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Alex's 3.6 Engine Transplant


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15 hours ago, SP72 said:

Looks fab Al - do you think the 3.6 brought its demise forward or was it crunchy before going 3,6?

It was pretty crunchy and tired before I did the 3.6 and then a few years of the extra torque just stretched it too far so I've been nursing it around ever since.

5 hours ago, Northy said:

Great result there Alex. Nice to see a quick turnaround by a specialist. 👍

Yeah, I'm very impressed with the turnaround time and the level of service & communication. I'll give them a big up after I've driven it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got the engine back in the car last week which went pretty smoothly apart from the flipping gearbox mounting screws which just did not want to align even with the mounting plate loosened right off. Horrible job so next time it comes out I think I may have to make a tool for that part.

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Hooked everything back up and it started first go. Let it all get up to temperature then took if for a quick drive.

  • 915 felt really good and the rumours are true, you can select first without being at a standstill! So far really impressed.
  • When finances recover I might treat myself to a pair of new drive shafts and maybe a Rennshift shifter
  • Wosp high torque starter motors sound the nuts! Much faster than my previous one. Hopefully the solenoid lasts longer too.
  • Replacing the crank/flywheel sensor has fixed my manual fuel pump override switch which is great because that has been doing my head in ever since I did the 3.6 conversion!

Big thanks to Dave at RSR Engineering for such a quick turnaround on the gearbox & for doing such a sterling job. I know Mike Bainbridge has the rep for being the go to guy for these but there are excellent alternatives if you don't want to travel all the way up north. I would definitely recommend Dave and his new premises, especially for engine and gearbox work.

https://www.rsrporsche.com/

Lots still to do but most importantly car will be ready to go back to Centre of Gravity in a couple of weeks so I can draw a line under that project.

Whilst doing this gearbox refresh project I have thought about a few other little future mods...... but mainly looking forward to getting some good use of the car this year now.

Edited by ALEX P
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A great result Alex 👍

I’ve got a Rennshift in mine and you’re welcome to try it any time.  The WOSP starter is nice isn’t it - really spins it up fast. 

Drive shafts are easy to refurb. I did mine on the kitchen table one evening for each. Actually, I think I’ve got a spare one you can have, you could refurb that one and throw it in, then refurb your other side and swap them over.  

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17 hours ago, Henry said:

Nice one Alex , you deserve to enjoy it now .  Btw whats up with the driveahafts?

Thanks Henry. Nothing major - I did kill one a couple of years ago so got a used replacement but no idea of how much mileage it has done. A couple of the boots are the split and glue type (that have actually worked quite well) which I fitted to get it through an MOT but really I just fancy a new set with zero wear or slop. I'd probably do wheel bearings when in there.

15 hours ago, Northy said:

A great result Alex 👍

I’ve got a Rennshift in mine and you’re welcome to try it any time.  The WOSP starter is nice isn’t it - really spins it up fast. 

Drive shafts are easy to refurb. I did mine on the kitchen table one evening for each. Actually, I think I’ve got a spare one you can have, you could refurb that one and throw it in, then refurb your other side and swap them over.  

Thanks mate, I'd certainly like a good look over your Rennshift. I think the WOSP is the best 'toy' I've bought it a while. Good shout 👍

Thanks for the drive shaft offer but I do have an old spare which I kept because you have to send them a core back when buying new. I have refurbed one before but the poor quality GKN? boots split in no time at all and I just fancy some brand spankers!

11 hours ago, SP72 said:

 Nice work Alex, huge amount of work you have done in the past 12m or so 👏

Cheers SP. A bit like yourself, time to start to reap the benefits and get out there and enjoy them :madjg::)

I'm looking forward to seeing your lovely new engine.

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Beaky said:

Just one word..........................Lovely!............Ok need to add another.........Awesome!

Haha, cheers mate

49 minutes ago, SP72 said:

Gold wheel centres FTW

Possibly jinxed it with tales of Anil’s all-nighter at CoG last weekend!

Doubt you'll ever see gold on this car, not my cup of tea. 

Funnily enough I was actually thinking of that all-nighter as the hours ticked passed!!

I do have a slight problem though because the more I think about it the less sense it makes to put my Fuchs back on the car with massive 50 & 70mm spacers/adaptors. In some ways I kinda wish I'd bought those Braids that Northy pointed at a while ago. I don't have any problem with running spacers but when they get to that size they really defeat the point of having lightweight wheels!

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19 minutes ago, ALEX P said:

Haha, cheers mate

Doubt you'll ever see gold on this car, not my cup of tea. 

Funnily enough I was actually thinking of that all-nighter as the hours ticked passed!!

I do have a slight problem though because the more I think about it the less sense it makes to put my Fuchs back on the car with massive 50 & 70mm spacers/adaptors. In some ways I kinda wish I'd bought those Braids that Northy pointed at a while ago. I don't have any problem with running spacers but when they get to that size they really defeat the point of having lightweight wheels!

