An over ripe banana

[Jaffar]

Well that's been a long time.

The mechanicals and suspension are just about ready to go in.

The delay is caused by a decision to resurrect the old 016Z gearbox by installing G31 internals. This means means a 25mm input shaft and reduced chance of gearbox damage from over exuberant accelerator usage. It also gives a reasonable spread of ratios but the final drive is a little short. If this proves an issue I can get a variety of different diff ratios from Albins. I purchased the internals on Ebay in the US and I am having new dogs and synchros installed by Cattelus Engineering in the US. Will soon have a complete low mileage 016Z trans to sell which I was going to originally install.

 

The original auto drive shaft is being shortened and splined at present. God I hope I have got all of the measurements correct!!! I think I measured and re measured and drew a diagram at least 10 times and each time the measurements changed.

The GM flywheel has been lightened from 17kg to 10kg and I am using a 944 turbo friction plate with the GM flywheel, pressure plate and concentric slave.

Engine bay is just about rebuilt (apart from wiring which is next after the mechanical install) and I have started the tidy up of the body. The steel had two small issues of rust which I decided to repair by fashioning replacement panels from .5mm galvanised steel and gluing into place with steel epoxy and holding in place temporarily with rivets. The fibreglass front end is in process of crack repair and new mounts installed similar to those used for steel panels.Once mounted I will start on the body tidy up and painting. The majority of that is the small crack in the outer surface of the fibreglass.

The new intake plenum is now complete apart from paint. I have attached a photo of the internals.

I have done a bit of dash repair. I am not sure whether the wrap on the plastic is a bit too loud but can be easily removed and may add life to a very black interior.

[michel]

On 24/12/2018 at 01:38, Jaffar said:

Update before the Xmas layoff.

Have stripped the interior, dashboard out and taken off the front panels. This has enabled a bit more accurate measurement of the engine fit.

1. A pedal box will be required for brake, clutch and may as well do the accelerator at the same time The motor is a bit too wide to refit the brake booster comfortably and place the clutch master in the correct location. Probably a better solution in any case and I will use a remote booster.

2. I think I will modify the front cross member rather than the engine sump. The engine will be mounted to the front chassis frames so this will reduce the load on the cross member so I think it can be re engineered to give the necessary sump clearance without loss of integrity.

3. New power steering rack has arrived. Have also decided to mount that on a separate cross member in order to correct bump steer when the suspension is lowered. Will talk about the rack separately.

4. Will probably have to go with a Motec ecu as finding someone in Australia to crack the Audi/Siemens ecu to deactivate the immobiliser is impossible. Most tuners do not know what I am talking about. At least the Motec makes the integration of the 944 instruments easier. Worst part about it is the ecu will be by far and away the most expensive part of the car. I would love to do this myself but at this time it has defeated me. No hurry but is looking a bit forelorn.

5. Have picked up the early 944 seats ready to be modified to resemble sports seats plus full like keyed lock set and other bits and pieces from the donor car I purchased.

6. 4  brake calipers and 2 discs are on their way from a PFA member.

7. Air conditioning was aftermarket and shot so I will replace it with a modern/compact system which weighs as much as the original heater system.

New year will see the removal of the drive train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great project .. love to see more pics details

of the engine conversion egc

cheers

[Jaffar]

Michel,

Hard to know where to start. I was sure I neither wanted to install a V8 as that was a lead sledgehammer and a turbo motor was probably going to be beyond my skills, especially trying to get street tractability. A large capacilty N/A V6 would give good torque and HP, not cause too many fitment problems and retain the car's balance. An alloy V6 was going to be lighter than  the Porsche n/a motor and considerably lighter than a 944 turbo motor or a V8.

After spending time looking at and measuring the Audi V6 I had purchased and the engine bay it was pretty clear that a motor which had it's oil pump and pickup in the front of the sump and an engine bay with a very low bonnet was going to be an issue unless you wanted allot of motor sticking out of the bonnet or some pretty serious mechanical work such as dry sumping. Luckily the decision was made for me a the motor was junk.

The Audi was a 90 degree V6 which meant it was reasonably low but the said oil pump was the difficulty. I came to the conclusion I wanted to make the minimum changes to the base car and the GM Alloytec achieved that goal. It was a 60 degree V6 which meant it was a bit taller and narrower, but the oil pump was out of the way and thus the changes in that area were pretty minimal. The following photos show the mods to the sump which were the only changes to the bottom of the motor. Being a 60 degree V6 also meant that it was a bit smoother than the Audi unit and did not require a balance shaft. The GM motor is very simply for the somewhat high tech specification and an standard output of 195 kw. The route of the oil pickup had to be modified so just used some copper water pipe and brazed the whole lot together.

I did also do a bit of grinding of the accessory brackets to bring the alternator and air cond compressor closer to the block as they are at frame rail level and i wanted a bit more maneuvering room in the engine bay.

In order to keep the motor as low as possible I made a small mod to the cross frame which also helped install the Mini power steering rack. You can see from the 3 photos that I have taken away the upper brace on the cross member which was in the way and beefed up the lower part of the cross member to compensate. Note I have done none of the welding.

The cut out of the oil pan removed about a litre of oil. I will install a separate header tank if required. 

