TurrFinn

Afternoon to all, over the past few days I've been working towards doing a full at home rebuild of my engine. The reason I am rebuilding is due to an abnormal amount of metal in the oil. I've spoken with Lindsey Racing and we have talked about a few things when rebuilding like switching to a late crank, but let me just get into the story of my findings.

I bought this car December 2022 off a guy I still have contact with. I also still have contact with the guy who owned it before the guy I got it from, he purchased it with around 90k miles (current mileage is 127k). When he got the car I don't know. He bought the car off a guy that bought the car on March 10th 2009, this was in Omaha NE. The past 3 owners were in NE. This is all the sale history I know. I've found timing belts in the car from 2005. Ac compressor was made in 2009. These are just small important details.

So jumping now to the engine. I pulled the engine out of the car last Tuesday. Its covered in oil and everything like that. The past 2 days I've been tearing it down to a bare block. In the process of tearing it down I found that the car at some point has had some piston to valve. Intake #3 & #4 made slight indentations on the piston. I also found the headgasket was a turbo gasket. I'm pretty sure that's typical upgrade? The oldest owner I'm intact with said he did a headgasket and water pump when he owned it. So once I got the head off everything looked normal. I decided I was going to check the #2 rod bearing since Lindsey told me based off the metal in the oil I showed him, the bearing was failing. We'll I take off the rod and check the bearing and they loon practically brand new. Then I notice the crank doesn't have a through hole for oiling. I learned from Lindsey, early cranks have a through hole oil passage, late cranks have 1 hole. So at this point I check the bearings for any markings and I find they are standard sized. I also found the date marking of 10-89. So to cut the story short these are the youngest bearings in the engine. So from this I understand the engine had been rebuilt in late 89 early 90. I also check the engine block stamp and found M44/02 which is the correct code and year for the car. It's an NA block meant for North America. I found that my main bearing were worn badly. I will post pics. I also found what I thought started all my problems. The lower balence shaft has always been sticky ever since I got the car. So I removed the belt in November when I put the car on the standalone. When I took the lower cover off I found a chunk of metal chilling on the shaft under the bearing. The bearings were not good. The shaft had some serious heat damage. After the block was stripped completely I decided to wipe it down of all the oil and grime. I wiped the engine off then started wiping the stickers off on the block and found a sticker on the engine that said "Echange Austusch" surrounding a Porsche crest. It also said "Remanufactured in Canada" "Engine No. 00453". I will leave the picture below.

I really want to hear if any of you guys have seen this before or if you have any information on this or if one of you know where I can find information on this. Also wondering if there is anyway I can find what dealership this car was sold by. Maybe service records or warranty records? I think some of you will find this story semi interesting.

Thanks,
TurrFinn

TurrFinn

Engine pictures:



Thats not a reflection of a phone thats the actual wear mark

walfreyydo

How do the crank journals look? If the crank bearings were bad, chances are so are the journals. Sometimes they can be repaired and run oversize bearings. Same with the balance shaft journals, could potentially be repaired, but not sure if they make oversize bearings for them.

TurrFinn

The crankshaft looks practically brand new, if you run your nail across them you can't even feel a lip. On the balance shaft side of things I plan to delete them. I'm going to go talk to one of the Lindsey's today and buy my rebuild kit along with a few other things.

I realize that this pic didn't upload well. I will take some more photos

walfreyydo

Sounds good, just note that balance shaft delete can cause issues down the road, primarily with cracking the oil pickup tube and added stress/wear to engine mounts.

TurrFinn

I spoke with lindsey and asked him and he said he's seen several pick up tube's crack and even break. I have also driven the car about 3k miles without my balance shafts connected and there's no sign of damage to the pick up tube. I hopefully won't daily my car much longer.

Tiger03447

Many people have done the balance shaft delete, mostly the racing guys. I don’t know where the failure point on the pickup tube might be, but perhaps a reinforcing band could be installed on the tube at that point. The tube is pretty thin. Perhaps a heavier gauge tube could be installed. Did Porsche change the design of the tube or the pickup assembly in later cars?

Jfrahm

I looked into reinforcing the pickup tube when I was doing rod bearings but decided not to. However it looked like it'd be easy to bend some sheet metal or adapt a piece of stock into a support.
https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...xperiment.html

Unlike in the linked thread I was thinking of conforming or wrapping the end of the stock to the pickup tube and using a hose clamp (or an oetiker clamp) on it. Using relatively thin stock. In some of those pics I'd be concerned they are actually putting pressure on the part that breaks when everything is installed, you would want to avoid that IMO with some washers as shims if need be. Using a clamp you could clamp it after the base is all tight and it's positioned such that it's not bending the tube.




Extend the brace to cradle the tube, notch it to retain the clamp as pictured. Avoid that situation at the flange that looks like it's going to cause stress on the tube. Maybe use an oval hole for the fastener so the support can be positioned easily.
You could also turn the support so the tube end can be wrapped around the tube like a maypole and then clamped, using stock that's 1/2 as thick as pictured. You do not need much, a piece of TIG welding rod would probably be enough support.

I thought about all that and then decided I was able to install my lower BS sprocket correctly, time the balance shafts correctly, tension, etc. and I should be OK. I grant you this is actually pretty hard and I would not expect a shop to do it right.

TurrFinn

Just to respond about where they break, I think lindsey said it was normally around the rivit on the pickup. That little bracket that holds the oil fill tube and the oil sump together will crack and break then they aren't supported. If you wanted to reinforce the pickup, you would want to do it where the oil fill and pickup connect.

Edit: I dont think they changed the pickup tube through out the years? I feel like lindsey would have mentioned that when i spoke to him.

Nowanker

After finding the pickup cracked below the flange brazing during my first rebuild, I reinforced it exactly like that. After finishing one season, the replacement had a spiral fracture in the middle of the tube, between the braze and the reinforcement.
Neither time was there an issue with indicated oil pressure, except at idle. Once it's up to speed, that pump will move foamy air just fine!
Fuel rails will break also...
I believe the real issue is a lack of crankshaft damper on the front of the motor.