9126001675 3.0L coupe - NC Ownership & Updates

[ToySnakePMC]

Headers. Trials and Tribulations.

Well, Back to these used stainless steel headers. It took me a week or 2 to figure out that this LH Header interferes SEVERELY with my Omega spring on the 915 transmission clutch mechanism. And I was so smug and proud of my used M&K exhaust purchase on eBay..!

Oh well, see what I mean? Orange circle may give you some perspective on the battle for real estate that the Omega spring had no chance in winning. I guess these headers are perfect for earlier 901 or 915-equipped cars that have the simple clutch arm mechanism.



Time to open the wallet – again! This time I had to bite the bullet and make a purchase of 1-5/8” primary headers that avoid the transmission space. Patrick Motorsports had these in-stock and shipped same day. Really nice work and perfect fit.





Lots of room for my Omega spring!



And finally, I decided to help my lower COPs with a roll of Amazon header wrap. Inexpensive but had good reviews. Bought 4x what I’ve used so far. More stuff to go on the shelf. What’s new. This small box can sit beside those older headers!



The LH 4.9 LSU air/fuel sensor is wired directly into the ECU Master Black. And with a common plenum, it is sufficient. That left me with an empty threaded bung on RH header so I installed a stand-alone Innovative Digital MTX-L Plus AFM gauge. Wired in a water-tight fuse holder, water-tight relay, and used the 8’ cable that came with the gauge (that runs through the tunnel at firewall and under passenger seat and passenger floor mat to reach the under dash gauge. I like having a quick visual reference to what’s going on with AFR’s. And the extra silver gauge bezel sorta matches my dash instruments. Really like it. And if I should want it gone, it would take 10 minutes to remove gauge, hide the cable, and pull the fuse.

[mikedsilva]

Will be interesting to hear how your new "unequal" length headers sound .

The omega spring interference is a common thing.. depending on how much interference there is, you can make a different rest stop tab, to replace the original one, that keeps the spring from contacting the primary.

[ToySnakePMC]

Thanks Mike. I have a short video with sound of the final dyno pull - and the sound seems pleasing to my ears. I may be biased. I will try and get that loaded to YouTube with a link here soon. I am familiar with how the SSI's intefere with the Omega spring - like sitting close by... But these old headers wanted to fight for about 1/2 of the room the big spring occupied. No way I could knock in that 1-1/2" tube that far in, lol.

Final chapter for today:
And finally --- SHE RUNS!!! But she doesn’t idle worth a flip. In fact, it’s kind of dangerous to drive it until I can get the idle sorted out. We completed the 20 min cam break-in at 2000-2200 rpm for 20 minutes on Driven BR oil. Damn thing is kinda loud too – don’t know why ��





After the initial break-in, I hauled it to a local tuner/ dyno shop who spent that morning working on my idle, softening of the initial tip-in of the DBW pedal, and other stuff above my current pay grade. Once he was happy with that, he did about 5 pulls on the dyno and worked his way up to our self-imposed 6,500 RPM limit.
Dyno Jet calculated 251 hp at the crank – and it looked like it was still climbing. This is my first air-cooled build, and others more knowledgeable seemed pleasantly surprised. I’ll take that.



And she makes oil pressure. (Those close to me know how important that is to me due to previous self-inflicted wound last winter.)



And you may notice the tach is at zero. There’s a good reason for that. I had it pinned incorrectly in the ECM. One. Pin. Over. About 2mm away. Re-pinned and tach is back in action.

That brings us up to date. I still have some idle issues, but I’m home and have some upcoming vacation days so I’ll try and sort that out if possible. I REALLY want to put some miles on this thing!! It’s been a dead paperweight for too many months. In fact, I missed the opportunity to drive it 45 miles to Luft 11. That was a kick in the teeth. Oh well, I built it for the long haul – not just the show. I’m thinking it’ll soon be back in full action.
Best regards, Patrick

[ToySnakePMC]

LED work lamp & iphone 11 ftw

[PeteKz]

8 bar of oil pressure?? THat's almost 120psi. DO you have the right sender for that meter?

[ToySnakePMC]

Originally Posted by PeteKz

8 bar of oil pressure?? That's almost 120psi. DO you have the right sender for that meter?

Definitely not certain re the sender. The 1982 3.0 swap was done about 15 yrs before I took ownership, and I'll need to verify sender/ meter compatibility. Good point.
Thx. Patrick

[ToySnakePMC]

A few more, moderately small tasks knocked out this past weekend as I get the car ready to go back to the local tuner for some hopeful improvements with cold idle fueling strategies (my made-up term - not his). Wednesday, I'll roll the car back on the trailer and deliver it with a cold engine so he can fiddle with it and experience what I'm seeing here at home. It needs a big improvement there.

In preparation for the tuner visit, I double checked the whole intake system for anything loose in order to eliminate any possible vacuum leaks. Not sure it will make a difference, but I tightened up the clamp on a rubber cap that probably is a pressed-in 3/8" or so steel nipple for power brakes or similar. (I have no power brakes on this 1976 coupe to worry with.) I also installed a phenolic flat gasket between throttle body and intake manifold to replace a tiny o-ring that may not have protruded far enough out of the machined groove to give a great seal. This flat gasket covers the entire face of the 4-bolt flange so I'll go with that for now.

As PeteKz correctly questioned, my oil pressure sender (the one that came with the car and the new one i purchased last winter) was 0-5 bar. My 1976 gauge is 0-10 bar. Pelican and Uro to the rescue with a new 0-10 bar sensor. Removed the squarish aluminum block and swapped sensors on the bench vise with a 1" crows foot that is more narrow than any adj plier or open-end wrench. You don't have a lot of room to work on the integrated hex-head portion of the sensor, I'll tell ya. I removed the alum crush washers and used new copper ones at all locations here. The good news is that i now saw about 4 bar (58 psi cold) at whatever engine rpm it was running so I like that more than 120!!







Then with the assistance of dear old friend Tad240, here on the Pelican, we were able to properly diagnose and address the clutch cable concerns. With me in the car up on the lift, he was able to quickly identify that the Omega spring was swinging too far back. The steel post that the Omega spring is secured to would move just under the fixed, short steel "stop" that is supposed to catch it. My pedal would rise too high as well with that additional cable travel happening under the car. We removed that bracket circled in orange and spaced it downward with the thickness of 2 thin fender washers.



Now the post on the long lever arm (with omega spring) now catches and stops properly. That allowed us to take the next step and slightly lengthen the cable at the pedal box a few turns and then verify all proper measurements at the transmission. I've only managed to drive it once up the street this weekend, but the clutch friction point seems to be the best it ever has in 6+ years.



That's a wrap for now. Just keeping fingers crossed for a decent idle/ cold-start tune and then put some miles on this eager engine!

[ToySnakePMC]

Video from late Sept at local tuner in Youngsville NC - gateway to Wake Forest.

This was about the 4th or 5th pull, final run on the dyno that day. He let off around 6450 rpm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp_h9ZuCUbQ

[11BC2]

Man, that is just music to my ears.
I cannot wait to get mine done!

[ToySnakePMC]

Originally Posted by 11BC2

Man, that is just music to my ears.
I cannot wait to get mine done!

Nice!! Just replied to your DM before seeing your post. I hope you’ll start a thread here with some build details. Would love to see it. Patrick

[GothingNC]

Awesome !
Cannot wait to have you join on the drives again !!

[ToySnakePMC]

Originally Posted by GothingNC

Awesome !
Cannot wait to have you join on the drives again !!

Hey John. I’m getting there. I’m pretty pleased with this past Saturday’s 80 mi round trip to the independent shop in Morrisville, Elfer, for their open house / Porsche gathering. The new motor and clutch performed pretty flawless which still kinda blows my mind. I did stop 2 different times along the way there to check oil level (qt low) and crawl around looking for leaks & drips of fuel or oil. Found nuttin’ each time! I also discovered that the external thermostat works for the first time in my 6 yr ownership with its new internals from the Pelican - so that’s a big plus. Temps stayed around 180-185F.

