alexands

Thought I'd waste some bandwidth and tell the story of my #2 bearing saga. Figured someone with nothing better to do might find it useful (or a complete waste of time )

My neighbor is a PCA club racer (911) and he gave me the bug. Since I used to own an 89 Turbo S I figured I knew most about the 951 and thought it'd be a good place to start my racing "career". Found an 86 that needed some TLC. I put a ton of work and parts into (exhaust, clutch, control arms, Koni's, brakes, forgeline wheels, sway bars) and took it out to my first DE.

Little did I know about the #2 bearing "issue" these cars have. My oil got a little low and I fried the bearing. Here's a photo history:


Here's the number 2 piston---OUCH!!


Cylinder wall


Crankshaft. That's the remainder of the bearing fused to the journal


I found an 86 944 n/a longblock on Ebay and purchased that. I used the block and crank from it and then found some PCA buddies with some extra Pistons and rods that I bought. Took the engine to Automotive Machine in Fort Worth, TX and had them work their magic. Decked, honed, valve job, balanced, remove headstuds, cross-drilled and polished crank.. They suggested porting the oil pump. They do a lot of work for many of the Porsche shops int he DFW area, so it sounded like he knoew what he was talking about. Here's what he did.


Also sent the oilpan to Lindsey for a baffle mod


Got everything back and layed it out in the garage. THought it's make a cool pic. Christmas in August!


My car was originally gold. While I had everything out I decided to paint the engine bay


Finally got everything put back togeher. Added some Raceware headstud, wide fire head gasket, new waterpump, and, of course, all new bearing, gaskets, seals, etc. I also got some heat wrap from Jegs and wrapped the exhaust and turbo.


I had a lot of heat wrap left over and I saw an article in European Car magazine about a 951 project and they made some heatshields for the turbo and intake. Thought I'd give it a shot:


Don't know of these heatshields will have any effect, but figured they wouldn't hurt. I also got rid of the venturi valve and that steel vacuum rats nest. Wrapped those hoses for good measure


Got me some Momo seats and an Autopower roll bar. What the heck. Hopefully the wife won't notice those


Here's a Kokeln control arm


Here's the final engine in the car. New vaccum hoses on everything. New temp and knock sensors, new diverter and cycling valve (mounted that so it was no longer under the manifold. Just in case I want to get rid of in the future)


AND...FINALLY...The car in it's roadgoing form



It's been a learning experience and a financial moneypit. BUT, now i've learned to ALWAYS check your oil level before hitting the track.

Enjoy,
Scott

AlexE

You have to love a happy ending.

I have a set of the same wheels.

hosrom_951

Very Useful nothing here get's wasted, thanks for the time to upload the pics and it's very informative as well

But LOVE the shot of everything on the garage floor

Peckster

Looks good, how's it running now?

Do you think the piston seizure might have caused the rod bearing to go? Which happened first?

painkiller

Car and motor look great, very nice work. I'm finishing mechanical resto on another rare 86 red/black (fortunately with cylinders in place) and seeing pics like these can help to see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially with the crappy weather coming with no heat in the garage. BTW, what did you do to the cam tower and dist gear cover? Powder? Looks great with the alu letters.

Duke

Good job, and nice wheels! Who made them?

Adam H

Awesome job.

DHC8FO

I'm interested if you've noticed any differences with all of the heat wrap.

David Floyd

Matt H

Hey, was this car poorly painted red over gold? Did it belong to a younger guy when you bought it? I think I might have worked on that car in my driveway once or twice. Never hit me until you said the car was orginally gold.
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hosrom_951

Notice the pic with both oil pumps, the oil pump from your damaged engine has some kind of 'bent' on the bottom left......would that have something to do with the rod bearing failure?

Mike S

I did the same thing to the underside of my intake manifold with regards to the heat wrap. I noticed a big difference. I had previously removed one of the turbo heat shields because my new TO4E wouldn't fit well with it in place. I wrapped the turbo and a sheet on the under side of the manifold and I can now put my hand on the intake after fast runs in the car. Previously the intake was scorching hot after driving.

alexands

Thanks for all of the encouraging feedback. I'll try to answer the questions in order:

1. Seems to be running really good. I haven't had it above 3000 RPM, but it starts right up and runs very smooth. A few exhaust leaks but that's to be expected. The piston was damaged by the debris from the bearing (at least I hope ;-)). So, I don't think that had anything to do with the bearing going bad

2. The cam tower and dist cover was done with a $5 can of VHT heat paint and a belt sander for the letters.

3. The wheels are Forgeline. Don't see much of them on the street, but for the track they are very good value (cheap and light)

4. I haven't noticed any difference with the heat wrap. Before I broke it I only put about 1500 miles on it. So I really don't "know" the car that well.

5. I bought the car in Dallas from a young Arab guy about a year ago. Judging from the condition it was in when I bought no one has worked on it in quite a while. The parts of the car that are painted red look OK (6 out of 10). Problem is they didn't paint the door sills or other "detail" areas. It's a cheap paint job.

6. Oil pump bend. Are you talking about the 7 o'clock position at the end of that runner? Actually, I never noticed that. Hmmmm...... The plot thickens :-). Actually, I think that's where we pried it off of the block.

I drove it out to a DE today and saw tons of Porsches on the track. I could hear the car almost crying "PUT ME ON THE TRACK!!!!". By next DE I should have it good and broken in and ready to go. I'm counting the days.

Scott

Matt H

Scott, it is the same car. I am surprised it didnt happen before. When I was looking at it he was having an overheating problem. Wont make you feel any better but I recommended he sell it Does the hatch still open? I spent about an hours fixing the lock mechanisms.
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Cyrus951

Looks like it went to the right guy!
Nice work!