my DIY engine rebuild
 

I'm not the first guy to do this of course, but I thought I'd create a thread documenting my tear down and rebuild of my '00 Boxster S.

Snapshot of the car:
I purchased the car two months ago for a very good price (relative to the going rate for similar S model Boxsters). The car is straight, runs great, has great tires, the top and interior are both in great condition, etc.
During my initial introduction to the car I read as much as possible about it and of course stumbled across the dreaded IMS failure. From what I could read it was definitely something I should be concerned about, but that paranoia was tempered with the other argument - that it would have happened already, that it was relatively low risk, etc.
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1b9ca9a2.jpg

My tear down decision:
Last weekend I did an oil change and found metal in the stock filter. That was a sad moment for me :ah:
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psc8dfaa6d.jpg
Obviously I need to stop driving the car until I've determined what the source of the metal is, what damage has been done and fix it if possible. If I were well off I would simply write a check to a well known Porsche shop. I'm not poor, but I'm also not in a position to write checks for $18K. Nor am I particularly stoked to pay $4-9K for a used engine of unknown origin, even if it does come with a 12 month "warranty".

I also bought the car as a hobby. So, I decided to take the plunge and get to know this car completely. This journey may take until early next year to complete but I'm going to drive this car again, and have a blast doing it. So come along if you'd like, and see if a mere mortal can pull it off.

I commute about 80 miles per day via motorcycle and, this will make some people laugh, I bought the car to drive in crappy weather and to make my girlfriend happy (I've had worse problems). So basically I don't need this car to be running any time soon.

Snapshot of me:
I'm 50. I've been working on my own cars my entire life. In fact my dad used to drag me outside to help work on our various busted vehicles since I was 10 years old, while all my friends watched cartoons or played games in the street. I actually resented it and it wasn't until I was in my 30s that I realized what a gift he had given me. The thought of paying someone to do work I'm quite capable of doing myself is akin to paying someone to do my laundry or grocery shop.

I've left a long trail of cars and motorcycles behind me. Mostly German cars but some Japanese and only a few US built cars. One French, one British, no Italians.
Some I loved more than others, a couple I still kick myself for selling. Some I built engines for and some I never did anything but pour gas in the hole and drive the #@*& out of. In short, outside of tire changes no one touches my car with a wrench but me (okay I did have some hop up parts installed on my Subaru after I had ruptured a disc, but otherwise it's been all me).

The only thing I've totally steered clear on is opening an automatic transmission, and I'm going to break that rule tonight when I swap the valve body in our VW Touareg (minor surgery compared to actually splitting the case). In short, I loathe automatics for their cost, complexity and well, if I have to tell you then you won't understand.

So that's it in a nut shell. Wrench turning starts in the next post.

Wrench turning began this past Friday. I've got a garage which my woman has agreed to leave me in charge of (guess who owns the rest of the house?). These are just going to be a couple of quick tear down pics with notes of things I learned.

My guide thus far (besides my past experience) has been Wayne's book (101 projects for your pet rock), and also a blog that was produced by another individual in the same situation I'm in. I'll have to post up the link later since I don't have it on this computer.

If Wayne's book has any defect it is only that it forces you to refer to other chapters of the book to perform the tasks. It's not actually a defect at all, as otherwise the book would be five times as thick with a bunch of repetitive tasks.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps356ea9a1.jpg
The above pile was generated at the end of a relaxing day with my car. I forget the exact name of each item but the stiffening pan, suspension supports, rear sway bar, heat shield and exhaust system all ready for clean up and storage.

As a funny aside, when my SO came to check on my progress I pointed at the exhaust system and said "that thing is not going back on this car". She laughed and said "Cute. You know I can totally read your mind". I'd swear I had a straight face. FYI, planning on the Borla exhaust when it comes time.
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps598362a6.jpg
A quick view of the underside with a whole lot more space open than when I started.
In this picture the shift linkages are popped loose but the cables have not been removed from the bracket.. Since the photo was taken the large aluminum mount has been removed from the rear of the transaxle, reverse sensor switch is off and tucked away, the clutch slave cylinder has been removed (dammit, I just installed that a couple weeks ago) and the CV joints are off the transaxle.

The engine is currently supported for the pending removal of the transmission. All that remains is to slide my floor jack under it, remove the two transmission mounts (the black sheet metal Y shaped brackets and the isolators at the outboard ends), and the bolts holding the transmission to the engine.

I've already got the 10mm "triple square" drive for the odd bolts. In case anyone falls for the same thing I did, triple square =/= Torx.

One more comment on this post, and that is that you can see in this pic that my habit has always been to immediately put all hardware back where it came from. That dispenses with putting things in baggies and labeling things. It also forces me to clean up all the hardware after removal of each individual part. This method has served me well for many, many years.

Good luck. I had the same experience growing up for many years, then started hanging out with a buddy that was marine mechanic and learned more than could from my dad. I have seriously considered taking one of Jakes classes to learn more about these motors.

Sub'd! I admire your determinism and like to think if this happened to me I would do the same.

Seems like if its just the IMS, you'll have it back on the road in no time...drop the trans, replace IMS, do about 42 oil flushes and call it a day (after some compression testing :D)

Good luck!

I appreciate the support. I failed to mention that I have signed up for Jake's "101" class in October, and he's pointed out his four day hands on class in December as a great follow up. I'll have to shake some money out of the family budget and burn some vacation time from work to get to that one, but I'm sure it's worth every dime.

Last night was a tedious one. I got started on the car later than I planned and ran into my first road block: the 10mm triple square tool is too long to fit between the bolt head and the differential housing. I'd seen it mentioned in other places (on the Pelican Parts write up comments) but thought it wasn't going to apply to me. Duh.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...pse1ffbcf3.jpg

So I eye balled a good length and loaded it into one of my vises and out came the Dremel tool. It took a good 20 minutes and several of those thin grit wheels but I made it through and was able to test fit the tool into the bolt head.

A 13mm wrench just slips over the outside of the tool but of course there's nothing like enough leverage to break the bolt loose. Out came the closest cheater bar (the upper section of my floor jack handle). I could tell right away that the tool would want to climb up out of the head of the bolt and that I would only have about 1-2 tries before boogering it up completely.

I was able to use a fat screw driver to keep pressure enough to hold the tool into the bolt head while putting on a load with the cheater and it finally broke loose. I call that a win.

So far the only fastener on the car that has refused to yield was one of the nuts that holds the exhaust manifold to the secondary cat pipe. Exhaust hardware leads a difficult life, so I expect some of them to die a miserable death. I'll replace all six bolts and nuts on reassembly anyway to give myself a fighting chance.

Tonight I'm fully planning on seeing the transaxle laying on my garage floor and getting a look at my clutch. I've mentioned in other threads that I was having some clutch drag which makes shifting into first and reverse difficult. I've bled the system and replaced both the clutch master and slave cylinders. What I'm expecting to see when I get in there is a repeat of a failure posted by someone else here, and that is a crack in the clutch actuator lever. Maybe it will just be some junky bushings, the TO bearing will be coming apart or the pressure plate fingers will be mutilated. No way to tell until I get a look at it.

After that I'll remove the flywheel and find out what kind of IMS bearing they were using when my car was built.

As for the comment that maybe I'll be lucky and that's all it will be, that would be a huge relief. I'm not holding my breath. I cannot imagine that my car has gotten this old without there being wear to the cam chain tensioners and the wear pads. Those are things that seem like they'd be possible with the engine in the car, but certainly not the easiest place to work.

I'm going in with both eyes open and the expectation that I'll be holding main bearings and connecting rod bearings in my hand before long.

I joined PCA last week and I'm hoping to rub elbows with people smarter than I am soon. Hopefully someone will be able to recommend a shop that can polish my crank and check it for straightness, and maybe someone will have the cam tools to allow disassembly and reassembly.

A hammer stroke or two to set the tri-square and it usually comes out ok without stripping. Make sure the heads of the bolts are clean -- they can gunk up and
the tri-square doesn't set deep enough.

Note when you reassemble, check the torque specs -- and again
after 100 miles or so -- they can work themselves loose again.

Mike

Or clean both the bolts and the threaded holes with brake cleaner, use a dab of Loctite, and torque to specs. Then they will stay put.

Finally, a milestone.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps20477b45.jpg

Last night at about 10:30 I was able to wash my hands and go to bed. It took me about 1.5 hours to get all of the engine to transaxle bolts broken loose and the transmission mounts too.

Funny how long I struggled with the top bolt on the engine/trans bolt when I realize I could reach it easily from the top if I just pulled the snorkel out. Duh.

Once everything was loose I supported the transaxle with my floor jack, and employed my air ratchet to pull all the hardware out and get the mounts off.

Then I grabbed my son and had him run the floor jack while I wiggled and checked everything.