The big takeaway is that this new 3.2SS is quite EAGER to run with a whole new personality. Looking forward to putting some miles on this thing heading into the new yr.

[silverlock]

Great build thread. Running a similar build (3.2SS, Motronic swap, 993SS cams, SW chip @ 251rwhp) but always looking for future inspiration. The ECU Master Black is up there on my list.

Hope to see this build at one of the local NC events (Targa Carolina?) next year!

[ToySnakePMC]

Originally Posted by silverlock

Great build thread. Running a similar build (3.2SS, Motronic swap, 993SS cams, SW chip @ 251rwhp) but always looking for future inspiration. The ECU Master Black is up there on my list.

Hope to see this build at one of the local NC events (Targa Carolina?) next year!

Thanks Silverlock - much appreciated. Haven't ever made the invite list with TC. I'm met C. Stanley once or twice & i'm sure it's an incredible event. I participate in the Tapoco Classic and hoping to get into Ruchols Rallye in '26.

[garment]

Sub'd

[ToySnakePMC]

Happy 2026. What a great start to the New Year with completion of the initial valve adjustment and inspection of the valvetrain. I've put on about 250 +/- miles since first start. I've made a conscious effort to run this new engine at various RPM's and doing my best to put it under load climbing hills and also deaccelerating in gear to help seat the rings. No issues. New build runs like a champ.

In November 2025, I was satisfied with the 250 miles on the build and dumped the oil. With a good friend's advice, the plan to move forward with was to adjust the valves and make sure the top end was within spec and ready for the next 3,000 miles or so. I also knew this would be a good time to change out oil tanks as my 912E appeared to have a 911 Turbo oil tank with a few extra fittings. One was weeping a tiny amount of oil - and both fittings were filled in with JB Weld or something similar. They did a good job - as it lasted 20+ years or so. But, I found a local, nice replacement SC oil tank (I think) and cleaned it out thoroughly along with a coat of fresh primer and paint before swapping these two tanks out.



Next step was to order a STOMSKI RACING SR097 valve lash adjuster tool and small 0.25" range Dial Indicator. If you're ever looking for the best engine/ transmission mounts to the finest precision specialty Porsche tools, then look no further than to Stomski. Nice gentleman and bad @ss offerings...





So, on New Year's Eve, my buddy Tad240, here on the Pelican, brought his expertise and pragmatic approach to my valve adjustment job as I wanted to help make sure that my initial valve adjustment on this big $$ investment rebuild was as good as it could get. We quickly got acclimated to the Stomski tool and checked all valves to get them to .004" or 1/10th of a MM setting for intake and exhaust valves. I think about 12 of the 24 valves needed a slight adjustment to bring them back to factory spec. We also checked and tightened all rocker shafts with their new RSR seals to help make sure they were secure and ready for the next 5,000 miles or so. Some were perfect and some needed to be snugged up with their 5mm and 8mm allen sockets.

We got all that work done on the last day of 2025 - and then today --- I reassembled the motor with new Wrightwood Racing valve cover gasket set and re-installed the Patrick Motorsports headers that had previously prevented the lower valve covers from being removed.

The collector pipe of the headers had previously been wrapped with Amazon's finest, lol, header wrap. Today, I wrapped the closest primary pipe on LH and RH headers to help protect the lower Audi COP's as I imagine they will see high temps due to close proximity to the stainless steel headers.







Popped open my newest, favorite local IPA - Fullsteam Brewery of Durham, NC's Rocket Science - and added a total of 11 quarts of dino - Driven 15w50 HR1 oil (non-synthetic) to continue the break-in of this new engine before switching to the Driven GP-1 semi-synthetic about 1 - 2,000 miles down the road.





Then later today, I put about 50 miles on the EFI 3.2 with a trip to Angier, NC's best Irish Pub for take-out. This little 912E has a new angry attitude that I'm not unhappy about! I feel like I reached a milestone and can now enjoy this engine a bit more as we hope to put the next 2,000 miles on this engine sooner than later.