engine rebuild

[Ignatzcatz]

Here are the engine cases with cracks all repaired ready to go to the machine shop. I'm still waiting for some parts to arrive which will accompany the cases for measuring after they've been on the mill. Good news about the gearbox which is being turned from a load of scrap metal into a working piece of kit by master magician Mike Bainbridge. The old box had the original diff in it and the result made for very high revs even in fifth. I desperately wanted a 8/31 CWP which equates to 3.875 diff, which would give me easy hundred mph capability, in actuality, just enough to keep up with everything on the motorway. Fortunately I'm very pleased to report fellow DDK disciple Darren T came to my rescue with just such an item which is now resident in my 915 gearbox.

[hot66]

out of interest , where were the cracks ?

[Ignatzcatz]

The one above is on the timing case which totally disintegrated when I double nutted the stud out. One was a crankcase stud by the oil strainer circle immediately below no. 4 pot. Another one below no. 3 which I think maybe an oil fitting, and the last which is not load baring or critical in any way it's the lowermost corner of the l/h case halve and will have to be drilled out to be of any use. I was concerned that the cases might be history but my pal is a magic tig man, his regular welds look like knitting and although he hadn't stitched magnesium before he said it was all quite straightforward procedure once all the crap had been ground away leaving virgin metal.

[Ignatzcatz]

Got a bit bored over the last few days, nothing to do on the 911 except polish it, my Cobra is still up in Wisbech waiting for brake parts, so I ripped out the interior of the 356. I've never liked it, a horrid blue vinyl which all went in the dustbin. It has always been a noisy car, with the bigger engine so close to the firewall it's not surprising but it is tiring on any journeys longer than an hour or so. Classic Fabs did plonk a bit of Dynomat around the back but I thought I would really go to town and cover everything. On a recommendation I bought a big roll of Dodomat which looks exactly like the Dyno stuff but is half the price. OK I'm adding weight to the car but it is only a couple of kilos which shouldn't hurt the performance too greatly.
I'm pleased to report the gearbox now has the 8/31 diff I was seeking and as it seems to be coming together nicely I bit the bullet and got a demon Quaife LSD for it which should get me round the twisty bits somewhat faster than before.

[Ignatzcatz]

Thanks FedEx, got my rocker arm bushes from the States, these have to be drilled for the oil feed then pressed into my old rocker arms and honed to size. Lots of Porsche shops can't do this, i thought, fairly basic engineering task but after spending some time phoning round, I've now found a machine shop local to me who can do the job. Which is a great relief as I didn't really want to shell out another two grand on a new set of rockers. I spent a couple of days sizing up the interior panels I wanted and transferred these card panels onto thin ply which I've now covered in thin foam sheet and nice thick material. Off to Stuttgart in a couple of days so no more work while I try to get all the interior glue off my fingers and knees. Lovely.

[attachment=2]

[anglophone1]

Sage green- very “clubby” (in the old-fashioned sense)

[Ignatzcatz]

Same colour as my chesterfield old boy, I was hoping if I cut down my chaise longue I could squeeze it in the back, nothing like a bit of comfort for the rumpy pumpy, but the wee beastie is just too damn tiny which is maybe why it's the only car I have owned I have yet to christen, still if I can hoist neighbour Gladys out of her wheelchair there's hope yet.

[anglophone1]

Chesterfield is exactly what I meant by “ clubby” Graham!
Will it have a tantalus or just a bottle of port on board?
C

[Ignatzcatz]

I'm not posting any more pics of my stunning interior because all of my associates have been taking the p#ss out of me bigtime over the colour and type of material, but do I care? No, because I've just bought a complete full hide of lovely lovat green leather and will be re covering my dash top and doing a mega job on my bucket seats and steering wheel. I've installed a pair of huge bass speakers where the little back seat squabs used to reside and the sound with the front mid range units plus tweeters is quite fantastic and bl##dy loud too.
I'm still waiting for all the machining to be completed. There was a delay in sourcing the time serts which had to be installed before the cylinder boring could take place, but the crank has gone off for magnafluxing then grinding twenty five thou for the mains and big ends then polishing. I had hoped to get the crank Nitride treated but everybody said with the forged steel crank they are tough enough as is plus any nitride operation invariably can result in the crank being slightly misshapen which means a lot more processing is therefore required. Also I have found there are very few people who are fans of this process.
The replacement bushes I sourced from the dear ole USA turned out to be a fractional one and a half thou too large so to avoid any involved machine procedure to get them to fit, I simply filed them in the junk metal bin and shelled out two and a half grand for a set of brand new rocker arms. Everything else in my engine is new so what is another two and a half K in the grand scheme of things. No problemo, hey, you can't take it with you.