engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

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anglophone1
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by anglophone1 »

Angus and Sam at Greatworth- sensible, not silly prices and nice folk. They did the topend rebuild on Jaffa 911 and are about to do rebuild for Tango 914. Rally controls next year will NOT be blasted with smoke as we leave!!
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jb
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by jb »

Mike - I don't really know what my plans are myself but you are right it is very much part of me.
Graham - I hope to get away with just the top end but time will tell as putting it back together may pull the studs and then the case has to be split and case savers etc put in
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neilbardsley
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by neilbardsley »

Jason you are correct I only have the tools for a compression not leak down test

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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by 911hillclimber »

Simply call Angus at Greatworth and follow his advice for the leak test. I've removed plug on a warm and cold engines, hot engine hurts too much, the plugs get REAL hot, but a few hours and all is well.

As to the engine strip.
By the time you have the engine down to a short block there is little work to get it down to the crankshaft.
Find a duff barrel stud and you have to strip it anyway.
Peace of mind wins in the end, do the full job.

I think most get away with new rings, P&B are ok but need measuring and assessing by experienced hands.
If you have strong oil pressure, then just doing the top is tempting.

In my recent experience, Greatworth do not take you on a ride, they recently did a gearbox job for me, did not need the labour originally quoted, and reduced the bill considerably as a result.
That is how Angus operates in my experience.
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by gridgway »

911hillclimber wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:54 pm Peace of mind wins in the end, do the full job.
Depends on budget. I for one didn't have the budget to do the full job on my 2.0l
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by bjmullan »

Life is too short, drive the thing and enjoy it.

That's what I did when I knew I needed to get my engine rebuilt. 911 engines are incredible, these are pictures of my pistons taken from my running engine, they all looked like this :shock:

Image[/url]
Image[/url]

The car was of the road for several years, as I acquired parts and money to complete the build. Did a lot of the prep myself but left the real work to Mike Bainbridge. And the good thing is I have no idea how much it cost!
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by PMNorris »

Presumably you have adjusted the valves? Could it not just be something as simple as that?
Regarding fixing it. I had my high compression engine twin plugged and dyno'd by BS Motorsport. They have all the machining bits and bobs on site too. Really nice people. https://www.neilbainbridge.com/Home. It wasn't cheap, but then I did get a bit carried away with what I wanted.

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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by Strictly »

gridgway wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 11:54 am There's also the debate about whether a top end rebuild is a feasible thing. Can it actually be done or does the case have to come apart to get the whole thing back together properly. Then does it solve the problem?
If it's valve guides, can a heads-only job (oo-er) do the trick? If the guides are worn (out), then are the pistons/rings/barrels worn (out)? Is there a minimal job (assuming it's guides)? Engine out, heads off, heads machined, new guides, (probably) new valves, new chains, tensioners and ramps, reassembled, engine in? Super minimalist - just the new guides in the heads, re-use the valves, chains, ramps and reassemble?
For a mag based engine, I would go the whole hog. Watching the redtek engines videos that peter morgan put together there were some intresting comments about mag case sag where the cylinders butt up against. This needs to be re-trued, and therefore it would not be possiable to do a decent top end rebuild in an engine where this has happened without the risk of the cam binding,or pulling the head studs afterwards (like when the engine had got up to temperature).

In my 2 cents epic, id did occur to me after wards, that besides the idea of letting one person handle it (liability), and the key support not to sell, that I forgot to add a bit more useful advice.

Which is:

The 3 reasons for smoking i can think of are
  • crankcase breather blocked
    overfilled with oil
    engine top end (i.e pistons or valve guides out of spec
A leak down should pin point it....but the crank case breather you can easily do a quick check of at home, just pull it off the tank/air box and check it is blowing out with the engine running, alternatively take it off the back of the engine, and check it is clear. I read you had already checked the engine oil level
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engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by impmad2000 »

What Brendan said ! Drive it and don’t worry. While it works, just enjoy it. Do more events with the rest of the DDK crowd, I’m sure someone will tell you if the smoke is a problem or not.
Tim Bennett
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jb
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by jb »

Good point about the breather Luke, I will check it.
I have taken on board the just drive it sentiment and have now bought a ticket to the Classics at the Castle event
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jb
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by jb »

bjmullan wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 5:50 pm Life is too short, drive the thing and enjoy it.

That's what I did when I knew I needed to get my engine rebuilt. 911 engines are incredible, these are pictures of my pistons taken from my running engine, they all looked like this :shock:

Image[/url]
Image[/url]

The car was of the road for several years, as I acquired parts and money to complete the build. Did a lot of the prep myself but left the real work to Mike Bainbridge. And the good thing is I have no idea how much it cost!
just realised that there is a big chunk out of that piston - oops
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jb
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by jb »

Today when I stopped I figured out that I should turn the engine off like one should when I stop and that avoids the smoke issue.
However getting an MOT another matter.
Fundamentally I think I know that the issue is valve guides, particularly on cylinder no 1.
But I will have a conversation with Angus when the Revival is over to see how to go forward although I am not sure that a leak down test is going to tell me anything I don't know already.
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jb
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by jb »

I am beginning to accept that I am in for a full strip down even if not all the parts are replaced.
However time will tell.
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911hillclimber
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by 911hillclimber »

Doubt a leak-down test will reveal worn guides as the valve will probably seal in it's seat.
Chat it through with Angus before doing much else.
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hot66
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Re: engine rebuild, sell it, what to do, where to go

Post by hot66 »

jb wrote:I am beginning to accept that I am in for a full strip down even if not all the parts are replaced.
However time will tell.
Speak to,JTparr
James

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