JohnJ's 82 SC Coupe Ownership, Repair and Maintenance Experience

[Tom Elder]

Love the Bugatti and old Grey Mare, that is the way old race cars should look like!
For the shinny ones, I like the G12, Fulvia and Crossle 32F

[jjeffries]

Tom, these are from the same event but in 2018. When I was a kid building 1:48 Airfix Bugattii kits I never figured I’d see three at the same time (and being exercised, to boot). Very cool day.

John

[jjeffries]

I too suffer from the near addiction of buying old tools (the assumption being that you might, too?) I try not to acquire stuff I won’t actually use and am generally pretty good at sticking to that. Most of the time. I’m also an amateur student of tool brands, especially American stuff. Some of the hand tools left to me came from maternal grandfather, the late George Smith; I think Brits generally like US tools (as did Enzo Ferrari, I’ve read). If I still lived in the UK, I’d likely know more about its tool companies; there’s the “King Dick” wrenches, or spanners as we call them, for example.

Starrett of the somewhat funnily named Athol, Massachusetts (no lisping, please) still produce the finest measuring and other tools from their formidable old factory, about 90 minutes north from me. So when I saw a complete Starrett metric tap and die set for $30, 50 mins east of me (still in Connecticut but on the way to Providence, Rhode Island), I pounced.

This would be the ride that put the odometer past 200,000 miles; I was tuned-in to capturing the moment… until I wasn’t. Six miles too late, I remembered. Oh well. For the record, the car has 183,XXX when I was blessed with her arrival in the summer of 2014. Hey, that’s ten years ago!

One more note: today is Memorial Day and my drive took me past/through three different towns’ events marking this somber day. On the way home, I stopped in the delightful hamlet of Hampton, CT (near Willimantic) at the General Store where some locals were congregating. Good coffee. Like the guys who sold me the T&D set, everyone was unfailingly polite and welcoming, interested in the old Porsche and my weird accent. We certainly have our challenges here in these United States but I’m so grateful to be here and “part of the team”. Driving around in great roads, no one telling me what I can or cannot do, or think … count me as appreciative. Lots of shared history between our two countries, first as opponents, but long since as allies.

Kind regards to all reading this,
John

[Marine Blue]

Nice job with the restoration and great to see the car being enjoyed!

[jjeffries]

Spoiler Alter: No ITB's, Rauh Welt or Go-Faster Content!

Hi All, just some routine repair stuff from a driver SC which is by no means a rust bucket but does live in New England where one of the two ways to my home is via an unimproved, i.e., dirt, road.

The left rear taillight assembly: for maybe the past five years I've been having family and friends tell me "'Hey the left rear [brake, reverse or parking] light is out!" or seeing the turn signal blink at double-time, causing me to pull the lens and tweak bulbs, pull on the springy contacts, dab a tiny bit of di-electric grease. "Crappy design!”, I've thought to myself.

So Friday I pulled the assembly for only the second time since I first got the car (ten years ago, thanks so much @ JeffB). I should have remembered how it looked the first time, in the opening round of examining my then-new-to-me car: pretty bad. Bad design, or not enough maintenance? The latter.

Here are some pics. Beware those allergic to the sight of verdigris.

Lots of schmutz.


Verdigris, y'all.


No wonder the electrons were having a hard time reaching their destination.


Cleaned and prepped pretty well, but no blast cabinet on hand; Smoke Grey enamel. I did the steel back cover too. The surrounding quarter panel etc. looked and felt fine


Body harness connectors cleaned, same for the body ground. Dielectric grease daintily smeared.


Yes, one of the aluminum tabs holding in the two-bulb contact board snapped. A hose clamp and three zip ties yielded this repair/bodge.


I had a pair of taillight gaskets on hand from when I first realized this might be a good idea, many summers ago. I glued them on using the 3M gloop but maybe that wasn't the best idea? They aren't happy partners with the cast housings.


The completed housing did not want to go back in to the body. Dr. Tweet suggested the drain grommet tube needs to go in AFTER the housing is the installed and he was correct.


Hopefully all set for a while to come.

Note that I've never had to touch the right side taillight; I'm guessing it's nicely cared for by the oil tank's list misty aura?

Best wishes to all, John

[jjeffries]

I bought this car in 2014 with the engine out and in pieces (head stud failure); it was the only due to it being that way that I could afford a 911. I did an overhaul using Wayne’s book plus the support of some key folks here on PP (Tom’s Rennshop, Dougherty Cams, Shaun Tru7, Troy EBS, CGARR for the heads, Len Cummings, et al).

