Anyway, heres my "914" story...
I got the car a few weeks ago super cheap ( now I know why!) knowing that it had a pretty good oil leak and looked rough. Not rusty ect just uncared for....
The leak seemed to be the F/W seal so I knew I'd have to pull the engine. We did that yesterday (Pelicans method worked pretty good but it's a myth that it can be accomplished in two hours by a single person).
Anyway, after a few stuck bolts ( 3 hours out of the 6 hours spent pulling) we had it out. The endplay was at .012! We took the F/W off and found the shims to be semi conical in shape. The F/W had also been disfigured into a conical shape at the surface where the shims sit. The logical assumption was that the main bearing that contacts the shims is now conical as well. Bad news. I wasn't planning to do anything to the bottomend of this engine. Top end overhaul only. Actually just a re-ring and valve lap. This is primarily for time and money reasons. I would love to build a great engine from the ground up but that dream is a couple of years away. The weird thing is, this engine sounds very smooth and runs very well. The compression checked out good and the L-jet is funtioning great for it's age!
I think the conical shape of the shims is due to excessive riding of the clutch. The cluch, PP and T/O are all nearly new ( maybe less then 500 miles?) they all cleaned up well considering the oily mess inside the bell housing...
Let me back track and tell you all that when we first got the car jacked up we saw some rust. I dont know where the crucial places are that determine " junk yard staus" on 914's but some one had jacked the car up incorrectly at some point and that began the process that was witnesed yesterday. Anybody care to give me a tour of what to look for and calculate the damage?
This car will never be a show winner (half the audience walks out now....) and I'm not worried about that. I can tell that it'll be fun to drive and hopefull economical too! I'm just worried about putting money into something that'll split in two pieces if I stop fast to avoid hitting chipmunk road kill.