Barn996

Glad you were able to trouble shoot your engine idle issue. Thanks for the rebuild pics. You should be pleased that your Porsche is happy and healthy again.

alpine003

Great to hear of your successful rebuild story. Nice job.

jasper

Congratulations Bill. You're indeed an inspiration to all of us amateur wrenches.

Pardon me for being gauche...but what did you end up spending on the rebuild?

jasper

KrazyK

Do you have a pic(s) of how the pistons and cylinder walls looked? Some more details on what you did would be great. Awesome job!

Macster

That's some old gas.

I got a chance to experience 6 or more months' old gas with a new Infiniti. The tank was filled up in Jan of 2012 and then not filled up again until July of 2013. The car sat with very little usage, like maybe no more than 30 minutes of run time (and most of that just one drive) over that time.

Then in July I went and picked up the car to use for some personal business, personal business for which my Porsches were not at all suited.

The engine didn't react too badly. It started and idled and run ok, though on the road I thought the engine was down on power but not being that familiar with the car just believed it was the nature of the car.

So I drove the car around until the tank level got pretty low and as the owners manual stated I filled up the tank with premium (Shell).

Wow! The engine really perked up and its performance and throttle response was like night and day different from before I filled up the tank. I guess with another 9 months or so of aging the engine might have refused to run above idle, maybe not even run at all.

Anyhow, glad you got it all sorted out.

billyboy

Thanks Tom, Mhenry, Barn, Alpine, Macster and Jasper. I took my sweet time but I’m pretty happy with the results. Jasper, I haven’t added up all the bills but I think it’s under $5000 and that includes maintenance items (clutch, tensioner pads, IMS bearing, etc) replacing damaged parts, plus specialty tools. Not bad considering, plus I quite enjoyed the project.

KrazyK - the bores and pistons were really good as were the bearings. The car has 130,000 kms (80,000 miles) on it.

Basically I had to replace the timing chains (one broken); a scavenge oil pump because it had a piece of broken chain jammed in it; the IMS shaft because the chain chewed up the gear (that was the costliest item at $1300 but it came with a new bearing, not that mine was bad but I would have changed that anyway); and a few bent valves. Those were the only damaged parts. The rest was just cleaning and checking and making sure no bits of chain remained. And of course, all new seals, gaskets, bolts and tensioner pads throughout. Hats off to local Rennlister pterfloth who loaned me tools and expertise and time. Thanks tons Pat.

Some more assembly pics below: Cleaned half case; installing wrist pin clips blind in the middle of the block (sheesh!); lowering the crank cage into one case half; rebuilding a head; keeping lifters sorted; crank cage apart. Clean, clean, clean!

billyboy

But this is my favourite picture: back down on the ground!

KrazyK

Thats what else I was wondering. So it CAN be done blind. Great info and pics!

Cuda911

Excellent job, not only on the rebuild, but also on the starting problem diagnosis and fix. Congrats!

billyboy

There are special tools for the install but you can still mess up if the clip isn't seated properly ... or you drop a clip inside like I did and you have to split the cases again to find it. You need a snake camera to check your work.

Macster - interesting gas story. We don't often leave new cars sitting. I'm used to having older sportscars that have sat for 6 months through the winter and always start up in the Spring. (But decidedly low horsepower and low tech) Take a new(er) hi-performance car, plus let it sit for over a year ... different story. I should have been on it much sooner.

infrasilver

billyboy, great to hear you have finally got around to fixing that engine of yours, I almost wondered if something had gone wrong with your rebuild as mine has been on the road for a year since my build and I think both our chains expired about the same time last year although mine needed many more parts than yours, you lucky fella.

I'm glad its sorted, and I'm made up for you, I konw only too well the satisfaction of firing it up after a self build,...enjoy.

Did you time it up yourself?


Bad fuel can turn into treacle and isn't good when its been sat for a while.

billyboy

Thanks Chris. No excuses, it was a slow rebuild ... but partly in my defence, I was shipped the wrong timing chains and had to tear the engine right down to the crank and start over so that put a damper on things. Damn, I know that engine inside out now! Yes I timed it myself ... you need a(nother) special tool but it's pretty straightforward in the manual.