Ben,
I didn't see what he paid for the rechrome. Mine was $1000 by Ogden Chrome in Utah. Most I've ever paid for a rechrome but it's perfect, as in perfect! Original Customs modified the bumper. Mark has done 3-4 now so he has perfected his technique on that.

I am not sure if I am willing to pay that much for the rechrome.. I know that 350 I am very interested.. There is a local shop that told me they would do it for 250 but I need to have it polished in between the removal of chrome and then the replating.

Your build is awesome! Who made your quad gauge? New Vintage did mine a few years back. I know what you mean about the wiring. I've been working on mine for a week. My whole harness is out of the car so it's a little easier to work on.

Forestkhaag,
I was recently in touch with the previous owner (Moparrob)and let him know about the thread and progress on World. If you look closely you will see my last post was actually a year ago almost to the day. By responding, Moparrob resurrected the thread with his kind words on the work I have completed. Unfortunately life got in the way a year ago and I had to sideline the project and put it in my trailer. In the trailer I cannot actually get to anything so I am sorry I cannot furnish picture or dimensions at this time. When I get it back out, and I am thinking in just a couple of months, I will provide the picture and info you have requested. Hopefully that will still suit your time frame needs. All the best on you project!

Ben,
Thanks for the complement on the car. You will see in my post just above the project has been idle for a year.

On the bumper...Well unfortunately the chrome job did not come out as good as hoped and I would not recommend the shop I used for that reason. There was a slew of delays and poor communications and in the end it was just one of those deals where I took the best he could do. I think I ended paying about $300 but it was to have been much more if he could have delivered what he said he could do.

But to be fair there were some "issues" with my bumper to begin with from a repair, so much so, that the first place I took it to would not touch it. That place I wanted to take it to was Escondido Plating he advertises show quality chrome and I have used him before. Don Prestage is a great guy and does good work. Check him out.
860 Metcalf St. Escondido, CA 92025
760-743-4148
cell 760-505-4148
escondidoplating@att.net
autochromeplating.com
Good luck!

ConeDodger,
Gotta love your bumper! Sometimes you just have to throw down to get it done and yours looks great and I am sure it was worth it for perfect. Obviously that was the same look I wanted too and I also had to find someone who could do the modification, and then a chromer, so in all it took about 6 months. Take care!

914dave,
Thanks on my build and as I said a couple of replies up it has been on hold for a year. Looking forward to getting back to it!

The quad gauge was also from New Vintage but the PO I got the car from had bought it but had not installed it. In my thread I talk about how helpful Ben at New Vintage was when I was trying to sort it out even though they had made it years ago he went the extra mile. Unfortunately they don't make them anymore or at least when I was last in touch with them about a year ago. Good luck on your car!

My last real post to this thread was Dec 2015 ouch! Although there were minor comments in Dec 2016 nothing was posted on progress. Because there was none!!! Lots of life got in the way!

Revised 7-11-18 to add that I had posted a separate threat asking for help on the torsion bars 3-30-17 that received a few responses but no real solution was reached.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=307499

I actually have been “back at it” since April of 2017 but the progress has been so darn slow that I could not see posting. The short story is that I am now focused on the engine and I didn’t plan to be…… Lots of “issues” came up

Recap, I bought this “work in progress project” with some good stuff already completed and a lot of brand new parts to work with. To top that off this 1974 is an amazingly solid GT conversion with genuine Porsche PN metal flares on a car that did NOT need paint when I got it!! Yes that is correct and this paint job is over 20 years old! It also came with a ’79 3.0 big port six, that to my understanding, “was ready to go”. Hence my handle Lucky9146 for this amazing find after a very long search. This is how it looks today but still not complete.
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I had mated the trans to the engine a while back and really had planned to install it as basically the next major phase. However I had a chance to chat with the PO moparrob earlier this year about the car, and although he had dressed the engine with a pair of Weber 40’s, 914-6 powder coated sheet metal, turbo valve covers etc. to where it looked fantastic, he expressed some reservations about the engine itself. Dang. Turns out we really did not know the history.

