964 C2 - Rolling Resto

[rhd racer]

Thanks Dave

We are on the case, both crank and cam have gone off for inspection and measuring. Have been given the green light on both and are in the process of being repaired. Cam is being reprofiled, not sure where we are with the crank but will be repaired and reused. Will update when I know more in a week or so.

Interestingly Gus has reported this week that the rings were not replaced, so all that effort and they were left. Very odd.

Cheers

[Dammit]

Great to see this progress!

What a nightmare for the poor previous owner, being (what looks like) stitched up by the garage that they trusted to do the engine build.

[tp_reading]

Hi Wayne,

Really enjoying this thread, always fancied a 964 although I’m still in love with my 968. My 914 disappeared off to Monaco never to be seen again sadly.

Cheers,

Tony

[rhd racer]

Hi Wayne,

Really enjoying this thread, always fancied a 964 although I’m still in love with my 968. My 914 disappeared off to Monaco never to be seen again sadly.

Cheers,

Tony

Hi Tony

Nice to hear from you. Glad you are enjoying the new 968. Had no idea your car went to Monaco - I can only imagine the noise it will make through the tunnels!!

Short update for now, with more to come next week when parts start arriving and I begin to clean up the boxes of bits I bought back from the workshop. I have been a bit distracted by servicing the trailer and getting the Boxster ready for the season opener in 2 weeks.

I have got to the bottom of the crank, and all appears well. I was with Gus at Donington today where he was competing in the Club Championship, and the crank has been ground 0.25 on the big ends, but the mains have not hence the standard bearings. His machine guy is going to try and polish the journal of concern (he says it is borderline) but if not will grind the mains too. This, the cam and the crankcase repair should all be done in the next week.

Either way, it will live again without serious outlay so I have been very lucky indeed with the motor.

[rhd racer]

So following the initial strip down it became evident that the engine rebuild was not going to kill the project, so I set about gathering, and pricing up parts. First up the heat exchangers, picked up from Barrie last week on the way back from a short break in the New Forest, and today the engine tin arrived from Phil at Tech 9 (thank both).

Onto the new parts for the engine, I have already mentioned that with no evidence of head studs being done that this was a must, so I have gone for the EPS 993 upgrades which are more reliable than the originals. New rings, chains, gasket kits etc all put in my basket. Given the clutch was new, I thought I might as well spend the money allocated to that on an RS flywheel. Done

Then, given the Cat bypass was nearly new and I had thought this was ripe for replacement, I thought about a G-pipe and new tailpipe. Done Angus has ordered the fuel line and return, which we thought about doing a cheaper way but thought it would end up taking loads of time shaping to make a non standard line look OE, and joining it at the ends. So standard lines ordered, Gulp.

So, with a view to getting the car back hopefully in late May, the MOT being early June it really only gives me a couple of weeks to get it ready for the MOT. We had already established by how tired everything is that at the very best everything would be an advisory. Not a very confidence inspiring start with a 160mph car.

That leaves a couple of options;
1. Do just what is needed, and continually replace items as they are required
2. Go through everything, so I know it is mechanically perfect

I have gone for option 2. Much like when I built the 914, knowing that everything is new means you have many years of frankly not worrying other than serviceable items, and you also don't need to replace items twice because you damage them getting to something else (particularly ball joints and tie rods that can be tricky to remove without destroying). And my wife will drive it, and my kids will go in it.

Option 2 then. The list was mind-boggling, and without the car here I had Angus original report to rely on, so in places I may have gone overboard, but everything will be sorted. And there was a good deal on at D911 with escalator discounts favouring big orders. It arrived yesterday, so whilst unpacking it all and checking it off, I thought I would have some fun.....

[rhd racer]

The suspension I already had as part of the deal, and the rear reflector I purchased in the first week of ownership.

There are a few bits to follow (rear brake lines, one rear bearing as the other was replaced only a few months ago, the scavenge socket that is currently being drilled out of the case and some bits and bobs).

For the engine;

Exhaust bits
Chains
Gasket kits
Rings
Filters; air, oil, fuel
Belts, inc power steering
Flywheel, ring gear, spigot bearing, bolts
993 head studs

[rhd racer]

For the front end there is;

- Discs and EBC reds
- Backing plates
- Flexi hoses
- Bearings
- Ball joints
- Drop links
- Tie rods
- ARB bushes
- Wishbones with standard bushes (new ones alone I think will be a sufficient enough upgrade fro where we are now, everything original and taught should keep it fun but usable which is priority 1). The Boxster has everything done to it one the suspension front and it is a proper track weapon, but loses appeal on the road after 30 minutes or so, which is about all it does at a time...



And the rear;

- Discs and EBC reds
- The single bearing needed
- Backing plates
- Drop links
- ARB bushes

And then a treat for myself, to replace the badly damaged rim of the OE grey wheel. A Momo Mod 07 with boss, airbag bypass and horn adaptor. Oh, and a new ignition switch, which will hopefully solve a number of the electrical gremlins that exist.

