Porsche-O-Phile

Well, Geoff (Porschephile 924) has been out here for spring break meeting up with the west coast contingent for the last week; he departed back for Colorado today. As part of his trip, he brought with him a very nice (but dirty) '86 long block which will be undergoing teardown, rebuild and conversion to the Callaway turbo engine. Obviously this is an expensive and lengthy project and I'm going to be waiting a long time for various parts since I'm NOT skimping in any way, shape or form on this, so the "good stuff" I'm getting is typically costly and will take longer to obtain. I'll post some pics of the rebuild as it moves along (slowly) for all to learn from and I'll certainly have some questions for others that have rebuilt the 944 powerplants before. Right now it's just in the "cleaning up" stage. I've got it on the stand (not as easy as it sounds) and need to get it clean as a whistle (using WD-40. . . works great!) and inventory / disassemble everything down to the bare block. Pics and a write-up are coming to my web page. Estimated completion date for the engine is roughly one year from now; completion date for the car (including paint, etc.) is roughly two years from now. Hopefully I'll have it at '07 944 Fest.

89magic98

Jeff,

Good luck with your project. Once the engine are disassembled, is there any advantage to sending it out for some kind of chemical cleaning, done by an outside business?

joseph mitro

my machine shop cleaned all my parts - crank, block, head, oil cooler, pistons, rods, etc for a very reasonable price. some parts of the head were so clean it almost looked new.

good luck with the rebuild. it will be interesting to follow. post pics!

josephsc

Good luck, man!

Porsche-O-Phile

Thanks guys, I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

I'm probably going to have the block hot-tanked and magnafluxed as well as the bores examined. They look awfully good and if I could avoid going oversized, that'd be a bonus since it would save me about $1,500 on new oversized forged pistons. I was planning on having to go up to 100.50 mm but if the bores are good enough to avoid it, so be it. If it does require oversizing, I'll have the shop do it as well as re-honing.

It's actually cleaning up pretty nicely with just WD-40 and effort, but I imagine the hot-tanking will do an even better job and I believe the cost for it is minimal - the magnafluxing and honing / boring would be the majority of the machining costs, as well as a little "custom" work that I'll need for the crankshaft.

Devia

Ah, so that's what you're doing with that block I was kicking on, lol. Glad you all got Kevin home safely. Nice seeing you all, and my boyfriend didn't kill me.

Did see a nice Gallardo to play tag with, on the way home the other night, it was awesome, silver/black, and sounded more like a screaming cat, not a growling cat, like a Murcielago!

Well, at least my boyfriend knows what I've been up to, when I've been hanging out with Rennlisters, and I've got a grin like that, "Julie, what did you see, and play tag with on the way home?"

- Julie

shmucklebuckle

Stupid Question of The Day:

Geoff drove out here in his 924S...How the hell does an extra block fit in it? Is a 4 cyl. block *that* small?? (Did he use a trailer or something?)

Porsche-O-Phile

Nope, he put it in the rear hatch area with his bags and drove like that. He said it was no problem. Engine weighed in the neighborhood of 350 pounds IIRC.

The blocks for these cars are extremely light - something like 65 or 70 pounds when fully stripped.

Mike C.

Yea a stripped block can eaily be carried around on your shoulder. It does seem strange. Jeff, I'm pretty sure magnaflux is for ferrous parts (i.e. cast iron) and will not work on aluminum. You might see if they have zyglo (a glow in the dark penetrant) which is used to look for cracks by dipping or spraying the part in the green stuff, washing it off in a specific way and then looking with a black light for cracks. It is widely used in the aerospace industry - but it's cheap enough that some shops may offer the service. Also, when you talk about homeing the cylinder bores, I assume this shop has the proper Sunnen hone machine with the Porsche tools and silicium paste. It's not like oning a cast iron block...

Dilberto

Jeff,

Best of luck, and dont rush it. More work and time is the result . Keep us poosted...

Porsche-O-Phile

You might be right on the magnafluxing. . . I'm not completely familiar with the process but I basically want to get it checked for microcracks and stressing. I'll look into that Zyglo you mentioned - good advice and good to know. I'll keep you all posted; I'm going to still be cleaning and tearing down for a good couple of more weeks with all the other stuff I have to do!

I'm calling around this week to see who has the right equipment - I read that part about the Sunnen honing equipment in the manuals and if it ain't what's recommended it ain't being used in my engine!

500

I'm in the middle of my own re-build (just stock specs though). I actually just dropped off stuff at my machinist today (an excellent and very Porsche savvy guy, great to talk with). The block is definitely no problem to move around. You are right, that magnafluxing won't work on aluminum. Many people have done these engines without doing any honing if the bores are smooth and within spec. It is amazing how hard wearing these bores are. The wear ridge was next to imperceptible on my 147K motor and the walls looked like smooth, grey glass.

Your project sounds very cool, I look forward to following its progress!

Legoland951

Machine shops sometimes can get the block cleaner than we ever will. If you are having machine work done, you may want to ask them. Let me know if I have something I can help with.