And…. In addition I also learned that CIS pistons and CIS cams were NOT that great of a setup with Webers. Soooo….. what next took me quite a bit of time was contemplating and researching what to do.

All this all led to my decision to tear down the engine and go through it. My second 3.0 build, so at least I had done one.. It sure looked ready to go!
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I had recently (like May – Aug 2016) rebuilt the 3.0 CIS for my then newly acquired ‘78 SC and that really is a good part of the reason my 914 project got “back burnered”.

Save all the tail dragger comments it is a blast to drive! And I got a smoking deal.

This is the 3.0 CIS going in.

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And Installed. Such a sweet running motor!

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So up on the engine stand the tear down begins and the discovery process.

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Turns out it was a good decision to get into this engine because there was major carbon that went down the piston skirts and clogging the rings. The Cylinders and heads were not the greatest looking either. Appears not to have been all that well maintained and it apparently had sat for several years and at least the 6 years I know of causing other problems.

Inside seemed to be a caramel color, like the pistons shown, from maybe burnt oil?
Can’t blame the PO too much he got it from a guy who bought it from a reputable source but ya how that goes………….
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Hey Jim, the progress looks great. Glad to see you're taking this the next step forward.

Thanks Rob!


More of the caramel color inside like the pistons...

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Good move,oil burning indicated on the pistons and lack of oil changes has caused the caramel colour in the chain cases .
Great to see you back on the job .

Nice to see this project moving along again. It's one that inspired me to convert my car with a 3.0L. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply and all the way from New Zealand too!
Looked to see if you had a thread and found yours on your car from May 2016 through June 2017.

Especially liked the comment on Apr 2 "just when you think the list is getting smaller something new always crops up" How true! How true!

Good lookin car you have and I will refer back to your thread now for inspiration and ideas.

Continuing with the tear down process here is a cylinder....
Comparing these cylnders with the SC (mentioned earlier) that I rebuilt, this cylinder looked much worse. On my SC I could still see the hone marks and it had 100k miles on it! Not so here.

These did not look like good candidates for a hone job as I was considering new pistons to get away from SC pistons.

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And here are the heads....

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Defianty- I appreciate your checking in too. Yes it is good to be at it again and like I said I started in April this year and I wish I'd have just posted as I went along but trying to catch up now.

Hearing that mine helped inspire you is pretty cool because I have seen your thread "914 2.0>3.0 GT conversion" and you are doing some amazing work! I mean the detail is really something. Wow! Now who is inspiring who? I will continue to follow your thread as well. Good luck to you too.


So all my research led to the following decisions. Cams and pistons is what really took me the time figure out. then of course lead times for valve job and cylinder work.

Dougherty DE40 Cams
Re-Nikosil the cylinders
JE 9.5-1 Pistons almost too nice to hide in an engine!
Top notch valve job from one of the best in San Diego

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So here we are down to the bottom end which by all accounts think will be ok. Almost ready for assembly. All lower Delvar head studs were replaced with steel ones.

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Mean while the sheet metal got some attention.
Before:

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And After.......

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One fun project that I thought I could knock out of the way fairly quickly was the engine cooling shroud. PO had painted the original red one black and it was a nice shiny paint job and all but I just thought the engine being all black with black rain hats, black valve covers, and black shroud would be lost in the hell hole and I wanted it red.

I first wrongly thought that I could just strip the shroud down to the fiberglass original red and that would be good. Big! Big! mistake because not thinking, I used paint stripper, and it got into the fibers and I just couldn't get all the black off! What a mess!

Now I HAVE to paint it again and so I contacted moparrob to find out what he painted it with because the black was pretty nice and amazingly he he still had the can of black Rustoleum For Plastic that he used and shot me a pic. Try to find red Rustoleum For Plastic locally in CA. Nope! Ended up buying from Summit Racing. I must have sprayed and sanded and then primed and sprayed and wet sanded #600 at least 8 times because the paint just kept krinkling up.

