Well, after about 2 years of daily driving and 3 autocrosses on my first type 4 rebuild, it's time to do it all over again. In 2 years I have learned so much more than I did the first time around, and I plan to put all that knowledge into play on this re-rebuild. The first go around, I built the motor with Hydraulic lifters. They seemed to do OK, when (or if) they pumped up with oil. First mistake to be corrected. I'm putting in a new cam, new solid lifters, and the chromoloy pushrod/911 swivel feet assemblies. I was also convinced to purchased 96mm pistons and cylinders, on my existing 74mm crankshaft. So, with this configuration, it will be a 2142cc motor. Should be a nice little combo.

Now for the fun part. I have a deadline. It has to be running, tuned, and somewhat broken in before July 18th. I leave for freshman orientation that day, and am gone for 3 days, which means I need MY car.. 12 days... time is not on my side. Luckily though, it's already a shortblock, and I have almost all of the parts accumulated.

On the last day of highschool, I convinced my girlfriend to help pull the motor. She had fun, and helped. Id say after 3 years, I'm quite convinced she's a keeper.. Had it out in a little over an hour.
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A few weeks later, I had the motor apart, checked everything over, and had the new cam and such in..so it's back to a short block, which is the state in which is lies currently. (Yes I painted the case studs red. I'm OCD when it comes to detail work)
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The goal is to make a little progress everyday and just keep pluggin away at things.

What kind of ignition? Points or optical?

Damn Ethan, way to go for it! You're right on the GF thing too, finding a woman that will put up with the "disease" is not easy. I'm curious (I know you're a Dawn Patroller) Are you going to school locally or moving?

Good luck!

Mallory Unilite Optical distributor, with Chris Foley's mechanical advance curve. I'm also running and MSD 6A box which works well for the daily driving with carbs.

I'm going to Cal Poly Pomona for either mechanical or aerospace engineering. So, I'm still well within driving range for dawn patrol runs thank goodness

looks like you'd make a good engineer. Excellent work, I'm jealous

I am running the Mallory too, but have to ask....whats involved with the Foley curve? Is it a kit? How's it install, and whats the benefit?

The "Foley Curve"

A new name to toss out there...awesome.

Rich

I bought my distributor right from Chris. He installs the grey/grey springs, and tweaks the spring plate to get the 16 degrees pre-advance. He also tests the units. I felt more comfortable purchasing the unit from him, than buying a distributor and the ENTIRE spring kit from Summitracing.com and doing it myself.

Sorry if I wasn't initially more specific on this.

I changed out the springs on mine to the grey/grey, it was easy. Wonder what "tweaking" the spring plate involves.

Ethan,

good luck with the rebuild and I'd say go for mechanical engineering (just because I did it:))

sorry to hijack, but are you related to anyone named Steve near Sacramento? He is into 944's and has come to a couple Porsche reunions up here...I only ask because I know he has a couple sons and his Rennlist screen name is "Kuhl 951". I dont remember his last name though.

No.. no relation there. He might be using Kuhl as it would be in German, meaning literally "cool"..

I'm pulling more towards ME, however I absolutely love fluid dynamics and aerodynamics.. so we'll see where all that takes me

Well, since I don't have the pistons and cylinders yet to set intitial deck-height, I figured I'd move on with the cleaning and painting process. The first time around, I painted the fan shroud with Rustoleum High temp. silver. another big mistake. I spilled some gas on it, and it just melted right off the fan shroud when I was doing some carb work during an autocross, so after a full bag of playsand and my trusty Harbor freight spot blaster, I got it down to bare magnesium, and painted it with high temp engine paint. Also got the pushrod tubes cleaned, painted (bright red of course) and viton seals installed.
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Click to view attachment

The goal for tommorow, assuming that the pistons and cylinders arrive, is to find out deck height without any shims, and get a fresh coat of paint on the main engine tin after work. The goal is slowly looking more and more realistic.

Your crazy kid ... it sounds like you know what your doing, but this is one tight timeline in my opionion. Either way good luck.

Hey, look at that, a fellow CPP engineering student!

I glad to hear that you were accepted and I can only say, "Stick with it.". The CPP engineering program isn't the easiest and many of the departments tout an 80-90% dropout rate for incoming freshman, so be ready to see a lot of classmates disappear.
Luckily I was one of the few to make it and I'm currently only 4 classes and a Senior project away from finishing my Mechanical Engineering degree, so with any luck I should be out within the next 2 quarters.

If you're going the ME or Aero route and need any advice on classes or professors feel free to give me a holler. I'd be more than happy to give you some 1st hand advice on their teaching styles and their class work loads.


Mike,
SchantzMD@aol.com

P.S. Are you the one that has the white 914 at the campus or is that someone else?

Thanks for the tips for CCP. I'm really looking forward to going. I'm fairly confident I'll make it.. my dad would kill me if I dropped out..haha I'm not the one with a white 914... I live south quite a ways, and have the yellow car pictured in the avatar.

Update:
After some frantic phone calls, I made the trip up to AA pistons and flat out picked up my pistons and cylinders. I couldn't wait for them to ship them, so I sat in LA friday rush hour traffic for most of my afternoon/evening. It was worth it, as I now can set intial deck height.

