Refreshing a 1969 911T / RS

[cnielsen]

My dad bought this car probably close to 10 years ago. It was a 65K, original paint car but had been riddled with door dings and needed a full restoration. Shortly after purchasing it, we tore it down and did pretty much did a full restoration. That included replacing the stock 2.0 with a carbed 2.7 and giving it the full RS treatment. Keep in mind that was 10+ years ago when RS conversions were the thing to do. It would have been much more tempting to leave it in stock form (at least as far as the body goes).

Before...


After...


Now, here we are 10 years later... This has been a great basis for the car for many years but this year he expressed some interest in doing the R gruppe run to southern Cal and wanted to go through it and check all the mechanical bits, update a few things and generally make it 100% road worthy for a 3500 mile up and down the west coast. Well...this is where the snow ball effect comes into play!

So at about this same time, a friend of mine just purchased a '79 SC targa with only 40k orig miles. Long story short, the car was totalled before he even took posession of it! Hmmmm, perfect mechanicals on an otherwise squished targa body. Let the transplant begin... With the two cars side by side, it is very easy to swap parts over and make everything work as it should.

Here is a shot of the SC...





Now, I am thinking motor, trans and anything that makes that swap feasable with a factory type installation.

First, we have to take the motor out of each of the cars.

[cnielsen]

Next plan was to prep the '69 engine bay. The '69's were kind of a unique year as far as wiring goes. There is not a 14 pin connector like the later cars, instead, they use 3- 6 pin connectors on the back wall of the engine bay. The goal of doing all this updating was to do it in a way that looks like a factory installation and at the same time, being reversible...in case I ever want to go back to original.

Now it is also important to understand whos car this is and what the goals are. This is my DAD's car and he wants something that does not stink up the garage with fuel smell, get better gas mileage and still have good power and torque. If I had my choice, I would adapt MFI to the 3.0L a la "Higgins" style So....we will be installing the 3.0L as is with the current CIS and the only mods will be backdated exhaust.



After painting the engine bay...





Now time to sort out the engine wiring harness. I used the SC harness and modified it so it plugs into the 3-6 pin connectors, making for a factory style installation with no aftermarket connectors. Several hours in front of wiring diagrams finally brought me to the finished product. My fingers are crossed that I will be able to plug this in and everything will work as planned

[cnielsen]

We then cleaned the long block off and repainted the shroud. This was also a good time to install new oil return tubes, do a valve adjustment, and bump up the cam timing. We also plugged the emission control ports and installed new exhaust manifold studs. And to make installation easy with the '69 oil tank, I opted to install the old engine oil cooler with new seals.

All the engine tin is out for powder coat at the moment but should be back soon.



We installed the exhuast from the 2.7 so it will have a pre '74 style exhaust.

Upon removal and cleaning of the CIS, I noted that the box has apparently back fired at one point and has separated the upper and lower portions of the airbox, pulling several of the screws.

Several searches on Pelican and advise from John Walker, I decided to repair the box with special 3M adhesive. If this does not work, then I will simply replace the box or sneak in an MFI system when my dad is not looking









I don't have any after photos yet of the CIS box but it seems to have worked well. Word of caution though, you have to work very fast with this cement as it only has a 3 minute working time and thats not much when you are trying to place the glue, adapt the two halves and cinch down a dozen new larger screws!

[cnielsen]

Next item on the list was the oil cooler and oil cooler lines. The old lines on the SC were very grungy with undercoat and oil from the car that was on top of it!?!? Yes...on top of it.

Anyway, I removed all the old lines, installed new ones behind the T-stat, and cleaned everything. Adapting it all to the '69 chassis was pretty much the reverse of removal with the exception of placing threaded inserts in the chassis so I could maintain all the factory mounting hardware.

We can't forget the "while you are in there" job...replacing the rear suspension bushings and newly plated hardware...

[cnielsen]

Can't forget the front of the car... The old '69T only has one fuel line running throught the center tunnel. The E and S cars would have had two for the MFI. CIS requires two so I had to figure out what to do there. I ended up removing the old hard line and found that there were already two placed for fuel lines to be routed. So after a trip to my local hydraulic store, I returned with 12' of high pressure braided fuel injection hose. I routed these through the chassis and utilized the factory hose ends from the SC.