So after I had tried several things with no luck I finally ended up calling Rustoleum and amazingly enough they are actually quite helpful. Suggested Rustoleum Professional Primer which can be found locally but the Rustoleum Automotive Line Acrylic Enamel Gloss red #248642 they recommended as their top of the line was another tough one and had to order. I highly recommend this paint. A couple of good coats of this and you're good.

At one point I almost started to look for another shroud but ended up saving this one and it came out great just took a lot of extra work. And sanding.......

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Wow, looks great. Fun thread to read and a nice car to look at!

Thanks Larmo63! I have been following your thread as well and can relate to your ups and downs. I see your engine is going in soon. Best of luck!!


As mentioned earlier my engine sat for years and that is not good it appears for rockers and cam shafts.
No pic of cams (very very minor on cams but going to DC 40's anyway) and here is my worst case rockers....

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Reconditioned rockers from Henry Schmidt via Ken @ 911 Vintage in Fallbrook CA.
Apparently Henry is doing rockers for Nascar and has developed a great process.

And if you have not met Ken he is a great guy and I always enjoy the drive up for the in person experience and a poke around his shop.
Ugh! Another unplanned expense!

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Decided to do new timing chains. why not?
Seems like everything else is being changed out! Simple operation and worth every penny of insurance. Basic stuff I know but there may be those out there that have not done some of it. In fact this was my first timing chain change out on a 3.0.

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Just feed the new chains through following the old chains out using the new master links and good to go!

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The cam housings had cracked and peeling sealant on the thru pins on the back sides so the recommendation is JB Weld as a similar material used by the factory originally.

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Unfortunately I put it on a bit thick and then had to file it down as there was not enough clearance with the cylinders/ heads.

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Cam tower cleaning and prep was a very tedious process. There is no laquer thinner, carb cleaner, gas, paint thinner or whatever else I tried that I know of that will take that Locktite 472 crap off.

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A buddy of mine has a surface plate so I used 320 sand paper to clean the Locktite 472 off of them and of course this also helped ensure flatness too.

There were many more cleanings after the sanding operation. Ugh!

Before and after pics:

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Keep it up, answering a lot of questions I will more than likely have myself.

BTW, seeing you grind the chain with an un protected hand, brings back painful memories.

Stephen thanks for the encouragement and good point on the grinding!

My original muffler plan was to rework this older 911 muffler 2 in 1 out by re-positioning the tail pipe for 914-6. I was also considering hollowing it out as well but never got that far. Decided that since I am in this deep that I would just treat myself to a new Dansk. Got a decent deal on Ebay.

Then since I had ceramic coated the one for my SC I did this one too. I know it is not stock looking but neither is the rest of the car and I like the look. Matches the ceramic coated headers but muffler has a better finish.

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I learned that the carbs, although they had been serviced by one of the best, Performance Oriented, that the throttle shafts “might be OK to run”.

How this all came about is one day I decided to contact Performance Oriented via e-mail explain my situation and how I had acquired the carbs to see if he had any records since I had the SN’s and because I knew the PO had sent them there years ago. I wanted to know jetting and just general info if available.

Shocking, Paul got back to me in like 45 minutes with a complete written rundown on the carbs. from July 2011 with venturis, jetting, emulsion tubes, main air correction jest and idle jets. And it was that very last sentence in his email where he said “they were very worn & I performed a ‘best effort’ to tune them” that really hit me. I called Paul we talked at length, very knowledgeable engineer type and very thorough. Paul explained that basically the “throttle shafts were at the end of their serviceable life” and they would be ok for a while but I might have trouble keeping them tuned.

Once again something seemingly so ready to go had a problem. I didn’t feel comfortable with this information and felt it needed addressing.

Back story here was that I had years ago a 69 912 with Solex’s that had worn throttle shafts and I fought those damn air leaks for way too long so I decided to nip this one in the bud.

