dot dot is dead

I measure the time spent on car projects in terms of afternoons. This project is to remove a VW type 4 engine from my Porsche 914 and rebuild it. Thus far, five afternoons.

1. Remove rear hood and engine cover, exhaust and heating elements
   
2. Remove air intake and throttle, disconnect fuel lines (label everything)
   
3. Remove electrical connections, clutch cable, shifter, and starter motor
   
4. Disconnect rear drive axles, remove engine and transmission
   
5. Remove intake manifold and fuel ring, distributor, oil breather, alternator, fan and ducting

Step 4 was not easy. If you suspend the engine/tranny with a strap at the flywheel, it's engine-heavy and leans to the front. If you suspend the engine by a chain at the fuel injectors, it's transmission-heavy and leans to the rear. The later configuration works best, because the transmission-end isn't too heavy to lift by hand, and a few wood blocks will help to lower the engine/transmission in small increments.



Special-purpose tools required: 12-point 6mm allen wrench for the drive axle bolts, flywheel lock for removing clutch and flywheel bolts, 2-ton engine hoist.



Several missing parts, including the bottom right and left warm air guides (which cover the cylinder heads from below). Maybe they're not critical, but what about the thermostat. Where's the thermostat!? All I found was the thermostat roller:

Labels: porsche, volkswagen

My Google Alert for [Porsche 904] helped me find this awesome blog about a guy named Kevin who works with his hands. Meanwhile I have to report that I made two repairs on my 1970 fastback:

• Shift-rod bushing: a $1 part and 2 hours of labor put the kibosh on the incessant rattle from inside the body tunnel
• Rear brakes: new drums, shoes, cylinders, springs, adjusters, lines and hoses, everything except the backing plates (which I sanded and spray-painted) and e-brake actuators

A road trip to Greenport, NY (on the north fork of Long Island) proved successful, this is me on the ferry to Shelter Island:



Meanwhile I wish I was the one working on a Porsche 904 like this guy, and I think these guys ought to make their reproduction available as a kit one day.

Labels: porsche