alexjc4

There is a pleasant sense of acheivement when the last screw comes out of those plates

Clutch slave looks very smart, I think we had a similar situation a while back when I was helping on Frank's car, the hard pipe end was solid, and as per your plan we bolted up the slave to the soft hose nice and tight and then mounted it to the gbox, the was not much pre load twist on the hose so it looked like it wasnt going to unscrew itself anytime soon.

alexjc4

I spose you could just split some 3/16 vacume hose and use that on the link pipes...

ZG862

Vacuum hose? What's that then? Where do I find it?


(Won't actually need to split it if I put it on before flaring the ends. Will it resist the heat?)

alexjc4

Comme ca http://www.jjcraceandrally.com/Produ...ilicone%20Hose

You'll find 3,4,5mm with varying wall thicknesses available.

Strictly not rated for top brake temps so it will get cooked and harden but it wont burst into flames or anything.

ZG862

Muchas gracias!

ZG862

I figured that one distributor would be fine to do the valves and then I could worry about doing the belt etc with the more complex job out of the way.

Now I'm sure I'd had the cam covers off before and I don't remember getting a Mobil 1 bath thrown in. Quick mental process went something like "Tank is below the level of the crankcase and I'm sure it wll drip a bit but nothing too serious. Muppet! Carefully took off the nuts securing the lower left cover and saw a bit of a drip forming - nothing unexpected. Gentle tap and off came the cover ... and an accompanying gentle but persistent waterfall of about 3 litres of Mobil's finest. Much scrabbling about searching for more containers and something to deal with the puddle forming under the car.

So, number of valves adjusted = 0, amount of time spend cleaning the garage about 2 hours.

Can I stress to anyone thinking of adjusting their valves that a good time to do it would be before you refill following an oil change. Don't forget that valve adjustment is supposed to be done with a cold engine so don't get any bright ideas about doing it whilst the oil drains.

The postman delivered more tube nuts this morning (having brought caliper decals yesterday), so I may make a start on the cross-feed pipes.

Z-the-oily.

ZG862

So, I started on the valve adjustment today. Looking at the manual, it seemed that sliding in the feeler gauge should be really simple. No so in my case. The inlet on No.1 sits in a pretty crowded space and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. In the end I gave up with this approach and after releasing the lock nut, I wound the adjusting screw back 2 turns until I could tip the rocker back and push the tool in. I then wound the screw back in against the feeler and found the position where I could still just move the feeler (i.e. not clamped by the adjuster) and locked it all back up again.

Can anyone advise me if this sounds OK? The position I get to is almost identical to the original (i.e. virtually no adjustment needed) so either they've held adjustment well, were a bit too tight before or I'm not using the gauge correctly.

Only had to catch a couple of eggcups worth of oil when I took the right hand covers off by the way, so the car must be pretty level. I also unplugged the engine from the fusebox to give myself a bit more clearance on the left hand side.

Number of valves adjusted = 8.

Went to see the chap who is sandblasting the calipers for me. He's not finished yet but showed me how they are coming on. His prime business is heat treatment and he'd popped them in his oven with another job to soften the original paint and ensure he didn't have to be too brutal with the blaster. I hope the seals in the rears can take the cooking; guess I'll find out when the time comes to bleed them. I need to follow up another quote for stove-enamelling them once done. 10cm of high temperature silicone tube arrived in the post (at exorbitant cost for what it is but ho hum) - 5mm inside diameter/10mm outside; looks a good match to the original.

Also managed to strip down the rear struts and start cleaning them up - I'll post some pictures up soon.

All in all I'm making slow but steady progress and starting to feel suitably penitent. Starting to really look forward to driving out of the garage under power - though there's a long list of jobs to do before that happens.

Thanks for looking in,

Z

ZG862

Quick before and after on the rear struts:


This is the extent of the pitting, and frankly I'm not that worried. If they fail, I'll be forced to replace with a set of Bilsteins ():


For the sake of completeness, here are the springs part way through stripping the 1st one:

Not sure I'll be able to remove all the little bits of surface rust but again if they're clean, I figure a coat of etch primer and some black should last until I need to upgrade. Anyone know what the blue splodges of paint indicate?


And, because I know how much we all like photos, here's the cross feed pipe development:


As you can see, I've yet to bend the pipes to shape - just pondering how I'll get them as accurate as Brembo do - the smallest pipe bender I have is 15mm so I'll probably just bend around a scrap of dowel. Calipers should be back from blasting this week and I hope to pop down to Type911 & pick up seals tomorrow too. I note that pretty much everybody suggests you replace the plates as a matter of course; whilst mine were filthy and encrusted with accumulated brake dust they polished up like new so I'm going with the old ones. I don't believe that the pads are manufactured so accurately that the few microns I've taken off the surface with the rotary wire brush will be material.

Anyone have a tip for preventing the tube nuts seizing against the pipe, by the way? I was just going to smear a little Coppaslip in there, same as the threads.

Cheers,

Z

stevepaa

Great writeup.

I would empty the gas tank and look at the gas for any bits of rust or varnish. Was it full when you put it into the garage? Check the fuel pump for any contaminants and buy a new fuel filter-maybe 2.


I don't live where rust is an issue, but maybe some RTV to seal out moisture between the nuts and pipe?

ZG862

Hi Steve.

The tank was near empty before hibernation. Reading up I understand that the fuel could easily have "gone bad" in the tank over 6 years but it smells OK at the air filter and was seemingly dry enough for the engine to fire up with only one distributor working. Good tip about replacing the fuel filter & checking the pump though.

