Saving Babydoll Options

[zymurgist]

I'm trying to help out a friend here. She has had a 914 for a few years now... she bought the car as a weekend toy. Never mind the fact that it was almost 30 years old, since she has a few Porsche freaks... erm, I mean friends... to help her out with maintenance.

Babydoll, as her white '74 2.0 is affectionately known, sadly has rust in all the usual places. But we're not going to go there, at least not in the immediate future. What I'm trying to do is to get the mechanicals in good shape so the car can be used as a weekend joyrider. The engine was rebuilt a few years ago with Euro pistons & cylinders, and it runs as smoothly as you can expect from a 4-banger. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif)

It started with an oil leak onto the clutch. Normally this is a "drop the engine, fix the problem, put it back in" kind of deal, but since we're doing this in my 2-bay garage, and I already have 2 toys of my own in it, we have to play a logistics game. We dropped the engine/tranny and rolled the car out of the garage, allowing my poor sick 911 to be coaxed back under cover. Babydoll got a car cover and then a plastic tarp to keep the rain off.

So now her 2.0 drivetrain is sitting on my floor, and I'm going over it, trying to make sure that the hoses are in good shape because she has complained of chronic fuel leaks. Lo and behold, I found that all of the injection hose is 5/16" hose that is clearly marked as 7.93 mm... factory spec is 7 mm, so this hose is almost 1mm too large. There is one piece of 7mm hose, but it looks really really old, so all that hose has to go! I'm also going to replace all the worm type clamps with proper fuel injection clamps. Also going to pull the injectors and have them checked out. When they go back in they will get new seals. That, I think, should fix any fuel leaks on the engine.

The emissions hose is all there, but I'd like to replace it if I can find a nice factory-type sheathed hose in 13mm, although 1/2" would be OK if it's got that sheath on the outside. The only thing missing is the deceleration valve, but my research indicates that this isn't strictly necessary. No emissions on antique cars in Virginia.

When I get around to separating the engine and tranny, I plan to clean the heck out of the flywheel and pressure plate; replace the flywheel seal and O-ring; replace the clutch disc and throwout bearing; and check the oil galley plugs and goop them up if necessary.

Does this sound like a good plan? Are there any "while I'm in there" things that I should attend to? I don't want to have to drop her engine for a long time, especially since I may be dropping my 911 engine (to fix oil leaks, why else?) this winter.

Oh yeah... I consider engine drops and reinstalls to be 2 person jobs, so I schedule that work when my friend can come over and help me. That way somebody can call 911 (EMS, that is, not my car!) when I drop an engine on my foot.

[zymurgist]

QUOTE (DNHunt @ Jun 15 2005, 05:12 AM)

Everytime you start a project you will see other things that could be done. A newly infected individual will be heard saying "While I'm in there" and ussually the projects never end. Cars spend years on jackstands. It would be ashamed if your 911 and Corvette got the disease too.

It's too late, I've already been infected. The Corvette spent 3 years on jackstands, as a project that began as an engine rebuild.

- The rebuild became a replacement.
- The transmission was freshened by a pro so it wouldn't break with all the new torque.
- Ditto for the rear end and all U-joints in the drivetrain. (Think of a naked CV joint, more or less.)
- Then, who wants to go fast if you can't stop? New calipers, brake lines, rebuilt master cylinder.
- Then, who wants to go fast and brake hard if the car won't handle? New springs front and rear, suspension bushings, Konis all around.
- Then, who wants to put all these new parts on a ratty looking car? Painted the engine compartment, re-wrapped the wiring harness, powder coated every bracket that would fit in my oven.

After over 2 years of mucking around with this project (and there were weeks at a time when I refused to even look at it because I was so pissed off at it), I bought the 911 so I'd have a fast car to drive while my anal retentive alter-ego finished the Corvette (and you're right, they never are really finished).