Here is what they looked like before sending off. They looked great! Well they had oxidized some.

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Here they are back all done. Completely re-jetted, oxidation gone, new long shafts, OEM throttle valves, and shaft couplings.
Resealed and tested!
Hopefully this will make for less sorting out.

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[quote name='Lucky9146' date='Aug 19 2017, 05:23 AM' post='2518353']
Thanks Larmo63! I have been following your thread as well and can relate to your ups and downs. I see your engine is going in soon. Best of luck!!


As mentioned earlier my engine sat for years and that is not good it appears for rockers and cam shafts.
No pic of cams (very very minor on cams but going to DC 40's anyway) and here is my worst case rockers....

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Reconditioned rockers from Henry Schmidt via Ken @ 911 Vintage in Fallbrook CA.
Apparently Henry is doing rockers for Nascar and has developed a great process.

Quote

Great build going well,did you find what caused the galling on the rocker arms? blocked oil spray rail or wrong oil maybe ?,would be interested to know,cheers.

[quote name='porschetub' date='Aug 19 2017, 03:22 PM' post='2518781']
[quote name='Lucky9146' date='Aug 19 2017, 05:23 AM' post='2518353']
Thanks Larmo63! I have been following your thread as well and can relate to your ups and downs. I see your engine is going in soon. Best of luck!!


As mentioned earlier my engine sat for years and that is not good it appears for rockers and cam shafts.
No pic of cams (very very minor on cams but going to DC 40's anyway) and here is my worst case rockers....

Click to view attachment

Reconditioned rockers from Henry Schmidt via Ken @ 911 Vintage in Fallbrook CA.
Apparently Henry is doing rockers for Nascar and has developed a great process.

Quote

Great build going well,did you find what caused the galling on the rocker arms? blocked oil spray rail or wrong oil maybe ?,would be interested to know,cheers.
[/quote]

____________________________________________________
porschetub
Thank you on the build comment.
Unfortunately that is not galling. That my friend is pitting. Best I can tell from research I did is that it was caused by:
A. Mostly sitting
B. Lack of oil changes (contaminates in the oil eating the metal)

Best I got hope it helps. Thanks for looking

Great to see brain damage similar to mine on the way to a screaming 3.0 Weber driven 914.

Do what you have to do and build to the highest bar your budget will allow.

Once you crack open the case halves, replace everything and sleep like a baby.

and finishing?.......... Never finished......

Exactly ,all that final stuff ....takes for ever,then the oil leaks come later .

Yes forrestkhaag misery loves company and there may well be brain damage involved! Thanks for the post and I like the looks of your engine.

To reinterate the point here I started the engine late April and did not start posting again to my thread till about Aug 15th so most of the work on engine build is done now, case splittting ship has sailed. I had not posted during the April to Aug time frame cuz progress just seemed so darn slow with so many set backs and I didn't really have the time or inclinaton to post so I am trying, with still limited time, to bring the thead up to date. In some ways it is a better perspective with before and after pics. And I happen to be waiting on parts again!

I based my decision not to split the case on the health of the cam bearings and rod bearings and group think that the bottom ends are pretty stout and good for several thousand miles. Glad you did tho and hope like hell I made the right decision. Might not be sleeping like a baby.
____________________________________________________________
After an enormous amount of research, cleaning and prep, and parts gathering, the reassembly finally begins July 5. But there was one final delay to get to this point of actually putting the cylinders on. I opened up the Victor Reinz gasket kit and found the cylinder base gaskets were black! I decided to go with some expert advice and order the copper cylinder base gaskets, as opposed to the black. Once more thought I was ready to go only to have to wait for more new parts to arrive. Ugh! Long time Porsche engine builder friend says he does not like the black ones and relies only on the copper. I am not going to argue!
First piston and cylinder here we go….

