The 3.0L SC motor I bought a few months ago as a "fully rebuilt 25K mile motor" is now reduced to its basics. It's a long sad story why, and it's too depressing to recount here and now....but I have to do a complete rebuild. The bad: someone (a previous, previous, previous owner) lied through their teeth about this and their legacy has been inherited by myself and the two guys that owned it before me. The good: The aforementioned two guys are doing their best to make good on the deal. These are a 914 Club member and a Pelican Head....and I can't overstate how grateful I am for their honesty and ethical fortitude in dealing with this mess. For the record, I'm talking about Steve Hill (LVSteveH) and Bruce Wharton ..... genuine pillars of the Porsche community. Also good is the fact that by spring I will be running a completely fresh, from the bottom up, tweaked 3.0 in my 914....and I may not have to sell a kidney to make it happen.

Having said this, and having recovered from my shock and awe, I'd like to start a progress thread to document my project, glean advice from others who have traveled this road, and help others taking this path. The engine is now stripped. Pistons and cylinders are in spec (Nikasils ). Cams will be reground to 964 specs. Bottom end will be all new (I need an oil pump...anybody?). Heads rebuilt.
I had the cases and cam towers ultrasonicly cleaned....damn these motors are beautiful inside:

a couple mistakes I made putting my 3.0 together:

flywheel bolts: the torque specs, as I recall, were 90 ft-lbs. But, the bolts have no washers. While tightening them, the torque reading goes from 0 to 90 with barely any turning of the bolt, so you get a false reading. A few weeks after putting the engine together and driving it, I had to take it apart due to oil leaks. I was very surprised to find all the flywheel bolts loose. Also, I read a case in Excellence where another guy had this happen. But he didn't catch it in time. His flywheel came off while driving - a disaster. Bruce said to torque the bolts much more and use red loctite.

oil leaks from rocker shafts - BA's says in his book that you can get oring seals to put in their slots from porsche dealers. But I've had good luck smearing rtv on both ends after torqueing them.

oil leaks from between heads - cam towers. Get the orange loctite case sealant, even though its kind of expensive. Make sure there is no trace of oil anywhere. Oil will displace the sealant and you will get a leak. Whatever you do, dont use rtv for the case halves. enuf for now, you're probably good luck!

btw, what was wrong with you motor?

Thanks for the tips, BRP. I've heard of the flywheel bolt torque problem...it'll be a while before I get to that point, but I'm thinking: locktite the threads, a dab of white grease under the heads, and some extra torque. I planned on using the rocker shaft o-rings...they're relatively cheap. Good advice on the sealant for cam towers too.

My motor had a piston fail at some time in it's past...it appears that pistons and cylinders were replaced with used nickies without splitting the case and cleaning out the debris. When I got the motor it had good leakdown numbers but I found lots of metal in the sump...piston parts and ring pieces. Both cams ruined, probably because of debris plugging the spray bars. Hard pieces of metal had chewed up the scavenge side of the oil pump. Luckily, the crank polished up fine, within specs. One cam sprocket was re-installed backwards, ruining chain and gears on one bank. The guy who "rebuilt" this was either a moron or a criminal, in my book...probably both.

Looks good randy ! That thing sure cleaned up well. Whats the story with the 2.4 drop?
Eric

Eric, the 2.4 is just about ready to drop...wanna come help tomorrow?

Lookin Good,

Lovin' It ! ( but I'm biased, of course )

More progress.....with the invaluable help of Eric taylor and Qweep the Wonder Dog, the old 2.4 is liberated and nearly ready for it's pilgrimage to Camp 914 where Craig is preparing a new nest for it.

hey it's me ! Pictures turned out really good randy . Moving a 6 out was a really cool thing to do today, much bigger motor than I thought once I saw it on the stand. Time to start building the hot rod .
Eric

no real progress the last few days...just an excuse to post a nice photo of the 2.4 all cleaned up:

Sweet! getting closer to the 3.0!

QUOTE (goose2 @ Dec 11 2005, 12:34 PM)

no real progress the last few days...just an excuse to post a nice photo of the 2.4 all cleaned up:

How did you use the 3 into 1 exhaust manifold in the 914? any pics? Not that I want to, I just didn't think that would work...
-Mike D.

QUOTE

How did you use the 3 into 1 exhaust manifold in the 914? any pics

The manifolds on the 2.4 were fabricated by Dan Root. The three bolt flange on the manifolds connected to an extension pipe that connected to a 911 2 in- 1 out muffler. It worked pretty well and seemed to produce very good low-end torque...and easy access to the lower valve covers. No pics of the complete system, sorry.

Another small dose of progress.......got the brakes and hubs removed, calipers rebuilt...everything under and engine bay degreased and pressure washed.

I'm wondering how to detail the control arms and calipers...they'll show through the 16" wheels. Yellow maybe......to match the Konis? Someone said yellow was fast.

a little more progress....baby steps The heads are ready, all the new parts are collected and paid for...assembly starts this week

Way cool!

lookin good !
might have to stop by at take look at your master piece
james

you're welcome any time James

Randy, excellent progress
The shorty headers proll'y came off of an old '77/ 2.7 with the thermal reactors. The shorty headers were known as thermal reactor replacements. We built these specifically for Thermal Reactor equipped cars of that era...the cyl head temps and engine life went back to normal when the 911 owner put the shortys on. Without them, good job security for the Porsche techs !
By running 2" od exhaust tube from the header back to a muffler (L & R), there is a bunch of room for engine servicing. Long tube headers will give you the best breathing/ scavenging though .
Picture is one of our ads from Autoweek, 1979, this was the MSDS 930 flange style, and T304 stainless steel.
Marty