The fit between the front of the pan and the cross member is very tight and the motor is very tight against the firewall, but there is a heap of space in front of the motor, which will be required for a pair of brake boosters and air cleaner ducting.

.

The 944 brake booster will not fit with the width of the motor. I did try a hydraulic booster but still too much of a squeeze so i made an adapter plate to fit the master direct to the firewall. Hence the use of 2 small boosters for the front and rear circuits. I wanted to keep the 944 master. The clutch master is fine.

The GM intake was heavy and ugly and was going to give clearance problem so i have made a rear facing simple intake plenum which I am hoping with the removal of the stiffener in the centre of the bonnet will enable me to get away with no bulge. I have made a small glass bulge just in case but I will only find out the verdict when everything is installed.

The new plenum is allot less complex, has a higher capacity and can take a larger throttle body as will as being 5 kg lighter so a bit of a bonus.

I will go through the engine mounts, exhaust, clutch, bell housing, slave, adapter plate and torque tube another time.

 

[michel]

Thx for the additional detail. 
 

Before you move on too discuss t/tube etc... you seemed to dkip a bit of detail on the ... I made a plenum. 
 

[Peter M]

"I made a plenum" has to be the PFA understatement of the year!

Yes, I'm interested in the details too. 

 

[Jaffar]

The reason for making the new manifold was weight, even though the original manifold is quite large it has only a small capacity as it is a aluminium sand casting and the walls are thick. The other problem was i was trying to eliminate, if possible, having to modify the bonnet.

The plenum is fibreglass/epoxy with the dog leg to the throttle body being a piece of ally intercooler tube laminated in during construction.

The whole build was a bit fluid as I changed tack a couple of times during the process as I figured out what would fit/work and what wouldn't. The size of the TB increased as I found I needed one of a particular configuration to fit at the back of the motor and the GM V8 version pictured earlier was a good fit.

I started by calculating the capacity required for the engine capacity and added a bit more. I wanted to include the flap and the configuration (dividing the plenum into 2) that is used in the original manifold to increase and decrease the size of the plenum, closed for more torque at lower revs and open for more power at higher revs.

I built two halves of a tapered box in a simple mold made of MDF and skimming plaster. A lay up of 3 layers of 8oz crows foot glass and epoxy was used. Crows foot is a bit easier to manipulate around complex shapes. I made the inlets from a couple of sets of inlet manifold isolator plates for these motors as the original manifold suffers badly from heat soak due to the heavy ally construction. 

I used 2 sets of isolators in order to make a sort of small air horn and increase the length of the intake runner. Also port matched the whole lot and gave the intake runners a bit of a cleanup.

The whole thing just bolts on top of the intake runner, fuel rail and injectors pretty easily. 

I have attached some photos as it is a bit hard to describe all the process I went through to get to the final pre painted version.

The original casting:

Intake:

Mid build:

Flap:

Before paint:

Insulators:

[Jaffar]

Photos

Alloy adapter plate on GM Auto bell housing.

Flywheel and pressure plate from a Commodore whatever but is heavy duty. Plate is a 944 turbo.

Repair work on fibreglass front end. I am trying as much as possible to replicate the original porsche mountings.

Slave cylinder mounted

Brake master cylinder installed without booster and tidied up fire wall. I will be using a pair of small remote boosters.

Fuel pump and filter/pressure regulator installed. The pump is just an Ebay cheapo high pressure pump from a Raceworks. The filter/regulator come from a mid 2000's Corvette. A simple installation which only requires a return from the filter to the bottom of the tank. The bottom of the car was virtually rust free.

Engine mounts manufactured from the original mounts with the aid of cardboard aided design. I am a bit worried about them being absolutely correct and if they are no good I will modify to use tubes (which I should have done in the first place).

Finally the source of much boredom. Rebuilding the drive shaft and torque tube using the old 924 torque tube recovered from the 924 in the field with a modified 944 drive shaft installed. I used a large 16mm diameter threaded rod to pull the bearings through but it still took 2 evenings. I reinserted the 924 vibration dampener (a big lump of iron with rubber on the ends) just in case. 

Motor going back in this weekend.

I am now the proud owner of a G31/02 (924 turbo) gearbox with Porsche 40% LSD. Was too cheap to pass up. It was much cheaper than just buying one of the Porsche LSD's as the 911 guy's appear to scoop these up.  It is going to Catellus in the US to be rebuilt with the bits I had purchased and then on to Australia. 

[Jaffar]

This is all about one step forward, one step back.

I went to test fit the torque tube to the clutch housing. Could not get the alignment correct, the drive shaft would not fit neatly into the clutch and thus could not properly attache the TT to the clutch housing. After much examination and self examination to see whether I was sane figured out the concentric slave did not have a square bottom and therefore was not centered correctly. It was interfering with the shaft. I replaced it with a GM v8 unit (which are really cheap) allot of grinding to get the fluid lines to fit and the whole lot fitted together without drama. Teaches me to use a freeby.

So that is fixed and re install the motor. Next drama. All the clearances were shit and could not get the motor to sit on the centre line without touching the frame on the alternator side. Also a couple of webs on the clutch housing were too close to the firewall and a couple of bolts on the cylinder head were too close to the brake master cylinder. Clearancing time.

