[latonnelier]

For those that wanted a new thread...
After I put the car on the lift and unclipped/unhooked and unbolted a bunch of stuff. I slid the lift table under the motor with some judiciously placed 2x4s and away she went. Now I start the tedious process of removing all the peripherals and sending the case halves to LN, the heads to Hoffman and wherever I can find for the crank that is reputable--can anyone in the Phoenix area recommend a good machine shop? If everything goes well, she'll be back running in 2-3 months.

The car has had a bit of ticking at startup lately, so I'm interested to see what the cylinders look like under all the dirt that seems to be holding everything together now. I also have to rebuild the starter and maybe I'll put a new regulator on the alternator. Have some new Bilsteins (I bought last year--or was that a year or two before?) and I'll also be replacing a whole bunch of cooling hoses, seems only appropriate for a 198k pcar. For your entertainment, I give you my 2006, C2S; under the knife(or wrench)...



OH, by the way. If anyone has any small parts for the motor they might be looking to sell but didn't want to bother with a classified, let me know and perhaps I can relieve you of your burden:)

[fpena944]

For those that wanted a new thread...
After I put the car on the lift and unclipped/unhooked and unbolted a bunch of stuff. I slid the lift table under the motor with some judiciously placed 2x4s and away she went. Now I start the tedious process of removing all the peripherals and sending the case halves to LN, the heads to Hoffman and wherever I can find for the crank that is reputable--can anyone in the Phoenix area recommend a good machine shop? If everything goes well, she'll be back running in 2-3 months.

The car has had a bit of ticking at startup lately, so I'm interested to see what the cylinders look like under all the dirt that seems to be holding everything together now. I also have to rebuild the starter and maybe I'll put a new regulator on the alternator. Have some new Bilsteins (I bought last year--or was that a year or two before?) and I'll also be replacing a whole bunch of cooling hoses, seems only appropriate for a 198k pcar. For your entertainment, I give you my 2006, C2S; under the knife(or wrench)...



OH, by the way. If anyone has any small parts for the motor they might be looking to sell but didn't want to bother with a classified, let me know and perhaps I can relieve you of your burden:)

Are you going back to stock parts or doing any internal upgrades in terms of cylinders, crank, etc?

[amdavid]

Good stuff......mainly that you have 198k on your 997 2S.

I wish you luck, do post pics.....we like the visuals.

[latonnelier]

[/quote]
Are you going back to stock parts or doing any internal upgrades in terms of cylinders, crank, etc?
[/quote]

I'll be bumping the motor up to 4.0L Nickies, JE Pistons, Carrillo rods, Total Seal Gapless rings, and the IMS Solution . I just talked with Lynn Hoffman, going to just blend the ports on the heads and do his most common work to get them back to well regulated condition

Then it will be the normal, high quality, engine build stuff: coated bearings, balance the crank/flywheel/clutch assemble, new timing chains (IWIS not INA) and guides(of course)...basically a whole crapload of new gaskets, bits and pieces.

Not expecting too much more over stock but I will have the motor tuned to make sure I'm running as efficiently as I can. I found a Subaru tuner in Scottsdale that supposedly does good tunes; this motor is just about the same thing with two more cylinders

Right now, I'm down to the long block and will be transferring it to the engine stand. I will definitely share more pics as I move along.

[fpena944]

Are you going back to stock parts or doing any internal upgrades in terms of cylinders, crank, etc?
[/quote]

I'll be bumping the motor up to 4.0L Nickies, JE Pistons, Carrillo rods, Total Seal Gapless rings, and the IMS Solution . I just talked with Lynn Hoffman, going to just blend the ports on the heads and do his most common work to get them back to well regulated condition

Then it will be the normal, high quality, engine build stuff: coated bearings, balance the crank/flywheel/clutch assemble, new timing chains (IWIS not INA) and guides(of course)...basically a whole crapload of new gaskets, bits and pieces.

Not expecting too much more over stock but I will have the motor tuned to make sure I'm running as efficiently as I can. I found a Subaru tuner in Scottsdale that supposedly does good tunes; this motor is just about the same thing with two more cylinders

Right now, I'm down to the long block and will be transferring it to the engine stand. I will definitely share more pics as I move along.
[/quote]

I look forward to it. I'm not too far behind you in terms of mileage as my 996 has about 180k now. I haven't heard any issues with the engine yet but am mentally preparing for the same task.

[linderpat]

Following.

[Scott at Team Harco]

Gary - have you scoped the engine to see if you have bore scoring? I assume that is your concern with the ticking?

[latonnelier]

Gary - have you scoped the engine to see if you have bore scoring? I assume that is your concern with the ticking?

