ramius665

Finally finished repairing all the fire damage in my engine bay, now I'm starting the engine tear down. Intent is to replace every seal and bearing, as well as clean up everything.

My question is this:

Besides the factory manuals, is there a step-by-step procedure on rennlist to properly tear down the 951 engine? I want to do this right the first time, and the factory manuals don't cover those lessons that are only learned from doing it multiple times. I've found a few write-ups on the rebuild portion that are perfect, but nothing that covers the tear-down process.

JohnKoaWood

1) remove engine from car
2) remove everything attached to engine block

reassembly is the reverse...

Just kidding... did you ever manage to get the engine harness out?

ramius665

Turns out the engine bay harness is DESTROYED. Once I got it clear of the bumper, the fire had completely burned through the harness at one point, and had fused the wires together into a cooked mass at another. I needed to source some brakepad wear harnesses and my mechanic traded me the connectors that were still good for the harnesses. Sorry I didn't get back to you but I've been traveling a LOT for work this summer. I finally got a week off authorized so I'll be tearing into the engine. I just don't want to make any rookie mistakes on the teardown that will screw up the rebuild.

JohnKoaWood

Are you gonna have teh bores honed while it is all apart, or just a basic refresh?

Pulling pistons? I know Chris White had been talking about machining, new pistons,rings, rods and bearings as a package deal..not sure if he decided to do it though..might want to PM him to see...

Its all good, I'm still on the hunt for an engine bay harness to rebuild / make a harness build board from...

Chris White

clarks garge has the best step by step procedures - might not have one for completly striping an engine but it you review the other procedures it will all add up.

ramius665

I've got all of the Clark's info and the factory manuals as well. I'm looking for any of that "I wish I had known that before doing..." information that only comes from experience. This is my first engine rebuild and I want to make sure that I don't screw it up. I've been fairly meticulous taking pictures and cataloging everything as it comes off, but I'm sure there are at least a few tips out there that can help prevent catastrophe.

FRporscheman

Don't forget to put short pieces of hose on the rod bolts before you start pushing the piston/rod out of the bores. When you have the rods out, keep the old bearings in them until you're ready for new bearings, so they stay protected. It might be a good idea to loosen the crank bolt before you take off the bellhousing, so you will be able to use the flywheel lock. Get a box of zip-loc bags, or some other kind of storage system, so you can keep all the bolts labeled and organized. The oil pan comes off really easily, if you know the right angle to pull it off, so don't force it or you'll break a stupid plastic baffle! Those baffle bolts strip easily so use a good allen tool. Take a lot of pics of things like tubes and wires so you know what goes where and how they lay down. Because 2 weeks later (or 2 years later if you're like me) you won't remember. GL!

ramius665

Thanks for the advice!! So far I've separated every group of fasteners by which part(s) it was related to. I've soda-blasted all of the peripherals, now I'm moving to the engine proper. At this point I've taken off the rear timing cover and the cam tower, I read somewhere that the lifters need to be stored in oil? Next week everything is going in for a quick hot-tanking and then I'll be looking for someone in the local area to powder coat a bunch of parts. I REALLY want to get the engine back in the car before winter really gets going, I can worry about finishing it later. Now if I can only buy a house and move the car, I'll be 100% happy.

Chris White

The crank bolt advice is worth following!
The other advice that is not in the manuals is that inspection for odd wear patterns as you take it apart will tell you a lot about the condition of the engine.

And NEVER force anything.

ramius665

Is it money well spent to have the crankshaft inspected by a machine shop? The engine certainly doesn't qualify as high mileage (89k) but I'd like to cover all the bases up-front and not worry about using used parts later. Also, thanks for all of the advice, it is truly appreciated.

95ONE

please remember to not tighten the bolts on the oil pan full tight one at a time.. A little bit on each one. then a little bit more.. or , you'll do what I did.. Crack the oil pan from too much tension on one bolt. (Center) Gasket is really thick.

Oh, and don't try to "unscrew" the large nut on the front of the cam ! it just pulls off.

ramius665

Well, I already managed to strip the cheesehead bolt that keeps the cam gear in place. And that was after 2 1/2 tries to break it loose. So I cursed a bunch and now will be taking it to my regular mechanic to get it taken off. Other than that, things have been going smoothly. I'm just a little nervous about taking the entire engine apart. Still though, I'm more than a little excited about the prospect of having 2 running Porsches... =D

Chris White

Don't worry - drilling out the cam bolt is pretty much the standard disassembly method! Once you drill the head off the rest will come out with nothing more than finger pressure.

Pressure plate removal will use a similar method!

ramius665

Haha, already had to drill out 3 of the PP bolts. It seems that the last time the clutch was replaced the shop that performed the work stripped 3 bolts on the install. So what should have been a 5 minute job turned in to a 45 minute job, with lots of cussing... Thanks for the advice so far, Porsche recommends replacing that cheesehead bolt with an allen-head bolt, correct?

Chris White

I don't know if Porsche recommends it...but I do!