The frame has a external bulge next to the alternator, easy just give the frame a hit with a hammer to turn the bulge inside out. Tried it but no joy, turns out there is a brace inside the frame at that location. Luckily it dented enough along with a little grinding of some proud edges on the alternator to obtain enough clearance. The clutch housing grinding required dropping the motor out of the bottom and the master cylinder was always going to have two outlets rather than 3 so a plug in the spare outlet and cutting that down obtained the necessary clearance plus counter sunk machine screws for the mounting bolts provided the rest.

Air conditioning pump has lots of room to clear the frame but interfered with the engine mount in a big way. New engine mounts are the result. Luckily I can continue on while they are being welded as the engine sits nicely on a block of wood sitting on the cross member.

Next in was the rear sub frame. If it looks a bit unfamiliar it is from a 924 with frames to support the G31 transmission.  It did not come with a rear sway bar so I made a couple of mountings from some U bolts and the mounts cut out of the old sub frame.

Also started work on the interior with making sure the gear shift works, installing a 944 clutch pedal and cleaning the residual glue all over the panels in the drivers side.

I have a few requests for those who are having a read.

I am looking for a Recaro LM seat from the 70's or 80's to use as a drivers seat. I have a pretty abused LS for the passenger seat. I was going to modify the Porsche seats that I had previously obtained but sort of like the Recaro's better. 

Any condition is fine as long as the foam is still usable. 

I have a pair of early tombstones going very cheap.

[XLR8]

Hey Jaffar, do you think it would be possible to run the original intake and still have the hood clear?

[Coastr]

Def stick with the recaros - will be a good result 

[Jaffar]

After 2 years the banana is back on 4 wheels.It's got so old the end has turned black. 

It is a bit of a nuisance as I had lots of room underneath to scramble around under but this enables the people I am hiring a little bit of space from to move it around.

Still not very elegant but the suspension works and is completely refurbished. The rear sits a little low and will get even lower after the transaxle and bumper are installed and some gas in the tank. I will have to re index the torsion bars but will leave it until all the weight is in. For the moment I will use the standard torsion bars with a adjustable 19mm sway bar and see that goes. The front is a bit high but by the time all the rest of the stuff is installed in the bow it might come down to the correct height. I have put in adjustable perches and I got hold of a pair of early 911 GT3 springs for the moment just to tide me over until I figure out what would be a good spring rate. They are about 320lb and may be a bit stiff compared with the rears. They are however a lovely piece of kit and very long so there is lots of movement.

Have also been working on the steering column.

II

It is a bit of a tangled mess with exhaust, coolant pipe, steering shaft and alternator and an engine mount to go in as well. The exhaust needs a bit of finessing (understatement) but it all seems to fit. I think I will either need to wrap the exhaust or have it ceramic coated in order to reduce heat to the other services. It will be very tight in there. Any comments appreciated as to what would be more effective?

Nice thing is it looks like I will be able to use the GM radiator hoses to link up to the radiator which will be a cheapo Ebay offering. I was so surprised that the pipe that brings coolant from the thermostat at the rear of the motor easily cleared the steering rack and snuck in behind the exhaust. 

Next step is to install the brake pipes down to the front wheel wells by going forward rather than behind the motor and start on electrics while a few things get welded.

 

[Jaffar]

I will get a few photos off my desktop.

I found the rear bumper had a large hole in it expertly filled with auto bog. I re glassed a section into the hole and has been faired.

Wiring will be a long term job. I have peeled apart the motor harness and extracted most of the surplus stuff. I am trying to figure out the best way to connect the motor harness to the ecu harness, hopefully through a plug or series of plugs, as the motor harness is too short to lead into the cabin. At the same time I am looking at using a ecu from Baldur Systems in Iceland rather than the Haltech I intended to use. It is far cheaper, does a bit more than the Haltech, uses more proprietary plugs, has more wiring options and they can set up the VW CAN speed signal I require for the electric power steering pump.

I have the Porsche engine bay harness harness now sorted although the photo shows the mess before unpicking it a bit and tidying up.

I have also had a go at the internal harness to tidy that up a bit. Here it is when I started. I am also going through ands dipping all the terminals in vinegar to get rid of the corrosion.

The hardest part would appear to be piecing together the heating and A/c wiring so I can use it for the Autoware Hurricane A/c & heater system.

To prove the car has VW roots I have put some 50mm holes and bulkhead plugs in the rear 3/4 panel in order to pull out the torsion bars. They are really handy. The car was sitting a bit driver side low so i re indexed the drivers side in a rather hap hazard manner but got it done in an hour.

Finally managed to get hold of a couple of very cheap and grotty Recaro LX seats. A great winter job is awaiting me to renovate and recover them in Black Alcantara and:

Yuk.

[michel]

Lovin your work 

 

also garish and gauche .. keep it up 

[Jaffar]

At long last the motor is now sitting on a set of completed mountings. You will note a spacer between the mount and the rubber. I decided there may be a bit of settling in the rubber once the motor is operating and so enabled a bit more clearance at the sub frame.

U

Unbelievably a perfect fit first time after the failure of the previous botch up.

