clock in the morning, that I`d dropped a cock in the push rod department. Remember these ??



Alloy 912 push rods right ?? Wrong wrong wrong.

912 rods they maybe, but alloy ??

I pressumed (ASSumed) there were two basic materials used for push rods.... Steel and aluminium alloy... and you decide what is steel and what is alloy with a magnet and these were non magnetic. It did bug me, why on earth would 912 push rods be alloy. 912 cylinders are not alloy. Alloy rods and iron cylinders do not mix ...... ALLOY ?????

They are of course Stainless steel, Non magnetic and perfectly suited to my lovely new iron cylinders. Pefectly suited to the iron cylinders I just junked and would have never offered any problems with valve gapping that I agonised over on page four.

The new chromolly push rods that I fitted were never necessary. Talk about living and learning.

So then at this stage the engine is pretty well ready to pop back in the car. Newly plated fuel lines were fitted, refubished knect air cleaners, (with some repainted Knect box filter waiting in the wings for transcontinental journeying). New braided oil lines and ceramic coated exhaust... every thing and anything that had once been in a box.... we bolted to the engine... stood back and surveyed our travails.



The pie dish is still in transit but otherwise not too shabby, here`s one of us with the client....



Shortly after this photograph was taken, we got drunk by drinking alcohol and decided to call it a day. I don`t mind telling you that I did sleep with the client that night.

Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is the day we turn the key... tomorrow is the day when I nearly kill the apprentice to death, something he won`t be forgetting in a hurry...... Tomorrow is the day we`d like to go for a ride in the 356.

Mike.

[roy mawbey]

Mike,

Well done all three of you. Its a lot of work and time ( and money ) to complete all that work. Really hope it works and runs well after you install it.

There is no doubt when you drive the car now you will so much more confident have attempted all that work. Without knowing how the carbs or the dizzy or the engine timing works etc, there is a always an element of fear if you are miles away from home. Yes, I bought 5.5mm spanners also those little rod nuts need the right spanner for sure.

Now, I have a question. I have some original factory Porsche badges including the 1600 super one all with the letter R on the back that need re-plating gold. I believe the originals can be re-plated but the later copies cannot. With all the gold you now have where did you send the coil clamp for example I have heard most jewellers who do repair work know gold plating shops but I have not asked yet.

Look forward to the running report

Roy

[jury]

Nice one Mike (and James )....so basically if I just copy what you did, I should be able to rebuild my engine

[Mr Pharmacist]

The engine looks great - and loving the HCP gold bing that's going on it

[mycar]

Nice one Mike (and James )....so basically if I just copy what you did, I should be able to rebuild my engine

Yep, just copy what James did and you`ll be fine.



Stuart, thanks very much, I owe you, couldn`t have done it without you. I need to send you the folder back, I`ll pm you.

Roy, thankyou, it did cost a suprisingly large amount of money. Now when somebody tells me a pro rebuild will cost 10k.... I`ll believe them.

All the gold work and powder coating and plating was done by Midas Touch in Castleford....

http://www.midastouchgb.co.uk/

If you give them a call you need to speak to Trevor, he`s the boss.

Regards, Mike.

[roy mawbey]

Thanks Mike for that info on plating.

Roy

[mycar]

. CHAPTER ELEVENTY THREE

. THE RECKONING



The silence... when it came, seemed to vibrate with what had just been. Through the rear screen I watched James, my trusty apprentice, stagger backwards, clutching his head, confused disbelief washing over his face.... then he sat down.

Next, from the kitchen came running Mrs 58A, shouting... shouting `You`ve killed my husband`

`By gum` I thought, `That were a big bang.`

An hour earlier the mood had been jovial, we whipped the knects off the carburetors and slowly but surely jacked the sparkly new engine up and into the hole in Rubys back end. Snug is not the word. It`s a tight old fit, requiring a strong hand, a gentle touch and a bit of a wiggle..... and then you`re in. A flood of relief, swiftly followed by a contortion competition to bolt everything up, attach the heater rods, fuel line, electrics, tacho drive to the oil pump. (Oil pump drives the rev counter, , Are there many other cars that use such a system ??), screw down the last piece of tinware, Knects back on... And Bob is my uncle.



Drop the car, fuel it up, connect the battery and..... turn the key !!

Anybody seen the key ??

While we look for the key, I`d like to say that this bit, the turning of the key, had become for me, the crescendo of the whole process. From very early on, I realised that with all this work, all this learning, and all that money, we would arrive at the moment when the key would be turned. I built it up to be a momentous occasion.

Found the key !!!!!

So... Turn the key !!!!

Wirrrr, wirrrr, wirrrr. Wirrr, wirrr ,wirrrr.

Wirrr, wirrrrrrrr, wirrrrrrrrrrr.

WIRRRRRRRRR. Ad infinitum.... Ad nauseum. (But no bang mind you.)

Change the battery.

Wirrr, Wirrr..... and then ... cough... splutter... cought.. Revvvvvvvv !!!!! Not quite the auspicious occasion I had imagined but nevertherless.... Vrooom.