Nah, with this many miles I planned on the rebuild anyways. I noticed the ticking increasing about 8 months ago and the number 5 cylinder started showing misfires, on the Durametric, all the time and that was a bit after I put a new coil on. And since I love working on motor vehicles and whatnot; I just figured I'd look when I pulled the motor apart. It'll be a surprise for all of us... isn't the suspense just so palpable?

[Scott at Team Harco]

Gary - have you scoped the engine to see if you have bore scoring? I assume that is your concern with the ticking?

Nah, with this many miles I planned on the rebuild anyways. I noticed the ticking increasing about 8 months ago and the number 5 cylinder started showing misfires, on the Durametric, all the time and that was a bit after I put a new coil on. And since I love working on motor vehicles and whatnot; I just figured I'd look when I pulled the motor apart. It'll be a surprise for all of us... isn't the suspense just so palpable?

Was I that obvious?

[latonnelier]

The stuff they don't show you in the movies...
Had about an hour today to get the peripherals off. This is an Arizona car and I haven't run into any tough nuts or bolts, but damn, there's a mess of grime on this car; and I found the beginnings of a pack-rat nest -- luckily that wasn't too developed.
As you can see, I've taken all the engine top items off but put the bolts back in place. I've labeled quite a few zip lock bags so I can pull the bolts and gaskets for identification. As many of you know, this makes a big puzzle and its a bit easier with some organization.
I did take the engine mount bracket off after these pics and will have it on the engine stand tomorrow--then its Katie bar the door. Scott, you'll get your money shot then

[latonnelier]

Oops, I guess I'll have to take that transmission off

[latonnelier]

So after a week and 5.7 inches of rain (for those in more wet climes, that's about 45% of our yearly rainfall in tucson) and patching our flat roof, I finally got back to the motor.
Popped the bank 2 head off a bit ago and thought I might send this short video out for our friend in Michigan

As you can see there is only some minor streaking in cylinders 5 & 6 and the piston tops look pretty damn good, but I do just jump on it when I'm driving around town and pretty much always keep the engine spinning above 4k Maybe that's why my mileage is so low.

[Scott at Team Harco]

That looks real clean. The marks in #5 look to align with the piston pins. Other than carbon or debris in that area, I'm not sure what would cause that.

I did have a serious problem with a Talon engine I built many years ago. I used Gen 2 pistons in a Gen 1 block. The shop that bored the small end of the rods didn't machine one of them properly for the specified press-fit. Too loose. Oops!

[latonnelier]

I don't know what it is, could be just streaking. I cant really feel anything with my fingernail, I'll know better when I split the cases in the morning. FWIW, Bank one looks almost the same.

[latonnelier]

Got everything apart Tuesday, but also have been otherwise engaged by the indentured labor that is the marriage certificate. I'm sick of tearing out walls and tile
Anywho...a look at the entire length cylinders has led me to believe the built up carbon above the top rings on the pistons is a reasonable culprit. You can see some scraping of the carbon the appears to correspond with the scratches on the cylinders. Also, the only piston that seemed to show any wear on the skirt coating was #6 and that is more like flaking and less from friction...I suppose

The worst of all of the pistons--#6
Some of the scratchy carbon

I got the cases sent off to LN Engineering Friday morning and heads are packed and ready to go out to Len Hoffman tomorrow morning. He's such a pleasant guy to work with. And he sure knows his VW variants
I must say that I'm pretty pleased with the condition of the motor to this point. The crank still turns easy in the carrier and the combustion chambers in the heads all looked about the same.

[Scott at Team Harco]

There's a bit of carbon there, as you note. Maybe about right for 198k miles. Clean combustion and frequent oil changes are the best defense against it. Keep posting, mate...

[linderpat]

excellent info. Thanks for keeping it up to date.

[latonnelier]

Thought I would add an update.
Cases are at LN in Illinois.
Heads with Hoffman in Georgia.
Transmission is at GBOX in Colorado...
Many new parts and gaskets have been arriving by post; they are just piling up now. I gotta start working on cleaning all of the peripherals and finding a machine shop I can trust.
I'll tell you guys, this is a big chunk of a college professor's salary...With only five years left until retirement, I'm really starting to think I chose the wrong profession (for a few different reasons)

[Scott at Team Harco]

You will be rewarded when all is done. The satisfaction of a running engine (that you built) is much like the birth of a child.

[Gretch]

how were the chain guides?

[Scott at Team Harco]

how were the chain guides?

The thread starter (Gary) has not been here for a long time. I communicated with him, offline, and he has completed the build and all is well. We didn't get into any detail, so I can't offer any news on the guides. I would guess the wear pads showed a lot of wear. Mine showed a bit of wear when I built my engine (133,333 engine build thread). Not sure I documented it, though.