Found a spot for the remote brake booster which does not interfere with anything. Just in case you are wondering about how it is going to hook up with just one inlet and outlet the intention is to only use it for the front brakes. I will probably need to sort out a balance arrangement to make it all work correctly. The booster is a cheap ebay rip off of an original 1950's PBR VH44 used in Holdens and Falcons. The smallest I could find. I think the car will only require a small amount of assistance.

Can any one inform me of what the 2 air deflectors which sit under the badge panel in front of the bonnet catch are for? I pulled them off but I am now wondering whether I should have done so.

Finally I have found out why one of the seats I purchased cost $140. It was in an incredible mess.

The seat back was broken at the reclining mechanism and there  was a feeble and failed attempt to braze together the super thin Italian steel. I riveted and bolted a piece of rectangular alloy tube into the back which fitted exactly and that has stopped the whole lot from moving around, stiffened it up and hopefully it will be much stronger.

The bottom was equally as badly molested with the mounting fixed nuts all being torn out. 

I

I have tidied up the holes as much as possible and I think I have a way of repairing this without welding as the metal is just too thin to make a sold and safe job. 

Finally can anyone post a photo of an original early 944 N/A battery hold down arrangement?

[Jaffar]

Most expensive part of the car just made an entry.

I wish i could move the car to better conditions. That rain water is not good especially with dust everywhere!!

E

Eventually found the courage to cut the hole in the bonnet. Also stripped the paint from the fibreglass and continued body repairs.

And then built a bulge to cover the hole.

Repaired the seat bottom as best as possible without welding. I placed 5 mm steel bars into the seat frame and tapped the mounting holes into them and then riveted some 3 mm aluminium angle to the outside to provide additional support. I think it is now stronger than the other seat and may do the ally angle mod to the other as well.

Finally made up a pair of drive shafts up from the two sets I had on hand. There were 4 CV joints that were usable. Luckily 924's and early 944's have identical CV joints.

Next up is a big clean, get the gear shift sorted, finish the brake system and continue the slow process of sorting out the wiring. I keep sighing with relief that this is an early car as has much less complex wiring.

 

 

[Jaffar]

A little bit more has happened over the last few weeks. It would be nice for the rain to stop so that I can spend a bit more time underneath the banana. I need to find the bitter end of the reverse light wires. I can trace them through the floor to underneath the car and attached to the fuel pump feed but from there on they disappear into what appears to be a frame.

CV Joints and gear linkage are now in. I did make up a new ally gear stick and pivot arrangement. New rear calipers are also now installed. The calipers and rear disks came from a member of this forum. The disks are early 911 with a bit of grinding to get them to fit and the calipers are from 996/Boxter.

I have also managed to figure out a reasonably workmanlike way of installing the fixed headlights. I tried all sorts of solutions in Ally and steel but brackets moulded from fibreglass and glued to the buckets was the neatest solution.

[Jaffar]

I have a bunch of photos on my desk top so here is an update.

In the last exciting episode I installed the gearbox and gear lever. Well that was 2 steps forward and now one step back. I did not like the slop in the lever so I removed the gearchange end joint and tried to figure out how to improve the so called intentional slop that Porsche engineered into the fitting. See the photo below. Yes that is a new bush and the pin is to spec.

I can imagine that there is a slight reason for a bit of slop as there is a bit of misalignment between the shift rod and the input into the gearbox on the horizontal plain, but that is rediculous. Others have stated that the fit is good with a new bush and others say that the fit is poor. This is definitly poor. Anyway I have purchased a brass bush which fits the pin in the middle and is a bit larger than the elongated hole. I will drill the hole out so I can slide in the bushes from either side and figure out a way of holding them in place. I may have to make the hole slightly larger for the miss alignment but not as much as Porsche seem to think!

I cut a hole in the top of the transmission tunnel to access the joint which meant I did not have to have pull the whole transmission out and drop the sub frame in order to get at it. Also enables the two top bolts to be accessed if I have to pull out and re install the tranmission. I made a plate for over the hole which can be accessed under the rear seat. I trust it will not leak or have caused major structural problems as it is over the rear sub frame and that area seems quite beefy.

Front calipers have been installed.

Don't mind the spring not sitting in the perch. I will need to get some others that are re rated and a set of helpers. I am surprised a the length of travel. The whole brake/rotor package is a tight fit and may require some further adjustment to the adapters once the pads turn up.

And now to the most mind boggling part of this whole swap, the electrics. Set to the job again and had a good look around the fuse box and relays. The lower fuse box and relays seem fine but have a look at this rat eaten shit fest.

I am surprised the car did not catch fire at some stage. Still it has not worked for over 20 years so I guess this could have happened in the meantime. The amount of bare positive wiring was frightening. So the best thing to do was to get onto something else while I contemplate my options for this mess. A totally new fuse box and re terminate all the wires may be the answer. It is annoying that the current wiring is all connected straight to the fuse contacts, some other system that is replaceable would be great.

That something else is this.

The engine harness has sat in the loft for a couple of months now. I have looked at it and turned my back many times. The only way to get on top of the 128 connections was to itemise every wire on a spread sheet, give it a source and a destination either on the ECU or the Porsche harness and then extend wires, label and terminate. In some cases 3 or 4 times until I figured out whether I had got it right. That is not to say it will not be wrong when it gets re installed.

