1986 951 Reconstruction Thread
 

All -

Current 928 owner and now working on a 1986 951 and have a question. A couple of pics are below to whet everyone’s appetite.

I promise more detailed photos soon.

Short story - a friend picked this up in a group buy and decided to thin the projects out. I decided to get it from him to rework with my son.

He has a lift, so we dropped the engine to clean it good and do a refresh which I am working on.

There is much cleaning to do on engine as well as refresh.
-head gasket
-all front end seals, belts, rollers
-water pump, thermostat etc
-vac and fuel lines
- hoses
-speed and position sensors
-etc etc etc

Initial plans are to replace rear main seal as well as all front stuff. Flywheel will have to be removed and resurfaced. I have the clutch off, but flywheel is still attached. Crank pulley is still attached on front.

My question is: I feel like I need to tackle each end of the engine separately - either take care of flywheel first and reattach before pulling front end stuff or vice versa. Engine will be on stand but have not mounted it yet pending forum advice. My thought is that I need to have some way to keep everything locked down when I go to take the front belts off and the flywheel would be that mechanism.

thanks all -

-scott
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...9a1f99935.jpeg
Engine out
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...b38015be1.jpeg
My 11 year old getting dirty
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...0fc176df1.jpeg
Outside shot

Yes, flywheel lock to get belts and such off front is the correct idea. While you have it on stand, would probably be a good idea to check/replace oil pump drive if you are doing a full reseal. Along with balance shaft housings - anywhere that might leak, now is the time to address it.

Don't forget to do the rod bearings now as well. It'll be so easy with the engine sitting out in the open.
What's going on with that wire harness???

Thanks all! Tempest I have not even gotten into the harness yet. I imagine there will be some rewiring to do. On the inside, this car had a bad leak at the battery tray and the interior mildewed. PPO took most of it out, but I still have some pieces. When the dash and door panels, etc. were removed, all of the switches were just cut off the harness, so I have to put all of those back together one at a time. There may be similar issues on the engine harness, but so far all of the connectors on the engine harness are intact.

As was the case with my 928, the engine harness is fairly brittle in spots, so it will probably be beneficial to rebuild at least some of it. This will be a long term project, but for what I paid, it should be fine.

You can actually do the front of engine work without a lock, you just have to be sure not to rotate the engine when the timing belt is off. The lock is most helpful for loosening the crank bolt, so might do that before you remove the flywheel. Check out my thread on my engine out reseal if you want:
https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...ut-reseal.html

With the engine out, no lock is needed for disassembly if you have impact tools.

How easy do the cam and crank turn if you bump them by accident? Or does it take some degree of effort to turn them with no belt.

we have a lot of cleaning to do and I don’t want to screw up and inadvertently hit something...

-scott

968 to 986: subscribed!

Not certain about how easy it is to turn with inadvertent bump, wouldn't think it would be a big deal. However, that being said, I always tend to be on the safe side so that I don't cause additional issues for myself later on.

I don't spend too much time cleaning an assembled engine when I know it will be disassembled to the short block.

Yep! looks familiar all right...bumping the engine is kinda hard to do usually. It takes some effort, esp if it's been sitting a while. I presume that the 928 engine, which is similar, has had you looking in all the right areas. Use blocks and an engine hoist to get it onto the stand. If you mount the flywheel too close to the support fingers, it can be tough to get it out..Use long bolts and give yourself a couple of inches (at least) of space between the flywheel and the stand. So stand it off and do yourself a favor. Just sayin..

Thanks all for the responses and advice. I am sure there will be many more.

Weekend progress
 

Just updating this thread with some disassembly progress over the weekend. I am going to try to do this thread better than I did with my 928...

So this weekend here is what we accomplished...
1) Motor at TDC
2) Flywheel off
3) Rear end cleaned a bit before mounting
4) Mounted on stand
5) Oil Cooler removed
6) Plumbing under intake removed
7) Wiring harness removed

Some pics:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...7b140649b.jpeg
Tail end was pretty grimy...flywheel cheeseheads came off easily.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...d282d5b81.jpeg
Cleaning made a big difference. Still work to do but felt better about mounting it.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...c5da5ff65.jpeg
All mounted up.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...6d7f024ef.jpeg
Example of the many pics taken to remember how to put it all back.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...d32891a13.jpeg
Progress on disassembly
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...a27269055.jpeg
Another angle

Weekend update
 

More disassembly work done over the weekend:

1) Rest of engine harness removed.
2) Crossover pipe removed
3) Turbo removed
4) More cleaning done

Cleaning will be the longest process I believe. My plan is to use either a) parts washer or b) glass bead media to clean things that I can remove. My thought now is anything that is metal and superficial to the engine (brackets, drive pulleys, bolts, etc. will be blasted. Anything that has any chance of one little bit of grit getting sucked in through air, oil or water intake would be cleaned in the parts washer or on the stand. Using a lot of Simple Green right now as that seems to work best.

Many of the bolts that are coming out of the block (depending on location) I believe will have to be replaced. I'm not sure they would ever come clean again...although some may depending on where they were located.

A few pics...
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...96d4a85de.jpeg
Look what I found when the heat shield and turbo came off - Woody told me the exhaust was full of acorns when he removed it.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...60bd7841f.jpeg
Luckily no acorns came out of the exhaust ports when I removed the manifold.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...88b728d98.jpeg
Cleaning a slow but sure process.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...b97263596.jpeg
Air oil separator coming off soon to work more on the driver's side.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...c03604060.jpeg

nice work.
Are you changing the headgasket?