I'm calling it a win.

Quickly looked over my clutch (re: the issue of not disengaging completely). Was a bit puzzled to find the date of May of 2014 on the pressure plate, so the clutch had been "done" prior to me purchasing it.

Looking at the actuator lever expecting to see a crack I didn't find one, but there was quite a deep shiny divot where the tip of the slave cylinder pushes on it. That was probably enough to keep it from getting full reach. Funny how far some people will go and not do a job correctly.

I have no idea what the fork looks like in this car, but it seems like a divot from the slave cylinder would not be greater than the large amount of travel you have with the pedal once the clutch is disengaged

How did the IMS area look? Could you see gunk on the block in the space between the flywheel and crankcase?

I just finished my engine swap on my 2001 S on Monday, so it's fresh in my mind. If you run into anything and want any tips, feel free to send me a PM.

Wow your car is pretty low for this work....good on you!

Enjoying this.....please keep posting. Great stuff.

Jay, I think the shadows make the car look lower than it is. I had no problem working under the car or sliding the transaxle out from under it. I'm sure I'll have to remove the rear bumper in order to slide the engine out, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

On that note, I noticed that with the 996 you drop the engine and trans together. I thought the presence of the cross member under the bell housing would preclude that. But looking at the pics on 986fix (the DIY person I referred to in my first post - great pics btw), the cross member miraculously disappears just prior to dropping the engine without comment. Any thoughts from those of you more experience with this process?

This morning I crawled under the car in full motorcycle gear and snapped this pic, because I wanted to know what kind of IMS I have (single or double row).

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psd4cd9cb1.jpg

My uneducated eye, comparing to the pics on the Pelican parts tech article says this is a double row. And the cover doesn't look old and nasty.

Starting to wonder where my metal is coming from. Was it a failed bearing that someone replaced and didn't flush? Maybe my chain tensioner pads are worn through?

neat. i am subscribed..

Definitely looks 'cleanly' suspicious.

The plot thickens..

Thats a single row IMSB pictured

On the plus side, it is now more likely than before that the metal is from your bearing

I love these threads, good luck.

Thanks Jake

I guess if there's a plus side to a single row, that would have to be it.

I was casually following your thread, thinking I might get to that some day.

Today I ran my 'flood damaged' 01 for a couple minutes after getting the electronics fixed. The plan was to warm it up, then change the oil. It smoked and ran VERY rough for about 30 seconds before I shut her down. :eek: Now I suddenly remember an old friend who parked his troubled car by the boat ramp just before a flood and got a nice insurance claim.

I'll be following this thread a bit more intently now.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1412380550.jpg

I'm going to get a different engine for the car, but plan to tear this one down for the exercise.

Wow that's a lot of metal. WAY more than I found.

I wanted to post a quick update, since I haven't posted up in a while. I went on a motorcycle trip with my oldest son and then I had to do the transmission valve body in our Touareg. It's been many years since I did work on an automatic. It reminds me of camping on the beach, where you find sand in your a** crack and every other place for weeks.

That's complete now, so I'm able to get back to my Porsche. Last night after regrouping my tools and cleaning up I dropped my oil pan.

Not a single chip of metal. There was the tiniest of gray stains built up near the base of the baffle but not enough to even get under a fingernail. I expected it to look like a metal version of Don King's hair. Instead it would appear that my oil filter performed as intended and/or my timing was impeccable.

I did a bunch more reading on various paths I can take with my IMS. The short version is that I feel like it would be dumb to not pull the IMS cover and replace it just because I'm in there.

I did determine that my engine is a double row IMS, not single as previously discussed. Staring at a picture last night on Pelican, I finally noticed the part numbers on the face of the IMS cover and compared mine to this pic on the Pelican site:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...all/Pic013.jpg

My part number ends in 1702, so it would appear that I'm indeed double row.

No more progress? You haven't forgotten us, have you?

No, but thanks for the reminder.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to do a complete tear down - yet. My reasoning is as follows:
1) All of the metal found was contained in the factory oil filter. My oil pan was super clean.
2) My flickering oil pressure light at hot idle is (deduced from quite a bit of surfing) likely from a failing AOS. My oil cap was difficult to remove, there was huge suction at the oil filler tube with the cap off, and I pulled the top tube of the AOS and it's very oily. It did not produce clouds of smoke, nor did it run lousy with the oil cap removed.