The garage is reasonably dry - all the rust you see is attributable to a couple of harsh winters spent pounding the salted motorways with insufficient attention given to blasting the underside with fresh water as frequently as the poor car deserved. I'm amazed and delighted how well everything is cleaning up; the rear calipers were fine and I'm only really repaining them so that they match the fronts (which were less fine). Amazingly there are no signs of rust in the usual places; windscreen frame looks as good as new. My newly found OCD tendency wants me to take EVERY component out and refurbish it but I'm trying to keep focussed on getting the fundamentals done first and getting a "runner"; there's little point in having Big Reds etc on a car that lives on axle stands.

Thanks for stopping by though!

Z
PS/ RTV = Room Temperature Vulcanising? i.e. puncture repair stuff?

alexjc4

In this context rtv = silicone sealant.

I've tried a few things to ward of seized brake nuts including red brake grease, coppaslip, waxoil , nothing seems to work especially well. So I'be interested if anyone has any tips.

Dave R.

Great thread.

Adjusting valves - backing out the adjustment then inserting feeler gauge and tightening down to proper clearance is just fine and faster than trying to wedge the gauge in.

Struts - if those are Boge then you might consider just replacing them with Bilstein HDs. The Boges don't last much beyond 40-50k miles. And if you do the Bilsteins then consider also swapping in HR lowering springs (lowers US ride height on order of 1-2 cm or so, probably does less compared to European ride height, but well matched to the Bilstein HDs).

Looking forward to the next installment and eventual pictures of the complete car.

ZG862

Thanks Dave; kind words and very useful info. I have Bilsteins and HRs on my shopping list but they may have to wait for a bit. Based on your advice re the lifespan of the Boges, i'll spend less effort refurbing them and just slap some paint on to protect them briefly.

Didn't make too much progress this weekend but will write up in the next couple of days. Still only 8 valves done.

Z

Porsche964FP

Can't believe I missed your intro - what a great read with lots of flare.

Pictures are a must.

ZG862

Thanks for the kind words Frank. I'm working on the pictures, but having a few problems with the machine I usually use to connect the camera to. I'm loving your engine project by the way - really want to hear that thing rumble.


Down in the garage, progress is slow (hence the general lack of updates). I had a bit of a problem with the brake decals in that I read decals from the ebay ad to mean plural - and the seller meant singular. We got it all sorted in the end and the additional pair arrived yesterday. So, today, I thought I'd finish off assembling the calipers and get them back on the car.

Not to be.
The carpet monster's big brother has eaten a pair of 36mm pistons. I know they're around somewhere - carefully bagged for cleaning and replacement but I'm damned if I can find them.

I searched under the car and found some part finished disassembly - the left hand rear wiring connector and the heater bypass valve, so got distracted and thought they may aswell come out now. I thought myself lucky to get only a couple of grammes of road muck in my
eye as they did so. I can now do a "before" and "after" as compared with the right hand bits, which are now KTC (kitchen-table-clean - but don't tell Mrs Z that it's not just a figure of speech).

My odyssey to source new rear strut base pivot bolts finally came to an end. I know I could have forked out for the Posrche ones - but after all, they are nothing more than a 10.9 spec 100mm M14 fine thread bolt - and surely my local fastenings specialist could source me a couple of those with no bother? Alas no. It's taken about 6 weeks and has (eventually) involved them cutting down some longer bolts and re-theading them on the lathe (which took 3 weeks). All for the princely sum of £7.93 the pair - I can't see how they'll make a profit, but hey.

I've finished reassembling the rear struts too - though I couldn't work out any possible way of torqueing the nuts to spec so went with the "good'n'tight" method advised above. The workshop manual shows a special tool which seems to have a tiny opening through which they presumably grasp the main piston shaft but I can't see how that's going to work. The manual also calls for the use of tyre assembly compound on the upper bracket before fitting it into the mounting point. Hmmm. Do I have a drum of that knocking around in the garage? Do I want one? Time to pay my tyre fitters a visit, with 2 struts in the passenger seat.

"Please may I buy 2 brushfulls of assembly compound?" I said, nursing a damper under my arm.

The guy grinned and prepared both for me FOC. (National Tyres in case you're interested and they've done all our tyres for a few years now in case anyone is thinking this is an outrageously generous response). He explained that it is really just liquid soap.

What with having lathered struts and shiny new pivot bolts, it would have seemed churlish not to put one back in the car (even though they're a bit in the way) so the right one is back in and finger tight. It's going to be really snug to get the torque wrench in at the top so may be another "G&T" setting.

I decided to lose patience with the rear A/R bar that didn't want to follow the manual's advice and helpfully drop out when I undid the nut a few weeks back. Penetrating oil didn't help either so I put the nuts back on and gave them a judicious tap with the club hammer. Satisfyingly, I won this battle and now have an A/R bar to clean up.

No progress on the valve adjustment which is poor on my part because it means the covers are still off and any over-inquisitive spider might end up in the oil system. I'd done the 1st 4 cylinders but couldn't remember where I was with the crank so have just turned it back to TDC and will advance by 600 degrees to do the next one if/when I can find some time.

S'pose I'd better fix the computer next so I can post some progress pictures of my shiny brakes & struts.

If anyone has any knowledge of what I did with those other 2 brake pistons I'd be grateful...

Z