Fronkenstein

Ok so I am a glutton for punishment. Started to dismantle! 78 RoW this past weekend. And my 944 project continues to percolate. I hope you will be on deck for some questions as I enter a new frontier for me. These cars and the 944S I resurrected last fall are my entry into the world of Porsche. Here are a couple of pictures.

Fronkensteen

GlenL

What are you going to do with it?

Fronkenstein

It is going into the car pictured. The engine in the car has a dead #1 hole which was caused by injector lean out it appears. We will know more on Monday.

Igordiver

Another "must read" topic. Good luck with the rebuild.

Courtshark

Thread followed. And she will need a name... Good luck!

danglerb

Nice looking forklift, I always wanted one and nobody has been willing to let me play with one.

Curious looking motor, some really clean parts, but some of the rubber in the rear looks almost like fire damage. Any chance it has been pressure washed?

Whats the color on the car, looks very nice, but I can't tell if its solid or metallic.

Fronkenstein

Ok so this is the official thread for this project. I am closing my original thread about the motor I bought for this car which can be found at:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/774088-found-an-engine-on-the-shelf-for-10-years-3.html

Here is a recap:



YEAR: 1978

COLOR: Brown Metallic - repaint in original color

VIN: 928 810 2307 (yes I joined 928 OC and the 928 registry

CONDITION: I'd rate it a 5 (50) on the Hemmings scale. I've done enough restorations to know including a bike that stands proud in the Harley Museum in Milwaukee seen here:



OWNERS: 3 families including mine; Originally purchased by a NH/VT attorney; Second family a pair of brothers - mechanics/pilots; And me pure motor head although my day job is dealing with managers who manage other peoples money:-)

ENGINE(S) info:

Original: 1978 M28/01 serial 818 1899 with 93K miles that had a lean out condition do to a bad injector in cylinder #1. This in turn burned the piston and took out the compression ring. The compression ring pieces are now a permanent part of the top of #1 piston as well as pieces making their way into #5 and #8 holes and damaging those pistons and bores. It's a real shame since dismantling shows a lot of money had been invested recently including; new clutch, pressure plate and flywheel; new water pump; new t-belt; new tensioner and roller; new oil pressure sensor; new exhaust gaskets; new cold-start; etc. As I said the car ran amazingly strong with a dead hole and two damaged holes.

Donor: 1978 M28/01 serial 818 1165 allegedly 45K miles with broken LH cam and 2 bent valves otherwise no signs of damage or other issues. No sludge inside the crankcase or anywhere else. Extremely clean hardware externally and all cadmium plating in excellent shape leads me to believe the mileage is within reasonable recycle yard statement. I've spent the last 20 years doing archaeological digs for Harley and Indian motor/motocycle hardware;-)

The Story:

Having owned over 150+ cars and motorcycles I had always wanted a Porsche. More specifically I fell in love with the 928 when I first saw it in early 1980's. So after growing bored with my latest affair with Volvo turbos (except my 1996 850R) I decided to buy a Porsche. Actually not "a Porsched" but 3 in almost immediate succession. First I bought a 1987 944 NA from the original owner. Then a 1987 944S with two broken engines that became one strong runner. And finally I grabbed up this little brownie, my 928.

The Plan:

My plan is not to restore her. She's had a repaint so I don't see the point in finding out what crimes have been committed against her body. The under body is exceptionally clean and solid. We're going to build one good engine out of two and make her run solid without any mods outside of a PK tensioner and maybe rotor/caliper upgrade. All mechanical and electrical gremlins will be fought to the death. After that I intend to drive the heck out of her.

Chronicling:

I will do my best but doing most of the work yourself leaves little time for pictures and video. But I will post as much as I can I will certainly be asking for help.

About Me:

I've had a wrench in my hand since I was 3. My dad was a first rate automotive and industrial blue collar mechanic who moved onto building the first commercially and publicly used nuclear power plant in New England and then promptly died at 46 of a heart attack when I was 7.

