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?

Partial line-up outside Middlebury's Breadloaf Campus - p: D. Adolphous

A few weeks ago a few customers gathered at the shop for some coffee, a couple of donuts, and a good chat before heading out onto some beautiful Vermont roads. We headed westward with 15 cars toward Chimney Point and then east over McCullough Turnpike (App. Gap as we call it). We had lunch in Waitsfield, met with some additional drivers and their cars, and headed down Rt. 100 and over Middlebury gap and back to the shop. On the road we had a 512BB, XK-120, XK-150, XK-E, a pair of 330′s, a pair of 250′s, a 308, and Porsches from 356 through a few generations of 911′s – and a few others I am surely forgetting. The drive however was unforgettable.

David Adolphous from Hemmings came up, enjoyed the drive, and left with some great images in his camera. Now those images are available to see on his flickr account, here.

For a Porsche 911T in 1972. The radio was 3% of the cost of the car, do radios still cost that much? I heard that the reason sunroofs are so rare on these Porsches is because they were something like an $800 option or 10% of the cost of the car – something few people would pony up for.

Invoice for a 1972 Porsche 911T

Well, I did it, I finally convinced the original owner of this spectacular original 1972 Porsche 911 to sell it to me. 3 years ago we did the top end end of the engine, shocks, brakes and tires and replaced a few rubber seals. The only thing  that isn’t original on the car are the wheels, we painted them silver as the original chrome was peeling and nasty, so to make them silver was an attractive solution. If someone made me a strong offer I may be motivated to sell this sweetheart but when something this great comes along, it will take a strong offer!

1972 911T

A 1971 Porsche 911 came in with a melted main wiring harness. A number of shops advertised new-old stock  harnesses on their websites but when I inquired they admitted that these parts haven’t been available for years. I called some used parts shops such as CarQuip and a place in CA, cannot remember the name…. and they had nothing. It seems that these harnesses get damaged and need replacing frequently!Tom at CarQuip did send me a used harness for a ’71 but the wire colors and gauge of wire didn’t match which I thought was very odd.

Y-nZ’s has supplied us with spectacular harnesses for 356 Porsche’s and most recently an amazing harness for a 1952 Chrysler Imperial but they quoted a larger price than I thought it worth so here is Casey making one from scratch! We bought all the terminal ends and had the PVC housing so for a major cost savings, here you go, a harness with factory color wire and correct appearance harness!

Main harness Porsche 911

Porsche 911 early wiring harness

Here’s another 250 engine being assembled, we didn’t overhaul it but had to disassemble it to correct head gasket leaks, water pump leaks and replace the roller followers with the needle bearing type. We have had great results with the needle bearing style followers and but poor results with the bushing type which wear out in 600 miles! When an engine needs this much work we pull it from the chassis so it can be test run and inspected for leaks. Here are our famous formula head gaskets in use which have proven themselves reliable and consistent.

250 GT engine 27XX

Nate and I are on the Northwest Passage Rally with Vintage Rallies. (www.vintagerallies.com) Rich and Jean Taylor organize this event along with others such as the New England 1000, the Texas 1000 and the Mountain Mille. Nate and I are the support crew so we follow along in the two car transporter full of tools to keep everyone running and if their car breaks to where we cannot fix it, we wheel out a brand new Porsche 911 C/4 S or Cayman S and load up the broken car.
Here is our first “victim” a Lotus Esprit S/4S. SpritS4S. The owner was alarmed by a major coolant leak on the ground which was hard to locate since the engine is on a slant and you cannot see under the intake manifold. Nate and I decided to rip and tear and realized that a tiny water pump that circulated coolant through the inter-cooler was seized up and leaking like crazy.
This water pump hasn’t been turning for a long time so it’s odd that it started leaking at the beginning of the event but we decided to let him run the event without the pump working. The intake manifold gasket ripped a little but we put a heavy smear of RTV Silicone and the car runs perfectly, has completed the last 3 days like a champ!

Lotus Esprit

Esprit Lotus S/4 S

Intercooler Water pump

Ferrari 330, Porsche 356

A local guy just purchased this 330 GT 2+2 and has asked us to take a look at the car before he drives it this summer. It is one of the best paint jobs I have ever seen on a Ferrari, super crisp lines and totally flat panels because it was block sanded to perfection and there isn’t a spot of orange peel anywhere. These bigger Ferraris look great in colors such as Argento or Azuro.

The Porsche is ready for delivery after spending time to sort out some tie rod details and brake overhaul. I had a chance to take the car for a long drive and am continually amazed at how wonderful these cars are.

Even though this Porsche 911 has been in Colorado from new, it has some major rust issues that need to be addressed. We had to replace the front suspension pan and decided to prepare the car for a full paint job after finding rust in the doors, the fenders and in the RH rocker cover. Overall, the car is super solid and clean, making it a nice project to work on and, when it’s finished, a wonderful early 911 Targa. As anyone who has been reading this blog knows, early 911′s are some of my favorite sports cars and feel that they are becoming valuable enough to justify putting some money into.

911 Targa Paint Job

Suspension Pan 911 Porshce

911 Susp pan Porshce