Help me make my 930 more reliable

[wittymoniker]

Hi all. I have a '79 Euro 930 that's in for paint at the moment. I've done a full suspension refresh, replaced the delaminating windscreen, re-powder coated as required, removed the A/C, restored the Fuchs and replaced the interior and all body seals.

On to the engine. It has 68,000 miles and so far has given very little trouble. Due to the age of the car I have no emissions or noise issues, it will not be raced or tracked, it will be my very nice daily driver. So, can you advise me on what I can replace or remove from the motor to make it more basic and therefore reliable.

I realise that it's not the popular thing to do around these parts, but approaching her fourth decade I don't think it's fair to be asking her to produce 400hp, I just want her to start, run and look awesome.

Thanks in advance.

[1979-930]

I have a 79 with 82,000 miles and while performing some basic maintenance I found the rubber hoses are all rotten. I would replace all the fuel, vacuum and boost hoses and seals. It's on my winter to do list. Along with new injectors.

[wittymoniker]

Very true, I've done brake lines, I'll add these to the list.

[s5uewf]

Fuel lines and go through and install fuses in all the wiring circuits that are not already fused. There is a good thread on the main (911) forum that lists several of them (dash gauges, front A/C blower, etc.)

Dash lighting fuse installation


Might as well do what you can to avoid any fires as the car ages.

[wittymoniker]

Excellent, I did get a new fuse panel, but I'll be taking some cues from that thread.

[T77911S]

you are already there.
just carry a spare CD and coil.

[wittymoniker]

Originally Posted by T77911S

you are already there.
just carry a spare CD and coil.

I will. I find it hard not to be a little paranoid!

[T77911S]

yea I know,
that's what I love about these cars. not much to leave you on the side of the road.
fuel pump
CD
coil
fan belt
major major failure.
you an even keep going for a while with a bad alt.

[wittymoniker]

With that in mind, the ignition system in general intrigues me. Is there a good alternative to stock? Is MSD worth the effort if I'm not looking for huge HP?

[RarlyL8]

HP really has little to do with reliability as far as these cars are concerned. Most of the troublesome components are refreshed or swapped out when you do performance mods plus the engine tends to run cooler. I wouldn't be the least bit afraid of that.
Bringing the gray slant back to life has been a good experience in seeing the weak links and how they fail. The most notorious issues have been covered many times here on the board, and that is the ignition system and electrical portions of the fuel system. Piss poor engineering on Porsche's part, fix those and a big chunk of aging issues are gone.
Outside of the typical you start getting into full restoration mode, preventing things like rear wheel bearing failure or performing fuel tank and tunnel fuel line replacement.

[T77911S]

yes the fuel pumps. one fuse feeds both pumps along with the heating off the WUR and AAR.
here is what I did.
the power goes to rely 2 first so I cut the wire at pin 30 going to rly 1. very difficult figuring out which one is the correct one since I did not want to pull the wire loom apart more than I had to.
then I ran that wire over to a spare fuse on the fuse panel.
then ran a red wire from the top of the main FP fuse over to the spare fuse.
this put the 2 pumps on 2 fuses, and the big plus is it looks factory and you cant tell its been done.
for the 86+ cars the single fuse also powers the O2 sensor relay.

one other thing I did, well 2 other, is I removed each wire at the fuse panel and cleaned the wire ends along with the screw that holds them. this reduces resistance which reduces heat.

the other thing I did was install 2 relays for the headlights. I also changed the wiring so the HL fuses protect the wiring going thru the switches. I added 2 fuses for the relays.
I would like to have used the factory fuse sockets to make it look more factory. the good thing about how I did all this is that I did not cut any wires, other than the fuel pump wire). so if someone wants to put it back they can.

[wittymoniker]

Thanks guys.

[boosted79]

Install some modern Hella 40A relays for the pumps, get rid of the air meter contact and relay and substitute an inertia switch. Install a sw in the cabin to shut the pumps off with key on if you want since the pumps will run as long as the key is on.