Finally! I bought a 911
 

I bought Pelican members Tholyoak's 1980 911SC Targa with a 3.6 swap. Thanks to Pelican for all the resources and the forum to help me find a really sweet car. I have learned a lot in here and now have a lot more to learn.

I was waiting to hear if the PPI went well and it went superb. The cars overall score was a 9.5 out of 10 and that was due to some small rock chips on the front.

The fun part is getting it home. I am flying into Kansas City and driving it back w/ my 10 y/o son. We are going to visit St. Louis and check out the Gateway Arch, then to Nashville for the night.

The next morning we are setting off for Savannah via the Smokey Mountain park. I plan on driving right through the middle of it if time will permit. I am bringing my Sticky pods and video cameras to record some of the drive through the park and some of the Blue Ridge Highway.

From Savannah we head back to the West Palm Area of Florida and home, possibly stopping off at St. Augustine.

I am really excited about the car and excited about the trip. What a great way to get aquainted with it.

Link to pics of the car in the for sale add.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-cars-sale/226023-fs-3-6l-911sc-ruf-look.html?highlight=RUF

Jim,
Congratulations!http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/...s/beerchug.gif

Great looking car.

Tim

Jim,

Contrats! Todd is a really good guy and from what I have heard the car is excellent so hope you enjoy your drive home!

Stop by Stevensons Apple farm in Lenexa on the drive home. Best smoked chicken in the country and a meal you will not soon forget!

Joe A

Very good choice. That is one of the more tastefully done mod'd 911s around. Looks like you really scored.

Love those sportseats.

Looks like alot of car for the $$$$$$$$$$$$$....now just make sure U know where every Porsche Mechanic is on your entire route home....you just might be visiting everyone of them.....

Bet those rock chips are an easy fix, making the car a 10.
ENJOY!

What? No pix yet? Please have them email for pete's sake.....

Best of Luck and take that car to the track (will justify the paint chips).

Regards,

Jim, very nice ride! You'll havre fun for sure. Congrates!

Nice, have fun with it.:)

I am back in Florida. I had lots off interesting experiances both positive and negative. I also have a few questions.

I am going to search for some answers in the tech forum first.

I had a 60 something year old man run me off the road in B.F.E. Kentucky. I got off an exit to fin a bathroom for my son we went to the West and nothing was open, so I pulled into the middle lane (4 lane road with suicide turn lane) and waited for this pickup truck to pass heading the opposite way. After he passed I flipped a U-turn. As I headed East I started to come back up on said pickup which seemed to be slowing. I put on my directional and started to pass. (speed limit 40 I was doing 40-45 he was doinf 30-35) as I pulled alongside he swerved at me and made me swerve to aviod contact with him. I dropped back behind and waited for some other cars to pass and passed with them.

I caught a light and this old fart pulled up behind so close I was sure he was trying to bump me. I could feel my blood boiling but figured this guy was probably packing and escelating this any further wouldn't be wise. I pulled into the next gas station and he kept going.


When I got to Nashville I pulled up to the front of the Hotel and the Valet (an dude in his 60's as well) came up and said, "Please tell me you want to Valet this car, we live for moments like this." I laughed and thanked him for his honesty. He told me to check in, get settled and come back down and he would let me park it in the Valet lot away from the other cars. Hella cool guy that loved P-cars. I tipped him 20 bucks for the kind gesture.

The drive from Kansas City to Nashville was brutal. It was very hot out and we were melting in the car. The good news is I got 27 MPG cruising at 70-80 MPH.

Saturdays trip through the moutains made this trip totally worth while. As the roads started to get twisty the smile on my face got bigger. I have not driven a 911 since 1985 when my cousin let me drive his 73 911T for a day. My car is just how I remember it and why I spent thousands in suspension work on my RX-7 to try to replicate the steering on the 911. Its an amazing car and the handling is boggling.

I dont know if its me or the car but I am having a difficult time adapting to the feel of the pedals and shift stick on this car. 5th gear seems to get stuck in gear from time to time. I also am having trouble gettin gused to the clutch. I am having a hell of a time finding 4th gear coming down from 5th. Its getting easier and right now I have to think about what my right hand is doing so I guess it will take a little time before its a natural movement.

