RS Reveries

Sold

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:26:00 +0000

After taking the car off the market for the winter, I put it back a couple of weeks ago and it's now sold. Sniff. It's for the best, it was just sitting in the garage most of the time and that's a waste. I guess I lost the old car edge and I do long for the creature comforts.

What's next? I don't know. After you've had a custom built car, there's just few cars out there that can give you the same raw performance. That and everything out there is so damn heavy. Really the only modern car that meets my nimbleness requirements is the Lotus Elise 2. But a) it's too small for me and b) it's even less practical than my 911 was.

Realistically, I'm going to hold out for a Cayman with a sequential transmission. Surely, one of these days Porsche has to get over their NIH and source that DSG from Audi or build their own for non-racing applications. We'll see.

I guess that means that either way, this account of my RS reverie has come to a conclusion. It's been a fun ride.

FOR SALE

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:55:00 +0000

Well, I've finished putting the car back into cosmetic shape to at least be worthy of its mechanical shape. It's still got the body work left for the proper RS look, but I'll leave that to the next owner.

I'm selling the 911, because I just don't have the time to devote to it and I hate having a fun car like this delegated to commuting. My current project, Full Motion Racing has been taking up every minute of my free time for the last year and a half and it's not going to let up anytime soon, so I don't see when I'd make it back out to autocross or track. For now, I'll be getting my racing fix virtually in the Force Dynamics 301.

Carpets are in

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:11:00 +0000

This weekend I put the RS carpet kit into the car. It makes an incredible difference. I'd gotten so used to the bare car, i didn't realize what a difference carpets make.

Driver Side:

Passenger Side:

Back:

RS door panels

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 01:21:00 +0000

I replaced the original door panels for RS door panels today

Before:

After:

The state of the hood: part 2

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 01:08:00 +0000

I have the fully painted and crested hood on the car now. As a reminder, here are the previous pics again.

A picture of the way it looked when i got it:

The pre-painting state:

And finally the current state:

TLC for the p-car

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:15:00 +0000

Since last I posted, I got the car back on the road. It was trouble with the DME. New DME in there. And while I had it in, I also had the chain tensioners replaced since the old ones were worn and I didn't want to have to deal with a collapse in the near future.

But the occasion for the post is that the car is finally getting some TLC. All this time, i've always just concentrated on the performance and mechanicals. Well, no more. I got the hood back, freshly painted. got a crest for it as well.

In the interior, I ripped out the old carpets when I took out the rear seat, about a week after I got the car. All in all, I'd gotten quite used to hearing the transmission whine. But that's over. Brand-new RS carpets are going in, as well, as RS door panels.

Relay was bad, but it's not the relay...

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 18:32:00 +0000

Got the battery charged and got a new relay. Car cranks once more, but the fuel pump still doesn't come on unless manually triggered. I guess it's DME related, i.e. the control voltage for the relay is not being sent. Sigh

The state of the hood

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 05:16:00 +0000

With all this car not running excitement, i forgot about the whole hood fix business.

Here's a picture of the way it looked when i got it:

And the current state, pre-painting:

And that before picture is actually pretty charitable for the condition it was in. And notice the two nice little holes in the current hood? I will actually have a crest on my hood, like every p-car deserves.

Troubleshooting

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 02:50:00 +0000

This weekend i attacked the car with a multi-meter. I started with my fuel pump hypothesis and checked that it got power -- iIt did not. I checked the fuel pumps leads at the fuse block -- no power there either. So i traced the wire into the firewall and lost it there. I decided it was either something with the actual ignition mechanism or the DME.

I posted on the Pelican Boards, always a great source for p-car help. Within minutes I got a reply saying that the black DME relay under the seat was the likely culprit. I checked it and and, indeed, one of the two relays in the DME relay enclosure was not closing, and closing it by hand started up the pump.