Modern engines do have a lot of electrical stuff to make them work. I have also found out about pull up and pull down resistors, low reference connections, some sensors are 5v and some 12v. Some services are analogue and some digital and there is also some that are PWM. Low ref needs their own connections in some cases. DBW and the electronic throttle needs to be wired independently and have two circuits each.

In order to make the Porsche instuments work I have decided to replace the GM oil pressure and water temp sensors with 944 items as the ECU does not require these sensors to operate correctly. They thankfully are a straight swap. The engine is all metric. I have to install a light for low oil level as I cannot use the dip stick. The sender is already in the sump along with an oil temp sender which I can use for the oil temp warning light. The speedo has a hall sensor behind it so I can hook that up to the ecu and program but the speedo will still be mechanically driven. I think I can even make the economy guage work through the ecu. The tacho can receive a signal from the ecu which can be programmed.

And then the air conditioning ....... I want to retain the GM compressor and trinary which are 5v but the air cond plant I want to install is 12v so I have to reduce the voltage to 5v after the on switch so it will talk to the trinary and the compressor and then connect that low ref to the ecu. The fan side will be connected at 12v. I could do all this through the ecu but I only have just enough programable ouputs for the really important stuff such as the cam actuators, tach and intake manifold trim.

I found the bitter end of the reversing light, there was none.The reverse light operated from the auto gear lever and was not attached to the gearbox.

The spread sheet will soon go to the ECU manufacturer for an audit, after my 4 audits so far.

Best thing to do is to walk away from that lot and go back to grinding and bogging the front end.

[Colibri Green]

What an impressive build, Jaffar.

Hilariously understated, and some extremely capable skills on display. I’ve leant quite a bit. My favourite parts include (but are not limited to) -

-the front subframe and sump mods- who would have thought you can just braze up some copper pipe?!

-using a snailshell trans - so cool - In other forums they indicate these are virtually unserviceable  (synchros out of production?) but you’ve busted that myth. And modding/resplining the TT is impressive - didn’t even know it was possible.

-the aftermarket steering assembly and universal joints - looks really nice. Interested in if you ended up going ceramic coating or wrapping on the adjacent headers- the concept of ceramic coating inside and out somehow seems intuitively more effective, but be interesting in the facts. If there is some space to fold up and squeeze in a simple radiant barrier out of a bit of sheet steel, could be quite effective (a common go-to technique on flares and other heavy industrial equipment)

And of course, nonchalantly dropping the fact you made your own intake plenum. Whatever, like everyone does, right? 

Hope the harness didn’t dishearten you and you keep us updated on progress.

[Jaffar]

Thanks for the props.

The aim of this build has always been to spend the least amount of money as there is a big chance this will be a failure at the end of the day. I thought is would be interesting to own a 944 which had a bit more power and more direct steering. If it doesn't drive all that well after a bit of development then it will be worth nothing and therefore best not to spend too much.

To that end I have  decided not to paint it until everything is well sorted. If I cannot get it to drive well then why waste time and money on a really good paint finish as it is the single most expensive part of the whole exercise. How good the car ends up will dictate how good the paint will be. If it is rubbish then a spray can job will be it.

We will see whether the copper tube will allow sufficient flow and pressure. The fellow who did the soldering did clean the inside joint after each piece was put together but it was a bit of a trip into the unknown. The stuff up was that the re routed pipe got in the way of the dip stick and hence the use of the GM oil level warning switch. The switch is a simple and effective operation so should be reasonably fool proof.

Part of the rationale for all the work is to keep metal fabrication work down as I do not have acccess to a welder and for that matter have never done any welding. I am also a bit obsessed with doing things with the least disturbance to the basic car. Some of the builds I have seen look like a exercise in seeing how many brackets and frames you can build and how many panels you can butcher. At present when you look under the car it still looks pretty much as Porsche built it, particularly in the rear axle area.

Iwill ahve to put in some sort of heat control. I'm not a big fan of fibreglass wrapping as when it gets wet it can hold a bit of water and then rot the tube with the constant heat cycles. Maybe ceramic coating is the best way of dealing with that problem but is very expensive.

This is the re built gear shift joint. It has got rid of all the slop in the linkages and all that is left is the slop within the gearbox. Hopefully the nylon bush that is left will absorb a bit of the vibration. There appears to be no binding in the shift itself.

I have to sort out a way of ensuring the bushes don't fall out with vibration and use. I was looking at a clamp of some description but an even simpler solution may be a large rubber band made from mounain bike inner tube slid over the whole thing. Keeps the dirt out of the bushes as well.

The engine harness is complete. 

It has been audited and audited again and the connections to the body have been changed a number of time. I thought I would only require 6 connections to the body harness but that is now 13 including a clean earth and 12v supply for the ecu. All the connections follow the original loom to the fuses and relays apart from adding a few more wires. All the wires are labelled to match the spread sheet. I will do a final continuity test on it before installation jsut to check again.

I have also prepared a spread sheet for the relays and fuses. That has helped me to make the decision to replace the upper fuse box with a simple box with one live power in and supplying the same services as the original plus the ECU. The loom behind the dash is pretty ok and I just have to trace the old A/c stuff and get rid of that and that area is done. The only really bad area other than the fuse panel is the wiring in the doors which looks a bit of a mess as well.

