Last week I bought engine GA000099 from Freezing914 in the hopes of picking up some spare parts to support rebuild of the engine that came with my vehicle.

During the teardown of my vehicles engine, it is quickly becoming clear that the engine was abused by some DAPO. Cooling flaps and thermostat had been removed. Rust in the sump. The crank was scored and already 0.010" undersized. The oil pump was torn up. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the engine that came with my vehicle.

14 hours of driving seems to have netted me an engine that might be worthy of a rebuild.

This engine appears to be bone stock. D-jet mostly complete. As an added bonus I discovered upon teardown that none of the cooling tin fasteners have ever been disturbed. No screwdriver marks!

But . . . like any engine of this age and unknown origin, it absolutely needs to be gone though.

One of the nice things about this engine is that the D-jet system is pretty complete and I could take pictures of how hoses were routed before teardown.

I was anxious though to get to the good stuff. I really wanted to know what was inside. Tearing down an engine is like Christmas for me. What's in the box . . . what's in the box!

After finally getting down to the bare tin, I was a little bummed to find the passenger side tin is cracked. Not a big deal but like everything else . . . something else that needs fixin'.

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Since the cheesehead screws had never been disturbed quite a few were really rusted. Penetrating oil did the trick on most. But there is always that one. You know the one.

The one that won't break free. Heat. Nope. Impact driver. Nope. Weld nut broke free? Nope. Finally it just pushed though the tin from hammering on it with the impact driver. Not the end of the world. Just another little hole to be welded up and re-drilled.

With that out of the way I pulled the tin. Crap. Mice have been here!

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On the other side, I found all sorts of goodies. Old spark plug extension between the cylinders and basically just a bunch of blocked fins from leaves and the mouse house.

Pulled the cylinder heads which basically look pretty decent but will need to be cleaned to see if they have cracking.

And with that -- Ta da! Stock pistons. Sweet.

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Just what I had hoped to see. Time for a drink


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We'll have to see how this engine progresses as I start measuring parts.

The cylinders look pretty darn good. I can still see hone marks in them which I'm hoping means this is a low mileage engine.

I immediately proceeded to pull the oil pump and that looks pretty pristine inside too.

I have high hopes for this engine.

I think I've had five of these engines now and don't think I've owned one that wasn't cracked in that area. The vibration of the coil mounted there is the issue. On my current build, I left the repair weld unground on the inside thinking it will help reinforce that area. I think they moved the coil onto the fan housing in later years but am not sure. Regardless, the mount cradle is there if you don't want a repeat, but I'll have to give you crap about relocating your coil on your pure stock engine.

Looking forward to watching this come together!

@bbrock

Now that I obtained this engine I will return the oil filler that you so graciously provided. I now have an unexpected donor.

With a bit of luck I'll drop off on my way to Idaho.

I also got 4 more Green top injectors off this engine. They are coming with me. I intend to drop off in person and meet Mr. Injector himself. And . . . I'll save $15 in shipping but spend $600 in gas.

Funny thing on the coil is this one seems to have the original (some sort of green oval Bosch label on it but very weathered). It is heavier than any coil I've ever used on my previous engine.

I previously ran my 1st 914 over 100K miles without any tin cracking issues with the coil in that very same spot.

I also think that the type of bracket is part of the issue. My previous bracket was Omega shaped. This one is different. It has a sort of snubber on the end of the bracket that contacts the tin before the rest of the foot. I think it got over torqued leading to stress cracking. I'll have to get a picture of what I mean.

Here is one more picture of why we teardown unknown engines.

Oil cooler pretty much blocked with greasy debris. Not much air going to flow though this cooler.

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I know exactly what you mean because that how my bracket is shaped. I was looking at that the other day and thinking I'll add some rubber pads to those feet to level out the snubs, even the load out, and absorb some of the vibration.

No need to bring that breather back. I don't need it. Just get your butt out here

Yes, mount your coil here where God intended. Folks will have the correct bracket for you

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Last night I began pulling pistons and cylinders.

Looking to be a low mileage engine.

