First Porsche! A few questions...

[Farintosh]

Hey Everyone!

After a fair bit of searching I found a way to dip my toe into the wonderful world you all know so well.

The car I ended up settling on is a conversion unfortunately; but for 18k Canadian I thought it could be a good project for me to learn about Porsches. I know very little about these beasts and have a few questions I'd love some insight on. Here's some background info:

It's an 85' from California which had an engine problem so in 87' a 3.3 from an 87' turbo was thrown in, along with some metal turbo flares and other small upgrades. Brakes and and suspension seem to be that of the original 3.2. The engine did well on compression tests and felt stronger than any real 930s I had driven around here. The transmission is a 915 which was beefed up to handle the turbo. Also has a cheap maaco paint job which is cracking on some edges. The car was bought by a military man here in Canada and sat without being driven much before he sold it to his neighbour who flipped it to fund his corvette build...

I only got a few little drives in before the snow and salt came, I'm just trying to sort out as much as I can this winter to decide where to go from here.

Unsurprisingly there have been a few surprises.

Here are a couple pictures















^It looks like these lines(?) have been cut by a torch or something? Could anyone explain what happened here? or why?



Also not sure what has been done here^

I'm looking forward to the salt clearing off the roads to really start sorting out where I should be spending my money or if this project is even worth it.

If anyone knows of a good shop in Ontario I could take it to get them to check out the engine and whatnot that would be greatly appreciated.

I'd love to upgrade the suspension, get some good brakes, upgrade the turbo and headers, a proper paint job, and slowly improve the car over time. Ideally I'd drive the car as a weekend cruiser in the summer and take it to the track occasionally. I think I'll try to discover whatever secrets are yet to uncover before I start opening my wallet though.

Thanks in advance for you opinions and expertise!

[WinRice]

Originally Posted by Farintosh

Hey Everyone!

It looks like these lines(?) have been cut by a torch or something? Could anyone explain what happened here? or why?

Welcome!

Those are the air injection lines into the exhaust ports that originally attached to an air pump driven off the front left cam. If you look at the left front of the engine the grooved pulley and belt guard are probably still there. The pump and associated plumbing have probably been removed. I believe our host still stocks (haven't looked) some much better plugs for those, so you could remove and cap them better. Some hack (literally) cut the lines and welded them shut.

The next pic is a pressure regulator, but it's not clear what it's doing. Trace the lines back and see what they plumb into. It's a little scary, because it looks like the kind of regulator you would find on an air compressor. Probably a poor man's boost control.

[Miguel Antonett]

Welcome to the forum!!!

Nice looking car you have there, mainly for that price. Extremely dry under carriage, but shows sign of prior leaks/grim... does it have any oil in the engine? Kidding...

Hey, being a converstion you'll have to sort thing out one a time until you get familiar with what it was done to it...

For instance, that little switch on the last picture is a boost controller, CAREFUL with that thing because overboosting could be very expensive in our cars, fortunately in the engine bay you can f..k with it while driving.

May be lower it some to improve cornering and stance... what about brakes, what's in there? Check out the rear wheel spacers, the driver rear appears further out than the passenger's.

Keep us posted of your findings and GOOD LUCK!

[LOWFAT]

Welcome,change the oil and drive it for awhile and see if it stops leaking.Most of these cars that sit long periods will leak more than those driven frequently.Have a leak down test done by someone who knows what they are doing as that will tell the health of the engine better.Brakes should be a priority after that since it probably has standard running gear.Take a few pics of the calipers so we can have more info.That valve can probably be traced back to the waste gate in driver rear wheel well,a dial a death so to say.You can turn up the boost from say .08 bar to say 1.2 bar simply by turning the knob to open the valve more.Take a few pics of the engine bay and turbo if possible and we should be able to tell you more. Do you have any more info to pass on?Welcome to the madness.

[mark houghton]

Definitely a "dial of death", with one hose coming off the intercooler as it should, and the other end going down to the wastegate. I would suggest getting rid of that regulator short term anyway and just plumbing direct. You can always play with boost levels later, but stick with the stock .8 bar (presuming your WG has the stock spring, which it may not; may actually have a lower boost rate spring as would be appropriate if running with a boost pressure regulator).

She looks really nice, conversion or not. Enjoy, we'll help where we can.

[unclebilly]

You stole it. Change the oil and brake fluid. Put in Brembo LCF600 for brake fluid and Brad Penn or god quality diesel motor oil.

It is a dry sump engine so you check the oil level hot with it running.

Nice Johnny Popper by the way.

[IMR-Merlin]

Am I seeing 930 trailing arms?

Do you have pictures of the brakes?

[unclebilly]

I think yose are 911 arms. The calipers are not at the back of the rotor.

