1981 911 sc
 

Hi Guys and Girls

I have a 1981 Porsche 911 SC coupe with 160K KM (sorry I'm a Canuck). I have a very good friend who is also my mechanic and is very good and knows Porsches back and front especially the air cooled one.

I found this car two years ago in a farmers field( true story) bought it for a song and brought it home. I had Horseshoes in my rump as the former Owner left the engine completely full of new oil .

After rebuilding the fuel injection system and cleaning out the fuel lines etc etc it fired up and it's ran like a top. I was very very lucky.

I now have this ongoing discussion with my mechanic about upgrading from the standard chain tensioner to the hydraulic chain tensioners. But that's a fairly big undertaking and an expensive consideration but I realize the upgrade is far less than a rebuilt engine. It also involves removing the engine so it's time consuming

So I would like to know what the forums opinion is on doing this job and are there warning signals that car needs this upgrade or do you just find the engine doesn't run anymore or are there less troublesome warnings. ? A good long season for me in the car is 3000 km a summer. I'd like to know with this mileage wether this upgrade is an important one or are there many cars that go for years without it?

Thanks

John

The upgrade is a good idea but not a fail safe answer. the tensioner do fail.
Consider tensioner guards on what you have will work just fine at way less than Carreras tensioner
Bruce

I am a big fan of the tensioner bushing upgrade that Henry does. I've put them on three motors so far and I like the way they went together. Certainly less chance of them to bind on the shaft or impart excessive heat.

Chain tensioner..........
 

John,

Install the chain tensioner collar guards coupled with the Jerry Wood conversion bushings and you will be fine. Plus you will have more $$$$ to spend for your other projects.

Tony

Devil's advocate: I hate those guards. I found one in pieces in my sump screen. Maybe the PO had simply driven it with a failed tensioner and the guard broke from all the slapping. They are not fail safe and provide no protection if you ignore the symptoms.

The Jerry Woods mod reduces the travel of the non-pressure fed tensioners by putting bushings INSIDE the tensioners, a far more elegant solution. I don' think you need BOTH Jerry's mod AND the collars.

As for this being a "big undertaking", it's not. I did mine in an afternoon with no big surprises other than I needed a different oil line for my older model. The engine certainly does not need to be dropped. Removing bumper and rear engine tin gave me all the room I needed. You're going to have to modify the tin anyways... I don't remember if I had the exhaust off too.

As noted above, if this applies to MY 81, get the wider idler arms rather than using bushings to make the narrow arms work.

Thank you guys for all the advice. I guess I'm going to get the kit and have it done. I'm convinced there is a chink in the armor of my SC I should upgrade