Piston skirts have virtually no wear. You can still see all the machine marks from when the pistons were originally machined.

The wrist pins are also pretty tight. Usually these slide right in and out on a well worn engine. These are a firm slip fit and take a little bit of persuasion. Not excessive but tight as if there aren't many miles on them.

Looking very likely that the pistons will only need a new set of rings. Measurement of piston ring groove clearance gaps will be the final judge.

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Should have the case split later today.

Thank you for documenting this.

How did you clean your oil cooler?

Oil cooler not cleaned yet.

The problem with oil coolers is that they are pretty cheap.

On my original engine with all the rust in the sump, that cooler is garbage. No way to ensure the rust all comes out.

On this engine the sump is pretty clean. Could clean this cooler but for the time it will take to clean carefully with kerosene, I'll probably just replace it.

1). Need to clean exterior 1st. Soaking and always keeping the cooler ports facing down to help keep exterior junk from getting inside.
2). Then have to keep flushing the cooler internals until clean. In past I've used a pressure bottle of kerosene and finished with compressed air.

It is at least an hour or two of work. Coolers now seem cheaper than the labor to clean.

It'll be a tough call. I'll post pics if I do clean it.

It's been 30+ years but when I tore down my engine, I took the oil cooler to a radiator shop and they cleaned it in whatever tank they cleaned radiators with. I think they only charged about $5-$10 but that's 80's money.

It has been forever since I've worked on the 914 projects.

Too many distractions. Melanoma surgeries (Wear Sunscreen, get checked!), vacation out west with a flyby to go see Bbrock's project (which is incredible), and the obligatory domestic distractions.

Today my beloved Vintage toaster took a dump. I've had this baby for over 27 years myself. I bought it for $5 at Goodwill when I was in college and too poor to afford a new toaster in my 1st apartment. I love vintage stuff because it WORKS and is easily serviced.

This is a toaster from the era before the Lawyers took over product development. This Mother get roaring hot. It has a chrome metal cover without any significant insulation.

It actually does it's job and cooks toast in about 1 minute. Imagine that. No microprocessor. No modes for cooking bagels or pastries. No heating elements that barely get warm. Just a good old toaster that actually works.

It you are dumb enough to touch it when its hot - you will get burned. If you are dumb enough to stick a knife or fork in there while it's powered up, you may get electrocuted. Just the way it should be!

Anyway it was time fix it and fend off any sly attempt by the wife to replace it with some modern piece of crap.

Just a simple repair to the cord and it was back in operation. Plus a little buffing of the chrome for good cosmetic measure.

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Back in it's place of honor and ready to cook!

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“This is a toaster from the era before the Lawyers took over product development.”

Now THAT was funny.

Loved the post.

Oh, and I did at least get the engine case for good old 099 picked up from the machine shop de-grease tank.

I am pretty disappointed. This block was literally covered in grease. It really didn't clean up like my other block which is shown in the lower left corner.

Sort of looks like some sort of corrosion. It does brush off though with a wire brush.

In addition, this 099 case seems to be crudely cast. There is a lot of surface flash and a sort of weld spatter look to it in some places.

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I think it will clean up OK with some bead blasting and/or walnut shell blasting. But . . . that lead to other project.

My pressure pot sandblaster was already clogged up with Horror Freight Walnut shells. In my hurry to do some work years ago on the Norton, I dumped in some HF "Fine" walnut shells. Unfortunately they were far to big (like 26 grit) to go though the nozzle properly and it just made a mess. I set it aside . . . time to pay the piper.

I spent the better part of the afternoon getting that pressure pot working again and went to HF to go buy about 100 lbs of glass bead. I'd rather use Walnut shells and still might if I can find the right grade (more like 60 grit) somewhere locally.

In the end, I will block off any oil galley ports and will ultimately pull the galley plugs so I'm not too worried about using glass bead. We'll see.

As an added bonus, this engine came complete with FI and as it turns out the Aux Air Regulator actually works. How cool is that!

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Did a light cleaning and lube with some WD-40 and it is good to go!

