964 Rebuild, let the fun begin...
 

I know this topic has been discussed before but I thought I would share my experience with everyone. I've been living with a leaky motor for about 2 years now. Long story short, last year my condo corp had enough and told me to fix the leak or pay for the monthly maintenance to clean up the excessive oil. I guess the Absorb-All was not enough to appease them. Decided to park the car at my parents until I could afford to have the leaks addressed. Well turns out I can't go one summer without the car, cause I still can't afford it, but won't go another summer without it so I told my wife I'm going to have it "looked at."

Told I may have a crack in the case, but could not find it, and that it may be cheaper to replace the motor than to rebuild it. Looking at $7-8k for the motor and another $1k to install. Problem is, who knows when the replacement motor will need a rebuild, then I'm back to square one. After discussing with my father-in-law and the mechanic at his shop, mostly Honda's and domestics, we decide that we will attempt the rebuild ourselves. Armed with this rennlist advice, pelican advice and various books we are going to attempt to rebuild it ourselves and the plan is to replace what I can while I'm in there.

This is my story and hopefully the outcome will be positive.....

Day One
 

Armed only with Wayne's book (doesn't have anything about engine removal), Adrian's still in the mail, and the Porsche workshop manuals, I got the car in the air and the rear bumper removed along with various wires and etc.

Day Two
 

While removing the undertrays, found out that my steering rack is also leaking so will need to rebuild that also, more to come when I address that issue.

After a careful inspection by my father-in-law and his head mechanic, found a few more things that we thought we should disconnect to be on the safe side. Somethings didn't need to be disconnected, but just to be safe we did. After the final inspection we laid a cart under the hoist under the motor, disconnected the two nuts from the rear mount and the two from the transmission bracket and slowly lifted the car. One thing that caused a problem while lifting the car, on the passenger side the half axle fell towards the rear of the car instead of forward and got stuck under the starter. After some careful shifting of the cart to the driver side, we manage to raise the car right out.

good quilty photos good luke with the rebuild would love to do this myself but dont have the room :thumbup:

Yes grat job, looks like your tinwear is rusty too! mine was rotten.....looking forward to the build!

Are you supposed to see the oil leaks in the first pics? Or have you already cleaned the leaky area? Because I hope you don't rebuiid the engine because of that little oil you see in the pic because that's nothing. Do you know where the leak is?

Thomas

I'm sayin'. You got in trouble; if you were driving MY car you'd undoubtedly be evicted! ;)

Great photos and please keep sharing as you proceed through this project.

Having access to the shop definitely helps.

Driver and rear a little rusty, the passenger side is near perfect, all the oil gave me free rust proofing....

Most of the oil was cleaned off, I was trying to find the supposed crack in my case but could not find it. From what I saw, it looked like leaking from the valve covers and timing chain area. I was getting about a 4-5" spot everyday, after a few days it was about a 2 foot puddle. Funny thing, when it was running, it didn't leak as much, only after it cooled down it seemed.

Day Three
 

A little bit of clean up today, the engine insulation was all dry and torn so I ripped it all out. What a mess that was, but at least I will be able to put a fresh piece in.

Day Three cont
 

So today I removed the intake manifold, it is a lot easier than it looks. All that wiring and piping was a little imtimidating at first, but a few bolts here and there and disconnecting part of the fuel system was easy. Undid the 12 clamps holding the manifold, followed most of the wiring and piping around the engine and disconnected what I thought would get in the way.

Looks like a lot of build up under the manifold. There seems to be oil everywhere. I am beginning to believe that these are old problems never properly addressed. I guess my PPI from Hans Foreign Car Service in Central Florida was useless.

Day Three cont
 

Also today I tackled the engine tins around the vehicle. The driver side and rear showed signs of rusting, but the passenger side and front (where clutch is) were if perfect condition. I guess one of the benefits of a oily car, free rust proofing.

Also found a lot of oil and slug in the power steering pump area.

Day Three cont
 

One of the benefits of having a father-in-law with a garage is the access to tools, hoists, knowledge etc, but the downside is his sense of urgency. Decided once I got the tins off, I would call it a day and clean up. BUT my father-in-law comes over and says there is enough time to take off the tranny. I wanted to take my time and document everything and see where every bolt I took off came from etc, but he starts wrenching everywhere and next thing you know it I got no pictures and a pile of bolts and screws that I am unsure where they came from.:banghead: Also, once we got the bolts off the tranny, he starts yanking to seperate from the engine but its stuck cuz the clutch fork. So out comes the pry bar to give it some leverage.:banghead::banghead: Thankfully his lead mechanic comes over and takes a look, sees the fork is stuck and pulls the pin to release it. So I also got the tranny off today. I'm worried whats going to happen when I got to Mexico next week. Am I going to come back to a pile of parts with no pictures of where everything goes.:crying:

Sorry, just my little rant.:soapbox: