When Well Enough Can't Be Left Alone; Backdate, EFI/ITB, AC, and more!

[rwest]

Dang Julian,

I was shocked when I scrolled down the screen and was met by the duct tape shot. Glad you are okay and the car didn’t suffer too bad of a fate.

I still am unable to track down my lean running issues even after a ton of testing, so I will likely be doing an EFI change up this winter.

Best,
Rutager

[Showdown]

Darn Rutager, that's a bummer to hear after all that searching.

FWIW, even though I just changed my ECU and all of my wiring, I'm going to do it again this winter. I need a more capable ECU and I want to see if I can do an even nicer job this time. Plus I'll have time while the case is machined and parts arrive... Let me know if you want to brainstorm anythign.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by Showdown

Darn Rutager, that's a bummer to hear after all that searching.

FWIW, even though I just changed my ECU and all of my wiring, I'm going to do it again this winter. I need a more capable ECU and I want to see if I can do an even nicer job this time. Plus I'll have time while the case is machined and parts arrive... Let me know if you want to brainstorm anythign.

Yes!

There are so many choices in ECUs and seemingly little information on which ones are the best.

My problem is somewhat intermittent and seems to be spark in nature, but can’t pin down the exact cause. Could be the MS-2 or the coil or? I decided to cut bait and do COPs and a new ECU instead of throwing more money guessing on what part is bad.

Ideally you find a local tuner and use the ECU that they are familiar with, but it doesn’t appear that I have any air cooled tuner in the MN metro area.

Rutager

[TargaWoods]

Julian,

The tub damage is what I was most worried about, thank god everything is straight there, and you skated by cheaper than what I had guessed, another win.

Let me know what you decide to go with for an ECU!

[Showdown]

No sooner than I had unpacked I got right to work; there's a lot to be done before spring and I'm not getting any younger.

First order of business after removing the damaged fender was to contact Hagerty and file a claim. Thus far, it's been pretty easy and I'm waiting on the response from the adjuster. Everyone at Hagerty has been really lovely and sympathetic and pulling for a fast resolution. We'll see how this plays out.

The next order was to drop the engine and begin tearing it down. I arrived at my shop at 6am and proceeded to drop the engine. It took a total of about 2 hours start to finish once the oil was drained. I spent a lot of time last winter ensuring that this was the result of all the wiring that I did. To remove the engine all that needs to be done is:

Unplug two electrical connectors
Unplug two vacuum lines
Disconnect one fuel line
Plus all the other regular Porsche stuff like shift linage, axles, etc...

I'm really proud of that extra work I put in as dropping the motor by myself for the first time was as easy as could be.



Once I had the motor on the stand I began taking this off, which I can assure you is a lot of fun and oh too easy. All told the entire engine was torn down in about 8 hours.



I didn't find any broken or damaged parts and the inside of the engine looked stellar- remember there are only 66k miles on this and it was never really driven hard. The past 5 years have been the most intense for this car for sure.

Head studs were pulled and none broke, cams pulled and sold, rockers pulled (they were machined last winter and still look stellar). The heads were filthy even after ultrasonic cleaning but the pistons had relatively little carbon build up.



The case and the heads were sent off to Henry Schmidt at Supertec for all the requisite case mods (shuffle pins, line bore, oil bypass mod, case savers, etc...) The heads will go to him too for twin plugging, porting, new valve guides, new springs and retainers and 5 angle grind; again, all the requisite modifications.

The fan and shroud are off to Shaun at Tru6 for cerakoting because why not at this point.



I spent the next few days running all the remaining parts that would fit, through the ultrasonic cleaner degreasing and de-crudding them. When I was done, everything looked pretty nice. This morning I made a quick Cheddar Curtain run to drop off the rest of the parts to a fellow for vapor honing and should have that done by this weekend. Those part will then be ceramic tumbled to close up the pores of the metal and give everything a really beautiful finish.



In the meantime, lots of boxes of goodies have been arriving; TXL wire, Deutsch connectors, rubber boots, etc... all the bits and bobbles for the wiring harnesses that I'm preparing to start working on in the next few weeks. The first time I wired up the car I thought I did a decent job. Last winter I tried to do a really good job and this time I'm aiming for motorsport level precision; something that looks and operates as if designed and fabricated by a professional. Suffice it to say, I'm very very excited.

I still have a few choices to make but I think this will be the final build:

Twin plugged heads with upgraded springs and titanium retainers
964 oil pump
DC40 cams (although the DC43 look tempting too- any feedback on the two would be much appreciated)
Mahle 10.3:1 pistons and cylinders
Carrillo rods
RHD EFI ITBs
2x knock sensors on 964 bridges
flex fuel sensor
SSIs (for now)
MS3Pro Evo+ ECU.
My Digital gauge

I'm hoping for a streetable and relatively well behaved car below 4k and a nasty little gremlin from 4k-7500

Any thoughts on the build would as always be welcome.

[ToySnakePMC]

Originally Posted by Showdown

In the meantime, lots of boxes of goodies have been arriving; TXL wire, Deutsch connectors, rubber boots, etc... all the bits and bobbles for the wiring harnesses that I'm preparing to start working on in the next few weeks. The first time I wired up the car I thought I did a decent job. Last winter I tried to do a really good job and this time I'm aiming for motorsport level precision; something that looks and operates as if designed and fabricated by a professional. Suffice it to say, I'm very very excited.

This is going to be great. I, too, have recently learned a new skill with building my first stand-alone harness - and I look forward to improving "my game" on the next project car. Your attention to detail will make this latest version of your coupe a complete knock-out! I think you have a great plan ahead for the engine build - and I'm curious what those with ITB's suggest about the cam choice. I did a single EFI throttle body so my choice (John Dougherty's actually) is a more tame 993SS for the common plenum. Best of luck going forward - Always enjoy your build thread. Patrick

[Showdown]

The cams were suggested by Henry Schmidt who has more Porsche engine experience in his daily constitution that I'll every acquire. The ITBs come with unique advantages such as super crisp and responsive throttle which on a light and lower powered car make it really quick and disadvantages such as tuning for all the range of usage... but there are approaches and techniques that can be employed to make tuning easier and at this point I feel pretty comfortable within the software to know how to attack these issues.

So, I think it's less bout the ITBs and more about the tune- delivering what the cams want and when they want it; tailoring fuel and spark so that the cam can thrive and deliver what we expect of it.

But who knows, it's an adventure for sure!

[Showdown]

Though Hanukkah can fall before, during or after Christmas, this year it came way early on Friday in the form of some very large boxes from FedEx and UPS; thank you Hagerty.

After the car got close and intimate with another, a timid call was placed to Hagerty regarding the claims process which was met with nothing*but grace, understanding and urgency.* The agent was prompt and within*about 10 days, a transfer had been made that was way beyond what was expected.

I had some feelers for original Porsche fenders out there and the community was great but ultimately, all of the fenders on offer would have required a lot of rust repair, dent removal, and general tending to that felt like more work than I wanted. Yes the price was lower, but time vs. money...

So, with little waste, and much haste, work began in earnest on Saturday morning.* The first order of business was a dry-fit of the new parts which was, well, it was.* It's been long understood that replacement*panels are starting points at best and we should be lucky to have them at all, and this was no exception.*



I suspect that the driver's door may have fallen afoul at some point in the preceding*40+ years as the new fender left a lot to be desired.* Upwards of 1/2" to be specific.* The panel gap between the trailing edge of the fender and the leading edge of the door was epic and needed remedying as did the cowl at the windshield.**





The answer of course would be to fabricate a metal filler piece and weld it in.* This of course assumes several things: 1.) one has access to a full metal shop to cut and form the filler piece, 2.) one has metal to fabricate said piece from.* Having neither 1 nor 2 improvisation was necessary.

To solve this quandary, welding wire at 1/8", 3/16", and 1/16" was tacked to the edge of the fender and welded into place.* The process began with the TIG but quickly shifted to MiG as pure argon ran out- d'oh!* Doing it with the MiG was not particularly difficult, it just wasn't nearly as easy, fast and clean as with the TIG... oh well. I debated just stopping and waiting but that would mean a 2 week delay until I had another full day to work as I have my kids alternating weeks and they're the priority.



Once the edges had been built up, they were Dychem*coated and scribed to something that would at least*approximate acceptable.* Then it was off to grinderville to slowly remove the mass of new metal that had been painstakingly added.* Add and then remove... this is the mantra of bodywork... Learn it, love it.

This was a lot of back and forth, trimming, fitting, scribing, trimming, etc... but eventually a panel gap that was acceptable was achieved.* Perhaps more than the desired 3mm, but it matches the rest of the car and that's the goal here. The panel gaps on this car are not perfect, never have been and that's fine with me. I'm confident that if I had a car down to bare metal I could achieve a level of perfection that would be stellar, but that's not this car... And given the prices of tubs... it may never be an option. Too bad as I'd love to start a longer term ground-up project, sparing no expense and no compromises just to see what I can do.





The next step was to weld in the fuel filler door using the same method.**No photos of that one as I was just in the zone and focused on work.

With all the welding complete, it was time for filler.* I have no shame about filler and when repairing an old car it's kind of necessary*lest one is taking the car to bare metal...*

Fiberglass filler first to provide a bit of structure and then after that was sanded down, lightweight filler atop.* It was at this point that I decided to call it a day- it was nearly 3pm and work had begun at 6am.* I certainly could have gone further and gotten the panel ready for paint but I figured spending some time with the girlfriend was a wiser investment of time.**





I did however manage to get the new bumper fitted and designed and began fabricating mounting brackets out of aluminum stock.* Because this bumper has no cutouts in the lower valiance like the old one, I will have to consider some method of forcing air to the oil cooler in the passenger fender well.*



The options are:*
1.) drill holes/cut an opening in the bumper and fit it with mesh, etc... very hotrod and I suppose effective
2.) 3D print an air scoop to sit under the bottom edge of the bumper. Very clean and probably more effective but I worry about it being too low
3.) ?

In addition, more bits and baubles*have been trickling in and I'm ready to start building the wiring harnesses.* I mentioned that this time I'm going for TE Connectivity-specified race spec, or something*close to it.* *I've got a month or two before all the engine parts are done with machining and ready to assemble so that should keep me busy...