Likewise the injectors that came from the engine were handed off to Bill Johnson at Mr. Injector. Mr Injector is out in Hayden Lake Idaho. I lived out in that area back in the 80's.

I stopped into the shop to drop off the injectors when I was in Idaho on vacation. What a great guy. Bill has been out in Idaho since the Late 50's. We talked about how much the area has changed over the years as the population continues to grow.

Bill is the real deal - a real car guy. Not many left in this world. So thrilled to be able to do business with him face to face. He previously did another batch of injectors for me. Out of that batch of 7 unfortunately we only saved 4. The great thing about Mr. Injector is that if he can't get them working and flowing properly - No charge.

This batch was another story. All 4 were working and all 4 flow great now.

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I actually have a total of 12 injectors at this point to go with 2 engines. Ultimately a set will go up on classifieds once I know I have my engines covered and running.

And the final good news for the day is that the crank that came out of this engine is in great shape.

I had the machine shop do a cleaning and just a light polish.

Remeasured the crank to make sure they didn't take off more than .0001-.0002". No problems. I love it when that is the case.

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This crank still measures on the high side of specifications.

Smart man! When I was a poor college student, I bought an already antique toaster (older than yours) for $3 from a prof who was finishing his sabbatical and heading back to Israel. We LOVED that toaster but when it crapped out, we decided to spend a hundred dollars in 1990s money on a fancy high-brow brand toaster. We HATE that POS and even though it has been well over twenty years since our old toaster left our lives, one of us laments how much we miss it at least weekly. We saw one identical to it in a museum once and about broke down in tears. Good on you for reviving the heirloom!

Will be following this build as I'am currently doing a build @ the moment ,wow thought my case was dirty !!!!!,spent several hours yesterday cleaning mine,its a lot of work for me as I'am only doing a top overhaul.
Keep up the good work, .

Not a very productive 914 weekend. In addition to my affinity for vintage toasters, I also love vintage stereo stuff and a Craigslist deal on some speakers proved to be irresistible which consumed the better part of Sunday to go pickup.

However, I did manage to get the case bead blasted to pull off the dirt and corrosion that the degrease tank didn't get. I decided to go the glass bead route and get something done rather than screw around trying to source 60 grit walnut shells.

I know you CA guys can't fully appreciate how hot and HUMID it is in the midwest. Wearing shorts and a T-shirt leads to a full on sweat if doing any sort of activity. Now imagine suiting up in long sleeves, a respirator, and then putting on a sand blasting hood that completely covers your head. I really should have worn long pants too but instead chose to wear shorts and simply take the beating of glass bead on my legs as it ricochet's off the case. Swamp ass doesn't even begin to describe it.

Sunday was mid 80's with about 80% humidity but the forecast is for even hotter and more humid this week. Had to suck it up and get this done. I have other small parts I can do inside the air conditioned garage but this had to get done outdoors.

About 50 lbs of glass bead later:

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The case cleaned up pretty well. I'll likely knock off some of the bigger casting flash that is on the top side of the engine to make it easier to keep clean. Likewise, the top and bottom case surfaces will get a light coat of silver paint to help keep clean in the future.

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I taped off the oil galley ports with aluminum HVAC tape to minimize any bead getting in. Not a huge concern since I had planned to pull the flywheel end galley plugs anyway to ensure that I get them perfectly clean. Nothing worse than wondering what might be stacked up in the ends.

I did notice some differences in this early 099 casting vs. the later version that came out of my car.

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Note the differences in casting lot number/date codes

There also appears to be an error in machining the flywheel end main bearing bore.

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It looks to me like whatever tool they were using to face mill the case stopped short of a 360 degree revolution.

I can't quite visualize what tooling they were using to cut this surface. The sharp edge, straight line and angular surface left aren't what I'd expect from fly cutting, or a face mill.

Curious if anyone has seen something like this before?

Early GA cases have given me lots of issues. The castings are always rough, and they measure all over the place.

Their biggest issue is sagging cylinder registers. Make sure you have the cylinders registers decked, and evened up. They are always sagging at the point where the cylinders come closest to each other.

