DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

...and a third time just to be sure on cylinder number 4 - yep... 1.25... or close enough...


good to go, barrels and pistons on then...



being pedantic about losing something in the block..


and heads and tin ware on, feel like shifting up a gear...


..true to his word, Nick Fulljames has made sure everything is perfect... zero variance between the cylinders...


From there it went bad... probably because I got excited... putting the camholder on I switched to the 'Dempsey' method - he has you torquing the head after the cam carrier with the oil tubes. Nick does a test fit, torques the head with the cam carrier on then removes it then fits it oil tubes and refits.. Suffice to say I fought the carrier for 45mins with no luck and switched to Nick's method and worked first shot, ok fine... chalk that up for the other side...

then...

I over torqued a bolt on the cam holder because I read ft lbs instead of nM on my wrench - turned a bolt in the head and also ruined the 2x barrel nuts... before I engaged my brain... I had to take the cam holder off, reseat the bolt in the head and start again, clean off the 574 - and of course re-check the heads to make sure I hadn't made the same mistake there - I think I got away with it. Then my bottle of 574 broke and I ended with the stuff everywhere... I wasn't in the mood for photos at this juncture... Will update more shortly...

...on a happier note I visited VisualFX on Saturday and got this update...

Headlining in...




...also got a glimpse of someone's napa leather seats, truly lovely things, I want to stick with an original basket weave look, still nice though don't you think..?

Got quite good at installing the circlips and gudgen pins in the end...




Made sure to clean the barrels of any engine assembly lube


Torque up the heads


Fit cam carriers...


Test fit cams and wrap it up for another day...

Chain housing and chain guides on...



One cam cover on...


Before seeing this...


Might have to pause to find another...

Some one tried hard to get it out...the O ring will never seal right like that.

Beware of the one chain coming free of the crank drive.
Mine came free and would not mesh with the crank sprocket for literally an hour of poking and prodding, really frustrating!

Bit of a delay whilst I find the right tools and buy a few better bits....

New ones purchased and covered with orange goo


Fitted with gaskets


And in place


Quick trip to good wood, emotional watching the 911's race...


Really want mine around so I can be one of the crowd... Over to Garry's at visualfx to be paying apprentice. Thanks to Garry for being so forgiving and letting me help out. Sound deadening in, dash speaker and a restored dash, quite lovely....

If ever anyone was considering buying dansk panels, don't. I've had nothing but trouble, pain and cost. After fitting my newly power coated and blockleys shod rims, I noticed this...

Dansk rear quarter panel...


Original porsche side...


They have a different profile and shape, not so bad if you picked it up before but as you can see they are already fitted to the car and painted... Part of the issue is me not checking up on the car enough whilst it was being done.

I've contacted dansk with this evidence and they've suggested that I should've replaced both sides at the same time to avoid this issue. Seriously. Needless to say I've requested a refund and will never use them again. Ever. That conversation is ongoing.

My body guy probably also has a case to answer. He'll be seeing the car again in a few weeks with a new Genuine porsche arch to be welded and painted. That should be an interesting conversation!

I want this car as good as I can make it, so this will be made proper... Do it properly or not at all I say. Very frustrating.

Onwards and upwards. On to cam timing and chain alignment, a job with the right tools made so much easier, if not giving some confidence that the readings are repeatable and accurate.

Fitting mechanical tensioners to hold everything tight...



Finding tdc


Stronskiporsche tools into action and dialling in 2.5 or as close to on both sides...



Went well... I had a bit play I the right side dowel pin and pulley but after about 20 goes I managed to get it pretty well spot on. Happy with it.

I replaced the mechanical tensioners with my spring loaded ones reconditioned by Nick. I watched his video on how to fit them by bleeding them to losen them up and then pumping them up again. No such luck with mine, they stayed tight even with the bleed bolt out. My solution was to use a clamp on the chain tensioner and lightly tap the tensioner in. Fill them with oil in situ and replace the bleeder. Seems tight...



Chain housing covers and cam oil lines. Cool, starting to look like an engine


On to the rockers, plenty of engine lube here and the help of stronskiporsche rocker tool, no feeler gauges here!






I'm using the autofarm invented rocker seals. Pretty easy to use and appear well designed, no issues fitting. Tapets set and ready for covers.



Sump on and plug in...


Intermediate shaft plate on


Off piste a little (I.e. Nothing written in my Dempsey bible) to fit the Sporto oil pump




...and now for a whole bunch of big stuff...

Fantastic thread, very helpful. Thanks, John in CT.

More detailed shots showing the extent of the Dansk panel issue. It is going back to the body shop to be rectified and again, if you are thinking of buying anything but genuine porsche panels, be prepared for this...

Joelipol wrote:More detailed shots showing the extent of the Dansk panel issue. It is going back to the body shop to be rectified and again, if you are thinking of buying anything but genuine porsche panels, be prepared for this...

thanks for showing, interesting to see the difference

Great thread. I've seen your car at Garry's, and agree that Dansk have a LOT to answer for. You are now facing a lot of (expensive) work to sort a pretty obvious and significant mistake on their behalf. IMO if they don't refund all your cost of the panel AND make some contribution to the cost of rectification then we should all bring the power of social media to bear on them to 'reconsider' - if they ever want to sell another panel for an DDK car ever again.

Small point - but the nylocs on your intermediate shaft cover do not seem to be engaging the studs enough for the 'ny' to 'loc' if you follow. Either the studs are too short or the nylocs are too deep ..... or you took the photo before you tightened them!

Stromski make great tools for the engine rebuild - I have used them too and they make things SO much easier.

Mick

Thanks Dave,

Your profile gauge worked a treat

And if any one wants to borrow my Stromski tools just ask, small donation to 10/10 is all that's required

@mt - the panel is not good, agreed, thanks for your support. I've learnt a few lessons on this one. It's a shame my body guy didn't pick it up in time and also I wasn't there enough to check up on it...

Good spot in the shaft cover, it just hadn't been buttoned down for the shot

@visualfx and Dave thanks again for the gauge and shots of the panel. Parts-wise called on Friday and agreed the panel looked bad and hoped their supplier would do the right thing...


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Joe, your dash and recovered panels look incredible. Quick (rude) question, how much was the dash to recover and how long did they take to do it including the shipping side of things ?

Many thanks, its a beautiful car and I'm chuffed to see you're keeping your Sporto, like everything that goes around to come around, many people will rue the day they took their original sporto cars apart !

Cheers
Sean