Some piston porn for everyone...

I also will have all the engine tin painted and finished, and ready to go back together when the time comes to plug everything back in.

Please DO NOT use playsand to blast parts.

Silica is really harmful to your lungs. Use actual blast media. It isn't much more at Harbor Freight.

Silicosis is no joke.

A respirator filters silica dust though, doesn't it?

Not my lungs, but I wouldn't trust it. Especially when non silica based material exists specifically for blasting.

Google it for yourself.

way to go Ethan cant wait to see more progress. if you need any extra hands or a parts getter DO NOT hesitate to call me. your help was instrumental in getting my car out of its "hardcore jalopy" state to its current "fun but not pretty" state good luck bro

[quote name=''73-914kid' date='Jul 8 2011, 08:32 PM' post='1506506']
.. my dad would kill me if I dropped out..

And I'd kick your ass before your Dad killed it.


[quote name=''73-914kid' date='Jul 8 2011, 09:10 PM' post='1506518']
A respirator filters silica dust though, doesn't it?
[/quote]
If your talking about your paint respirator/mask, then yes. Not a paper one, no matter what the particulate rating. Just be sure you have a good seal against your face. Use those old carbon filters for this job. You do know the activated charcoal only is good for about 90 days for painting purposes.

I had a leftover carbon filter respirator, and I used it for sand blasting. I'm done sandblasting for a while.. I figure some things are okay in moderation....



Pistons and cylinders are in for the moment, and the deck height has been checked. Every cylinder measures out at .029 deck height with no shims. Before slipping them in for the DH test, I weighed them all. Every piston came out at exactly 468.5 grams, and the combined masses of wrist pin and piston were all within half a gram. AA certainly gets a lot of crap for their machining, but I'm extremely pleased with the combined masses of everything, and the initial deck height.

I'm measuring absolutely everything, and doing all the detail work that needs to be done.

Now all I need to know is exact chamber volume, and shim these cylinders, and I'm off and running.

Congrats..

Ethan, are you driving this thing yet?

Yea, is it done? 3 more days? If you need any parts this weekend,let me know. Otherwise, may cool head temps and good oil flow bless you.

After all that work, its currently a longblock. Valvetrain geometry is becoming my undoing. My dad has to work all day, and I don't feel comfortable doing the valvetrain geometry on my own.. I don't think I'm gonna make my deadline... it will be one heluva miracle if I do.

You've gotten further in a week than many of us get in a year.

Awesome job.

get off the internet.
stop texting and get to wrenchin

Can you share all the details on those pistons?
What is the side coating (specifically)
How are the weights between pistons?
How round are they and how round are the cylinders?

Rich

These are the AA 96mm Big bore pistons and cylinders for a 71mm stroke 2.0L engine.
-I didn't really check the roundness of the pistons and cylinders to be perfectly honest.
-The pistons weight was identical (486.5 grams). Combined mass was all well within half a gram.
-The side coating is applied to prevent cylinder scoring during wrist pin and ring break-in.


Update!:
After some confidence boosting and proding from 76-914 and sean_v8_914, I dove in to valvetrain geometry. After 2 hours, I had the procedure down to a science. All net valve lift was within 2.5% of the cam card advertised lift, and the swivel feet were completely and totally in plane with the valve at half lift. I cut and machined the pushrods, and now, after a FULL days worth of work, The unit is ready to plug in to the car.

Thank you to everyone who gave me advice on my engine re-rebuild. I can do this!

Proof I actually have been doing all this work!

Ready to go into the engine bay in the morning!

And after the Harry Potter premier this morning, and getting up early to start all this madness, I'm exhausted. Good night 914 forum!

Wow, I m seriously impressed with your skills and work. Very nice job. I hope the install goes smoothly and she fires up as soon as you turn the key. Good luck.

Looking good, looking good. Is that Ford red?

Wow Ethan!

It lives and runs great! Video to come in the morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCKzfZT2xx4


Well, here's the video of the first run-in. I kept the RPM's below 2.5k until I adjust the valves in the morning.

This thing runs sooo smooth. Like, Djet smooth. It's incredibly driveable around town. Thank you Sean! I owe you dinner!


Might be looking at a day trip drive through rainbow tommorow.. Any of you guys interested?

Good job! Great job, Ethan.

When and where?

do you feel that optimizing the flow paths was worth the 10+ hrs of measuring and grinding?

Worth every penny spent on parts, and hours spent on heads and intakes.

It's all in the details.

Terrific Ethan!

Enjoy tomorrow too!

Lew

Details - Details - Details
Attention to detail makes all the difference in any project, congratulations on an excellent job.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor.


Vysoc

Well, I leave this afternoon for orientation. I feel quite confident in this motor after about 100 miles of around town and freeway driving. Just in case though, I have a trunk full of tools.. You never know I guess...

Thank you to everyone who provided support, and helped in me making this deadline. I truly appreciate it!


-Ethan

Great job Ethan. I am so jealous that you got it done so fast. Mine is still sitting on jacks waiting for the the new engine to be installed.