@Jake Raby
Thank you for the advice and confirmation that you've seen issues on early cases too! Nice to see you posting here on 914World again!

Time has come to tear down the heads to see if they might be good. On my original engine the heads turned out to be a disaster. I'll post more on those heads under my vehicle build thread.

On these heads I used my homemade valve spring tool. Just a few simple bits turned up on the lathe and the mill to use a C-Clamp.

The slots allow me to fish out the keepers.

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As usual, there were the typical seized exhaust studs. Ended up using one of my favorite tools to extract the studs.

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This tool plus a little heat usually works. But, of course, there is always the one stud that someone broke off leaving no threads. Tried the usual tricks. . .penetrating oils . . . heat . . . vice grips. Finally resorted to the heavy artillery & welded on a nut.

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And of course the inevitable occurred.


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We temporarily interrupt this post -- Clear the children from the room.

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Guess we'll save that project for later. Need to bead blast the carbon off the combustion chambers and ports to see if there is cracking. If there isn't, then I'll deal with the broken stud by drilling it out in the mill using a left hand drill bit. If necessary it could be inserted but I prefer not to do that.

I like clean. I've always said that your going to get dirty removing stuff but you don't have to get dirty putting it back. BTW, some of us CA guys grew up in the midwest and remember the humidity. My wife was astounded at how uncomfortable the cold Wx could be when humidity was part of the mix! What's your timetable for this project?

Lot's of iron's in the fire so hard to say for sure, I'd like to have at least one engine put together by September.

Right now I'm mostly burning time between Melanoma biopsy's and surgeries. Can't really get on my back and do a lot of overhead welding and grinding on the Chassis so I'm doing "easy" work.

Rods are being rebuilt as we speak by my local machine shop. Crank is in good shape. P&C's are likely reusable from what I've seen so far with just a new set of rings and a cylinder hone.

I have a set of new Chinese AAP heads being built by Len Hoffman so I know I have at least one good set of 2.0L 3 stud heads

At this point it depends on this set of heads as to whether I rebuild both this engine and my original. If I can come up with a second set of heads I'll build both. When done, one, would go up for sale to offset future purchase of a six cylinder long term project.


If these heads aren't good, the excess spares (case, crank, P&C's, etc.) will likely get sold off as parts.

Restoration work is like a roller coaster ride.

Yesterday I was pretty mad that I couldn't get out that exhaust stud without it breaking off.

Today, I'm happier than a bird with a french fry.

Heads are in great shape. Absolutely no cracking. Not even around the spark plug which is so common its laughable.

The inset picture of the ports is typical of all cylinders.

Looks like I'm on a path to be able to resurrect two engines!

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I also have a tip for those of you with sand blasters. Not really new trick, but, I'm a slow learner.

For years I've struggled with my pressure pot. Works great for 1st 10-15 lbs of media but then starts getting clogging and intermittent media supply.

I've always worked around it by limiting the size of my batch to blast or by messing with various pressure setting above or below the sand to clear things out.

So I finally broke down and spend a grand total of about $12 to buy a mini water separator from HF. Today is humid as can be and I had absolutely no clogging.

How dumb is that? Only been fighting this nonsense for about 10 years!

I simply put typical air coupler's on it, now it can be moved from pressure pot to bench top booth, or whatever else might need extra water filtration. You wouldn't believe how much moisture gets this far down the line even tough I have another water trap back in the garage!

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You nailed it when you said all of this is a roller coaster ride.

Thanks for the updates and good tip on the water separator

This will make you mad. I have a nice Sharpe water separator on my air supply that I moved when I left Kansas, plus an auto drain purge on the compressor tank that pops off a puff of air every 30 minutes to keep the water drained. The other day I realized I had been running my compressor a LOT for blasting but hadn't drained the separator for months. I opened up the petcock until it hissed. Nothing but dry air. I LOVE not having to deal with humidity anymore!

Sure . . . rub it in.

Someday I'll relocate to Idaho!

OK -- so I got the head set up in the mill and was able to get the broken stud out and salvaged the existing threads.

Here is the basic setup.

