DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

OK, so a quick update on recent progress. I feel there has been a lot, but slow, due to only getting a few hours in the garage each day. Firstly, it was nice to build up the heads and cam towers, knowing that they wouldn’t have to come off shortly afterwards. I even remembered to fit the oil return tubes before bolting the cam towers on.


Cams and chain housings were fitted and cam timing was set to 1.4mm (well, within .02 anyway, although the accuracy of TDC / Z1 mark alignment has be mute). I fitted oil seals to the rockers while I was there


I’ve ‘upgraded’ to Carrera hydraulic chain tensioners (you can see my white 'idiot dots' on the sprockets to ensure that nothing jumped a tooth while fitting the tensioners)


Prime them in tub of oil the wise man said. Yeah, that works ! What worked for me was using a pump oil can and pressurising oil into the tensioners and watching the bubbles bleed out. Worked well and took a lot less time than to clean the mess up I had made trying to pump them up in an old takeaway plastic tray before.

Covers bolted on and oil pipes added, along with new pressure switch and oil feed restrictors to the camshafts.


Which brings us up to today, when I fitted the engine mounting bar, then cleaned, fitted new rotor arm and o-ring to the distributor, then locked it's advance mechanism ready for using Jonny’s CDI+ magic box to control ignition advance.

It's amazing how much time you can lose just looking for torque settings and especially looking for the small 'gizmo' from Jonny to lock the distributor advance.

Tomorrow should see the fitting the new alternator (anyone need a working alternator and control box ?)

Loving your work Peter, looking great.

Happy New Year.
Using the spacer for SCs (none needed for early cars and a bigger spacer needed for post SC – completely different alternator needed for 964 & 993), I attached the Classic Retrofit hi-power alternator to the fan (refurbished by Angus & crew at Greatworth Classics)


My only issue was the shaped washer that clamps the shims was too small in internal diameter.


It appears that ’79 had a 1 year special 16mm alternator shaft, whereas most are nominally 17mm. Being too impatient (and tight) to order a later spacer, plus not having a 17mm drill bit, I fired up the lathe and soon all was good in the garage.


My engine loom had been cleaned up, but the wrapping was so brittle and damaged, a lot had to be removed. It was surprising how much oil was still underneath the wrapping (even though the engine had done a passable impression of the Exxon Valdez before I took it off the road).



I cut the black wire (previously the DF lead to the external regulator) and fully replaced the heavy duty alternator power cable that ran to the starter. I managed to reuse the rubber grommets from both ends,


I used a couple of lengths of insulating tape to hold things in place, then wrapped the lot using the proper stuff.


Attach wires to alternator, add shroud


and then loosely attach what I could


I’ve checked out the tinware, but need more short M6 bolts (on order) to completely fit. I also discovered that the bearing sleeves in the throttle linkage contraption that sits on the engine need replacing, and in typical style, I’ve mis-placed the spacer sleeve for that area. More parts from Porsche Guildford hopefully coming my way soon.

I also need to do some small repairs to some pre-’73 heat exchangers (thanks ChrisT) and they’ll do until I can find some stainless SSIs at a reasonable price. I want the exhaust fitted before I fit the intake stuff, so it rather looks like a pause in the engine department. To get the welder out, I need to move the car. As It will be easier to do the cavity spraying and trim fitting with the car turned through 90’, I guess the car cradles are coming out again next.

Happy New Year Peter.
Looks like good steady progress in those pictures.
Do you have a finish target time in mind?

Not really Graham, but run in and ready for CLM would be good.

That engine looks ready to run

Ready for CLM is a good goal. I’ve a feeling we will both be ready for 2022

Unfortunately, the spacer that sits on the top of the LH cylinder bank and supports the throttle linkage contraption is NLA.
From a quick measurement, I'm assuming that it needs to be 35mm long - can anyone confirm or advise what it should be please ?

Off to the loft for a quick sort through my 'won't need these anymore' parts. You can but hope

If the answer is 37mm, then I found it. Hard to believe, but I'll take it & let's hope that 2021 continues in such a lucky vein

Thank goodness! I didn't sleep well last night, there's no way i could deal without sleep tonight as well

So, as is quite normal for me, a lot of starting things and then realising that I am missing items, so work stops and proceeds in another direction. Have managed to get some things ticked off the list (that doesn't exist yet, as I'm still too far away from completion to make a list worthwhile).

Heat exchangers have had a small amount of welding, but the current black paint is flaking off. Cue time to stop H’Ex and hit the interweb and order some VHT paint. I then realised that I removed sports headers and was instead fitting heat exchangers. H/Ex have barrel nuts (only 6 in total I hope) and I only have a big bag of new copper / brass / whatever M8 manifold nuts. More buying needed.

What can I play with next ????. I know, let’s delete the external regulator, now that I have my shiny hi-power alternator installed.
Step 1 - unbolt regulator.
Step 2 - cut off the connector from the loom. I know that was not totally necessary, but has made things neater.
Step 3 – heat shrink ends of three wires (black to DF on alternator), blue (goes to lamp and alternator )and brown (earth to alternator and places various).

Step 4 – heat shrink ends of three wires into one.

Step 5 – bind to loom and wrap


I actually finished something without needing to wait for new parts.