I checked for the part on the pelican site and found this quote above the DME relay:

Relays are a very common source of failure in the 911. There are several different relays used within the 911, and all are subject to failure after many years of service. Before suspecting your wiring or your components, be sure to check your relays. Before you decide to replace your fuel pump, make sure that your Red fuel pump relay, which is located on the relay board within the front trunk area, is functioning properly. Also be sure to check that your DME relay, 911 (1984-89), is functioning properly. Pelican recommends that you carry an additional DME relay, which is located just under the driver's seat, with you at all times. It is wise to have at least a spare on hand, so that you can check the proper operation of the one that is already installed within your 911.

Aha! This was going great. Quick, trip the relay by hand and see if the car starts up! And that's where my streak of luck gave out. It wouldn't crank. Just the noise of the starter straining to turn the crank to no avail. WTF? Must be the battery, it's tired of all my attempts to start the car. Ok, on the charger it goes.

Long story short. Next day, same problem. I even used a starter pack. Now i was getting paranoid something else happened. Now, i know my battery is funky. I did the battery relocation mod since I had the heavy, outside wheelbase, dual battery setup. That DCS-33 battery apparently doesn't like charging. Not sure what the deal is, but i've had it charged already once, when my charger didn't do the trick. I decided to stop and emailed my mech at Dieter's. He got back to me and said to try and turn the engine by hand and if it that works, bring the battery back in for a charge.

Tonight I was able to get the engine to turn over, so it's time for a charge and a new relay and hopefully after that i'm back on the road (with primer color hood).

You'd figure the hood would be done by now...

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:00:00 +0000

That's what I figured as well. Alas, it's not and the car is dead to boot now.

Non-porsche events have kept me out of the garage for the most part. I did spend another weekend taking down old bondo and building it back up. The hood is now officially ready for paint and it looks good. Calling around for painting quickly showed that it wasn't worth having it painted. After all this is not a final job, just one to make the hood be presentable. The whole car will need to be painted after I do the RS bodywork and I want to have it all painted at once to get the best match.

That lead me to look into painting it myself. Worst case, i strip the hood again, right? I have the compressor, got a paint gun and need to make time to turn the garage into a paint booth.

But there is a complication. Apparently there is a short in the car and it fully drained the battery. Didn't realize it was completely gone at first and tried to start it using the start amperage on the charger. That resulted in strange clicking noises. It's a deep cycle battery, so it wouldn't take a regular charge, but i got it charged. Battery is fine now, but the car only cranks and cranks and never catches. Main thing i've noticed is that I don't hear the fuel pump anymore and I'm sure I used to hear it as soon as i turned the car on before.

In order to turn the garage into a paint booth, i need the car out, and to do that, i need to fix it. Grr.. So, first thing, get in there with a multimeter and check fuses. Oh well.

Bodywork

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 16:18:00 +0000

Over Thanksgiving I finally started a project I should have started 3 years ago: Fix that cracked bondo on the hood.

It's been an eyesore from day one and clearly a hackjob from one of the previous owners. I took the grinder too it, pried off the cracked pieces and sanded down all the rust i could find. Then I started applying layers of bondo, with smoothing and sanding in-between. By Sunday, I had it the hood properly shaped and smooth. I gave the whole thing a light sanding and applied a layer of primer to the whole thing.

Once the the primer dried I could clearly see the terrible crazing that permeated the entire hood. Just another sign of the hack-job of the last hood repair. There was no way around it, I had to take the entire hood down to the metal. That's what I did this weekend. Sanded it to the metal, then used glazing to smooth out some irregularities. Finally I put down a couple of coats of primer.

This morning I was planning on just smoothing out the last coat of primer and heading to the paint shop. Alas, as I did wet clean-up of the hood, I noticed a hairline crack in one spot of the old bondo that had appeared in good condition at the outset. If there's a crack there now, that means there's rust underneath it. I'm not going to waste money painting it with the risk of the hood cracking again. As soon as i get some time, I'll be grinding that section down to the metal and building it back up. So, I guess, no paint until next week.