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And here is the final result after a few hours of farting around. Not sure you guys want the gratuitous details on the interim steps. Will post if there is interest.

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I feel better now. Two good heads - time to start sourcing new valves, springs, and valve guides. Good weekend so far!

Sure, rub it in

That really is awesome work. Those heads look beautiful.

Now onto the last PITA on the other head. The stupid M6 cheese head screw that attaches the under cylinder tin also sheared off too.

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Thanks for the update

Gotta ask...what kind of knee mill is that?

@jd74914

1950's vintage American Iron - about 1600 lbs worth.

South Bend Vertical Mill. It's a bit different in that it doesn't use standard R8 collets but uses a NT30 taper but has a weird countersink in the taper for holding the taper into the spindle rather than using the threaded end like a standard NT30 or CAT40. I end up buying NT30 tooling but have to grind in the countersinks on the taper to use on this machine.

I like it because NT30 is a positive drive vs. R8's that can be prone to slipping.

Price was right ($500 delivered) back when I bought it a few decades back.

Contemplating adding a VFD so that I can get spindle speed down to 40-45 RPM. Then I can cut my own valve seats.

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Very cool! Strange taper for a little mill but definitely better than the stuff with B&S9. Looks like it has a ton of z-travel too for having such a compact footprint, that's awesome! Do you have an equally cool lathe to go with it?

Definitely add the VFD-I've found that just being able to fine tune speeds really increases tool life and improves surface finish. It's a really nice knob to have.

Little anecdote: One of the machinists I know is good friends with the owner of MasterCAM; he told me they were talking about advances in machining one day (from when they had both started in the early 70s) and his opinion was the most important change was the addition of continuous variable speed to all machining centers.

The screw for the under cylinder tin is actually 5mm, in case it matters

9 N 010 704 2 pan-head screw AM 5 X 10

Yep, that's the Lone Oddball screw that usually gets misplace. BTW, you couldn't have the mill delivered for $500 today.

Doh!

It's definately M6x1.0 now.

I quickly grabbed a standard cheese head and gauged it in the rush to get it done. Didn't realize that it was actually M5.

We'll call it a custom upgrade.

Sure you can. All about the deal & the negotiation process. In this case it was a piece of metal working equipment that a wood working shop had had for quite a while. Due to the NT30 spindle taper most of the the Bridgeport guys weren't interested and passed it over. He was basically stuck with a 1600lb paperweight taling up space in his shop. I basically bought it for $0.31 per pound. Cheaper than hot dogs.

My buddy turned me on to it after it had been sitting unsold for a long while.

Just struck up a deal inclusive of shipping to my driveway but the owner didn't want anything to do with placing it in the garage due to "liability" he said. He literally lifted it off the trailer with a fork lift and then left it in my driveway.

It was still an awful lot of work to get that beast inside and positioned. By then my buddy regretted telling me about it in the first place. But, what are friends for.

I paid back the debt by some minor parts fab for his toy over the years.

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I started cleaning up the stock pistons from this 099 engine. Overall pistons seem to be in great shape. I need to measure them to make sure but likely will reuse them with new rings for this build.

I used the ultrasonic cleaner with some simple green but it still struggled to get some of the really tough carbon off. Wondering what cleaning solutions folks are using with better results.

Purple Power seemed to be in wide use based on quick troll of YouTube. (8/8/2019 post edit: Purple Power not recommended for Aluminum via their Website FAQ)

Could resort to carb cleaner but the smell of that stuff will permeate the garage in a hurry. Then the wife starts to complain as it makes it's way into the house.

To me, it smells like Hoppes #9 (pure heaven), but, my wife hates the smell. Women.

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Still working on GA000099 slowly but surely.

I've been cleaning up pistons to figure out if they are worth reusing. I'd really like to reuse but the thought of building up a 2056 carburated engine has crossed my mind. I haven't ordered the cam for this engine yet so still some time to decide.

In the end, I know I want a dead stock 2.0L FI engine for my project and have purchased 94mm NOS P&C's and a NOS cam to build that. But I need to decide what case I'm using.

