Introducing a new 930 project
 

Greetings Pelicans,

I've recently acquired an '81 930 which I imported to the US from Canada. It was originally a Canadian-market car rather than more general RoW (it has the original Transport Canada sticker on the driver's door jamb). A pic is attached of it coming off the hauler.

By way of background, I grew up around an '82 930. My father had it for many years so it was the first P-car where I ever spent any significant amount of time. Many formative experiences (and all the feels) around it. So when I saw this one come up, I was pretty motivated to jump on it.

The prior owner was another father/son duo. I don't have all the family history specifics but in the end the car was left on consignment at Jay Lloyds' shop outside Toronto after having a huge amount of work done on it. It was picked up by another private dealer in the area who then listed it for wider sale. I arranged a PPI and, obviously, went ahead with it.

The car's basic mechanical condition is pretty solid. The clutch was inspected during the PPI, the flywheel was very lightly resurfaced, and a new voltage regulator installed. Good static compression across all six cylinders. Clutch linkage is solid and freshly rebuilt, gearbox is pretty good but not perfect. Recent Bilsteins and new rubber on the car, well documented fresh fluids, all that checks out pretty well. Sunroof fully serviced with new cables and seals.

As is often the case, HVAC is a mixed bag. Compressor came in a box on the back seat, bracket is long gone. Front condenser fan/blower assembly is absent. I have my doubts that the engine compartment auxiliary blower is present but I need to get underneath and look, haven't had a chance yet. Autoheat controller DOA, but the red manual lever and the flapper boxes are excellent. Dash sliders were all marginal due to one broken pivot post, one missing clamp at the end of a cable, and probably a fair bit of neglect over the years.

The interior is probably an honest 8/10. Driver's side curbside seat bolster is slightly deformed but the leather overall is good, carpets good. Driver's door storage pocket is slightly deformed, passenger side is excellent. Rear seats basically unused. Headliner will eventually need replacement. Dash illumination is nominally functional but very dim, even with the headlight switch cranked to max brightness. High beam selector is flaky but other column controls are good. The annoy-o-tron buzzer works :-)

Electrically it obviously went through a fair amount of futzing. Obvious paint scarring in hidden places where gorillas were rough with tools. And I keep finding random wires that used to do something and now just rest, all alone, having been clipped or unplugged. There's an aftermarket stereo and various bundles of extra wire stuffed under the dash. There's a mysterious extra rocker switch right near the sunroof and mirror-side selector switches. The original dash clock was gone, replaced with a huge boost gauge. I've already sourced a used clock from another Pelican, it should arrive tomorrow.

It has a few common upgrades. K27, Billy Boat stainless headers & heat exchangers, Monty exhaust. External wastegate with its own dump valve. It's a little loud for my tastes but not outrageous. The exhaust tip itself is comically large diameter and scrapes if I don't angle myself out of the driveway correctly. It has the slightly wider set of later OEM Fuchs, 16x7F and 16x9R. A 90/95A alternator and some combination of 928 brakes in the front, one reference says S, another says S4, with the original front calipers allegedly relocated to the rear. I haven't confirmed that though. It certainly stops well and has excellent pedal feel.

As for my plans with it, I'd like to get it back to something approaching factory condition, but with invisible updates for reliability/modern components where appropriate. I've ordered the electric AC kit from Classic Retrofit and will likely add in his blade fuse panel as well. I may have the windshield removed over the winter so I can pull the dash and clean up all the wiring correctly. I'm not certain if it has the embedded defroster wires up front, though I believe one of the stray wiring plugs I found may have connected to it originally.

I've removed the evaporator/blower from the smuggler's box, the fresh air blower from under the cowl, and both blend valves. One needed repairs which I've done, and I need to get the carpet in the footwells peeled back so I can replace the hot air ducts running from the sills to the boot. Driver's side is clearly leaking because my left foot always gets hot no matter what.

I'm reasonably comfortable with analog car work and frankly I expected a number of these sorts of issues before the car even arrived. The great thing is I can still drive it in the meantime while planning out the details of what's to come. But I have no doubt I'll have endless questions and look forward to contributing what I can as I learn things along the way.

