Covid Project: Restoring a vintage 911 myself. In way over my head.
 

So when Covid hit and I knew I'd be stuck at home for a while, I finally felt up to tackling the biggest project of my life so far.... fixing my old 911. I bought this car for cheap years ago before the price boom, but then the prices went up so quickly and so much I can't afford pros to service it.

Pretty much everything was wrong with this car; it ran/drove, but the paint was shot, interior was shot, engine was... very very very leaky, transmission had grinds, suspension was worn out, brakes were seized, etc. Over the past few years I fixed the interior, suspension, brakes, but I've been putting off even basic maintenance on the powertrain because it was SO BAD.

Anyway... decided since I have a lot of freetime to do a video series on it. How is this related to eco modder?

2 ways. 1. I drive a hybrid so I can afford parts for this car. 2. Restoring old cars is super green compared to buying a new car.

Anyway... if you want to learn about these things, feel free to check it out.

Here's the intro/overview of everything wrong with my car, and my overall plans (I knew basically nothing about these engines/transmissions at this point, lol)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ_jFiTON2g

Episode 2 is dropping the engine/transmission myself, using a motorcycle jack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W870A-EizDE

Once it was out, the next steps were diagnosing how bad things are, and how much it's going to cost. The biggest thing was my engine case is magnesium, (super soft) and pulled head studs are suppppppeerrrr common on these engines. This was the video where I checked all the head studs, and found some not even attached!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0gUImuE5e0

With the headstuds all holding properly, the next thing to do was to diagnose the health of the rings/valves by doing a leakdown test. I used a harbor freight leakdown tester on this so it's a bit.... well... watch the video to find out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUn1QOK5vDg

Anyway, I will update this thread with my progress as long as there's interest. Definitely learning a TON on this project!

I'll follow the story, but I'm not sure why you posted in The Lounge, which is for off-topic stuff. Conserving our air-cooled heritage would be appropriate for Central or DIY. I'm sure the Moderators would move it if you ask.

True. I'll follow too, for sure. The "Off Topic Tech" subforum might be best, since this is DIY but is an "eco" project in the narrower fuel economy sense. I think any old car reuse has at least some "recycling" cred. :) :turtle:

EDIT: and I like your choice not to open up the engine and replace the rings. It runs a d drives and is in acceptable form. Gotta enjoy the ride too, not just look at it in pieces like scupture in your driveway.

Yeah, move it to wherever is appropriate. I wasn't sure if the DIY section was only for ecomodding related content, or whatever. What's 'central' for?

"Ecomodding Central" is to "discuss everything related to vehicle mods here, from ideas to experiments to results." If you click to "forum" tab above you can see each subform name and short description. Hopefully mods will notice your request to move the thread. Even so, feel free to add to the thread until then, of course.

Yeah... but this isn't about ecomodding. Seems sort of off topic compared to discussions about ideas and experiments to maximize mpg. ?

Idk you guys are the experts. :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnnft7AEYq4

Pretty nasty.... but if you like powerwashing pron you will dig this episode. Also get to discover if I have an aluminum trans, or an ultra desirable magnesium transmission (30lb weight savings!)

Congrats on magnesium. ... 1:31... oops! But it all looks much better.

A properly-restored air-cooled 911 is always cool

Just how bad is the gas mileage on that thing? It's light and the displacement is fairly modest but the compression ratio is LOW.