My 916: An adventure to remember!

[Desame 33]

Hello everybody!

 

As some of you may know, i bought my beautiful bella back in Summer 2015.

 

From then till today, i had a lot of failures, bad moments, swears, pocket bleeding etc etc.. But also had some unique moments & unforgettable pictures to remember!

 

So from October 2016 till today (and for some time more), i set a goal: To restore my bella (Black beastie) in almost mind condition. And i say ''almost'' because she is and will continue to be my daily commuter.

 

Covered around 50.000kms till October 2016, whatever was to break, broke! So, thats a good basis to start with.

 

Before that, some history: My bella rolled out of factory in 1996 as a 2.0 v6 tb ph1 Lusso trim (i think) 916 GTV. 1st owner used her for some years and then sold her. 2nd owner decided to do so massive modifications to her! So, he bought a complete GTV 3.0 v6 24v Edizione Sportiva from Belgium (i think) and transplanted almost everything to her. So its safe to say that she is a complete edizione sportiva, but the electrics.... He didnt transfer the body looms, rather than modified to fit the sportivas' ones. Anyway, this is a nightmare that i' ll deal with in the end.

 

After that, he sold her. The 3rd owner, must be a pretty bad guy that completely ruined her. He crashed her (and badly restored), never serviced, always street-fighting with other cars, dual-mass shot, engine mounts shot, all interior completely destroyed due to ICE mods, etc etc etc....

 

Then i bought her. Even in that disastrous state, she charmed me..!

 

So, a new adventure began!

 

This is just an introductory post. Most of servicing, restoring, TLC are already done. Many friends on FB requested yet to make a post here, with more photos and descriptions etc etc. So for the sake of better understanding, i will post frequently (around 3 -5 days) updates on my bellla, as if i do them now.

 

Tomorrow, i ll make the 1st post, regarding complete restoration of the engine.

 

Let's have fun!

 

 

Ps: Photo of me and my bella, proud in the 1st day!!

 

 

Edited August 20, 2017 by Desame

[A6C 15]

Looking forward to reading this...

[Desame 33]

And the adventure begins!

 

After covering around 20.000kms, engine started to rattle, not behaving properly and day by day the oil level increasing without me adding any

 

So, the obvious reason was internal oil / paraflu leak from somewhere. And was verified when i opened the coolant reservoir with warm engine....

 

I had 2 options:

 

1) Replace my engine with another one, as is and god help! Estimated cost was around 1300e just for the engine and labour.

 

2) Dismantle my engine and fix everything. Estimated cost was around 3000e in parts & labour.

 

By that time (December 2015), i was only left with that bella (916) and would be without out for at least one month, in case of fixing my engine. Yes, i decided to follow the expensive way.

 

Cause i prefered to pay once and for all a big amount of money to my engine and have peace of mind, rather than paying less to put an unknown engine and god knows what this would lead to. 

 

Attached you may find a couple of pics with the engine taken out, during Christmas (yes, the best gift i could do to her, in some way  hehe)

 

In the next post, i will analyze what happened to the engine, what lead to disaster, what needed to be changes and what was actually done! Ofc, with a lot of pictures etc etc!

Edited August 21, 2017 by Desame

[Thanos 193]

Good to see her in good hands. 

I recognized the workshop in Thessaloniki. Excellent choice.

[Desame 33]

After a failure regarding editing of engine photos and eventually losing all of them due to disk failure(!), i will continue posting without pics unfortunately, regarding engine restoration...

 

Hence, i will make a small analyze (cause a post without pics is a ...) and then i 'll continue with the rest of the restoration!

 

So, after getting engine out (look previous post), my mechanic faced the hell itself. We are talking about half a tone of mud, mixed with oxidation and whatever else you may think!

 

But, no, we are made for the difficult stuff!

 

After hours of cleaning everything up, using several ways (by hand, chemicals etc), my little engine was again as clean as it should!

 

After that, replacement of parts started:

 

-> New headgaskets

-> New piston rings

-> New seals etc everywhere

-> New crankshaft bearings

-> New connecting rod bearing

-> New Valve seats

-> New valve guides

-> Polished etc valves

-> Skimmed heads

-> New timing belt kit, auxiliary belt kit etc

-> New sparkplugs (i had them changed 2 years ago, only to find out that previous mechanic changed only 3 out 6....)

-> New air filter (again, previous mechanic had installed TS air filter, which is shorter and was dancing hola-hoop in the air-box...)

-> Fresh oil (Motul 8300 5w40 fully synthetic)

-> New clutch kit

 

After 500kms, i changed again oil and guess what i did next  hehehe

 

(i attach some photos that was saved due to ... facebook!)

[Desame 33]

Ok next update!

 

Due to harsh life, as you can understand, every moving part both in front & rear suspension elements, was a bit (or a lot) worned out..!

 

So, replaced:

 

- New outer cv joint Right

- New outer cv joint Left

- New inner cv joint Right

- New inner cv joint Left

- New wheel bearing Front Right

- New wheel bearing Front Left

- New wheel hub Front Right

- New wheel hub Front Left

- New wheel bearing & hub Rear Right

- New wheel bearing & hub Raer Left

- New Top mount Right

- New Top mount left

- New inner Tie rod end Right

- New inner Tie rod end Left

- New outer Tie rod end Right

- New outer Tie rod end Left

- New Stabilizer link Front Right

- New Stabilizer link Front Left

- New Stabilizer link Rear Right

- New Stabilizer link Rear Left

- Fully flex Rear lower inner wishbone Right

- Fully flex Rear lower inner wishbone Left

- Fully flex Rear lower outer wishbone Right

- Fully flex Rear lower outer wishbone Left

- Fully flex Rear upper wishbone Right

- Fully flex Rear upper wishbone Left

- New Rear upper wishbone Tie rod end Right

- New Rear upper wishbone Tie rod end Left

 

Also, since my bella had lowering rear springs, resulting in rear suspension NOT working properly, after a lot of search, i found Brand new OEM rear springs!

 

So, replaced

 

- New OEM spring Rear Right

- New OEM spring Rear Left

- New OEM spring lower rubber insert Right

- New OEM spring lower rubber insert Left

- New OEM spring upper rubber insert Right

- New OEM spring upper rubber insert Left

 

So, till next update, enjoy some photos!

 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Desame

[916C-V6TB 30]

Hi Orpheas, good work! Forza!

[Desame 33]

1st pic: Is this big & semi enough for you..?

 

2nd pic: I don't think my suspension is way too stiff, isn't it..?

 

Also, in the following links, you can see some test passes (at this stage, it was in safe mode, without MAF sensor)!

 

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Edited December 14, 2017 by Desame

[jonalfaspider 107]

😂😂😂

 

where are are the doors 😂

 

Mad😎👍

[Desame 33]

Actually, anyone who saw these videos, asked the same thing..!  hehe

 

Well it was just a small test session just after installing the wheels-tyres and wheel-alignment, mafless setup (since i didn't have anyway to mount it(!), cause i am still desinging my 1-piece alumunium intake), so no-point in putting any ... un-necessery parts on the bella

Edited December 15, 2017 by Desame

[jonalfaspider 107]

👍😎