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Re: Resurrecting a 90's 3.0L 951

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2024 8:22 am
by Black944 turbo
I think I remember this car too. So glad you are saving it.

Re: Resurrecting a 90's 3.0L 951

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2025 3:05 pm
by Bagelgarage
I'm back!! I started a new job and was relocated to Portland for the last year so progress kinda tanked. But I've transferred back home and can finally get this project going again.

I was able to get the transmission sorted over the last year. I rebuilt the diff with new internals from Flying Horse Motorsport. the old diff was over-shimmed causing it to be essentially locked. It is now all resealed and ready to go back in the car.

Yesterday I finally got the garage cleaned up enough to fully dis-assemble the engine. And I've got some problems.
First the good, all the bearings are in great shape and the crank and rods appear to be salvageable. (Haven't measured anything yet but they look good). The crank does appear to have gotten hot at some point but all of the bearing journals are in good shape.
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Then theres the pistons, All 4 are cracked in the exact same spot. 2 cracks on each piston, on the same side. I'm not sure what would cause this, never seen this exact damage before. #2 piston has some scoring on the outside of the skirt.
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The other damage that needs to be addressed is the mark in the sleeve on cylinder 4. My cylinders measure roughly 104.5mm. My original thought was just to have the sleeves machined to where that mark is gone and then find pistons to fit. My question is, how much can these sleeves be bored before I'm going to run into issues? Would it be realistic to have them bored out to 105mm without running into warping issues? I'm planning on stopping by the machine shop this week and seeing if they have any guidance but figured I would ask here as well.

Re: Resurrecting a 90's 3.0L 951

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2025 8:18 pm
by 944m3
Very interesting news about the pistons.

John mentioned he thought the engine was high compression. Just out of curiosity, any chance you know what the compression ratio was? There is always a healthy conversation about what the limit on the ratio is on a turbo engine.