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I thought it would be better to start a new thread specifically for the engine rebuild.
As many of you may know I have sent my engine parts to LA, to Performance Development. They have been busy cleaning up the parts and seeing what we have to start with.
The current prognosis is not great. The half-witted apes who "rebuilt" (and I use that term very loosely) the engine previously have butchered it. Essentially the engine obviously had pulled head studs, like every other 2.7, but it was the way they went about "fixing" them that was the problem. It looks like a the original stud holes in the case were drilled out by a blind man using a potato. These have been overdrilled in a few cases where it has cracked the case. They then proceeded to half insert some helicoils. From there it looks like they went down to the local hardware store to find new case bolts. Obviously, because the holes in the case weren't square, they couldn't get the head bolts to line up and screw in. No problems, they just re drilled oblong holes in the heads, and cylinders to line up.
Now I know what you are thinking. The whole engine is basically a throw away. Well in many cases it would be, but it doesn't have to be. What if the engine was matching numbers to a rare car (or to be honest matching numbers to any aircooled 911 these days). Well thankfully that is what Performance Developments do. So although my engine is not matching numbers, they are willing to look after me to save me the money of buying something else unkown, and they can demonstrate what level can actually be repaired and to a standard that will last.
So that is where we are at for now. The mind still boggles at how stupid some people can be.
OMG! Was that rebuilt in the past in someone's homeless shelter? That person deserves to be stripped of all rights to ever hold a wrench again. Good luck with the corrections.
A bit of an update on what is happening with my butchered engine parts. Neil at Performance Developments has been working away repairing the heads at the moment. They repaired the worst head first. "..The insert is threaded into the head, so it cannot move sideways when the head gets hot. It couldn’t move up or down as the cylinder would stop it on one side and the head washer the other.."
So it is looking a lot better than it did before. https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...7e&oe=59807A6C https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...07&oe=598DFB9C
I have just gotten back from a week in LA and we have finished most of the repair work on the engine.
The biggest issue is that the hole they drilled was so far from where it was supposed to be. But now we have repaired this one (the worst one) the rest will be a doddle.
I have just arrived back home after a very packed, amazing week in Los Angeles. I spent the bulk of the time at Performance Developments, where Neil, in the spirit of my build, got me on the tools so I could do a lot of my own machining.
His knowledge is amazing, after spending 12+ years working in the Brabham Formula 1 team building engines, leading to 2 world Championships. Then moving on to Andial (the predecessor to Porsche Motorsport in the US), and TRD.
I have learned so much, in one week, and have gained a much better understanding of what good engine machining and building entails.
Here is my video of the week. It is a bit longer than usual, but I just had so much to cover.
Great video, Jeff. Love all the inside tricks us mortals are not supposed to know about.
I felt the same way. I always thought you just send the engine of and they do the mysterious, magical machining and send it back. It was good to see a bit behind the curtain, but also to pass on and show what some of these processes are.
03-29-2017, 03:16 AM
Home Built engine build. Saving the unsaveable.
