81SC - Project Name - Lost

[GenX Porsche]

Its introduction to new project time... I have had a vision for my ultimate 911 that has morphed over the past 16+ years of being on this fantastic forum. After owning and selling 3 older 911 from 72.5-77 around the mid 2000s, including the first car I ever purchased with my own money which is an entirely separate story, I had to take a break for family and business purposes.

Three years ago I decided to get back into the game and bought 81sc off eBay. Totally got screwed by the lawyer previous owner, sorry if you are one of those honest lawyers, when I asked if the paint was original he said over 90% was original and there were only a couple of areas of re-spray. Turns out the whole car was sprayed and poorly done to boot. In addition there was a horrible repair done from a hit in the driver rear quarter. Waves of emotions went over me and there were periods where I couldn’t look or work on the car because of how pissed I was.

I slowly pulled myself together and started projects like wevo shifter, new steering wheel, some really cool seats off of a euro car, new fuel pump, fuel tunnel lines, pedal rebuild, spark plugs, fuel filter, fuel accumulator, turbo tie rods, brake job... the normal stuff. The love for the car came back slowly and the realization that what I am really looking for in a car is the feeling that comes from driving an older 911.

I am also fortunate to own a 996 turbo that I bought in a moment of frustration after my disappointment with the SC. This car was on my car owner bucket list and is an amazing vehicle but when I look at something that is fun on the roads that I drive every day, I found myself looking towards the SC keys as I walk out the door. Consequently when faced with parting with a vehicle, because the family no longer fits in the SC or turbo, the SC is staying in the stable and the turbo needs to find a new home. anyone looking for a low mileage manual convertible 996 turbo pm me

Back to the project at hand, I started with a M&K gt3 exhaust and headers with heat. Only pulled two head studs with the nuts attached, who says you can’t get lucky... Had some trouble getting the stock oil lines to work which I thought I could get away with but had to go back dating. Protip... cut the nut at the thermostat if it’s battling you, there are other hills to die on. Drove it around a bit and determine it was too loud after I woke my wife starting the car one morning and ordered the baffled tips they offer. Still loud but took a little of the edge off.

Next came an opportunity to buy a xfaktory itb setup from the used parts section and I had Al do a megasquirt 2 computer because I eventually wanted to do a cop setup. I then reached out to Clay at Closed Course Motorsports for manifolds and other bits. A budget expansion happened and I met Ryan from Rasant at Rennsport and after seeing his product in real life I wanted his kit in my car, so megasquirt went up on eBay.

I couldn’t just get rid of the cursed CIS and since I was going to pull the motor for the itbs and I am committed to get the chassis on Jerry Wood’s frame bench to confirm straight... I started to look through the familiar Elephant Racing catalog. Temptations of safari 911s ran through my head but I got another project for that... This led to coil over conversion with 935 spring plates and all the associated bracing plus normal bushing replacement. I know this is overkill for a street car but I told myself this is my dream setup and I couldn’t pull punches. Also the cost isn’t that much more to do the coil swap since the motor is out and I am doing the work myself.

In another layer of disappointment the car also came with a poorly fitting duck tail painted to match the rs color scheme. Turns out it wasn’t entirely the bonked cars fault for the poor fit and the tail was pretty warped. I have ordered a Rennsport ducktail plus iroc front and rear bumpers, which I plan on deleting the front oil cooler box and section it as featured by a recent thread.

As you can tell I have assembled a posse of parts from the usual suspects... I dropped the motor over the long weekend and have started the fitting of the rear shock tower bracing, pics to come. I have pulled the cis and found the triangle of death oil leaks so ordered parts for that and a valve adjustment. Picking up the Rasant setup next week and ordered isolators for the Closed Course Motorsport manifold. On a interesting side note my 81 had 36mm intake ports when I expected the smaller ones. I have attached a couple pics of the current progress and hope to keep updates coming in the future. I am writing this for posterity and motivation to keep the project moving forward even if it’s small moves. Also people on my engine drop post here, Quickjack Engine Drop, encouraged me to document the adventure.

This has been a napkin dream for a long while and this is a big step to making it a reality. I know many people on this forum have undertaken similar projects and have also been faced with that “oh *****” moment in the middle of an engine drop thinking... what have I got myself into... I hope this gets back together... but know not all who wonder are Lost...

[mikedsilva]

Cool. Love this so far. You're talking to all the right guys.
What headers are those in the photo?
I just got an M&K sport muffler too.. man is it loud.. I'm waiting for my baffled exhaust tips to turn up, and hopefully tone it down a tad, and cure the drone.

What throttles are you using? Are you ditching the cis parts?

[SkiVT]

So far my favorite part of your journey is the “A budget expansion happened”!!!!!

[wareaglescott]

Subscribed. Look forward to following around.

[GenX Porsche]

Those headers are from M&K but they have their heat option. I was going back and forth on heat, being in California, but decided to keep it for now.

Here is a pick of the itb setup, it’s Al’s triumph configuration with CCM fuel rails.

I am very fortunate to have a “budget expansion” at this stage of the project. I was previously going to do a cost conscientious itb swap but having the funds available and seeing Andrew’s product pushes me over the edge.

[wachuko]

Subscribed!

[theenico]

You're further down the slippery slope than I am, but my list is very similar. I'll be taking notes.

BTW, 36mm intake ports are the small ones. The 78 and 79 SC heads have 39mm intake ports.

[chrisbalich]

off to a ripping start! i do love a hotrod SC.

[evan9eleven]

Off to a great start! I also went with Al's kit, here is some inspiration for you. Good luck!

[wachuko]

Link to Al's kit?

