67S damaged aluminium engine case - repair or replace?

[redrobin911]

HI - the engine cases on my 67S are badly damaged - see below. I've shown these pics to Nick Fulljames at Redtek and he advises replacing the damaged case half then having it line bored etc. and matched up to the surviving case half (that has the engine number). Obviously the paring numbers will be different but he has suggested as long as the rebuilt engine is documented with having a replacement case half it shouldn't affect the value of the car too much - I'm not overly bothered about the value but just want the original engine fitted in some shape or form.

Obviously the other option is to repair the cases, do you think that its worth a go and if so who would tackle this? For reference I do have a set of alloy cases from a 65 engine that I could be of use to help make castings of the broken/missing parts to enable making the repair a little easier perhaps?

Lastly, and a bit of a wild shot, does anyone have a case half (LHS - looking at engine from the rear of the car) in aluminium, possibly from a damaged pair where the other side is the one damaged?

Some thoughts, pointers, help greatly appreciated.

[Nick Moss]

Anything is possible with a big enough wallet. Call Bob at Concept Racing in Ross on Wye, he is a master with all things aluminium. 01989 763777. Nick Fulljames knows him.

[yoda]

Funny enough, I was just thinking Bob is your man but you beat me too it!

He does some impressive things with Aluminium.

[redrobin911]

Thanks to both of you so far -I'll call him and send him the scary pictures........

[KS]

When a rod lets go, its sure leaves its mark!

[911hillclimber]

That is quite a lot of damage.

Even if you had some of the major parts to fill the holes there would be so much to fill.

I had one of my race car's rear suspension uprights welded after an old poorly executed weld job failed while on a hill climb at 60 mph..
Had the 2 broken parts, cleaned, chamfered and bolted together then welded by a certified aerospace welder here in the West Midlands through a 3rd party, all is well after 6 years, they were the cast upright and the repair block was extruded aluminium from the old repair.

I doubt you can rescue that case half, but hope you can!
I can give you the guy I went through if you wish. They are a pro restoration business.

[KS]

I've just sent a message, with your photos, to my old mate Rob Loaring of ICE Automotive Racing Engines at Silverstone. Rob is the man for drag race motors, as well as historic motorsport engines. A lot of the big (as in Top Fuel) motors suffer unbelievable carnage, yet can be repaired. I'll let you know if I hear back...

It did occur to me that Dean Polopolus built his original four-cylinder 911 engines by slicing the middle two cylinders-worth out of the crankcases and welding the two halves back together. It may be that you can slice the offending section out of the damaged case half and insert a replacement cut from another case...

[redrobin911]

HI Keith - thanks for making inital enquiries, I do think think the case be saved and yes I'm on the hunt for any damaged cases that can be used to form a repair. I believe that there are many issues not least how much oil has penetrated the orignal cases and the difficulty this oil causes when trying to weld, also other issues realting to the heat generated by welding and the distortion that can be caused, not lease possibility of other crack damage caused when the motor blew and again any distortion this may have also caused - hence why I want to leave to the experts.

As you know Keith a 2.7 engine - mild tune - resides in the car so no rush (OK it taken a year to get this far!!) to have it fixed, just need to start the process.

[majordad]

Explains how you were so fast at Kirkistown ! The day flew and we never got a chance for a chat. Hopefully soon !

[redrobin911]

Explains how you were so fast at Kirkistown ! The day flew and we never got a chance for a chat. Hopefully soon !

HI Dave - the day did go quickly. No the engine in my 65 race car is going OK not perfect but better than before. This damaged engine is out of another car my 67S - do you happen to have any spare old aluminium cases? Will send you and email.

[stuby]

I have a spare 71 case - is it any use to you ?

Stu

[redrobin911]

I have a spare 71 case - is it any use to you ?

Stu

Hi thanks for the offer, kind of you to consider me but unless I'm mistaken the 71 cases are magnesium - I need alloy preferably from an early set of cases.

The search continues.......

[stuby]

Not a problem, best of luck with the search

stu

[911hillclimber]

Might be of interest.
I'm looking for a good welder to fix my motorbike cast alum engine and found these:

www.castironweldingrepairs.co.uk in Derbyshire.

They do lots of vintage car welding in aluminium despite the name.

[redrobin911]

A years search is over....

I've been looking for a LHS alloy engine case, or a set of cases to get my 67S engine up and running again - with prices of up to £10k for a set of cases this wasn't going to be easy, but last night night I bought a set on early911S for realistic money - rather that the mad money the rest of the world are asking!!

There is a little damage where the alternator fan shround fits on the top pf the case but this is an easy repair - just a pity the damage is on the same side as my damaged case. The decision now is whether or not to use my RHS case with a replacement LHS case and line bore, or as some have suggested cut and slice part of the donor case into the orignal case??