[puddy]

I remember that car for sale, it popped up a couple times at various prices. I was going to enquire myself then I found my current car instead. Have fun with it, looks like a fun car, and good value.

[356911930]

Looks like you have a nice project there. A leak down test would one the first things to do. That will tell you if you should start with the engine before spending money on other issues. Your garage shows that you are no beginner.

Good luck and congrats on the purchase,

Rahl

[Farintosh]

Thanks everyone for the wealth of knowledge!

Originally Posted by WinRice

Welcome!

Those are the air injection lines into the exhaust ports that originally attached to an air pump driven off the front left cam. If you look at the left front of the engine the grooved pulley and belt guard are probably still there. The pump and associated plumbing have probably been removed. I believe our host still stocks (haven't looked) some much better plugs for those, so you could remove and cap them better. Some hack (literally) cut the lines and welded them shut.

The next pic is a pressure regulator, but it's not clear what it's doing. Trace the lines back and see what they plumb into. It's a little scary, because it looks like the kind of regulator you would find on an air compressor. Probably a poor man's boost control.

Okay, I wasn't sure if it was for fuel injection or what the case was. I looked up the air injection delete, luckily it won't have to pass emissions here. I'll take your advice and look for some better plugs.

I'll check what the pressure regulator is up to when I get the chance. Definitely won't be fiddling around with it too much in the meantime. Thanks for the insight and the heads up!

Originally Posted by Miguel Antonett

Welcome to the forum!!!

Nice looking car you have there, mainly for that price. Extremely dry under carriage, but shows sign of prior leaks/grim... does it have any oil in the engine? Kidding...

Hey, being a converstion you'll have to sort thing out one a time until you get familiar with what it was done to it...

For instance, that little switch on the last picture is a boost controller, CAREFUL with that thing because overboosting could be very expensive in our cars, fortunately in the engine bay you can f..k with it while driving.

May be lower it some to improve cornering and stance... what about brakes, what's in there? Check out the rear wheel spacers, the driver rear appears further out than the passenger's.

Keep us posted of your findings and GOOD LUCK!

Thanks! I believe it still has the stock brakes, I don't have a picture on me but they're similar to this style

Originally Posted by LOWFAT

Welcome,change the oil and drive it for awhile and see if it stops leaking.Most of these cars that sit long periods will leak more than those driven frequently.Have a leak down test done by someone who knows what they are doing as that will tell the health of the engine better.Brakes should be a priority after that since it probably has standard running gear.Take a few pics of the calipers so we can have more info.That valve can probably be traced back to the waste gate in driver rear wheel well,a dial a death so to say.You can turn up the boost from say .08 bar to say 1.2 bar simply by turning the knob to open the valve more.Take a few pics of the engine bay and turbo if possible and we should be able to tell you more. Do you have any more info to pass on?Welcome to the madness.

I changed the oil and drove it a little, leaked a couple drops out of a line coming from the front oil cooler I believe, but I haven't seen a drop since then.

I'll try to take some more picture of tomorrow to show exactly whats going on.

The brakes seem to be the original ones so I'll be looking to upgrade. Would it be worth getting a set of 930 brakes or would it make more sense to go for an upgrade now? I've heard of people going for the "big red" kits or even 996 variants?

Originally Posted by puddy

I remember that car for sale, it popped up a couple times at various prices. I was going to enquire myself then I found my current car instead. Have fun with it, looks like a fun car, and good value.

Yeah, it was a bit of a mess. I was outbid $500 when the car was for sale in Toronto after I was told we had a deal. A couple weeks later the car popped up in London for nearly double. Then I guess that buyer had 2 993's show up from the states and had to sell the car that day so he dropped his price way down to less than what he had paid and I even got him to deliver it. Seemed a bit suspect but I decided to take the risk.

Best of luck with your project, hopefully I see you around this summer!

Originally Posted by 356911930

Looks like you have a nice project there. A leak down test would one the first things to do. That will tell you if you should start with the engine before spending money on other issues. Your garage shows that you are no beginner.

Good luck and congrats on the purchase,

Rahl

There was a compression test done by a mechanic where I bought the car. I was told the values were 130 across the board but again it was a bit suspect. I wasn't able to have a proper ppi done at the time but as soon as spring rolls around I'll get a full check up.

The shop is my dad's, so I'm afraid I don't don't have the inherit experience he has. He collects and restores trucks from the 30s mainly, I came from bmw e30s so it's been a learning curve for both of us!

[Farintosh]

Originally Posted by Miguel Antonett

Welcome to the forum!!!

Check out the rear wheel spacers, the driver rear appears further out than the passenger's.

Keep us posted of your findings and GOOD LUCK!

Good eye, went out to check and while the wheels are spaced out the same the actual fender rear fender on the passenger side goes out about 3/8s further... Just another thing to add to the list!