EDIT: Found it!

https://www.x-faktory.com/

[Coastr]

“Original paint” is like “just needs a recharge” when describing AC.

Needs substantial evidence to be considered true.

[l_turn9]

Originally Posted by Coastr

“Original paint” is like “just needs a recharge” when describing AC.

Needs substantial evidence to be considered true.

Ha! And my favorite: "Ran when parked"

LarryT
youroil.net

[l_turn9]

GenX Porsche wrote: "what have I got myself into... I hope this gets back together.."

Don't look at all those parts - that makes it appear overwhelming. One step at a time and it will all come together. (Love those ITB's!!)

Good luck - BTW - you know you always have plenty of help on this forum!
Larryt
Youroil.net

[Clay.0]

Project looks like it's off to a great start!

[GenX Porsche]

Got update from the weekend. Unfortunately not as much done as I was hoping but had to do family Christmas stuff.

Had a nice delivery of porsche bits when I got home.



Fixes for the triangle of death, valve adjustment tool (from pelican) and insulators plus studs from Larry Turner (l02turner@comcast.net) for the Closed Course Motorsports manifolds. There was some back and forth with Larry and pmo regarding potential vacuum leaks with cis heads and Clay confirmed that he designed the manifolds around the pmo insulators.

Here is a confirmation that the triangle is real...



I went to task removing the studs and of course the last one snapped... I used a cam stud remover that definitely damages the threads upon removal.





So that sealed the deal that I am going to remove the shroud and recondition. This was in order to get access to the broken stud. Again most came out without heat or drama... two steps forward one backward. Current plan is to sand down and polish out not repaint. Plan to remove the stud is to weld a bolt to the stud and try and back out the bolt but I ran out of time.

One of the big decisions I need to make is how much wiring I can remove with this swap and I am open to any feedback on that. In removing the engine shroud, I believe you can get enough clearance to undo the alternator wiring without undoing the fan.

I wanted to include one picture from last weekend regarding the removing of bracketry on the drivers engine bay to support the install of the elephant racing strut tower brace. These pieces are beautifully cut, but as with anything, need to be custom fit to each vehicle, so it’s just time sitting in the engine bay slowly grinding for the perfect fit.


Last piece of news is I confirmed that Jerry Woods, also known as JWE Motorsports, is going to come pick up the chassis and toss it on there celette frame bench. That is to ensure the piece of mind that we have a clean bill of health. I also might see if they can try their hand at undoing the hack job the previous repair shop did on the drivers rear quarter.

Unfortunately it’s going to be a couple weeks till the next update because of travel but I will try and get some picks from the frame bench.

[SalParadise]

I suggest that before spending an a$$load of your spending cash on blingy parts and exhausts that you immediately check all of your head studs. Several very well may be broken, not to mention on the way out, and if they will not hold torque without snapping you better do these now with the engine out before screwing on all new parts and loading it back into the car. These engines are known for bad studs, and I have seen very few that escaped without issues.

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by SalParadise

I suggest that before spending an a$$load of your spending cash on blingy parts and exhausts that you immediately check all of your head studs. Several very well may be broken, not to mention on the way out, and if they will not hold torque without snapping you better do these now with the engine out before screwing on all new parts and loading it back into the car. These engines are known for bad studs, and I have seen very few that escaped without issues.

i put this off for a long time and when i pulled the valve covers, i found 4 borked studs.
my ITBs are still in the saran wrap from Al because of it.
best to check now if you haven't.

[SalParadise]

As above, I told Chris to do the same thing on his thread and that's what he came back with. It just sucks, but it's reality.

I did not want to admit that the KS Alusils on my rebuild had bitten it bigtime in two cylinders. So much for saving that extra $3K for me - not to mention the car is still sitting there.

[GenX Porsche]

This update is a gigantic shout out to my wife that has put up with plenty of my shenanigans in stride. I got a call from JWE Motorsports that they had availability on their Celette frame bench and unfortunately I was traveling. She wrapped up my projects and got the car in a place where it could be placed on the tow truck this morning.


I hear everyone on the head stud issue and was planning on checking during the valve adjustment. I have a long term plan of 3.2ss with proper efi cams and am hoping that I don’t find broken head studs that will constitute accelerating that plan.

Welcome, GenX! You are not alone. I have gotten tons of help and inspiration from this board on my similar project (white coupe, though mine's an '85). I was also interested in your comment that when it was time for a fun drive you'd pick the old car over the turbo. I've had 13 Porsches, ranging from 1976 to brand new, and the air cooled bumper cars just do it for me over anything modern.

One piece of advice I have is to concentrate on projects you can complete relatively quickly, and then get the car on the road for a bit between them. For example, I pulled my car off the road for about a month to go through the engine compartment while I was having the seats recovered, then drove it for a couple months before tackling the current project modifying the bumpers. When those are done I'll drive it some more before moving on to new carpet and more interior mods.

My point is that I think these things go better when you get regular periodic reinforcement of why you are doing the project--to build a car that you like to drive. Many years ago I did a 7-year frame off restoration of a 1966 Corvette. I did everything myself, including the body work, paint, and upholstery (well, I did send the bumpers out for rechroming). I started by disassembling the car down into bits right after I bought it. For a lot of that 7 years, I just sat around and looked at it--a pretty overwhelming pile of parts. But I managed to finish it and it came out very nice.

Unfortunately, since I had never really spent any real time driving a midyear Corvette, I only too late discovered that it was kind of a crude pig, albeit beautiful. I sold it in 10 minutes or so to the first guy who came to look at it.

Moral of the story is that I get motivated by reminding myself that it's a car, and not just an anxiety-inducing pile of arts