She caught and James coaxed some life out of her.... and she ran.

So we ran her for 20 minutes then changed the oil. Marvelous, we were joyous... I was b**dy amazed.... Mycar, the famous engine builder... the famous Porsche engine builder.

Once the oil was changed (for some new oil) It was deemed time to take the old girl for a run down a country lane, so off we went, me at the helm, trusty apprentice shotgun, waved off by the very exited client.

Things could have been worse... but not much. Things were awful... popping, spitting, farting. Every dab on the accelerator actually slowed us down and so we limped up the road and limped back into the garage... I was hugely underwhelmed. What was wrong. Where do you start ? The thing doesn`t work under load and there are a load of possibilities....

First off we suspected the points, so off with the dizzy cap, out with the rotor arm. Points were fine, back on with the dizzy cap, Then b*gger me the b*gger wouldn`t start at all... Until I realised I had the rotor arm in my hand.

Next I thought the carbs might need trimming. So anyway, I played with the mixture screws, number 4 first and nothing. All the way in, all the way out, nothing. Quick think..... no combustion on number 4, check the sparkplug leads and I kid you not, number 4 was loose at the dizzy. I pushed it home and, I kid you not.... the engine just purrrred

It was just a loose sparkplug lead, that`s all, everything else was fine, it had worked, we had done it.

It was at this point, me in the drivers seat dabbing the accelerator, James at the back of the car, his head in the engine bay, listening intently for nuances in engine tone.... that the pint of fuel that had syphoned into the silencer box... all the fuel from cylinder 4 that hadn`t been burned in the first half hour of this engines life and all the fuel from all four cylinders when I ran it without a rotor arm..... IGNITED.

Now, in the 50s and 60s exhaust pipe reports were common currency. When Edward Fox attempted to assasinate De Gaule, (the bullet thudding harmlessly into the warm tarmacadam behind him) the crack of the rifle was cunningly disguised with an intentional backfire two streets away. Nobody was suprised by a backfiring car in those days. Living with a couple early Porsches, I am no stranger to the odd pop myself and over the years have oft heard the stories.... .... `It were like a bleedin rifle going off`.... `Like an effin shotgun mate, know what I mean`

Not this one, this one was like canon... Artillery..... ORDNANCE.... a severe percussion. All the birds for half a mile around, whatever they were doing, instantaneously took off and involantarily darkened the skies. All the neighbours ran out into the steet, goggle eyed... and not in a good way. Siesmagraph operators in Turkey mistook it for an aftershock.

The Apprentice took the full blast, stoically protecting his brain with his eardrums, he tried to stay on his feet but only for a moment. Fortunately, the deafness in both ears only lasted 20 minutes or so, afterwhich the deafness in one ear only lasted the rest of the afternoon.

The car seemed fine.

When the dust and the birds settled, I timed the car and we jumped in for some leafy lane action.

Oh joy of joys, we sped along, grinning... In James` case, from ear to deaf ear. I should say, Rubys gear shift is like a rifle bolt, always has been and now this action, coupled with a brand new engine, made fore the most marvelous progress. Half way round we swopped seats and the job was declared a goodun.

I`ve now got about 200 miles on the new engine, I reset the valves at a thou over again last week and timed the old girl. All seems well.... in fact more than that, this new engine is smooth and quiet. More torque than before, more power and despite a careful running in program, just the most fun I`ve ever had in a 356.

And so it seems, all`s well that ends well... but we`re left with a conundrum. Which bit of this saga cured the Problemoes ? Replacing the scored cylinder, adjusting the crank endplay ?? rebuilding the filthy fuel pump, fitting the correct distributor, new valves, new stem seals ?...

Relining the petrol tank and fitting a new fuel line and inline filter will have helped and we did find one of the sparkplugs was dodgy.... maybe that was it.

There really doesn`t seem to have been a definitive cure for the problemoes but taking the engine to bits was one hell of an education.... I recommend it to the house. Thanks go to all who kept me going, here on this thread. Thanks also to Stuart (Mr. Phamacist) and Mick Cliff for the loan of invaluable documents, Paul at PRS for good advice and making me laugh at my ineptitude, Roger Brays for the exta quick delivery of all manner of bits and pieces... and Tracy (Mrs 58A) for tea and food and wine and beer.

Thanks also to my trusty apprentice who shows promise... I SAID, THANKYOU VERY MUCH..(Still a bit mutton)

After all that had gone on over the last four months, we were done. We found ourselves at a bit of a loose end.... and the engine stand looked a bit lonely, stood empty on it`s own ..... So we whipped James` engine out to have a bit of a tinker. Took us 10 minutes tops.



Cheers for now, Mike.

[johnM]

BRILLIANT

Nearly wet myself

[Bruce M]

a fabulous read....

[Lightweight_911]

Great outcome & very entertaining to read.

[myatt1972]

Superb, well done !
Great read.

[Mick Cliff]

Great result Mike.... And a good story board too! Ever thought about giving up playing with lumps of wood and taking up writing? Fiction of course
See you both out and about in it next year I hope