Many thanks in advance and here's to getting the car back into the condition she deserves!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626059800.jpg

Did I miss the color above? Looks like Sienna Metallic, but always hard to tell.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

Sounds like a well researched and thought out purchase. You'll have fun with that beast!

It’s Red Wine Metallic.

Very nice looking car.
I'm glad you did not go the full mod route.
Good luck and keep us posted!

Great score, excited for you!

Sounds perfect. the K27 with an adj. wastegate and proper headers is just right for a stock engine. I put a G50 in mine for the extra gearing but the 4 spd works just fine. Enjoy!

See I was wondering about the G50. Expensive but I think my 4-speed will require a rebuild at some point, there are a few chirps of grinding teeth sometimes going into 3rd and the gate for 4th is occasionally just reluctant. The car has someone's short shift kit on it (not sure whose) and it's perfectly drivable but I do think it would benefit from some attention.

I come from more of an EFI-tuning mindset so still trying to wrap my head around how these various fuel compensation widgets interact. The car is very rich on cold start and of course fuel consumption is insane. I've looked at some of the EFI conversions from Turbokraft and others, they seem to be high quality parts but I'm not certain how much they impact the character of the car. Bears further thought after electrical things and HVAC are sorted out.

I would do a complete cleaning/pressure testing/rebuild of the CIS system in place before going EFI. The stock system is quite capable but is usually totally ignored for MANY years. Just having the injectors cleaned/flow tested/replaced can reap big benefits, though running rich is not an indicator of a clogged/ill-firing injector. As for the G50, it requires a special shortened transmission, an 87-89 shifter and linkage (or aftermarket), and a 87-89 pedal cluster with hydraulic clutch slave so it's no small task. I would go through the 4 speed, maybe a custom gear set, keep it simple and spend that $25k elsewhere..

930
 

I had an 83 930 that color and it is a wonderful shade that changes color depending on the light.I would sort out the CIS works well when correct.I would keep the 4 speed but just change the R & P.Great start.The S4 brakes work fine.Ciao Fred

The notes I had from the seller did correlate somewhat to the shop receipts I was given. The notes stated

"the engine had the complete intake turbo system off the motor, all new gaskets and seals where possible were replaced, fuel warm-up regulator, fuel system along with system and control pressures where performed, a little lean on cold start but starting is not a problem, video provided. A new fuel filter, one fuel pump and a new fuel accumulator were also all replaced. New spark plugs and leads with the valves adjusted with an inspection of all 24 case studs and they are all fine, none broken."

and

"New engine mounts, with a rebuild of the turbo scavenge pump as well as the ignition distributor was gone through, new seals in the intake shuttle valve. "

So the "little lean on cold start" comment doesn't match with my observations, I believe the fuel pressure when cold has been raised subsequent to that observation. Perhaps a bit too much.

I don't have any recent records of the fuel injectors being serviced and of course there are lots of points of inflection in the system which aren't mentioned at all. So in general if I'm going to touch CIS I'm assuming I have to touch all of it. The car is definitely grumbly when cold, it runs fine and still has original cams so I think it's running rich. It livens up significantly after a couple of miles.

I forgot to mention mileage in my first post. It's a little over 141k kms, 87k miles, so the car is clearly a driver first, not a concours special.

Sounds like a fresh oil change, brake flush, fresh gas with some Techron, and an Italian tune up may be all she needs!

I wondered about that, it did get both an oil change and brake fluid flush (reported elsewhere in other notes). I can get 93 (US) octane here so that's not too bad. I'm trying to drive it hither and yon to shake out the cobwebs without being too far afield.

I wondered whether I should take it to a chassis dyno so I can exercise it carefully without risking my license. Mostly to see if the CIS works, figure out where the wastegate is set and if it creeps, that sort of thing.

Beautiful.

Very nice looking car and I like your "restoration" plan.

Do you have any photos of the rear of the car you can post? My area has a number of heavily modified Japanese cars with amusing exhaust tips and it would be interesting to see a "comically large" (as you put it) one on the back of your Porsche.

