The Official 356Talk Forum

well last week i was a new person driving my classic automobile but now i am the old person with the shabby roller. after 5 or 10 minutes of idling the bearings have clamped down on the crank and the starter will no longer turn the motor over. o well so now i have two vw motors two porsche motors. none run . i've been thinking about cleaning the garage and buying a nice engine stand. i'm going to rebuild these motors

now another week has come and gone. slow progress. i saw a you tube clip where a guy said you have to be careful with vw rebuilds because the new dowel pins for main bearings are .020 too long, they should be .189 but are .212. i've got the symptoms. so now i'm trying to get the car up and pull the engine. obligations are burying me

good luck with the engine ryan!

thanks neil, engines out, i'm trying to get it down to basic engine now and reading tom wilsons vw engine rebuild book. really an opportunity to expand knowledge base so i'll be better suited to doing the porsche engines. this whole 356 adventure has been a twisty uphill path but each episode has its small rewards.

split case and found burned center main. when the holidays over i'll try to find somebody to check it out

found gary at rimco to check crank and case. he says they are ready. so another 8 hr round trip but i am busting to put that engine back together and roll.

crank and case are home, bearings and rebuilt balanced rods are coming.

bought an h frame press from harbor freight, bought two torque wrenches from cal parts. crank is back together. first try at putting case halves together failed. had to clean perma gasket off right side to be ready to try again

poor rebuild, gob of aluminum from oil pick up. how to kill an engine in 5 minutes

Hi Ryan,

Sorry to see this set back. I can imagine how much time you have been spending on this, and hope you get it straightened out soon.

You could always install a VW engine temporarily if a full rebuild of the Porsche engine is not in the cards right now, you deserve to drive that thing!

'EDIT' Oops, it is already VW powered. Sorry for the careless post, and best of luck with next engine build.


Mark

mark thanks yes it is a super beatle motor but i have the original which i hope to rebuild in the near future. i am impatient but all this trouble only enhances my 356 experience. like you say wouldn.t it be nice to drive it. that doesn't come easy with the discount ticket i bought

at last , the case is back together. many many hours of trial and error, lots of error. fiddleing with the bearings. trying to get them on the dowel pins correctly was the challenge and in the end , following the instructions did the trick. mark the bearings in the correct position without the crank first. with the timing pulley on, allingned with top dead center the distributer in and pointing at 5 o'clock, nuts all torqued spinning freely , i am happy.

Nice going Ryan, sometimes the "little" successes are the big ones.

If all else fails, read the directions. I need to finally learn this one too!

Congrats on the progress, wishing you a fun and stress free maiden voyage!

Mark

thanks guys. not only am i learning a lot doing this motor i think i have caught a couple of mistakes the guy who put it together before made. the rocker assembly bosses were backwards so they only fit upside down. easy fix but now i wish i had paid more attention to the rings. they may be upside down. i didn't check. before i do my c engine i have to make some improvements to my process. i know i want an ultra sonic cleaner. i know i want to read maestros guidelines again. i want to get the better gasket seal material before i start. most of the parts of this super bug were new, so clean and nice. my c motor, unmolested but probably worn and way dirtier. what to keep what to upgrade. still undetermined. i'm leaning toward doing my dad's 36 horse before the c. i wish he was here. i'm ahead of myself. i may still fail with the bug motor. got to have courage. got to squeeze time