Audi DSG

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 16:07:00 +0000

I'm been driving the 911 to work off and on. It's such a fantastic ride with the new engine. But being surrounded by SUVs does make me nervous. I'm little more than a speedbump. So, it's not my daily commuter. It needs suspension tweaks, a cage, etc. But that budget's been depleted for a while.

In the mean time, my daily beater, the trusty Scooby (Subaru Legacy Outback), is getting tired. It needs a bunch of work that would cost roughly what the car is worth at trade-in. So I went car shopping this weekend. Long story short, the best overall value and fit for my needs is the Mazda 3 wagon, although the car I liked the best was the new A3 wagon with DSG.

The car drove like a dream. Didn't even think about being in a wagon. It was a pleasure all around. But the best part, imho, was the DSG. Audi's Direct-Shift Gearbox (DSG) is the first sequential that is both a great sequential shifter and automatic box. When it was in automatic, if was smoother than any automatic and none of the low gear jerkiness of other sequential boxes. This transmission is the first one i've used that i'd gladly leave manual behind for. What fun.

Update: Found a better article about the DSG.

The benefits of low-end Torque

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:16:00 +0000

This may not come as some grand thing to those who've had plenty of low-end torque at their disposal in the past. Myself, however, i've never had much low-end torque in manual cars i've owned. The MR2 Turbo had power up high but nothing at the bottom.

This morning i was stuck in stop-and-go, crawling traffic. And i didn't even have to use the gas pedal. The torque at idle was plenty so that i could just let out the clutch and the car was moving. Wee!

Another thing... I don't know if the 915 changes ratios as the engine power increased, but my 73 915 really seems like all the gears are short. When i'm in 5th at highway speeds, i could use another gear to cruising.

A short version of the swap in pictures

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 02:07:00 +0000

Well, now that the car is back on its--err--wheels, i thought i post a brief progression of the job, sans the pain and suffering.

Old Engine:

Swap:

New engine:

Fuel tank breather

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:09:00 +0000

So, I checked in the trunk when i got home and there was gasoline in the breather line. It had been rerouted to point downward, so gasoline was more likely to get trapped in there fuming up the trunk. Rerouted it and had no gasoline odor during the morning commute.

Another update

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:32:00 +0000

I left something off the list below.. A new gas pedal. Turns out the old one doesn't have enough throw to fully open the throttle, so i'm only getting 85% throttle. Can't have that. Ok, can have that while i'm still coming to grips with my newfound power, but i'm already much more comfortable than on Friday. But that 915 shifter will take some getting used to (can you smell a short-shifter kit in the mental plans?)

Looking at getting a Rennline pedal cluster with dead pedal and since the plywood floorboards are pretty much toast, replace those with some Rennline ones as well

Loose ends

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 17:37:00 +0000

Got a chance to drive the car around a little and get more of a feel for it. Put the various trim pieces back on and put in a passenger seat -- just the original, since my budget is quite blown at this point.

In order of likelyhood, here are my plans for the car:

RS door panels.. The current doorhandle has little life left and if that goes, i'd have to use the outside handle to get out.
New Steering wheel. The pizza sized wheel it ugly and more importantly the horn switch is toast and I don't like navigating the sea of SUVs on the highway without at least some way to let them know my tiny car is about to be crushed by their unsignalled lane change
New Torsion bars. The handling is rather sad.

Also need to investigate the gasoline smell i get under hard acceleration. My suspicions is that the breather tube is getting gasoline sloshed into it from the g-forces and since my ventilation is currently open to the front trunk, the fumes are funneling into the cabin. So i keep the window open if i plan to push hard.

Holy acceleration, batman

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:46:00 +0000

Well, it's happened. I really didn't believe it would at this point, but it did: I got my car back! Oh yes. It's running and running well. What a difference from the old engine. This thing pulls harder than my MR2 Turbo did at boost and does so starting at about 2k rpm.

Of course, this power just amplifies the need to get my torsion bars replaced. That car squats and lifts rathe substantially as i get on and off the throttle. Not a safe feeling. I'm gonna be driving the car a lot more carefully than my Scooby. It's just a bit twitchy and I need to get a good feeling for its new quirks, so they don't catch me unaware.