Also the only real wring problem at the front of the car is the cut off connections for the radiator fans which I am getting comfortable I can fix without to much of a problem. I will use the existing relays so the only additional relays I will use will be for the head lights and driving lights in the bumper.

I have been looking at recycling as much as I can from the VW polo power steering tubing I received with the electric pump. That is the next major job apart from my continuing glassing, grinding and bogging. I am now happpy that the bonnet bulge will not fly off at the first bump.

Finally I am really disappointed how little in the way of more specialised auto electrical bits are available in Perth. Most of the stuff has come though a crowd in Qld or Ebay. It is really disappointing as I do like to support the locals as much as possible but really they have only the same old stuff for wiring up trailer hitches and that is about it. If you want something that is neat  and reasonably matches what Porsche or GM wiring you have to go elsewhere. And much of that is China unfortunately.

[Jaffar]

The work continues very slowly.

I have received all the bits to refurbish the in tank fuel filter. Rather than spending $150 for a new one I stripped out the plasic filter and installed one from a old Holden, held in by an internal circlip. Luckily the internal bore tapers outward and there is a groove in the back so the circlip fitted nicely and holds the filter in place. I also installed a new seal. It is all now serviceable.

I have re started work on the seats. The worse part of the 2 Recaros I purchased was the driver side bolster. It was in really bad shape. I have used glass matt and contact cement to create a new anti wear and tear surface on the inside of the rubber over the steel supports  and will do the same on the outside once I have finished repairing the foam. The glass sticks really well with contact cement and does not stretch.

The inside bolster I repaired by heating it up to return it to the original shape and then used wiring loom cloth tape and contact cement to hold it all together. I think I will use glass and contact over the outside as well to stop wear and tear and keep it nice and stiff. Over that will be a thin layer of polyester wadding to stop grabbing as the leather moves over the glass.

I have found a crowd in the US who will supply all the covers for the both seats, except for the inserts, in leather, for AUS$420. I was going to try it myself but these are cheap enough to use and if it need a bit of tweeking that is ok. I am doing the inserts myself as they are quite simple.

Headlights now have relays seen under the water tank. I now have to rebind all the wiring in that area which is the worst part of the job.

I said I was going to replace the upper fuse box, That did not work out that well so I have now rebuilt the upper fuse box and have removed all the redundant wiring apart from the pop up lights which I will keep in case I don't like the fixed lights. Once again I need to rebind the harness once I add in the grey wire hanging loose for the A/c.

I have had a bit of a dilemma of how to put in a water container for the windscreen washers as the area it is supposed to sit in now has an air filter and electric power steering pump in it's place. I have spent a considerable amount of time looking for something that will fit in the air intake plenum area and here it is, a coolant reservoir from an Audi. I saw it used in a 924 which was having a v8 installed. Fits pretty well with some mods and brackets and does not look totally out of place. The outlet is too big but I will plug it up and use a reticulation fitting to attach to the pump.It has an air inlet at the top so should work ok apart from being a bit small.

Next weeks job will be to instal the new all aluminium ebay 944 turbo radiator I purchased for $142. I do not know how the Chinese do it. It probably will have a few problems but at that cost it can have quite a few.  

[Jaffar]

Car has now been moved home and I can end the fight with dust and the long drives to get anything done. I may be able to proceed a bit faster than to date. 3 years and it looks like the car is in worse condition than it was when I purchased it.

The bog and sand continues on the front end and is still a long way from finishing. I have decided to split the front clip into 3. The fenders and bumper had been glassed together but I think I can get it into a better state by disassembling and working section by section. 

 The fuse box, relays are gradually being sorted under the dash. It is all being taped up at present.

I have inserted a set of relays for the headlamps. Just need to tape it all up. Also sorting out the radiator hoses.

I have replaced the GM transducers with Porsche compatible transducers.

Throttle pedal is now installed after much mucking around and 3 attempts to get it right. The location and the intrusion at the wheel well makes it difficult to find a method of fixing without a whole lot of welding.  The pedal orientation is good and enables easy heal and toe down changes which will be required for the G31 transmission. I can alter the height of the throttle though a sliding arrangement.

I have reused the auto brake pedal as it is not too large and there is loads of room in the footwell.

I have removed one of the drip rails as it was damaged while in it's previous location. The removal was quite easy. I had looked at various sites for assistannce but could find no indepth discussion, there was an indication that there was either clips or double sided tape. There was neither. It is a light aluminium moulding which clips over the a lip as can be seen in the photo. It may be harder to reinstall than remove.  

[Jaffar]

I thought I had not posted for a while but it is only 2 months. Lots has happened, and no, I haven't given up and thrown the heap of shit into the scrap yard (although i did contemplate it for a while).

Firstly I negotiated my wife's Mini out of the garage and claimed the space for the banana. Sits along side the newly licenced Lotus. That took 28 years, I hope the banana doesn't take that long.

Where I had it stored was becoming a problem. The dust from the CNC router, the smell from the liquid waste recyclers over the road and the 30 klm travel each way was making the whole process unacceptably difficult. Hence the thought of shelving it. My wife agreed to have her car outside until we move to a new house which has undercover space for 3 cars was a break through. Work is  now happening at a reasonable pace and I do not have to spend time cleaning the dust which stuck to everything with the help of a humid sea breeze or rain pouring through the shed. I still create my own dust but it is dry and easy to manage.

