I was at Buttonwillow this weekend at the Time Trial....running fast a strong and running personal best lap times....the car was hooked up and I was having a great time.

Coming onto the main straight I missed the 3rd to 4th upshift and spun my motor well over 8K rpm....by the time a came around to pit the car was puffing smoke and when I got back to the trailer I took the cap off of the 914-6 oil tank and it was billowing whitish/blue smoke like a friggin choo-choo train. Boiled 2.7 litre anyone?

Before I shut here down it wouldn't rev past 4K...could be rings, a piston, valves, mains...

And I did it to myself. I really look forward to track days. My job has me traveling a ton right now...In fact I go back to Asia on Friday July 9th. Between family, my job and just trying to find time to pull the motor...it looks like I'm done for the season and actually for several months.

I'm majorly bummed. 914 life sucks at the moment

At least I have my health...

Sorry to whine...I had to vent...I'm actually really upset. It's hard to take sometimes...especially when it's my mistake that did this.

I've never rebuilt a 6 cylinder myself before. But I'm going to do this one...too much money I need to invest in other parts of the car.

Bill P.

Bummer dude. I was looking forward to hanging out at the track when I get my 914 running again. I suppose we might actually get to running state around the same time anyways.

Good luck for the rebuild. Maybe you can find some more power when you've got the case apart :-)

Fiid.

Don't kill yoursefl right away. If you have the stock rocker arms they are designed as the weak point in the valve train to break before anything else. Pull the valve covers and inspect the rockers and springs before taking the whole thing apart. The rockers can be done without disassembling the motor. Sometimes the springs too but you need tools and patience but if I foung broken springs, I'd probably pull the heads.

Check for the broker rockers and then do a leakdown. All maynot be lost.

Sorry to here about the mishap.
look foward to seeing you and Doris out running again soon.

KT

Oh man.... That sucks.. It sucks even more to admit it.

This is when having the six, really sucks- Open wallet and begin to cry!

Now that sux........
Lotso blow by don't sound good. What kind of pistons do you have in there?

By all means, fix it yourself. It ain't rocket science.

That really sucks. Is there anything that could be done (besides shifting better) to prevent this from happening? Would a rev limiter help?

Nuthin' helps except a quick left foot......and a lot of luck.
Racing valve springs will often do the trick.

There is a 2.7s with a fresh rebuild on ebay check it out under 911 engine

Bernie

Hi Bill. Sorry to hear about your motor. Looks like you and me both will be sitting on the sidelines rebuilding our motors for the next few months. If I can get the time and the motovation mine comes out next weekend.

Demick

Sorry to hear the bad news Bill. Hopefuly the damage will not be too bad.

I'm kinda in the same boat right now so I have some idea how frustrating it is. Help from this board and from local friends has really helped to keep me optimistic.

Keep us tuned in.

Oh, and here's to your health!

Thanks for the words of encouragement folks....I appreciate it.

I have an MSD 6AL with the rev limit set at 7200 RPM. Somehow it wasn't smart enough to keep me from selecting the wrong gear...must be a design flaw...

On one hand...my winter project starts 5 months early....on the other hand...I know of a certain 3.6 litre 993 waiting to be had and a 915 box...would just need a WEVO kit...and hey....300+ reliable HP!

Of course...a missed shift will still end in the same mess only with bigger engine parts...

As an aside from the weekend...Doris and I were really feeling the engine have heat soak problems in the afternoons at the track. 2 drivers with the ambient temp at 95 degrees and track at +110 degrees really strains air cooled motors. Ours seemed to be running fine as we have a big oil cooler on it, but it still was tough on the car.

I'll have a few weeks to think of my options and decide what to do next on the car...

It'll suck sitting on the sidelines for awhile.

Bill P.

I feel your pain. I did the exact same thing at Willow Springs 2 years ago. Heading on to the straight - aiming for 4th gear and found 2nd. I only let the clutch out half way before I caught it, but by then it was to late. I turned the valves into pretzles plus assorted other damage.

Hi JP,

I'm running JE Pistons at 10.5:1 compression in the car. Have some headwork to help it breath...and I also had the heads chamfered while I was in there last time to keep from having the pistons touch the heads if I were to ever over rev the motor...

When I get here apart in a few weeks I'll post pics of the carnage...

Bill P.

P.S. How long did it take you to disassemble and reassemble your 2.7?