This is getting complicated. I've never done two engine rebuilds near simultaneously and the possibilities are limitless since I planned to sell off the spare engine later and I do have a set of Dell's sitting on standby that came off my original engine.

For now I'm going to keep forging ahead assuming I'm using GA000099 as my engine case. But that needs machine work still to come.

Cleaning pistons is a PITA. But, these seem to be low mileage, and, in good shape so I can't see tossing them. Maybe I'll offer them up on forum or Samba if I do decide to build a 2056. It is nice to get a fresh set of P&C and not have to do all this work!

Measured skirts to make sure they aren't collapsed along with the ring grooves to see how much wear there is. Short answer - virtually none. All looking good on the 1 piston (cylinder #3) I measured yesterday. I'll do a few more today but expected #3 to be the worst due to location & generally running hottest.

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Phil, Keep posting on your progress. Of course its complicated, but well worth it as you get closer to the end goal. Ask me how I know

Continuation of piston and cylinder measurement.

I've been measuring pistons and cylinders and not quite believing the results. A few days ago I was measuring cylinders and comparing between the new set of KolbenSchmidt Pistons and Cylinders (P&C's) and those from GA000099.

I measured 1st with a Mitutoyo snap gauge and my Chinese micrometer. Coming up right on the money for the cylinder. Right around 94mm with no real taper.

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So then I did a quick check of the snap gauge with a set of Mitutoyo calipers. Same result about 94.02mm. 0.02mm = .0008" so about 0.001" over size. New cylinder size is 94mm with tolerance of 0.02mm - 0.05mm for new parts per factory manual with a upper wear limit at 0.2mm which is about .008".

Not quite believing this, I took the time to set up a bore gauge at 94mm. Sure enough, still coming in about 0.001" oversize to the 94mm gauge (sorry for swapping units back and forth).

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This does align pretty well to the fact that the cylinders visually look good and I can still see some of the original hone / hatch marks.

Pretty amazing that these are still in great shape and can probably be cleaned up with just a light re-hone.

Here's a quick video


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ObzdlUJhhc

Received a new pair of HAM prepared AA Performance Chinese 2.0L 3 stud heads today.

Now, I know it's silly to judge by looks alone but I'm impressed.

Packaging was 1st rate. UPS could have dropped these from 8 foot high and they would have been fine. The white boxes contain form fitted polystyrene foam that fits the head perfectly. These boxes are what ensured the heads got to US port in 1 piece from China so it would have been hard for UPS to screw it up with HAM's double boxing and foam packing. Great work!

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Quick side by side comparison of Chinese head (on right) vs. Porsche 2.0L Head (on left) is pretty good. As Len Hoffman describes on his website, these are basically a straight up copy of the Porsche 2.0L factory head. As he describes there is a bit more porosity and casting flash than OEM but honestly this should be expected with any Chinese knockoff.

I haven't made up my mind which engine these will go on - the engine I keep for my car or the engine I sell.

I'm honestly tempted to buy another set of these HAM heads and keep these GA00099 Porsche heads for later given how hard it seems to be getting to find real 2.0L heads that don't have cracking issues.

Here's a couple more quick views.

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Other than the exciting arrival of heads, my 914 work this week was pretty . . . weak.

I did drop of the engine tin for degreasing. That will go to powder coat once done.

I also dropped off GA000099 cylinders for degreasing now that I've determined that they are in great shape and reusable.

Did get a bit of disappointing news from my machine shop. Let's just say their customer record keeping is not what it should be. Apparently they can't find a source for the rod bushings and want me to order them. Not a big deal. However, they had the rods for the past 2 weeks or more. When I finally called to check on them . . . . you guessed it. . . . they lost my phone number and were waiting for me to call them.

The stork dropped off some more parts for GA000099.

Fresh Rings and valve guides.

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Still can't do much with a gaping hole in my shoulder. It honestly looks like something from a horror movie. Can't wait to get to the 2nd surgery on 9/17 to put a real skin layer back on it just so it looks sort of normal.

Nothing to do but to collect parts in anticipation. At least it gives me something to look forward to.

I can't wait either. I want to see that pic!