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Pistons and cylinders on and secure. This is a good point to mention the cooling shrouds being installed correctly. They say if installed upside down it can lead to over heating and the that design change that was made to remove material about 1977 supposedly lowers engine temp 15 degrees. And, it is easy to put them in upside down! Oh and you really can’t get them off to fix it later as the drain tubes are in the way. Word to the wise.

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First off, you are doing a great job on this rebuild. I'm loving the attention to cleanliness which is key to a great build. Having spent hours cleaning parts on my 3.6 build for my 993, I really appreciate what you are doing.

Second, comments on the pitted rockers. As you noted, this was probably due to leaving the engine with old oil inn it for a long period of time. Since one of the products of combustion is sulfurous acid, it's imperative that oil be changed on a regular basis......not necessarily mileage. As I've seen many places, oil needs to be changed annually or every xxxx miles; whichever comes first. So, the pitting is corrosion and the only way to prevent it is to keep the oil clean. That's why it is best to change out oil just before putting your car away for the winter months or for any extended storage period.

Galling is another thing and is usually due to the poor formulations of today's oils. It's been explained ad nausium the cause of galling; but, the thing to remember is to run an oil that higher levels of ZDDP. You need at least 1300 ppm of that additive to prevent galling of the rockers. To get those levels, you need to run oils meant for off road or racing use. You can also get the correct level of ZDDP by running Mobil 1 V-Twin, which is their oil formulation for motorcycles. Since motorcycles do not need catalytic mufflers, the higher additive levels are permitted.

On my teardown of a 3.6 motor from my 993, there was significant evidence of galling on a number of lobes of one of the cams. That was at 107k miles. All the bearings in that motor were perfect which is an indication that oil changes were proper. Research showed that galling failures are beginning to be seen in the air cooled motors.

One question: Since you elected to split the case of your motor, why did you opt for split cam chains? There is nothing wrong with the chains that have a removable link, but the continuous chain eliminates the potential for the link coming loose.

Thanks for the encouragement and for all your input on oil and all. That is what so great about this site is you can learn something every day.

To your question, Um, my last post earlier today talks about my decision NOT to split the case and why and so, you are correct, I could have just done solid chains had I split the case. Hope I made the right choice in not splitting. Had some expert guidance in my decision.
Thanks again for looking!

I guess I missed seeing your decision to NOT split the case. Normally, splitting the case is only called for on very high mileage engines, or engines that have sustained any internal damage.

Personally, given the corrosion found on your rockers, what assurance do you have that the same pitting is not on the crank main journals? One thing that you can do is to pull the rods to see if there is evidence of pitting on the rod journals.

Normally, the bottom end of these engines are good for over 200k miles if normal oil changes occur.. The only thing that does get more wear are the intermediate shaft bearings.

Strange how someone would shortcut that but really that's were the money is rebuilding them,the rest is rather basic,interesting how the throttle shafts wear more than the bushes....steel on bronze afterall ,did see the same thing was I was engineering on large fishing trawlers.
My Zeniths had wear on the spindles but not the bushes,not a lot but I do have a slight wet spot at those points ,however they have tuned well so happy for the moment,those carbs of yours are jewels ,Paul has a great rep on Pelican well done.

OK, my error. I went back and reviewed the pictures of what I thought was your build, and found that they were pictures from another build.

So, given the corrosion related damage to the cams and the rockers, did you pull the rods and inspect the rod journals? If you did, and you found no indication of the same failure mechanism, then you are probably alright to have not split the case.

How many miles are on the bottom end of the engine?

No did not pull the bearing caps and as I said in an earlier post I based my decision NOT to split the case on the health of the cam bearings which looked very good as did rod bearings and group think that the bottom ends are pretty stout and good for several thousand miles. The pitting on the cam lobes was very minor it was the rockers that had the most. Hope it was the right decision.

Thanks for your input.

Heads on and temporary install of the oil cooler for the cam tower install. This allows you to make sure the heads are lined up on that side for head to oil cooler clearance when assembling the cam towers. There is just the slightest bit of play in the heads, so why not? Another tip from Porsche engine builder friend of mine.