Dude, same thing happened to me in april. Luckily it was in the -4, not my brand spankin' new 2.7 RS motor. I hope yours is an easy fix.

About 6 months

I was proceeding at a leisurely pace as I was planning the combo and shopping for a few oddball parts.

Bottom end machine work took 2 weeks. Heads about 3 weeks.....I shipped them to EBS....so I assembled it in stages. If everything was in front of me, I figure bout 3-4 weeks of spare time.

That evil bay motor may be a good deal, but I wonder about the wisdom of twin plugging an 8.5 : 1 motor.

My total cost was under $6K for the long block.....I did gud shopping ....I did pay full boat for 9.7:1 pistons. If you didn't hurt your cylinders or bottom end, you can beat that. Big blow by is prolly piston probs....but I've been wrong before.

I've got the tools you need. Lemmeno and I can loan em to you.....you wouldn't be the first

BTW, Jake, how much for one of your 230-250 hp road race T-4 motors?

sucks, sorry about that.

if you haven't already, buy Anderson's 911 Performance Handbook and Pelican Wayne's Rebuild Book; they'll give you an idea of the scope.

i understand with your travel schedule it'll be hard but if you can swing the time i do recommend the Bruce Anderson/Jerry Woods 911 engine rebuild class. made me aware of several issues i'd have discovered too late on my own.

i agree with JP - with GOOD manuals and access to knowledgeable machine shop services (and a few special tools) you can put it back...

Bill, that sucks!
Let us know whats wrong once you find out...

cheers,

Jeroen

So if I miss a shift with my rotary engined 914 I could take out the valves?

Hay, if ya ever get it runnin', give it a try and report back

Rotor seals are bullet proof, eh?

Thanks JP,

That's how long I thought it would take me. Hopefully not too many parts are broken inside...in a couple of weeks I'll pull it down and start disassembly....

Bill P.

Course....i could buy another built motor and always have a spare for just such occasions....

hmm.....

I'm bad...

Bill; sorry to hear about your engine, I hope you get back on the track soon as it's easy to see you enjoy it. These things are going to happen. I've seen 8k on my engine twice that I can think of and luckily no bad side effects. I'm either lucky or the guy that built my engine had the right recipe, more than likely the latter. A spare everything has always sounded prudent to me!

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the kind words...I'll have to see what other parts I can put into the engine that will help take this type of mistake...not that I will ever do this again.

Are you running a 901 or 915 box? I'm thinking of switching to a 915 to help with the shifting.

Bill P.

Blair's turbo RX7 just blew a rotor seal so they ain't too tough either

Geoff

I have a 901. What kind of linkage would the 915 use? Someone needs to adapt a Tiptronic to our cars to help with our senior moments.

Well... when they said you were in the pits to fix a "mechanical" I thought it was the carb problem. Sorry to here it was the motor.

If you are thinking of doing your own motor the first thing I would do is contact Bruce Anderson and get yourself into the "Jerry Woods/Bruce Anderson" engine building class.

Let me know if I can be of any help. Rebuilt a few 6's myself. Might be able to help you shop for parts & services.

Ken 180

WEVO. bring money.

A full wevo box will run you 5-6 grand, but don't forget that their sideshifter back only costs about 2 grand (might even be 1250 - I forget), and you don't necessarily need the full wevo box to be quick.

I was talking to the KEP guys about going 915 and they reckoned there is also a cable shifter you can get for $400. It ain't a wevo, but it is less than $1000 bucks.

Thanks for the info Andy, I'm thinking maybe I'll be a little better with the 915 box shifting...althought my 901 shifts pretty well, at least I thought so

Ken H., it was a bummer, missing the upshift on the warm up lap of the TT! All weekend long the car was quick, other than the normal Weber clogging I seem to have at Buttonwillow, but I was able to clean it out and she was running fine....

WEVO...I'm calling Hayden today to get the lowdown....I don't like barrels of cash but I'm thinking the linkage from them would be the way to go. So many things to think about.

Bill P.

Bet it wasn't from over revving though. And if it's a 13B the rebuilt should only be $2200 if someone else does it or $1100 if you do it yourself. It's the rebuild costs that made me decide to go with the rotary. I would LOVE to put a 3.6 in my car but my sphincter puckers at the thought of spending $6000 if I missed a shift.

Comparing apples to apples in a 911 (to take away the shift linkage part of the puzzle), the 901 is lighter and smoother shifting than the 915.

