Cylinder heads 911 Porsche

Porsche 911 Crank Case

Inside view of the 911 engine

Over the last few years we have overhauled a bunch of Porsche 911 engines that have the same description as this one, it runs OK but smokes and leaks a bunch of oil. Once we get inside and check things out we find a whole host of issues from collapsed chain tensioners, broken piston rings and wiped out bearings. This engine has a few severely scratched piston skirts and hosed thrust bearings and intermediate shaft bearings.

It’ll be great to get all these parts cleaned up, freshened up and dialed in so the customer can have the car rocking and rolling for the spring. The engine is equipped with Weber Carburetors which seem good but are they better than the Bosch Mechanical Fuel Injection?

Reversing direction of Jaguar XKE cooling fan motors

With a test light and a few long leads, I can diagnose most electrical problems on old cars without too much drama since they have very basic relays, lighting systems and motors. Figuring out electrical problems empowers me since there aren’t many places for gremlins to hide. This keeps me feeling productive.

A 1968 Jaguar XKE came in with worn out radiator cooling fan motors so I sent the old motors to a supplier as cores and they promptly sent me a pair of overhauled ones. When we plugged them in, they turned the wrong way. So, I called the supplier who apologized for the error and then regretfully informed me that the correct rotation motors are on back-order for months or more! The owner wanted the car ready for a show in a few days so we switched the wires thinking that they would turn counter-clockwise rather than clockwise but they didn’t! I disassembled the motors thinking that if I changed the magnet, maybe I would get the favorable result but it isn’t a permanent magnet, its an electro-magnet, the motor continued to spin clockwise.

After some head scratching, I realized that I had to reverse the wires internally to send current both through the armature and the magnet in the same direction. This got me out of hot water by cooling the old cat’s engine just the way she likes it. It took me some time to find the solution because I couldn’t believe that a simple motor like this needed internal modifications to change direction. Learning all the time…

Here’s a super cool 1960 Jaguar MK IV, a solid car owned by the same family from new. It’s been sitting since the late 90’s and is in nice condition  but it has a horrible smelling interior. All of the mechanical components need to be overhauled but Who cares how well the car drives when you the musty smell overwhelms your senses and some odd fungus grows in your mucus membranes.  This interior is made up of all natural fibers such as a wool headliner, leather seats,  latex foam and wood trim which hold fast to these nasty odors.  In order to move forward, we will least have to replace the headliner and shampoo the carpets, hopefully it the rest of the upholstery can be cleaned.

Click and Clack, the Car Talk guys suggest placing coffee beans throughout the interior making the claim that the beans not only absorb the smell, but they give off a nice fragrance, not a bad deal. I was thinking of pressure washing it with tomato juice like we do with dogs that have been “skunked”.

Jaguar 4 door MK

Jaguar Interior 1960

Here is an early production MG, the model PA and one of the last of the “cycle fender” style cars, the MG TF 1500. These cars are a blast to own and live with because they are so easy to drive, cheap to keep up and have a great look. We did a drag race with these two cars but couldn’t see who was faster because of the insane amounts of tire smoke.

MG PA and TF

PA, TF, TD, TC, MG

Here is the BB engine, finished up and running on the stand with a link below to see it on youtube. No leaks! Needs a little more tuning but this is the second start up and it ran very well. Since this video was taken, we dialed in the carburetors and it sounds amazing.

We are almost finished with the 512BB engine overhaul. Casey has done the bulk of the assembly work and has done a nice job making all of the details correct and look fresh without going totally nutty. We are waiting for the vibrational dampener to return from the repair shop but we can make the engine run on the test stand without it, keep tuned for a video of it running on youtube.

While waiting for the engine machine work and pistons to be custom made, we overhauled the transmission and addressed a few other issues to make sure the car will be solid for driving this summer. This engine is slightly enhanced and we will have dyno sheets of before and after the overhaul.

BB 512 FERRARI

The 512 BB engine is back from the machine shop, as you may remember from an earlier post, this engine came apart with great difficulty. The machine shop had to open the cylinders up .020″, cleaned the deck surface, polished the crank and had new custom forged Carello Pistons made.  Since we had to warm and cool the block while using all kinds of special pullers and tools, I was most concerned with making sure the sealing surface of the case halves were totally flat and ensure the line bore for the crankshaft was within spec. Surprisingly, these surfaces were straight as a die and the line bore was perfect however, we do have a few little nicks to weld up and file down.  Now is the time to clean and detail the castings.

Ferrari Boxer engine block

512 Ferrari

One of the best Jaguars I have driven was this 1959 XK-150 Roadster, an original and serviced car that drives like new.  The suspension, steering and brakes have a perfect feel, not too harsh or abrupt, everything supple and easy with the power and handling that can keep up with modern day traffic with ease.

We did some work to get the lights functioning as they were originally intended and had to overhaul the brake system as the calipers and master cylinder had some leaking but overall the car needed very little.

Often when a car gets restored, that easy “well worn pair of jeans” feeling is totally lost making a car almost unpleasant to drive but it’s nice to have an example like this Jag to understand how they are supposed to feel and perform.

Xk-150

There were a bunch of leads as to why this engine overheated but we aren’t sure exactly which problem led to its demise. The water pump looked nasty, maybe it failed and blew all the water out of the weep hole or maybe the head gasket failed. Once we finally got the case split, we found that the cylinder protrusion on the 7-12 bank was .007-.012″ where it should be about .003″ from the deck surface so the gasket may not have sealed around the water passages.

Since the engine was burning a little bit of oil when it ran and the 2nd gear synchro needed to be replaced, it reinforced the need to overhaul this drive train. We are thinking of enhancing the engine with slightly higher compression pistons and increasing the flow by matching the intake manifolds and testing and enhancing the intake and exhaust ports.

A problem with the Ferrari Boxer design arises when you wash the car or drive it in the rain and water pools around the main bearing studs causing a major corrosion issue between the case and the studs, “gluing” the halves together. We made steel blocks that use the main bearing nuts to push the halves apart as you un-thread them but it didn’t work at all. We ended up making hardwood wedges to drive in with a hammer and 3 portable hydraulic cylinders so after nearly a week of labor the job was finally done.

Have a look at the massive amount of corrosion on the studs!

Boxer engine

12 cylinder horizontally opposed

Case halves BB, BBI