I like gold wheels but I'm digging the more subtle combination with the black centres

All nighter's are easy, it's the all day after the all night that are tiring 🤔

Alex, you're car looks perfect, the wheels suit the car perfectly, leave it just the way it is or if you do change it can I have first dibs on your wheels 👍

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  • 1 year later...

Hey guys,

I've not been on IB so much for a while now and also haven't really used the car this year (the two are probably related). Nothing to do with 2020 being a write off for obvious reasons, I just haven't really felt the urge with work, family, life taking over so my poor old car has been sitting in the garage for way too much of this crazy year.

This week, I replaced the bonnet prop because when I had the new lid fitted someone leaned on it and snapped my Seine carbon jobbie. I took inspiration from Phil and bought a new rose joint, a bit of titanium bar and a ferrule for the end. I threaded one end of the rod and all fixed for about £20 👍

Other than that, I thought I'd make the most of the beautiful weather and a few days off work by taking the old nail for a good drive. You kind of forget how nice a well set up IB does actually drive. I maintain that the ride quality of my car is better than my Cayenne and my wife's Golf GTI. 

Nothing in life is free and true to form, the gear stick did come off in my hand (literally) but thankfully it just needed the two allen screws re-tightening. No idea why Rennshift don't either add a flat or preferably through bolts instead of allen screws onto the round bar. Maybe that will have to be a winter mod to stop it happening again.

Also time to get on with some proper car projects that I started waaaaay too long ago. Hopefully next update will be more interesting but I can't promise!

 

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Good to hear you and family well Alex

You’d better keep on using it, or you’ll loss it. How often do you over hear your other half to the family saying, but he never uses it, and we could do with an extension 😳

Car looking great by the way👍

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As an interim measure, can’t you drill a small counter sunk hollow (sorry for the non-technique terms) into the shaft that the allen screws can lodge into and hopefully prevent it slipping.

 

PS keep the faith, taking an IB for a good spin can be such a good way to de-stress.

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  • 1 year later...

Crikey, another year and a bit goes by but I have had a bit of a fiddle in that time.

For a long time I've been planning on updating my intake, engine fuel lines and ECU. This was also helped by a friend upgrading his ECU so I ended up buying his SCS Typhoon 2 which although is probably already considered a dinosaur in the ECU world is still a giant leap forward from Motronic. 

Throughout this I had a huge amount of help so a massive thanks go to Rob T for all of the work, technical advice and hours spent messing around with the car as well as DBS at RSR for plating a load of my crusty old bits.

We did an initial trial setup to see if the car would run by adding a couple of sensors on the old setup and it did run straight off the bat so time to take it all to pieces again...

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I found a mucky old pair of the later plastic inlet manifolds locally so swapped my aluminium inlet manifolds over as the plastic ones are a bit lighter and supposed to lower the intake temperatures a bit. 

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The 964 engine fuel lines are a crazy over-complicated, expensive arrangement and I was looking at swapping them for some of the aftermarket setups but ended up going for the much simpler 993 rails and lines as they simplified them on the later 3.6 engines.

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I've fitted a 3mm oversize throttle body. This mod is a bit controversial as to whether there are any benefits whatsoever but I came by a nice one to replace the mucky one I had so why not.

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Rob made me up a cam sensor housing so I removed the block off that I originally made when I did the 3.6 conversion and changed it over.

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I have also updated a load of the other sensors and removed the distributor and the MAF kit. MAP, IAT cam & lambda sensors were added (copying the SCS kit) as well as switching to coilpacks and a wasted spark setup. 

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Wiring loom got seriously chopped around. I eventually removed the Timmins conversion kit altogether and now have a massively simplified loom.

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Air filter only just fitted under the grille and I ended up fitting a piece of clear polycarbonate sheet over it to help prevent water ingress if it rains.014.thumb.jpg.126187b2da85d173e871990dd6531e1d.jpg

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Finished(ish) engine bay looking less cluttered & finally a trip to the rollers at SCS in Norfolk to start getting it all dialled in. This is still WIP as I have a sticking rear caliper and a few tidy-up and finishing jobs but car feels good and responsive so positive so far. 

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Haha, thanks guys & that reminds me I still need to get the dyno curves from SCS but power was down on last time so more tweaking to do and need to free off the binding rear caliper and take a look as that won't be helping.

Still lots of finishing jobs to do on the car but hand on heart, I've actually lost interest in it and the 'scene' in general so I'm trying to figure out whether it may be time to let someone else carry on the never-ending project. Even though the last couple of years have been pretty messed up with Covid and all that, my MOT told me that I still only managed around 500 or so miles in the past 12 months with 250 of those travelling up to SCS to dyno the car. We will see.

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