Eharrison

Best answer so far.

AGW911

Well....that's embarrassing. I'll chalk it up as lack of sleep.

Ed Hughes

I did spend a couple of hours removing rockers and cams, and stripping the heads from the cam towers today. This is probably the "least fun" part of engine teardown, and now it's done. I did see on #2, where I think I had my leak between the cam tower and the head.

Tomorrow, I plan to put the pistons in the cylinders and mount them on the case, after removing the old, of course.

I'm going to take the heads to a local machine shop on Monday to have a chamfer put into the ID of the squish ring (sealing surface) of the heads to clear the larger pistons. The Mahles do have a slight shoulder that should clear the head OK, but I'll sleep better knowing I've put some relief on the heads to ensure a bit of clearance. I'm also going to have the shop clean the heads and towers to make them all pretty for me.

Ed Hughes

Well, I lied. As I was laying awake at 3am, it dawned on me that I can't install the p's and c's until I check deck height-which I can't do until I clean my heads and put the chamfer in. I've got .25 and .5 mm cylinder base gaskets to play with to see which will work. I may even need to go bigger, who knows?

So, I used 8 1/2 cans of brake cleaner cleaning my chain boxes and covers, valve covers, motor mount bits and sheet metal, as well as a rough cleaning on my heads and cam towers. $30+ used up in aerosol and paper towels.

Mario came by and we had a few beers and surveyed the car for a while. All in all, not a bad day.

Eharrison

Awesome! I spent the day changing the rotors and pads on the Audi. I'm just glad I didn't screw up and be down 2 out of three cars!

That brake cleaner is so good on stuff it's evil.

cbad-box

Ed thanks for the cold one and the engine tour! It was educational

Mario

Ed Hughes

Well, even though I didn't land in San Diego until 10:00pm last night, and I'm dragging today, I did press onward.

I first took the trans over to a car wash (they actually had a bay for engine cleaning) and gave it a good bath. It's been 5 years since it was out, but it washed up pretty quickly. Not show quality, but clean enough to go back in and go back to work.

I then stripped the old P's and C's off and cleaned the spigots, so it is ready for reassembly. I will get my heads back this week-I'd taken them in to have a chamfer machined around the squish ring to give me a little extra clearance for the dome of the high compression pistons. The valves will get re-seated/sealed as they will pull them for clearance while cutting the chamfer. I can't argue with that logic. They will come back clean, as will the cam towers.

I did have a fair amount of carbon on the head and pistons. Much more than when they came out at 130K. I've got several theories on this:

1. I've been running a healthy mix of race fuel for the last couple of years, with no thought on detergents.
2. I've been remiss on running Techron through her a couple of times a year.
3. I've only done 4 track events in the last couple of years opposed to 5 or so per year in Texas. I also ran Techron at a couple of those events in Texas, so it also ran through the system at high rpm's.
4. I had another chip in for a few months that ran very rich, according to the smell. I even had some comments from guys following me up Palomar on a couple of runs saying she smelled very rich. No perceptible black smoke, however.

When she goes back in, she'll have a new chip and will be able to run 91 octane with the twin plugs, and I'm going to use Chevron. I'm going back to fuel additives twice a year prior to oil changes.

A few pics, back at it next weekend:

ricster

Which chip will you be using?

Ed Hughes

Another one from Wong, but starting fresh.

PDACPA

I want your garage! Great thread. Makes me feel lazy.

irobertson

I like the rubber band trick.
I will have to remember that one when I get around to doing my own engine someday.

Eharrison

Good stuff, I regret coming over a few weeks ago to watch you drop your car.....it's costing me money now. The new creeper and today the ratchet wrench set. Damn you Ed.

On a lighter note I did retrofit the IMS bearing on my engine today too!

Ed Hughes

When will you get her back on the road, Ed?

Eharrison

I was on track to get all the other parts and tires in the next month or so but not my boy's orthodonist has changed my plans. The key is tires, I'm not sure when I'm goin to need to up the cash for those......

whalebird

Ed, it looks like it's coming along nicely. I've been thinking about you-I just fired up the 924S after all weekend reassembling/installing the engine. I kept asking myself "how many other goofy dudes are killing a weekend assembling a Porsche motor?" Oh......Ed.
It runs perfectly and holds all it's fluids so I think you're going to be happy if your half as succesful as I feel I've been thus far. I still have the suspension to reassemble with all kinds of race bushings so I will be on the road for an "under-load" test to know how much good I've done.

+1 on the rubber bands.

I found some suspicious deposits in the combustion chambers and especially the exhaust valves and wondered if the advent of ethenol could cause build up. I try to run "good" fuel but I don't trust the pumps, I mean who really knows what the gas station owners put in their tanks. Techron is as good as you can get over the counter, I feel, but if you think about it, look for a BG(thats the name-BG) product called 44K. 44K is the best system cleaner I have used and really does work. BG is found at dealerships and select indy shops so ask around. 44K really worls.