Once the banana arrived home I decided to undo all the work I had done on the front clip and do it all again. The fenders and bumper/valence were all glassed together when I retrieved them from a paddock and when you put it on the car you could tell it was put under stress to sit in the correct position. So I cut it at the fender to bumper seams and it sprung apart. I have gradually been cutting and grinding out the joined areas and reglassing again so that they will screw together more like a normal 944. This also means it will be heaps easier to do work in that  area if required.

Here is a good finished joint:

 

Here are some not bad joints, just need a bit more finessing with the fixed light buckets which haven't been finessed yet:

And finally here is a more typical shit job that will be dealt with this weekend.:

Whilst I was executing the above I decided a nice undertray would be in order. I purchased some ABS to replicate the ally one which was junk but decided to improve on it so I now have a full ABS undertray down to the crossmember. I will be using the same attachment locations as the ally one but also attaching the front portion you see here 

to the rear tray with speed nuts and screws. I also intend to put in a skid plate at the cross member to protect the front face of the sump which sits a bit low. A product of the tallish motor and the interest of keeping the sump as close to full size as possible.

Here it is from inside the engine bay also showing the radiator, fans and hoses all installed as well. It is hard to see as it is all black.

I have also made a mud deflector for the drivers side as the early cars only had them on the passenger side and why should the passenger be the only one to remain clean. This photo was taken before I jumped into the gap finessing.

I had been having second thoughts about the exhaust and considered buying smaller manifolds that would not be so difficult to fit. With my new found ability to sit and look at stuff from all positions and for extended periods I decided that the mods to the long tubes I purchased a few years ago will fit with the same amount of cost as the smaller set without the disadvantage of less kw and exhaust note.

You can see from the  upper photo that I have had to put some heat proof covers over wiring and hydraulic and fuel lines. I will probably put covers over the top of the manifolds as well. In the bottom photo you can see that the steering column fits nicely between the tubes after a bit more modifying. I will insulate the exhaust in that area and the column as well. Now that the suspension and column are in their final location I am really please about the smoothness and robust feeling  of the steering column Borgeson parts.

I have had a long standing battle with getting the clearances correct for the calipers, the Turbo discs and the steering arms and lower arms. I tried all sorts of spacers to get it right. I initially measured everything based on some diamensions given on the brake discs but they were about 5mm incorrect and everything after that was a compromise. I broke down in the end and purchased a couple of 944 turbo hubs from Canada and had the caliper adapters machined down by 3mm and they all now fit perfectly. The photo is of the passenger side which gave the major problem. The drivers side was livable. You can see a nice gap between the steering arm and the dust cover as it should be. I can now also re install the 944 NA dust covers.

I can now install the rear pads and bleed the system.

I have now a set of rebuilt 944 NA hubs with all new bearings installed for sale.

Finally I have also started on the interior and put in  some new underlay and the cleaned and fumigated the original carpet. It actually looks ok, does not smell as if someone died at the wheel and rotted away and will look even better with some mats. I have advertised for some remnant black 944 carpet so that I can repair some of the rear carpet and hopefully I can find a good quality carpet for the luggage area floor.

 

 

[Jaffar]

A milestone has been reached. The brakes are now operating. After a bit of drama tracking down leaks at the booster, finding the m/c needed refurbishing and obtaining the correct seals and finally bleeding the system. The threads in the booster brake line connections had some rubbish in them and I couldn't seat the fittings properly and hence fluid all over the place. 

Bleeding was a sod until I ditched the reverse bleeder and just used a full reservior and tube from the bleed screw to a half full fluid bottle. Pump gently and then lock off when I could hear no further bubbles from the fluid bottle. Twice around and I had  a solid pedal. Now all that is left is to set up the all the pedal heights. I am hoping I can lower them somewhat so that the seat will be closer to the wheel.

I have fixed the rusty area around one of the hatch pin recepticles. I vacillated between repairing it by beating a piece of steel into shape and having it welded in or making a thin fibreglass moulding from the other recepticle and epoxying a piece of that moulding under the ground out area and bogging over with epoxy. Looking at how the body is built in that area, welding would create a mess as you can't reach in behind to tidy up and I doubt you could fit the rubber seal back in the hole with all the welding dags hidden behind the panel. With the glass being so thin the seal still fits nicely. Also does not create areas which will rust again.

This is one of the mouldings I made and you can see it glued in just above it.

Here is the area after the epoxy has been filed and sanded away.

This was the starting mess.

I had also decided to re do the bonnet bulge. After looking at it in the garage I did not like the proportions and so I used the original as a mould and added more width with some expanding foam sanded to shape and some coreflue to create a bit more curve on the top.

Here is the new mould.

The moulding.

The moulding trimmed and glued on.

It looks better, is far less obtrusive even though larger, (the more rounded top hides the extra size) and the extra width stiffens up the bonnet skin substantially. The new mould was also lighter than the old one as it was moulded in one lay up of 5 layers of glass. All it needs now is a layer of bog and some sanding and it is ready to paint the bonnet.