On a roll now, so fitted rear wiper and wired it up

Motor ran when the switch was on but wouldn’t self-park. Checked witing, pulled the switch apart, re-checked the wiring, googled a bit, got distracted on google, got focused again. Finally remembered that until I had my engine installed, there wasn’t a live power feed to the rear fuse box. Put a temporary feed there and all is working fine. Did realise that I needed a new bush to cover the wiper output shaft and prevent crushing of the ginormous spoiler. A browse of the parts list offered 4 options, and the RosePassion website provided details of the different lengths. The longest (for a turbo) is 27mm, so I’ll start with that and machine down (if and as necessary) to suit.

Got really excited and added the two engine lid struts, although it took ages to work out where / how the earth strap was supposed to run. Survived without needing to buy anything.

We’ll need a few things tidied up or added to the engine bay before the lump goes back in. First is a fuel system. Starting at the rear, the accumulator and a new filter were bolted to the painted bracket and fitted to the car.


Most brackets that need some form of vibration removal / attenuation use rubber bobbins. Somewhat bizarrely the filter & accumulator have big holes in the inner wing, through which passes pieces of small ID rubber hose. By clamping these pipes, they swell in the middle, trapping them & offering both fixation and a degree of AV.

On another bit of a roll, I added my homemade fuel lines and a pipe to take the vacuum to the brake booster. Yes, I know that I need to tidy the loom up.



My new fuel pump was fitted to its bracket, along with new mounting bobbins and attached to the front crossmember (and the little tab just above it).


Then I tried to attach the fuel hoses, which is when I realised that the outlet ID is too large for the banjo coupling that I had fitted to the rubber pipe. I had used the same size as original, but the new pump, with its external check valve, needs a 12mm ID. Ebay time.

I did have to slightly drill out the power feed terminal to suit the stud on the new pump and add a new rubber boot to the earth line, as the original was well past its best.

So, not exactly earth-shattering progress, but heading forwards, which is helpful.

Good stuff Peter, keep at it.

Golf Tango Foxtrot India my friend

More messing about while I wait for parts, and if I’m honest, avoid starting the cavity waxing.

Started with a simple, let’s add the paint code tag. All I need to do is line the little rivets up with the original (but painted over) holes, tap them with a small hammer, and Robert is my mother’s sister’s live in lover. Hahahahah, simple, yeah, right. The little rivets are miniscule compared to my fingers, far too small to hold and hit with a hammer (the rivets, not my fingers- I can manage that all day long). I tried fitting them into the tag, taping over the top to hold them in place, then striking with a hammer. I then spent time looking for the little bu$$ers, either on the carpet or under the car. I drilled the holes in the A-post out to 1.5mm to ensure that the rivets would know where to go, but they still preferred the floor.
I then found a pair of tweezers, and in the main, that was successful. Well, if you define success as finally getting 4 rivets in place and discount the 8 I lost (I did manage to find 7 of them eventually).

For fun I then added the door stay. Well, fun is a state of mind. I bolted the stay into place, having first needed to remove the speaker (good job that it’s only temporarily installed). The stay had half closed during storage, and I tried multiple ways to encourage it to full extension (oh, err, missus), all with shambolic failure. In the end I removed it, held it in a vice and persuaded it with a small plastic hammer. Once refitted, the pin on the door could finally be encouraged to slot home.



Next the door wipers (not sure if that’s the correct term, but the bits that squeegee the glass). First remove the glass, then pop the outer wiper in place, hold with masking tape and press home. Or not. I managed to get a simple technique when I did the driver’s side, but that was soooo long ago that I couldn’t remember how I did it. Anyway, after a lot of levering, crying and pinching, it was fitted.

The inner wiper was a lot simpler – just press it on.

I then refitted the glass and celebrated my success by watching the window glide serenely up and down. But it didn't. Tried the window switches on the driver's door - nada. Checked fuses (thanks to Jonny's fuse panel, a quick glance showed no reporting lights, so no blown fuses). Clearly the battery must be too flat, so connected the charger and tried again. Guess what, no difference. Proper problem solving now. What is the first thing to look for - where have I been, what have I done, what have I touched. Remembering that the motor is behind the speakers and that I had just removed and refitted the speaker, so a short moment later and full uppy & downy motion is restored. Phew.



I keep tripping over the lid latches in their bag on the floor, so maybe it is time to fit them. I decided against fitting the front one, a) because the froot lid is against the wall, not in the car, and b) the front of the car is against the wall, so difficult to access the slam area. The engine lid latch went in easily,

cable attached, spring finger thing attached to the lid and roughly aligned but the lid wouldn’t stay closed. Realised that you need enough tension on the release cable to hold the latch closed. Seemed somewhat strange initially, but I guess if the cable breaks, then the lid opens rather than leaving you with no way to open the lid. No matter, readjust cable and wonderful, the lid closes and opens.
Readjusted springy finger part, aiming for the lid to be held central when it shut, rather than pulled slightly to one side.



I then refitted the engine seal, well the longer one as I couldn’t find the small one. Looking back at my dismantling photos, maybe the fact that it wasn’t on the car originally might explain that. Having fitted the seal, it didn’t look right, and maybe having fitted it upside down was the cause of that. Removed it, decided it looked far too shabby against the rest of the car, so ordered a new pair of engine seals this morning.

I also looked to order a fan pulley wrench – the C-spanner. At close to £60+VAT for a P version, and nothing readily jumping out at me on a search, I found one from my motorbiking life that was exactly the right size, excepting for the pin part. It was 6mm diameter, whereas the fan pulley holes are 5.25(ish). I could a) drill out my fan pulley holes, or b) grind down the pin on the CV-spanner to about 5mm. As a) was far simpler, I did b)

love it!