CRG

89 C4, daily driver/no track time,214k miles, oil leaking from anywhere there could possibly be oil, and running a bit sluggish so I decided to give it a DIY go..never rebuilt an engine before much less a 911. the only work since new was a top end and clutch at 52k

been working on tearing it down for more than a month, taking my time bagging and tagging parts and cleaning things which seems to take more damn time than anything up to this point, here's where I'm at..

the obligatory engine shot
lot's of oil/dirt
clutch actually had some meat still on it
cams have very little pitting
cylinders still have cross hatch marks
pistons dirty but no broken rings
heads dont look too bad, all uniform

will get all the engine tin powder coated, no rust issues
cams- undecided: my understanding is OEM is a pretty damn good cam and a slight upgrade will only give me a bit of mid range. my concern on anything other than OEM is valve clearance
valves- send to anchor atlantic, stick with OEM springs, etc
P/C's- undecided: will have them looked at, if I can re-use them I might or go with new Mahle's just dont know if slip-in's or machine-in is necessary?
suspension- will replace all, probably H&R greens with Bilsteins HD's, new bushings, larger sway bars?
bolts- either ARP or raceware
G-pipe, cat bypass and wong chip

no real budget or timeline to get it done but will stick as close to stock as possible, no real interest in a 3.8 or any sexy bling, I want reliability and longevity..and another 200k before I have to do this again

Ill be hitting you guys up as I go along..suggestions welcome

VR6-er

I love these threads, I'm doing a MG V8 conversion and its great fun doing something you've never done before.

Merle

With that many miles on the bottom end are you planning on splitting the case?

CRG

merle- 214k on the bottom

had a good conversation with Steve Weiner today, looks like my plans to stay 100% stock will be drifting slightly..he'll get the bulk of my money for the rebuild-parts/machine work...more to come

the best part of this thread will be for folks that are sitting on the fence about a rebuild- I'm no motor head, if I can do this anyone can

RicardoD

Cool thread and let us know what you finally end up doing. I think a "standard" rebuild for quality and longevity is of interest to many of us.

jotaking

Great pic with the beer

That is one oily engine!

Post plenty of pics of progress with all new shiny bits.

Subscribed

pcarplayer

Nice job

Whats the bike in the background? Looks like brembo monoblocs with showa forks. Reminds me of my old ducati before I installed ohlins all round. Fairings look more Aprilia than Ducati

Mixter

Off to a great start. No real budget or timeline.....means no pressure. Lookin forward to your progress

Shamstar

Nice colour car, good luck... Looking forward to more pics!

CRG

thanks..hopefully this will be more of interest to others who have been debating rebuilding it themselves.

so here's todays newbie tip o' the day for removing oem dilavar's- get your self a snap-on stud puller and some map gas. i first tried the double nut method and propane, no joy. propane doesnt get hot enough and if your studs are like mine, 24+ yrs in the case, the loctite they used at the time was from NASA. they use to use it for patching holes in the space shuttle, that sh*t is no joke..(but that was).

Anywho's, with the puller and map they all came out "fairly" easy although I did manage to brake one. the trick is to put some good heat on it and make sure that the collet on the puller is real tight, but not too much heat you snap the stud. one was not budging so i kept heating it up and trying to turn it and bingo, it snapped off.
if you do use the snap-on puller you might try what i did to release the collet after you get the stud off, i used the back end of the engine stand/yoke as a holder. going back and forth to a table vice was a waste of time when you can use the stand, it's right in front of you.
also, i cant for the life of me seeing somebody replacing the studs without tearing the bottom down. taking the studs out made a hell of a mess inside the case.

john b- thanks for the borrow, appreciate it (he's got one fine 930..w/motec)

evoderby

I applaud you for stepping into a major project like this, however why you didn't spend $10 on 3 cans of brake cleaner to clean the engine before taking it apart beats me...

....there's oil/sand/dirt/whatever everywhere, bad practise imo...sorry!

Cosmos99

Excellent! I love seeing other owners not afraid of getting their hands dirty.

CRG

evoderby- i dont know where you live partner but as dirty as that engine is i'm surely not going to make my garage, driveway and engine stand into a hazmat site by trying to clean it as one piece, plus engine cleaning in the driveway is generally kind of frowned upon in my neighborhood ..the engine is getting totally torn down, when it's in smaller pieces i can clean it a lot easier

..and you think 3 cans will clean that, uh? gallon cans maybe

evoderby

Amsterdam....we're used to al sorts of dirty;-)

CRG

Amsterdam...been there and good times where had ;-)