During my period of silence I purchased an LN IMS tool set from a fellow inmate and cleaned up all the parts I've thus far removed. Actually I suckered my youngest kid into doing most of it. He over achieved in most cases. For example, my shift cable heat shield looks show car ready. I said "son this isn't a show car, it's a daily driver" then he proceeded to make my transmission mounts just as clean. Damn kids.

This past Saturday I cleaned the inside of the transmission bell housing, detail stripped all of the clutch fork components and then did a half ass job of cleaning the rest of the transmission. Call it "survivor" grade cleaning. Your hands will be clean after handling it but I wouldn't serve Kobe beef on it.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps400536a3.jpg

I'm actually planning on replacing everything in this picture. There is clear wear on most components, and of course the throw out bearing is a "don't be a fool, as long as you're in there..." part. I have a short list of parts to order from Pelican that will upgrade the clutch lever to the later non-squeaky type.

On the morning I did the clean up I had actually gone out to the garage to pull the flywheel then realized I didn't have the required T55 torx bit. It was dumping rain at the time, my woman was gone with the Touareg and I didn't feel like suiting up on the bike for the task. Glad I passed too, because we had a tornado (actually a water spout) not three miles from my place. The path of devastation included a knocked over lawn chair. Whew! Dodged it.

That evening I picked up a T55 and proceeded to ruin it without breaking a single flywheel bolt loose. The next morning I picked up a (hopefully) more substantial bit and a set of hardened L wrenches with torx ends on them. With luck they'll last long enough to get all six bolts removed.

After that I whip out the IMS removal tool and make that happen.

As I said earlier, I'm not going to do a complete tear down yet. I do have to find out where the metal came from and determine my level of risk from there. If my IMS is clean then the next likely source of metal would seem to be cam chain tensioners.

Before I blindly order all three tensioners (they don't exactly come in cereal boxes) I'm going to pull them and inspect. Prior to me parking the car I was getting a very short bit of rattle on cold start and that is also reported to be a tensioner issue.

Lastly, I've made a decision regarding replacement IMS. I'm absolutely going to pull the existing bearing and use it as a paper weight. After doing some research on the options I decided to to the EPS roller bearing.

Logic is as follows (and I welcome dissent, as I've not purchased the bearing yet):

My car is a double row bearing. Thus, the LN/F6 IMS "Solution" is not an option for me. I don't see where there is any talk of creating a forced oil plain bearing replacement for the double row version. Even if there were discussion there isn't one on the market, and I don't want to have my car sticking it's ass in the air for any longer than is absolutely required.

I asked EPS for some statistics and they responded that they have put out 800 bearings in the past two years with zero failures. If anyone knows differently I'd like to hear about it.

Simply put, I know that a plain bearing offers the best support of a spinning shaft. The spinning component literally hydroplanes on a layer of oil, the contact patch is pretty damn good and there is zero metal to metal contact when running. In contrast, a ball bearing has an almost infinitely small contact patch and it's on one ball at a time as the bearing spins (discounting harmonics, which I know isn't realistic but stick with me here).

Again, there's no plain bearing option for my double row car currently on the market. A roller bearing offers a way larger contact patch than a ball bearing, so it seems to me that it is at least a lower risk option than the stock bearing set up. How's that for carefully worded?

There's more at play here. In reading Mr Raby's posts he is rightfully quite protective of his development of a one and done solution. Prior to installation he wants engines qualified to see if they are even worth doing. I was unable to test for cam deviations prior to parking my car. For that matter I was unable to perform a leak down test too, but I'm ordering the equipment to do so right now. But what there was, was metal in the filter. Well under .25cc. No chunks, just super tiny stuff.

I've read in his posts and I believe his statement has been along the lines that if there was metal he'd rather you install a competitors product and then report your long term results.

Am I pacing back and forth a bit? Hell yes. Without knowing for sure where the metal came from I'd be a fool to button it back up and drive. But if it's tensioners and AOS, and my current IMS runs smooth then I'd be in for a ton of work (100% dissassembly of my engine) to find out that maybe my car was okay.

The flickering oil light makes hot stuff come up in the back of my throat. I really hope it's the AOS and not that my main bearings are toast. After getting the car running I'll also be hooking up a test gauge to check what my oil pressure really is. Perhaps a gooey pressure switch or faulty pressure relief valve is at play.

Had I really planned this out in advance I would have obtained cable/software and checked for cam deviations. I would have done that oil pressure check and I would have done a leak down test. I didn't.

What I'm looking at from here is about $1000 worth of parts to set the wheels back on the ground and run it.