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Cam tower on, and I wish I had thought to take a pic of how much (really how little) Locktite 472 to be put on. Missed pic on both sides!! UGH! There is a lot going on at this point though with the Locktite 574, 2 lubricated oil drain tubes, and 6 pins in the three heads to line up, and a host of studs, it is easy to forget the camera even moving at the snail pace I am.

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Funny, the build book says the way to check proper installation of the cam towers is to try the cam and see if it turns freely.

Yikes!... and re-torque if necessary. Really?
Well good news on mine, both sides!! Good to go!

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Starting to look like an engine again....

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Had a lot of problems with the Dougherty DC40 cams as they punched the front end to mark the key way DC40 right in the end of the front of the cam.

That punch marks, which took me quite a while to figure out, deformed material on the front of the shaft that would not allow the timing gear to go on or the sprocket for that matter. It was as though the ends of the cams were mushroomed. After dickin with the cams for hours I alerted John Dougherty they were putting the punch too close to the O.D. and raising material. He was surprised and was going to make a change to his process. So I either had to return (more lost time) or hand dress them myself, which I chose to do.

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Reconditioned chain tensioner arms with the upgraded integral spacer makes for a much wider bearing surface. Old and new shown here. Pricey improvement but the original arms were galled and had no brass bushing. Really had no choice but now I have a much improved nice wide bronze bushing and spacer! Again these were exchange from Supertec through Ken at 911 Vintage in Fallbrook.

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Ready to set the chain timing!

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So now with the timing set, and lucky for me that I happen to know one of the best Porsche engine guys in San Diego, I am ready to finish build this puppy. I feel comfortable building the engine alright but the cam timing with the Dougherty Cams is another story. There was a trick to setting it and we figured it out because it behaved differently than a regular Porsche cam due to the lift. This guru also helped me with the cam timing on my SC motor as well and that sucker runs like a watch. There are little nuances you can do with setting cam timing and you don’t read that in a book!

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Chain housing covers installed after sanding them for flatness. Buttoning it up!

Then the chain tensioner oil lines were the next order of business. Might seem like a simple thing but cleaning up all the fittings, flushing, and then having to re-bend both the larger and the smaller feed lines on both sides took the day! You see a small bend in the larger line relocates the fitting for the intersecting smaller line and so a bend in the one results is needing to bend the other. Fun.

Looked like the metal line segments, having been installed at angles as shown in the before picture, was putting stress on the rubber hose part of the larger line.

Before
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After
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Your spectacular attention to detail and thorough explanation of problems and solutions is greatly appreciated. These are the things you don't learn in a book. Thanks for sharing.

Additionally I filed a relief in the front of the timing chain cover for the small oil line on the right side for clearance and added plastic tube for insulator to prevent line chafing.

Before
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After
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And I decided to install the fan and clamp now because I know you can’t get the clamp in after the dizzy goes in.

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In all the 911 engines I have built over the years I have always put the heads and cam towers on as 1 assembly.. I know others do it just like you but just don't know if one way is better then the other..

mb911 with only 2 of these particular engines under my belt I am always willing to learn and it sounds like you have more experience than me. My thought is that the joint between the cam towers to heads assembly is said to be one of the most critical, that using the head studs to line up the heads would be beneficial to mating the cam tower to them. Additionally it makes the application of RTV574 one operation when putting the cam tower to the heads instead of three when assembling each head to the cam tower. Just my 2 cents. I would say if you are having good success with your method to continue on. Thanks for looking at the thread.

Valve covers were the next opportunity for flatness. More sanding…….

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Just had to try a header on for fit to see. Sure looks cool. MSDS 1 5/8 with Ceramic coating, beautiful! These came to me done and with the project I bought. Nice work moparrob!

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You D'man....

Truly a work of art. Great skills and patience indeed.



Oscar

Doesn't it look grand at that point? Good flattening. Wish I had done that with my chain covers