In the mean time i have been working on the interior to tidy up the luggage area, clean and re bind the rear wiring and get the rear lights operating. I am still looking for a piece of original black carpet to do some repairs if anyone has some.

Next big job is to sort the evaporator for the airconditioning. I was originally going top use a Vintage Air unit but have drifted back to using a original heater & a/c package. The original set up will give fresh air ventilation while the heater is operating and also when neither the heater or a/c are being used. The weight is a bit more but is an easier fit. 

 

 

 

[Coastr]

Awesome work and progress.  I think you’re on the right track using an original evap box.  Always works out easier in the end if you can use factory parts.

[Jaffar]

I have spent the last 3 weeks working away at the interior.

The luggage area is now cleaned sealed and I made good the bottom of the saddle bags behind the rear wheels. They were very dirty as much rubbish had settled in there over 40 years.The the tail lights and wiring have been cleaned and the lights now all operate. I had a piece of carpet from the 924 I had purchased and so that is now the temporary rear carpet until I can get something that is a better match. You can see on the drivers side the repair I made to the carpet from the bits and pieces that came off the door bins.

Moved onto the  rear seat area and pulled off the pillar trims. The vinyl had started to peel away from the paper mache backing. this was pretty easy to repair apart from the area around the speakers. The vinyl had shrunk and there was no way to get it to adhere to the paper mache as that has become a bit powdery as well. That area will need to be done again now that I realise that I need to put sealer on the paper mache to stop the powdering and then the contact cement will adhere to it. Another time maybe. I pulled one of the windows out so that I could tuck in the head lining and trim pieces and created a whole lot of work that was not necessary as it can be done by just lifting the rubber with the tips of your fingers and tucking it in.

Put in new oval speakers and new wiring and pulled out the odd bits and pieces of wiring which I assume were for a sub woofer. 

Moved on to the doors. The door cards were very badly fretted around the speaker area and the arm rests. After a bit of deliberation and experimentation I decided to rebuild them from a mixture of materials. The upper part remains the original paper mache(with some repairs using fibreglass, the card itself is corflute and the blister behind the armrest fibreglass. I once again had to seal the leftover paper mache to get anything to stick to it. The sealer was amixture of PVA and water. I made a mould for one of the blisters of paper mache and the other I could use the old card with some padding. The glass is 3 layers of 4 oz using polyester resin.

Took the oportunity to see how the Recaro Lx seats fit and whether the driving position is ok.  The Recaros give much better lateral support than the original seat and are firmer. They are also somewhat lower which aids the clearance between wheel and knees. I also set the pedals so that the takeup is lower so that you sit a bit closer to the wheel.  I think they will be ok once they are re upholstered.

The widows and door mirror mechanism were removed. The windows were straightforward. The passenger motor still worked ok but the drivers was a no go.  I pulled the motor off the mechanism and found lots of congealed grease. So I openned up the wheel enclosure, scrapped away the rubbish and it was off and running again. Cleaned the overspray from the bottom of the windows and put it all back together. A bit of advice here it is much easier to take out and re insert the lift mechanism if the motor is not attached. It is very easy to get the motor in afterward.

The mirrors. What a dogs breakfast. The glass was siliconed to the motor assembly rather than using the original upholstery studs. I did not realise this until I removed the first glass. I think while doing that I cracked the rear glass which has the heater element on the first one and thus the heater is no longer working. The second was easier once I realised the bodge. Then the wiring was just appalling. Bits and pieces everywhere as someone had tried to unsuccessfully repair it. Any way I tried operating the whole lot on a bench and see what the electrical problems were. Turned out you can dismantle the switch which was not working properly. It has 3 cones in it which create the connections. One was not correctly seated . Once that was sorted the switch worked. Then on to the motors as I still could not get the motors to work correctly. They can also be peeled apart. Once inside I found a fork on the solenoid not set in the correct place. Once that was fixed then both motors at least did the same thing but still not working properly so back to the wiring. It turned out that the wiring in the car ( what was left of the original wiring) did not reflect what was in the wiring diagram.  I created the whole of the wiring on the bench to test all of the operations and many hours later both mirrors and the toggle are now operating correctly, at no cost.

Unfortunatley I did not take any photos while I had the whole lot in bits, it was a bit of a saga which I thought might be the case from the start and I thought would end up quite costly. All that is left to do is glue the upholstery fasteners to the glass. I may also put a couple of velcro tabs in to hold it all together just in case.

 

Door pockets. These are amazing. The carpet is fused to the ABS. When you take off the carpet, which in this case was shredded, you are left with this unbelievably rough plastic surface. That needs to be sanded smooth. That is easy until you get to the million staples that were used hold the vinyl edge trims. I have retrimmed the pckets in vinyl butting  and tucking under the new against the old but you can see little lumps from the odd slightly proud staple. The vinyl I used was very east to get around the corners and required no cuts.

Once again if anyone has a piece of original black carpet please contact me.

While all this is going on I am doing small repairs to the yellow paint in anticipation of touching up with rattle can paint. I have experimented with a small spot on one of the doors behind the door card and the colour match is good once the original paint is polished.  I think I can get a reasonable finish but I do not trust the longevity as I do not think you can get the thickness a full respray offers.