Now it was time to install the SC fuel tank, fuel pump and all associated fuel lines. I also opted to install the alloy front cross member to make mounting of the fuel pump a little simpler. Of course, you have to change out the torsion bars while you are in there







Having the SC right there makes it so nice for taking parts needed for the swap! I also removed all the associated wiring for the fuel pump including the relay, so I will swap that over to the '69 this weekend.

[Steve F]

Nice work! I'd kill for the working room you have

[cnielsen]

Keeping with a bit of the R-gruppe theme, I opted to de-bling the fuchs wheels. The were nicely polished before but I decided to introduce them to some 1200 grit wet sand paper to give them that track look.

New tires are on order as we speak...

[Jeff Higgins]

Outstanding work once again, Chris. Your dad is a lucky man, having his son working on his car like that. I'm still at the stage of working on my sons' cars...

So, is he really joining us for the drive to Cambria? That would be really cool.

[cnielsen]

While waiting for parts, my attention shifted to the interior. My dad had some current model Recaros in there and we wanted to do a more correct looking racing seat. As I am having some ST seats recovered for my '67 project, we decided to do the same but BLACK for this car. Here is a shot of the seats that will be going in my '67...remember the same seats will be going in this car but in black leather.

Seat shells were purchased from TRE and then recovered by my upholstery guy.







With all the carpet pulled out to install all the new bits in the center tunnel, I decided to figure out why the pedal assembly had some wierd play in it. After removal I found that the center shaft had worn significantly. Although it had previously been rebuild with bronze bushings, the shaft wear had gone undetected and will need replacement.

I also noted a small amount of rust under the pedal box. I fabricated a patch panel and just waiting for parts to return from powder coat.

[gsjohnson]

Very Nice

[ckissick]

You might consider replacing the trombone oil cooler up front with a radiator style cooler. When I replaced my 2.7 with a 3.0 on my '70 911E, the 3.0 overheated at the race track. It should help with regular spirited driving. I never raced it with the 2.7, but the PO did a lot, and he never mentioned overheating. He must have gone fast, as he's a professional driver now for Flying Lizard.

[cnielsen]

Thanks guys! It is an exciting project to be able to do for my dad...it started out being a Christmas present but I think it will have to last for a few Christmas' from now!

Jeff, thats the plan. That is the big reason why I am doing all of this...so he better go! I think we will all have a great time.

Charlie, I fully agree with you. I have radiator type coolers on all MY cars but my dad does not drive this very hard and with living in the PNW, ambient temps are low. We sometimes have trouble getting these cars to a proper operating temp in routine driving. This should be fine for his application...plus it shows of the horns that he spent so long polishing

[jpnovak]

Reminds me of the project I built for my Dad last year. Its worth it. At least your Dad lives close enough to help a bit.

Keep up the great work. I always enjoy reading your project progress.

Jamie

[mike monde]

Pretty work

[BK911]

Hmm, I almost like the before picture better. Beautiful car either way, I just like things simple.

[cnielsen]

I agree to a point. The car looks REALLY GOOD in that before pic but in person is was... "good from a far, but far from good."

Reread the first paragraph as I clarified it a bit... the RS conversion was done 10 years ago. I would probably prefer a stock body these days but it is fun and looks great and we are not looking at the resale market.

[BK911]

Sorry buddy, I didn't mean it as an insult. The car looks awesome either way. A duck tail and stripes are tasteful mods. But without, utlimate sleeper!

And love the color. Is that conda green?

[cnielsen]

None taken

Not sure on the color. When I tried to match the paint for the engine bay we were not able to find a similar color in the '69 year. I always thought it was Conda we mixed some of that and it was not even close. Instead I just started with John Deere green and tinted it up to match. It is very close but still not perfect...but for the engine bay it is acceptable.

[robert walsh]

Really a beautifull job, it looks perfect , great color etc. How about some original reccaro sport seats to finish it off? cuddddoooo's to a terricic job well done, and a very nice presentation as well.

[Augustus]

Originally Posted by Steve F

Nice work! I'd kill for the working room you have

So would I!