I was also concerned with engine temps. I was seeing 180-190 on the road during cool mornings. When it was hot out I would see more of a steady 190-200. What bothered me was sitting in stop and go traffic with ambient temps of 90°. I was horrified to see the temp climbing up past 220 towards 250 I pulled over and shut it down. I am going to search to see what acceptable temps are.

The car gets all kinds of attention, now that I am in Florida and away from Kentucky it seems to be all good attention. I am having a ball with it and look foward to participating in some Autocrosses and some DE's with it.

Jim, I have no experience with 3.6 conversions but on a normal SC or Carrera you usually don't want the temp to spend much time above 1/2 way on the oil temp scale. My Carrera seldom gets above 1/3, admittedly it doesn't get that hot here in the SF Bay.

Edit: You might want to check that the gauge is accurate. When the gauge reads high, shut down the car and measure the temp of the oil in the tank (maybe you can use a long meat thermometer, or a baking thermometer). I don't know if the gauge is reading the temp at the oil tank exactly, but it seems to me the two temps should be related. Also, when the car is hot, feel the oil lines under the passenger side, forward near the right front wheel, to see if they are also hot. If not, you may have a oil circulation problem.

If you conclude you don't have enough oil cooling, perhaps you could consider upgrading to the Carrera oil cooler (located in the right front fender, where the stock SC cooler is, but more effective and with a fan) and/or the Elephant Racing finned brass oil lines. This might not be as effective as a big aftermarket cooler mounted in an aftermarket front valance, but would involve a minimum of work and no changes to the bodywork.

This is just an idea to tide you over until people who have 3.6s chime in.

Sorry you had the bad experience with the P/U. I guess you need some protective coloration in KY - plaster the car with NRA, Marine Corps, and American flag stickers maybe?

Oh, I'll bet you will be searching for the threads about A/C upgrades too.

I need to do that myself, my A/C has gradually deteriorated to useless and I am considering improving the system before recharging it.

John L. - You may want to gove mark Wilson a PM. He has done some interesting things with the 911 AC.

Those stone chips just say "I'm fast!"

I will. He and Jack Olsen were the two people I was thinking of.

I have been doing a ton of searching and not finding the answers I am looking for. I dont want to be such a newb but I might have to ask some real beginner answers and risk looking like a fool.

Are you saying the temp guage on the dash is an Oil temp and not engine temp?

The car has a 28 tube brass fender cooler inline with Mocal front mount cooler. I would imagine this is plenty of cooling. Like I said at speed no problem, sitting in stop and go traffic for 30-45 minutes, not happy.

Also I have been searching for advice on how to do a "complete" oil change. I know there is a lot of oil in those coolers. How do I swap all the oil out? Do I have to do 2 changes in succession?

BTW- The 3.6 in this car is amazing. It is so torquey you can drop it into 5th at 40 MPH and your good to go up to 120+ miles per hour. I also noticed that when you get up in to the triple digits the fron of the car seems to squat somewhat, maybe about 1/2" or so. I noticed this on I-95 close to home yesterday.
Very cool.

temp gauge is for oil temp. Those oil coolers are not very useful when your speed is low. You could add an electric fan, but it probably won't do a lot of good on the tube cooler.

knightrace has an SC with 3.6 in the Classifieds forum. You might wish to inquire about the oil cooling setup, because this car is in Nashville, TN (pretty hot in summer).

There is no easy way to change the oil in the coolers. Just drain the engine case and oil tank and call it good. Actually, Chuck Moreland sells nice finned oil lines with a schrader valve at the oil cooler side. It allows you to flush your oil coolers with compressed air. That's a darn slick idea.

Don't even think about A/C until you get your oil temp issues resolved. A decklid-mounted condenser will raise your oil temps 20 degrees.

In one search I did I read how a guy was seeing 250 on his temp guage during a DE and asked if it was o.k. The answer was it was not good but was acceptable. So I guess my question is is it o.k. for oil temps to hit 220-240 sitting at idle?

This happened twice. The second time when I saw the temp rising I turned around and took it real gentle. The temp dropped from 230 back to 190 in about 3 minutes. I see lots of searching and lots of reading in my future.

Jim - what weight oil are you running?