DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Had a few hours today so plodding on with a few jobs…

Cleaned up and fully resealed the valley of the oil leak, if anything gets out of there now I give up


Mounted the fan and alternator. Really happy with how that looks.
Need to clean up/repair/paint the shroud as it’s a bit tatty next to all that goodness!
Then that can go back on.


I’ve rescued the shims from the old diff, one bearing came off with a gentle tap and a bit of leverage. This one required persuasion! Guess that bearing lock I stuck the race back on with after it spun works!



Cleaned up the cases and ran a die down the studs, fitted the outer diff bearing races and the new clutch fork before a dry build.

The new (aftermarket) clutch fork needed some love with a file to get it to fit properly as it didn’t rotate properly or fit the release bearing… other than that it was fine

Whilst looking around with the chain covers off I noticed both tensioners weren’t doing a lot of tensioning. So rebuild kits on order. Good job I had the safety collars on as I’ve a feeling it’s been sat on them…!


I want to get the rockers back on and the engine buttoned up but can’t do the valve clearances with mole grips tensioning the chains

So that and the absence of gearbox bearings mean I’m a bit stuck now.

Soon… !

Lovely work as per usual Gary….

Excellent stuff Gary

Excellent work Gary

More progress this weekend, and having had the end of the week off as well I collected an engine yoke and stand from Graham. Engine is now safely off the ground so once I’ve got the tensioners rebuilt I can do clearances and check the timing without breaking my back!

Friday was a run over to Porsche to collect the precious bearings!


So now I could get on with the rebuild of the shafts. This is the second go as Mr Bainbridge spotted the pinion bearing back to front!
The new design has a flange which my original didn’t.

This cracking YouTube video has a very detailed strip and rebuild of pinion and input shafts. I probably should have watched that first time as it also showed the pinion bearing the other way around!


Dry build into the case:


And the middle section of the case dropped on:



Ready now for the diff setup.

Excellent work!

Great work Gary, what’s the your tube video?

This is one of them:

https://youtu.be/4dlnfU9oiQ0?si=hJr5r4HMnMVUUfoi

Whole series from teardown to rebuild in every detail. Really useful!

Hi Gary,
did you find a source for the main spring for your tensioners? The rebuild kits generally only come with the top spring, and when I looked I could no longer find a source for the larger spring.
Just curious.
Good luck with the work - all top notch as usual - regards Andrew

Hi, no only got (or rather getting!) the standard kit. Bottom spring looks all good.

I’ll see how it goes when I put them back together.

Not quite sure why they had stuck down, but will make sure they are properly springy! O-rings were flat and pistons had deposits on the side which might have been stopping it working properly.

Still waiting for the tensioner parts to turn up from design 911, order window went from 2-3 days to 26 after a placed the order. Not impressed!

So whilst waiting for them to ring me back (which they didn’t) I ordered some from Type 911 Friday morning and they turned up yesterday, so time to crack on today!

Second one stripped down in a tenth of the time of the first!


Rebuilt with new o-rings etc. Bores cleaned, pistons cleaned, bleeding was bit of a faff but you stick a bit of rigid wire into the piston holes to dislodge the the valve when it’s in the vice like this then you can push the piston up & down and it sucks the oil inside. Keep going and topping up until no more bubbles emerge.

Then push the top piston in with the bleed valve open until it’s just under the lip and lock the valve off.

Then fight the top circlip


Made a Porsche special tool to hold the tensioner shut whilst it’s fitted.


…and back in place with safety collars back on. Added some preload into the chains so we can be off to a good start.


With the covers back on I flipped the engine to make the valve clearances easier. And managed to find the rest of the oil


Clearances seemed pretty much spot on, certainly within the error window of adjusting them, so that’s good considering I can’t remember the last time I did them

I’ve still got my collars in a Bag in the glove box ! Back when we rebuilt, With new chains there wasn’t enough stem on the tensioner . 15 years late I Really should get them fitted

hot66 wrote:I’ve still got my collars in a Bag in the glove box ! Back when we rebuilt, With new chains there wasn’t enough stem on the tensioner . 15 years late I Really should get them fitted

Probably could do it with the engine still in the car? But you’d probably want to do a refresh on the tensioners then whilst you are in there… z

Mine only just went on first time around, you can see there is a bit more room now. This pic is after preloading the chains though.

I realised I had not given you the steel drip tray for the stand (the 2 x 6mm bolts on the bottom leg). On my 3.2 rebuilds the trapped oil just kept on coming...ran out of car board quickly.
I've only had to re-gap the tappets after cam fitting, never after, but you have to do them for peace of mind.

IIRC I installed turbo hydraulic tensioners with the engine in the car (2.4 engine).

When I've complained about 'delivery date creep' to Des911 they simply say I should have telephoned in the order then they would have told me the actual delivery/despatch date.
Try telephoning them...
At least the prices include vat now.

I’ve bought a machined yoke from Mike so could fully build the engine with tin wear and everything. Once back together I flipped it over to clean its bum. Won’t be seen but the burnt on oil comes off the heat exchangers easy enough with scotchbrite.





And today some mother’s Day fun with a quick trip North to collect the gearbox components. Mike also put all the oil seals in using the correct Porsche tooling which is infinitely better than me with a variety of sockets!

Engine now done on the trolley and stand repurposed for the gearbox rebuild


On his guidance I’ve deburred the gears and spacers to ensure the clamp load from the big nut stays clamped.


Now for cleaning and rebuild. Pinion shaft first

Target is all back in the car next weekend if all goes to plan.