Depending on what I learn after that I'll either be back in, or I'll have a car I can drive for a while. If it's the latter then my plan is to find a core 3.2 (or 996 engine) and do a 100% tear down/rebuild on it and have it ready to go for chapter 2.

Nice. I see you're in WA. If you want any more help with anything (beer?) PM me. I'm at least in the same state.

Great reading, thanks for that

Luck with the car mate

Tucker (and everyone else who has responded either in this thread of via PM),

Thanks. I'm getting many supportive messages from people who are making the same decisions or at least want to know what they may be facing at some point.

Porsche owners really are turning out to be well grounded and non - ego driven. It's as if they're not compensating for anything ;)

unfortunately its not all Porsche owners, its most of the ones on this forum. go have a look at some of the other forums, especially 911/996/997/981 forums. Its a completely different atmosphere.

Thats not to say that there are not lots of great non-986 drivers that are great, but....

Its us Boxster drivers that are cool people :cheers:

almost makes me not want to get a 996 for my wife

Even if you get one, you still get to hang out here:D Definitely one of the most civilized forums.

Thy can pull my Boxster out of my cold dead hands

lol kind of the same thought I have... keep eyeing a used 996 c4 for sale locally. ...winter is coming, after all.

Just don't want to start wandering over on those other forums. I usually need a shower after to get the stank off.

Oh and thanks OP for the update ! good reading :)

maybe if enough of us 986 owners get a 996 as an extra car we can take over the 996 forums and civilize them. :cheers:

You know, there's a time for glitter. If your daughter likes unicorns, for example.

If you're pressed for time or just impatient, the short version is that I have a failed double row IMS bearing.

The long version goes like this.

First off I feel like an idiot because I've been talking about the cam chain tensioners, which for some reason I had hallucinated as having their metal tips riding directly on the cam chains, when in fact they merely push on the non-metallic cam chain guides. My Bentley manual showed up yesterday and the diagrams cleared this up completely. While they are a likely source of cold start chain rattle, this would seem to remove them from the list of potential suspects. Duh.

As it turns out, finding Godzilla didn't turn out to be difficult anyway.

Read on.

After some challenges removing the flywheel bolts I managed to remove my flywheel. The main problem getting the bolts off is that the socket head isn't very deep, so you have to have some pretty good steel in your T55 bit if it's going to get anything off. Average tools from the local auto parts store need not apply. My 1/2" impact wrench didn't have the go power to crack any of them loose, so I had to at least get them to turn using mechanical advantage.

After years of looking around and finding something I could use as a cheater pipe I finally broke down and got a proper 1/2" breaker bar and by being really careful I was able to get all the bolts to turn and then zoom them off with the impact wrench. Prior to removing the dual mass flywheel I tested it and it returns to center fairly well.

After that I removed the firewall panel from inside the car, rotated the engine to TDC, plucked the cam plugs out and locked the cams. By the way, if the cam locks you have don't come with the bolt used to hold them to the cylinder head, the bolts that held the pressure plate to the flywheel (you know, the ones you were going to replace anyway) are the perfect size. After locking I removed the tensioners for the IMS to crank, and the right side chain.

Nothing to see here, move along.
Another by the way: If you have a 5 chain engine and the book tells you that you don't have to remove the camshaft end plugs for the upper cams, they're not kidding. Even if you're an exploratory belt and suspenders kind of guy there are no notches in the upper cam shafts to lock anything to.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psa85b44d3.jpg
Crappy phone pic. Sorry.
It was go time. I removed the three bolts holding on the IMS bearing cover and removed the cover. Then I installed the IMS bearing puller and got to cranking.

The snap ring eventually snapped the way it is supposed to and the bearing came out. The tool worked perfectly by the way.

So about the unicorns... :ah:

This is what greeted me when I got the bearing out of the removal tool:
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps799aa4db.jpg

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9f0c62b9.jpg

I pried the seals out and gently worked the bearing cages out, then got it all apart.
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psd17517b2.jpg

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psca42642e.jpg

F word.

In other news today, I ordered all the parts for my clutch from Pelican on Thursday and just took the free ground shipping. The package was here today on a Saturday morning. Can't get much more awesome than that.