As for the transmission soap opera, I'll post on that later. Let's just suffice to say that it's really a pain in the ass and one way or another I'm going to be left holding the short end of the stick.

Transmission is back

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:47:00 +0000

I can scarcely believe it, but my transmission is back at Dieter's waiting for them to open up a spot in their schedule to re-assemble my car. And then, believe it or not, I should be able to take receipt of it once more and enjoy that wonderful new engine at last.

Still no transmission

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 19:40:00 +0000

Story is that it will be picked up by the shipper today. Well, not holding my breath.

Transmission coming back next week?

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:05:00 +0000

Spoke to Gary at Renntech. Back to the dueling mechanics. You know doing expert arguments by proxy is not nearly as fun as it sounds. I got two mechanics that both have 15+ years of Porsche experience each and when they disagree, what the hell can I really do?

Gary says the seal can be installed from the outside (which Steve at Dieter's said is not possible). Regardless, Gary will install it before sending the transmission back, so frankly, i couldn't really care less how it get's in there. He also said, the clutch disc could be re-used, a claim that both Steve at Dieter's and the rep from Pelican dispute, but he also said he'll replace it. I hope he actually replaces it with a Sachs Power Clutch disc.

The story as to why the seal wasn't in there in the first place is a bit hinky, if you ask me, but i'll let that go.

As of right now, it looks like he is going to do right by me and I'll have the transmission back next week. Here's hoping.

Parts is parts

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 16:57:00 +0000

Now that I only have the transmission debacle to clear to get the car on the road, it's time to look at the unused parts. I spent some time this weekend taking inventory and taking pictures and put together a parts for sale page of all the parts I know I won't need.

Oooh, the savings...

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:46:00 +0000

So I was able to ascertain that you can indeed get the disc separately from the Power Clutch Kit.. At $495.--. A full $100 less than the full clutch. I guess the disc is the special component after all.

More on transmission

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 20:42:00 +0000

Picked up the transmission this morning to ship up to Renn Tech. So here's the deal: It's an early 915, where the mainshaft seal was installed from the inside of the transmission. Basically the first thing that goes in on assembly. So the story that this came off a running car is impossible. Steve showed me that if you look down the sleeve around the mainshaft with a flashlight, you can see glorious transmission insides. That ain't right.

And here's a bit of fun as well: Since it spewed transmission fluid through the mainshaft, it ruined the clutch. Brand new, happy Sachs Powerclutch, a nice $595 item from Pelican. Sweet. Steve says that they might be able to clean the tranmission fluid off the disc, but the chances of clutch failure are pretty high. And then everything would have to come out one more time. Yeah, forget that option. Still have to see, if the clutch disc from that kit is available separately. All in all, i'm liable to have up to $1400 in that transmission, between the lost clutch disc, the labor to fix the misaligned reverse shifter arm and the labor to pull the transmission and engine again.

Let's see if Renn Tech does me right on this. Either way, still no car and none for a while to come.

Transmission saga continues

noreply@blogger.com (ether) — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:33:00 +0000

Ok, another call from Dieter's and not one of the "your car is ready for pickup" variety. No, main shaft seal is missing and apparently on the old 915, it gets replaced from the inside. Long story short: A lot of hours to fix.

So I called Renn Tech. I told him about the reverse shift fork issue that created the clicking when rolling backwards. Also told him about seal. He said he doesn't see how there could be anything wrong with the transmission, since it came out of a running car and, anyhow, fixing the seal issue was easy. Well, great, dueling mechanic opinions, all I can do is badly relay the complaints one gave me to the other. Fortunately, he said he'd fix the transmission, if i shipped it back to him. I can live with that.

Get to deal with a trucking company again. This time, i'll do pickup. When i showed up with the scooby at the terminal last time, they just stared at me and weren't quite sure what to do with someone physically dropping something off. That was entertaining.

I guess, we're at least another 2 weeks out then. I think i'll be a year before the car is back and running.