[jjeffries]

I am really enjoying this one. I am not in favor of 964's being backdated...feel that craze will be over soon anyhow, if not already. The 964 deserves to be kept as it was produced. Keep on truckin'. John

[hot66]

just an observationt .. if your car is a '93 like my 964, you will need a Cat for the MOT ( emissions should be fine but officially needs to be seen to be fitted ) ( unless youre MOT man doesn't check his book ) ( 92 and earlier are OK without a cat )

[rhd racer]

Thanks James, that's extremely helpful.

Funnily enough, that was something I was about to turn my attention to but for different reasons. When Barrie sent me pictures of the exchangers, I noticed they were slightly different to what I had - see below (replacement pair on the left, originals on the right)



You can see that the ones I inherited with the car have the flange cut off and replaced with a section of steel tube. The cat bypass just slides over this and clamps up.

Unfortunately I don't have that here, so was trying to decide whether to make a flange in steel and measure up when next visiting the car and weld it to the by-pass, or perform the same conversion on the new exchanger.

I was not aware of the date at all - I wrongly assumed because it was on there it was legal. I will call BM Catalysts tomorrow and see if they make one, as standard cats do not come up for a 964, only 993 ones. D911 do one of their own 100 cell cats which will be better flowing for £300, so I guess another delivery might be in order!

But thanks again James - want to sort all this now so it goes together properly and once - clearly cutting up that new heat exchanger would have been a bad idea, if not the easiest!

[rhd racer]

All updated via Postimage - I pity those that have been at this for years and been given the shaft by Photobucket......

If all goes to plan, hopefully will have a long block by the end of this weekend...

[rhd racer]

So, a few weeks passed with very little activity on my part. Thank to James, I managed to avoid cutting up a perfectly good replacement heat exchanger to mate to the bypass pipe inherited with the car, so a 100 cell cat was ordered from D911, together with some odds and ends that I had missed along the way.

Meanwhile in Herts, the case was being built up with weld and machined (more of that later), the marked crank journal polished (got away with that) and the marked cam swapped out with a good used example.

So the night before I went down to help the build (not that I expected to be much help) I just needed to clean up the heat exchangers bought from Barrie, deal with a couple of mis-shaped outlets, and slap on a bit of VHT. They look pretty nice too...

[rhd racer]

So an early-ish start for a Saturday and I arrived to Gus' workshop at 9am. The first thing that struck me was how good the repair was on the case...



Not so much my photography skills, but you get the idea. This is where the oil cooler would bolt to a 911 case of an earlier vintage, so because 964 don't use that oil cooler (I did not know that until I stripped the engine) there is no need to tap and thread it, so we decided to leave blank. It is, of course, tapped perfectly for the oil pipe union (note, this is the old one to be replaced later....)







And this of course replaces the £7 bill addition for 'chemical metal repair' during the last tear down in March 18, only 1k miles ago.....

[rhd racer]

Here is another in situ, to illustrate the area for those not familiar with a 964 block. On a <89 911 the space occupied by this union would have a large green oil cooler seal in it, and the threaded union would be on the outside end of the oil cooler itself (unless a 914/6 and then it would be inboard but still on the cooler). It basically just takes into account the oil cooler delete.



This in itself got me thinking over the course of the weekend, and I am sure I bored Angus senseless with questions, but the lineage through the years is quite incredible. This is a 1993 car, but the roots back to the first generation 911s is remarkable from 2.0 to 3.6. If you have any thoughts (as I did) that a 964 engine build has no relevance for an early car that is incorrect. I knew my SC engine like the back of my hand in the 914/6, and I thought this would be a different thing altogether but it isn't, the charges are tiny;

- Case design; does not have a removable sump plate so is a different design at the base, but as you can see all the oil cooler casting etc remains, and as to will see the top of the engine looks like any other 6 cyl block
- Bore / stroke / twin-plug - the obvious things for the capacity and spark
- Rocker covers redesigned, with rubber gaskets
- Cam covers plastic instead of aluminium, with redesigned fixings as a result. Cam profiles, sprockets are different, no need for a crows foot tool
- Plastic timing chain guides (you wont see this though until you disassemble one)
- But chain tensions upgrades you will (no visible oil lines, one is on the top of the cam cover, the other bank on the lower side of the cam cover)

There are more I am sure, but these are tiny, considered improvements, made over a 30 year period. I found it quite an eye opener to be honest.

Now for some of you this isn't probably news, but for me it really was. Hopefully, therefore, the build photos will be useful for anyone with any year 911, because apart from minor details the pictures and process will be directly relevant.

[rhd racer]

So, onto the build. With a completely clean case it is in the stand and ready to go, naked as the day it as born



Whilst Gus put the shells in...



I was righting the wrongs of the cam carriers on the bench. Remember the body bolt self tapped into the carrier to fix the fan shroud to the engine and the terribly poorly drilled one on the other bank, or the snapped M6 bolt? IT was time to drill and tap these (though agreeing we had to live with the one that was drilled massively on the wonk....)



And here is the crank, conrods attached, all weighed and well within factory tolerance