When, in Sept 2016, it started the first twist of the key … a happy moment. Ditto the fact it didn’t leak any oil. It’s run great ever since. But a couple of summers ago it started to drop some spots. The source of the leak isn’t obvious, so another friend made here and serious guru suggested I not mess around and just pull the motor to identify and remediate the leak(s) with the motor on a stand, the equipment for which I bought at the time so have ready to go now.

But for now it’s fall in New England and the driving is great. I’ll wait till the salted roads are imminent.



Best to all, John

[PeteKz]

That's a great "art shot."

[jjeffries]

Out and about in this most excellent fall weather.

John

[jjeffries]

Time to find the oil leak(s). Hopefully no major surgery required; we shall see. There’ll be much opportunity for cleaning. Nothing you haven’t see before but I’ll document it nonetheless.

More to come.

Happy New Year to all. It seems like maybe 10 years ago that it was the Millennium, but that was actually a quarter century ago. Holy Cow.

Best, John

[REVerend]

Love the thread, keep up the good work. As relatively new SC owner I really appreciate seeing other peoples projects to help guide me through my own.

[jjeffries]

Thanks your Right Honorable Reverend. More to come.

John

[jjeffries]

Doing this from my phone so the layout might not be the best. It appears that my famous guru 911 advisor was right and it’s the rear main seal leaking. I’d installed it when I assembled this engine from the cases up. I’ll also do the oil cooler seals while they’re accessible. Yes, the ones in there are brown.

Other than that things look good, so the main activity is clean, clean clean the motor as it sits and the bits I’ve removed. Fortunately I’m wired to enjoy cleaning car parts, maybe that can be my retirement job. You’ll see I have a proper solvent parts cleaning machine which really is the dog’s ding-dong when you have oily parts in need of a bath. Funny thing nowadays is how ridiculously expensive the solvent is … nuts.

The nice set of Beru braided wires had attracted a fair amount of schmutz so I cleaned those up. The rear tin I will remove the heater hose spigot and weld up the resulting hole, since I’m running SSI M’s and that void is now superfluous. I’ll also check the valve clearances in the spirit of a thorough “engine out major service”.

Cheers, John

[jjeffries]

Spark plugs were all good in terms of color and the story that tells. As noted elsewhere in this thread, I think CIS is good stuff, ditto the Bosch CDI. Yes, old, but gimme K-jet over L-jet or even early Motronic any day of (most) weeks for superior throttle response and overall performance. Pretty engine bay? No, it looks like a mad professor’s lab but … it works so well. The same was true with early 80’s VW’s and Audi’s (with CIS), especially compared to the last-gasp of carburetors as found on US and even Japanese cars of the time. Of course US engines then were full-on malaise era boat anchors.

John

[icarp]

John, good effort on your project. I am recommending new plug wires , the Clewett brand is the best in my book, the beru is junk these days . Also some of the plugs look worn on the electrode , I would replace the whole set as well. Another thought pertains to the oil cooler, I am replacing every on engine oil cooler with the new CSF cooler , it does a remarkable job of keeping the oil cool , 30% more efficeint than the original. Also remove the thermostat and check it for the right opening temp. Replace if needed . The valve adjustment is a good idea as well.
Keep up the good work.

Ian

[jjeffries]

Thanks Ian, much appreciated.

The BERU wires were NOS and nice German items. Cap & rotor are recent. Will replace the plugs, air and fuel filters plus oil change obviously. I’ve already added a Carrera front oil cooler with fan to replace the trombone. I tested the T-stat when I assembled the engine in 2016 (I got the car with the engine in pieces and built it pretty well ca. 17K miles ago.)

I do tend to be a wee bit thrifty but try to avoid any classic false-economies.

Kind regards, John

[jjeffries]

I was going to start the SC engine-out before Christmas but my ‘57 Willys threw its own wrench in that, in the shape of a holed #2 piston after I drove it up a long hill near the main UCONN campus. Finding a good replacement original flathead 6 seemed unlikely and there were reasons I didn’t want to rebuild the original (cracked block among them). So I was looking to install a SBF, 289 or 302 (as opposed to a SBC due to the Ford’s distributor being more suitably located). But then an unknown but good looking original Willys/Jeep motor came up on FBM and I jumped on it. A week later, with much help from my older son, it was in and it sounds and feels far superior to the original.