Ouch! Not good but not too bad either. Complete failure was just avoided. Any longer and it would of been the marbles in the can failure which the engine consumes itself. Looks like just the bearing cage has shredded but not completely? Perhaps someone can chime in on how much material that is. Im guessing next step is clean up? Or possible tear down to do a clean up? There looks to be some grit in there but can't really tell. I suggest LN Spin On Oil Filter Adapter. Not a fix to get rid of the debris, but insurance to help minimize any further debris spreading after your clean up which ever route you take.

I've been following this thread with great interest and hope everything ends where your Box is back on the road. Good luck.

I've been following along with my '01 about a week behind. I'm glad that you at least found the easily identifiable problem. +1 on the LN spin-on adapter. It prevents oil from bypassing the filter.

A few suggestions to add for earlier in the thread:
I picked up a good wrench/bit for the transmission bolt at Lowes. It worked easily with a 8mm wrench and bar:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1413822861.jpg

Also whenever I unbolt a transmission, I like to keep track of what goes where by sticking them in a piece of cardboard:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1413822965.jpg


Also I had one driveshaft bolt that would not come out. Eventually it became stripped enough that the wrench was useless. The easy solution was to turn the shaft so that bolt was on the bottom, then grind off the head. With just a little prying the shaft came off over it. The rest of the bolt was easy to remove after starting it with pliers.

Thanks again for the thread and keep the updates coming.

f350,
That wrench looks like it would work perfectly. If I don't put the hardware back right after removal then I typically will do the same cardboard piece you show in your picture. Given the nature of every bolt being different for the 986, it saves a lot of time. I arranged all of mine on the bench where they are still sitting and then took a phone pic of them just in case they get moved.

For anyone who messes up, Wayne did a bolt by bolt blow of the arrangement either in his book or on his web page for engine removal. Thanks Wayne!

f350, I also saw on another thread that you're the proud owner of a set of IMS tools so you really are close behind me.

rp17,
If anything the bearing cages seem okay but the bearing races both inner and outer are rough - ironically the inner one is rough for part of the way around and smooth for the rest of the way. The balls are also a bit pitted.

I cleaned out the inside of the intermediate shaft and the debris seemed to be contained near the bearing and it was clean as it went past 1/3 of the way back.

For f350 and those following, when I first got the bearing cover off and touched the bearing it seemed "okay" with only the tiniest amount of roughness detectable (which always means the bearing is toast). The center bolt did have a bit of slop so I knew I was uncovering something. I just had no idea until the bearing was in my hand and the glitter was all present that it hit me just how far gone it was.

It has taken me a few days of pacing about, soul searching and even laying awake at night trying to plan my next move. I really wanted to believe that I had dodged the big one and that I might be able to install a new IMS and do some oil changes.

I also wanted to believe that Santa was real. I had a number of "what if's" going on in my head.

What if there is scoring on my crankshaft, or my main/rod bearings? What if I take the short cut and get my car back together and it makes it 1,000 miles and it ends with a clunk? What if I got it all back together including the new AOS, and still got a blinking oil light? What if I did get a clean bearing installed and my crank was fine but there was a hand full of glitter waiting in my oil cooler or oil pressure relief valve just waiting to contaminate a perfectly good bearing and then score up my crankshaft?

Would I ever really trust this engine to take my car on a road trip 500 miles from home, trashing a canyon somewhere 40 miles from the nearest tow truck? Not really.

I miss driving the car but I can't allow that to cloud my judgement and then end up with a smoking boat anchor.

When I shared my thoughts with my woman she said "You should tear it apart. You know how, you enjoy working on it and you bought the car as a hobby".

I had also recently queried Mr Raby to see if he had plans to do a plain bearing for those of us who own two row cars. He sent a quick reply telling me that the market isn't large enough to justify it, and also to please not install any LN products in my engine. That was a pretty direct statement. I'm guessing he doesn't carefully peel bandaids off either.

Damn that Santa Claus anyway.

So I'm going to proceed with the complete tear down. I will hold every part of this engine in my hands before long. I will get down to a bare crankshaft which I will need to have polished and checked for straightness. Jake also urged me to have everything cleaned ultrasonically to make sure every bit of debris is out.

That decision made, Chapter 2 begins this week with removal of the engine and the beginning of the tear down.

Good call, do it nice or do it twice!

I selfishly agree that following Jake's advice is a good call. I installed his IMS Guardian. If it ever alerts the same advice he gave is what will be followed. Because you have the skill and have proven that you can and will document the tear down and rebuild your work will be my model. I have the dual row and wish that there could be an oil feed solution for the dul row. I understand totally that the market has to be there for the investement return FlatSix needs to do the design.