As I said I've owned too many cars and bikes and everything in between. Mechanical things are an addiction for me. Actually when you spend most of your day behind a computer as I have for 30+ years you need something mechanical to escape with.

By trade I am a software geek but I prefer playing in the shop with machines and tools. My 15 minutes of fame is the HD shown above which was a complete ground up restoration of which I did all the work including paint and sourcing and researching EVERY part on the bike. And yes the radios are real and original. The only thing I did not do is the engine work.

Well that is enough blather. Thank you all for the warm welcome to "The List" and all the help thus far. After the brownie is back together watch for lemony snicket:


auf Wiedersehen,

Fronkensteen

Fronkenstein

You can buy a decent used one for $1000 and play all day No fire damage. Brown metallic.

AW,

Fronkensteen

Fronkenstein

Ok so I've been cleaning things up a bit and here are a few pictures of the damaged heads, cam towers and throttle/metering assemblies. During the cleaning process all of the paint on the meeting body washed off on the original motor. It appears that it was likely rebuilt recently. The metering assembly from the donor motor did not lose its paint in the same process. The stench of old varnish petrol was nearly unbearable. Everything has been light oiled for temporary storage until we get ready for reassembly.

I do have some questions for the group:

1) How available are parts for resealing and regasketing the injector metering assembly? I has seen kits for the metering body, but not for the rest of the unit.

2) Looking at the heads, does anyone think that the passenger head with the significant damage is salvageable? My guess is that it is not. I rather doubt that there is enough meat to clean it up. The damage is more of a deposit in #1 while cylinders #5 and #8 are definitely indentations. I can see that #1 would need new seats and possibly #5 and #8. I am amazed that the ring chips made it all around the spider over to the other cylinders!

3) The cams are the same lift and duration. The donor engine cams are definitely in great shape. How prone to age and wear degradation are 928 cams? Both engines seem to have been well cared for oil wise. A couple of the lifters in the original engine do show signs of "blue rings" or wear marks I have seen commonly in Chevy V8's. They are not terrible but are commensurate with the mileage from a Chevy perspective. And yes I know this isn't a Chevy:-)

4) Pragmatically speaking how much meat can come off these heads? I mean it doesn't look like much at all. And the more I look at them and test the metal I don't even like the idea of more than manual hone on a precision honing table.

5) Here is my most concerning issue. The donor engine had two bent exhaust valves. If the 928 is not an interference engine how did this happen? The car this engine came from was in an "at speed" accident. It was hit hard on the drivers side breaking the LH cam gear and t-belt in an instant. Any thoughts?

Other than that things are looking good. Someone poured a lot of money into this car and I am looking forward to having fun with her. I also purchased a spare transmission that we will be checking out as far as condition. This donor transmission supposedly has only 40,000 miles so I am hoping they were babied miles. The original transmission has the usual kick-out issue common with poor condition synchros.

I look forward to hearing from you all. Thanks!

A W

Fronkensteen

Fronkenstein

Coming up on the weekend and going to machine shop. Anyone care to chime in?

A W

Fronkensteen

Fronkenstein

Heads are back from R&L Engines.

Mongo

Woah. Are those really the same heads from the earlier pictures? Those cleaned up damn good!

How much was shaved off during the machining process?

crushingday

Wow those do look good. I am anxious to follow this thread. It sounds like you be great working on these cars.

Fronkenstein

Hey thanks for the compliment. When I get into something its hard not for me to go all-in:-) Yeah they cleaned up very nicely. Had to shave .0007 total after corner to corner warpage measurements - not too bad.

The shop I found up here in Dover NH is absolutely top-notch - R&L Engines. They are the last of a dying breed of machine shops. While most have sold out to general purpose industrial balancing and machining, Leo does nothing but engines. And they do some impressive stuff for all marques including resizing 944 big-ends for better performing bearings and so forth.

More to come later today:-)

Fronkensteen

Guy

Those gaskets are still available from Porsche including the four rubber buffer mounts for the assembly. Roger sells them as well

Welcome aboard! Great looking car and great project!