The truck is so primitive to drive that it’s fun. I’ve had it a couple of years now and done a fair amount of work on it. It’s a nice old thing and it makes people smile.

John

[jjeffries]

First off, serious and solemn thoughts to all in Los Angeles and SoCal. My first two years in this country, 81-83 we lived in Pasaden and I still have great friends and family there. It is one of my favorite places and I take any opportunity to visit, albeit that’s still infrequently. Seeing the damage and destruction is wrenching and deeply disturbing. I’m guessing we’re all bracing for the aftermath and will learn that many of our P-car friends and their kin will have suffered terribly.

Back to the 82 SC: as mentioned in my last post, we all know that much of the labor required when doing something on an old machine involves cleaning stuff, just loads of it. This continued today as I gave the 915 a relatively quick (about an hour) going over: scrape off any thick stuff into the nozzle of a waiting shop vac, apply a degreaser, scrub and rinse; dry with compressed air.

When I got this car, with 183K miles and the engine apart, it came with an incredibly detailed service history. One of the items was a 1-2 synchro replacement at a Boston area shop maybe 15-20k miles previous. But once I got the car assembled and ready to drive, the 2nd gear shift, up and down was just awful. But this was my first 915 experience and I knew the 1-2 synchros were already done, so it must be something else, right? Wrong, although it took me some time and the advice of someone with more knowledge to get me going in the right direction. I took the car to Auto Associates in Canton, CT and they found that the 2nd gear slider was the culprit; with that and fresh synchros, it’s been a sweet shifter ever since. Their painted notation remains.

BTW, as a guy who works in the auto business, I’d like to make the observation that Auto Associates is one of the greatest shops I’ve encountered; they routinely turn out the highest level restorations and race prep, along with the most routine repairs on a wide variety of German cars. And they do this is a warren of pretty humble buildings - no palatial mausoleum to communicate their greatness. Total mensches to deal with and no gaffing the customer on price, no haughty attitude. A rarity!

I also gave the engine bay a quick degrease, rinse and compressed air “lift and fluff” (Bob Ross reference). Now I’m working on the rear piece of engine tin; more to come.

Best, John

[jjeffries]

Just the usual engine-out stuff:

- check valve adjustment, nice Wrightwood gaskets as I closed it up.
- install new plugs
- lots and lots of cleaning.
- nothing very exciting but kinda fun nonetheless.

Next: getting another few years from my engine tins.







Best, John

[jjeffries]

This post may offend or cause ridicule based on my “saving” a part which should be replaced. It’s also a reminder to me of what I’ve forgotten in the 9 years since assembling this, my first 911 engine. Specifically, I’d totally spaced on having repaired these tins in the first place, but when I removed them for this round of work there was the evidence.

I like to keep my car in nice shape and properly set-up, but I’m not fanatical. No criticism intended to those of you who are more into chasing perfection. It looks like the main offender here - the rear tin - is now only available from Dansk and would cost $230-250? The two side tins are fine but I’d also repairs the two front halves 9 years ago; those have held up OK. I elected to give the rear tin another round of salvation. I removed the driver side heater duct tube because I’d already changed to the SSI/earlier model tube routing.

This metal is too thin and crusty to do nice butt welding, so these patches are lap-joint welded. I used some epoxy to smooth out the visible side. Yes, it’s not pretty. But it’ll work and I’ll be watching for some good/used tins in the meantime.

One other note about my efforts 9 years ago: I was in my (brief) POR15 phase. Suffice to say, that didn’t last long. Despite good prep, this stuff can behave like bad powder coating in terms of losing adhesion and letting rust to keep spreading. More-experienced me would now recommend good two-part pro products, be they self-etching or epoxy primers. Failing that, I’d use Rust Oleum or similar oil enamel before I’d ever touch POR15 or its clones ever again.

Anyhow, there you have it.
John

[jjeffries]

Tins refinished in rattle can hi-temp satin black.

I by did my rear main only last 15-17K before leaking? Maybe I’d pushed it in to far (“oh behave!”) and I can’t recall using a sheet of plastic to guide the inner surface as I did this time. Hopefully this one lasts longer.

Re: hardware, without being too pedantic I do try to reuse the factory stuff if it’s in good shape. When I did my suspension overhaul a few years back I sent all the fasteners off for replating but I’m not that energetic now. I clean them on a wire wheel (quite fastidiously) then swish them in WD40.

John