Why do you think the 915 will be better to shift? Because of the shift pattern? That has its pitfalls, too.

I never liked the shifting of the 915.....balky is a gud wurd. Then you have to cobble up some linkage......and make it work.

Unless you're bustin' up 901s, I'd stay away from the 915.

Your best protection against overrevs are racing valve springs. Bout 500 bucks a set. They do cause more wear on the valve train as their seat pressure is greater.

Hi James,

I have run a 911 and a 914. My 911 Turbo had a 5 speed 915 in it while my 914-6 has the 901. While I agree that the 901 feels lighter in throw it probably depends on the gearing to me. My 901 is a "Q" transmission and on the track I am primarly shifting between 3rd and 4th. I use 5th as well, but most shifts occur between 3rd and 4th. This is a gated shift.

On the gearing I had on the 915, I used 3rd and 4th as well most of the time. But this shift was a straight up/down shift. From a track perspective, I find the 915 box easier on the brain when pulling on the track. For auto-x it's the opposite, the 901 is better, but I'm not as interested in running auto-x anymore.

I'm going to buy one of your rennshifts in a few months to try out. I am going to rebuild the 2.7 in my garage over the next several months. I also plan on a bigger motor next year, along with a 915. but it's all about money...

Once I plan out which larger motor config I'm going to go with (3.4, 3.6, 3.8) I'll need to gear the 915 accordingly. If I use the 915 on my 2.7, I would need to gear it to pull the smaller motor....so since I have a good 901 box...I'll use that for now.

Of course, I'm toying with the idea of staying with the 2.7 and going with injection and a 915....lotsa choices driven by $$$ again.

Did I mention I was going to invest ~$4K in shocks and brakes on the car this winter?....now I'm trying to come up with the money to fix the engine and still do the shocks and brakes...

What a money pit....

Right now I've stored the car for a month...between work and the broken engine...I'm taking a month off from working on the race car...

Bill P.

Makes sense. And the stronger trans makes sense if you are upgrading the engine, too.

Sounds like a good idea to shelve the car for a bit - they can be overwhelming at times.

Get a fresh start in a month and we'll have plenty of ideas on how to spend your money!

Boo! Sorry see you hurt your baby

You can rebuild her...faster, stronger, better than before...

Guess I won't be seeing you and Doris at the autox's for a while...not that I go much, but I always look forward to seeing your smiling faces there!

Best of luck!

Hi Gwen,

Thanks for the message! It appears we are done until next year, although Doris wants me to have the car running in time to attend the last Zone 7 auto-x event at Millerton Lake in October. It's alot of fun to socialize there.

I'll give it a shot, but probably won't happen.

I will keep everyone posted with pics on the rebuild after I start tearing the engine town.

I plan on pulling the engine on Saturday, July 17th.

Talk to you soon,

Bill P.

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaake... how much is one of your motors?

I'm channelling my good 'carma' your way

Best of luck!

Now that is a good idea; now you're thinking like a real racer.

Seriously, Bill sorry to hear about your motor. If you're (and Ms.D) not out there the rest of the year is going to be really boring.

And whom am I going to play our handicap game with?

Now I'm getting depressed.

Oh well, come out anyway and we'll see if we can break my motor.

Hi Randal,

Doris and I will probably come out a few times and run the S2000 in the "fun" category the rest of the year. At least come out and say hello.

I really am looking at a 2nd motor and rotating 2 engines...but then again not...it's all alot of $$$$!

I am committed to rebuilding my motor myself as I want to learn to do it and if I keep playing in this sport I need to be able to do my motor work. I'll have to see how it goes or if I'll need to go outside of my garage for help.

Talk to you later!

Bill P.

Hey Bill,

Sorry to hear of the carnage! Certainly a shame -- that's for sure.

I admire the tenacity to do your own engine -- I'd love to do one someday just for the entertainment value

(take lots of pics )

kim.

Hi Kim,

Oh yeah...the entertainment value of the pics I will take should be good for a laugh to everyone...let me see...I'll be posting and asking "what the hell is this?"....."where does this go?"....."is it bad that I have leftover parts?".....



What a life......

Bill P.

Heh..........ayup, real entertaining....till you add fuel,air & spark

Dude,

After I'm done getting my project going, I'd be happy to help you get a MegaSquirt-n-EDIS running on a 6.

Scorchio.

(Andy - what's the german equivalent of scorchio?)

Fiid.