Amber Gramps

St. Lucia is way down in the southern end of the Carribian. It does have 2 airports but the planes are 50 little 50 pasenger jumpers. I plan on being face down in salt water for 9 of the days. I am going to try my hand at getting a Hobie cat 16 up on one hull in the Atlantic again. I have 3 here, but haven't been out in 2 years.

Edit: interesting side note...for some reason the guy that looked at my car this morning poped the trunk and found my tool kit tucked way up infront of the spare tire. I looked everywhere and never found it. I still have the Porsche rubber gloves in the Porshce polybag on my spare.

and the driveway....I don't know how old that image is but the car left there in december '06 almost 19 years to the day it first arrived there. Scarry. what's with the fresh dirt spot in the back yard? Prof. Thomas, do you have something to tell?

Ed Hughes

12 pack= 2 per cylinder, one on each side of the "donut" insulator. You may have to, better yet-should-replace those too.

FWIW, we're renting a villa on the Amalfi Coast in Italy this October....that is going to be a really expensive week. This will probably match the rebuild's cost...

Ed Hughes

Oh, and on the St. Lucia thing....we've been kicking around Ladera Resort for a couple of years. It looks like it may be near the place you show in the pic. www.ladera.com

Amber Gramps

Ed, wife is on the desk top computer right now looking at Ladera. wow, $340-$840 per night. It doesn't show much. OK, much more than total lush tropical get away.

Ed, here is a question I'm also gonna pose to Pete, Steve W., and A fiew others. Lets say that the valve guides are bad. Can my son and I drop the engine ourselves, tear down, rebuild, and reassemble my car without destroying everything?

(I think I can just for the fact that I had 2 years of drag racing autoshop (ROP) in high school where I was teacher's pet. I had a '64 Cuda and the shop teacher had a hemi Dart That I got to tear down every week between runs to Riverside International Speedway.) (that was 20 years ago, but I have only collected more tools since then.)

I have several options:

1. give the car to a local wrench and write huge checks.
2. put the car on a truck and send it to Steve W.
3. drop the engine and send it still intact to steve W. on a pallet.
4. tear it down and send the heads to steve W. via UPS.
5. Motor Meister. It was a joke people.

It's the cam tiiming that scares me on re-assembly.

What are your thoughts.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Brother Doug,

If you determine its time to drop the motor and do a valve job to replace guides and freshen the top end, based on what you wote about your mechanical experience, I think you can do this with some support.

If you have the Bentley book, some tools to remove the camshaft hardware, and some local experienced assistance to reset cam timing on reinstallation, I'd vote option #4 if you have all of the above.

Ed Hughes

What Steve said....do the work yourself, and send him the heads.

Trust me, I went thru the same thought process a year or so ago. All I could envision was the whole cam timing deal, and in my case, the case assembly. The case doesn't leak, although I do have one betwixt the cam tower and the #2 head, and the cam timing wasn't anywhere near as tough as I envisioned it to be. Pretty straight forward.

You can do it. There is so much support here on the net, and there are good books to go with it.

Amber Gramps

Ed, my wife called St. Lucia to confirm the reservations and the place I originally posted was booked one of the days we wanted it. So in a very strange twist of events they are booking us in the private home of the builder of the Ladera Resort that you posted about. Very small world. It looks like an even better place. We booked a jeep too. 4x4 required for the driveway. cool.

intake leak update: The very first 8mm bolt I touched on #4 I was able to back out by hand. hello!!!

Amber Gramps

A fiew PM's with Steve W. and I almost hope I qualify for a top end redo. He is giving me the silent treatment about going to 3.3 or beond. I guess that is next year's tax return.

I torqued every intake nut I could get to. about 10 of them and it didn't change a thing. Where I really notice a differance in Idle is when I spray brake cleaner on the throtle body directly. Any thoughts on that one?

I need to find out how far off the ground I gotta get the car and find a motor lift for the job. I have a very small working area, but I think I can make due. Thanks guys.

First things first would be to find my way to Pelican on Monday for an intake manifold gasket set and some of the rubber tubes around the throtle body and even the one that connects the two halves. I need a new .004 shim stock too.

Edward

Douglas,

Regarding your "Porshce" money going to a wife-planned vacation? ...fugghetabout it. You're better off keeping the wife happy. MUCH better for both of you in the long run.

Edward

Ed Hughes

Doug, depends on whether you remove the bumper. 38-39" is what I recall the clearance under my rear valance was to pull out the motor.

My recommendation for a car like yours? Fix what needs fixing, and keep it stock.

The secret to a simple pull is to raise the entire car off the ground a good bit. Get the motor and trans mounts undone while it's level, about 26-29" uinder the rear t-bars, IIRC. Then, when the motor is supported by a jack, slooowwwlllly lower the front end while slooowwwllyyy lowering the jack/pulling it back, then when the front end is on the ground, the *** is way up in the air, the motor is ultimately lowered on the jack, and you pull it out from under. That's the condensed version, the details of unhooking, etc are found numerous places. But, the mechanics of pulling the engine are pretty simple with this procedure when working without a lift.

Amber Gramps

Ed, I was just re-reading your rebuild saga thread. I have a fiew propositions for you. Expect a PM sometime. Stock it is. I was glad to see your stock pistons got new rings. That is another question for steve. Can I put new rings on without any rework of the cylinders? Is that another box of goodies to send the Steve or is that another can of worms best left untouched? So many questions.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Re-ringing used cylinders runs a degree of risk that they will not seat and you'll wind up with an oil burner. Thats why I always do a leakdown before I do a top end,......... We have an engine dyno here and assures proper ring seating but thats not an option for a DIY'er.

If your leakdowns are in the 3-8% range with nothing coming from the oil tank, leave it alone.

If you do decide to re-ring, be sure and scrub the glaze out of the cylinders and carefully measure the ring gaps and top ring lands.

Amber Gramps

Steve, should I go public with that last PM? I'm rollin'. It's true.
OK three reasons have been given for my getting this $20,000 911.

1. I turned 40
2. I survived my 4th pacemaker implant
3. I got fixed.

Remember Steve, I just want to be a normal guy.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

LOL,..It WAS funny,...

Those are all valid reasons for having that car so forward & onward.

I don't know much about being "normal" as I'm pretty sure I don't fit that category.

Amber Gramps

Sorry I cropped the crap out of it but this is intake port #1. The rest looked great with only a little carbon on the back of the valve. Is it terminal? Is it normal? I would think this is evidance of leakage for it to only be on one port. Or to be sooooo much worse on this one. Even the gasket looked wet. We may be on the right trail anyway. #4 was partly open and I could see down into the chamber. way cool stuff.

EDIT: upon further inspection intake port #3 looks spotless. not a drop of that black tar looking stuff except for a small amount ddirectly on the spacer between the gaskets. Inside #4 I can see thru to the spark plug and it looks brand new. The face of the exhaust valve looks lite grey and smooth. The valve guide looks like a dull copper and is spotless. I cant tell the differance between the used and unused section of the valve stem. anyway, what else should I look for?

I even found my tool kit...

Edit again: should I replace the insulators or isolaters or dougnuts?(what ever they are called) they are only $8.00 each at Pelican....