Thanks -- are a couple of pics from the rear.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626137751.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626137751.jpg

Cool color. Congrats. Just joined the 930 club myself, about 6 weeks ago. '87 with EFI, K27-7200, a few Turbokraft goodies and Brian's (RarlyL8) headers and exhaust. Similar situation with the the AC - non-existent, but I really don't mind. Coming from a strictly NA 911 world, the 930 sorta scares me when the boost fully spools up. :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1626139211.jpg

Lovely car! It obviously rides quite a bit lower than mine, I can see the difference immediately.

Is it the Turbokraft EFI? I am intrigued by that, not in pursuit of more power, but more around the invisible efficiency and drivability improvements I see it providing. I did a bit more studying on CIS today and I'm vaguely starting to understand it, coarsely, but it's landing more in the carburetor bucket for me: a very clever and ingenious use of physics given material and technology constraints the engineers had to accept at the time.

If my car was a low-mileage ultra collectible then it wouldn't even be a question, but it's not and never will be, so there's that fine line on replacing OEM parts with newer things without spoiling the experience overall.

On Lindsey 17's and some Elephant suspension bits. Changing out the Proxes this week for something more all-weather friendly. The stance is one of the main reasons I did the deal for the car. And my mistake, it's actually CIS bits from Turbokraft, not EFI. I have been researching EFI stuff heavily (TK, Patrick, Rasant and AEM, etc.). The car runs great once it is started, but is a little bit hesitant when it's cold.

I am still learning, but seems like EFI used to be more for the track, but has been tamed now somewhat for the street. All the crazy high HP 930's have EFI, but not sure I need more.

I think that's broadly true. Original aftermarket EFI systems (TEC, early MoTec, etc) excluded a lot of the incremental sensors and correction tables that were standard fare for OEM systems, due to the significant R&D costs and relative lack of utility for the target customers, who were hard-core enthusiasts with highly tuned track cars.

But nowadays that's no longer a valid distinction, the contemporary EFI control systems are enormously capable, and the algorithms to control everything are very advanced. A full set of relevant sensors and inputs are used, so cold start, temp correction while warming up, turning electrical loads on and off, part-throttle loading in traffic, etc are all easy to manage once the setup is tuned correctly.

But with boosted cars, the biggest advantage beyond baseline tuning is to do with electronic boost control.

Consider how a traditional wastegate works: there's a calibrated (sometimes with adjustable preload) spring which will definitely open at a certain pressure level. What you're really setting there is *max* boost, but you have little or no real control over the shape of the curve.

Thus that spring will crack open at lower pressure, bleeding off some boost before you hit the peak. It's not a binary state change only at the peak pressure.

The electronic systems have a solenoid inline with the pressurized canister which operates the wastegate spring. In very simple terms, they can keep that solenoid closed so no pressure hits the spring until it absolutely must, and they can quickly fluctuate (cycle on/off) to regulate a defined boost pressure. This lets you maximize exhaust velocity because you're preserving it as long as possible to spin the turbo before bleeding it off. Your boost response is therefore better, both because it starts sooner, and because it increases more steeply at WOT.

They can also be programmed for the real-world response rate, so you don't overshoot. So for a given rate of engine acceleration and wastegate physical properties, the system can account for the fact that it'll take delta-250rpm to start responding. It's similar in principle to a closed-loop PID controller, if you're into that sort of thing, but it's not strictly closed loop; you do need to calibrate it, largely because the consequences of large overboost can be quite expensive.

Anyway because all boost is regulated electronically, you then have the ability to change it. Taking the car for service? Set it to 0. Don't go full throttle? Sure, peak boost maps lower, so no torquey surprises in damp corners. Going out in the wet? Lower it down to 3psi. Want variable peak boost by gear or RPM? No problem. Hidden valet switch to trigger a safety map? Sure.

So lots of advantages. But it's not factory, not original for the G-body cars, even though the later cars have embraced these techniques in glorious, lurid detail.