An over ripe banana

[Jaffar]

What is the old saying, A job is not complete until it has been done at least 3 times.

This update is mostly about doing stuff multiple times and still not getting it right.

I tried to re instal the Bilstein shocks that came with the car and wondered why the drivers side was a very tight fit. I had looked at the shock mount on the trailing arm previously and wondered why there was a slight difference between mounts on either side. Now I know why. There is should be no difference it was just that the drivers side shock mounting was bent from probably a major reversing into a kerb accident. I had to purchase a new trailing (second hand) arm as it was probably not worth the money to fix and would probably weaken the sshock mount in any case. So I rang around for another and the prices were shocking. They were throwing these things away when I purchased the car and in fact I threw two away myself. I tried for a set of early offset ally ones from the US with drive shafts. The cost was really reasonable but the shipping cost was far too expensive. Ended up buying another steel one on Ebay from the US. Cost about a third (incl freight) of what the locals wanted. I think Ebay has not updated it's shipping cost through their shipping program lately.

My attempt at making a new webbing for the drivers seat was a bit of a failure. In fact some other bits of upholstering I have attempted have also failed. The common problem is using aerosol spray contact cement. It just does not set completely and does not have the holding power of the brush on variety. 

I have attached a photo of the overlapped material I used. There are 3 layers and I would of thought the sheer load would not be enough to create a problem but the glue had moved and felt sticky when I pulled the whole lot apart. 

I also had to do the same problem with the seat back bolster repairs. The spray on after a while appears to go soft. Any way I re did it with old fashion contact cement and looks like it is holding.

Yes that is 2 oz fibreglass cloth impreganated with copious amounts of contact cement you are seeing as a re-inforcement.

I also replaced the steel wire clips that hold the webbing to the seat base with cable ties. Works much better. You can get them to fit realy tight, adjust when they get a bit sloppy, do not rust and are much cheaper than new wire clips.

I jumped back into the wiring loom to test all the services. It is all very well to make sure that there is continuity in the circuit but until you see if the service works it does not. So most of the services required further work including the most head scratching of the lot, the wipers (just as bad as the power windows and the mirrors). The intermitent function did not work properly and neither did the park function. I had checked the relay and the motor a few times but stil no joy until I found this.

This is the after, after I soldered on a new contact made from a brass contact I stripped out of a fuse box. It is a bit dodgy and the first attempt failed after a few wipes as it was a dry joint but it proved my idea and  the second effort acheived a decent solder joint which will hopefully see it good for a while. Because the whole contact was missing I did not notice it when I originally opened it up to check if there was any grease or rot in it. The mising contact only effected the park function which effects the intermitent function.

At first I thought the problem was with the relay so opened it up and replaced the capacitors at the princely cost of $2.50. The soldering was easy once I was introduced to the joys of solder wick, used to clean up joints and get rid of old solder. The wipers now work really well.

If anyone is having a problem with the swirtches on their electric windows check this out. 

It is very helpfull. 

Managed to turn the motor over for the first time just to see that the starter motor and fly wheel ring gear mesh properly and when I turn the key that function will work as well. All that is left with the electrics is the A/c and heater, re installing the engine wiring loom and the ecu. I looked, for a while, at using a unlocked Bosch E55 ecu instead of an aftermarket job but by the time you buy all the hardware and software to talk to it and make the inputs and outputs work it is just as cheap to use a aftermarket ecu.

Spent a couple of dirty weeks stripping the paint, clear finish, brake dust and corrosion from the Japanese knock off Fuchs wheels. Below is the before, mid strip and end product.

I am not sure what to do with them. Whether just leave as is and give them a clear coat, paint the centres or get the whole lot powder coated. Powder coating is expensive and I am not sure they are worth it. I do like the way they are in the bottom photo. Suits the car. They have a bit of patina (in other words like the rest of the car they are a bit rough).

I have spent more time on the body doing and re doing previous fixes. I have now modified the front fenders to accept side lights.

Continued to tidy up the shut lines and all the blemishes and balls ups and glassed and glued in brackets for the turn indicators and driving lights.

The bonnet bump is gradually getting there. I think I have used three pots of bog and 3 vacuum cleaner bags to get it to this. You can see the different colour bogs I have used.

I also had another look at the exhaust manifolds while I was under the car re installing the exhaust hangers and looking for a small brake fluid leak. I made a couple of relieving cuts to a pipe on each side to see if that would help the fit and it did. The rear control arm carriers are the problem. The manifolds do not have to be shortened as they now fit nicely up under the floor and they do not need wholesale changes to obtain correct ground clearance. I was thinking that getting a set of "shorty" manifolds may be cheaper fix but it looks like these long tubes will work. Keeping the long tubes help the noise that comes out of the back dramatically and adds a few more KWs.

The leak in the brake system came from the remote reservoir. Forgot to attach some clips on the connections to the master cylinder and you cannot see the bottom where the connections exit. That meant cleaning and re painting part of the engine compartment.

I have also repainted the door shuts where the original effort was not that good. It actually looks ok now. As discussed previously I just used colour matched rattle cans.

Next steps are a bit of painting going on at the rear of the car, A/c and heater when I manage to get hold of a system and the ecu and start her up.

 

[LeeM]

 Re the rims. Maybe just polished the outer lip and leave as is? 

 Full colour looks a bit average to me

[Jaffar]

Time for an update.

Once again there has been a bit of one step back and another forward. Most of the work over the last few months has been re visiting stuff and wondering if I can do it better, having a go at improving it and then having another go at it.

As I have mentioned previously I have been vascillating over the heater A/c arrangement. I was contacted by a member who had an original  a/c but no heater and to buy the heater on top of the a/c the whole lot would be the same cost as a Vintage Air unit which would be far more efficient and lighter as well.

The issue I had with the Vintage Air unit is getting fresh air in when the heater was on and then closing off the fresh air when the A/c was on, creating a recirculating system. I believe i have sorted the problem out.  I have found a SPAL vent which can be opened and closed and with a little bit of mucking around here it is.

 

I used a central locking solenoid (which I found in one of the doors of the car) to open and close the vent. I can connect a 100mm duct to the ac/heater unit fan inlet and have a fresh air when required. The controls are all electric and are much easier to instal than the Porsche unit and because the heater and fan are in the same unit it is a far smaller package. 

I am a bit intrigued what the restomod companies are doing with these to enable a fresh air inlet as this seems to me to be very important.

As discussed In the last update I found the shock mount on a rear trailing arm was bent. Rather than trying to fix it I have got another from the US. It came withing 2 weeks of buying and the overall cost was very good. You can see from the photo below the bent shock mount on the lower arm.

I manged to instal it without having to take off the drive shaft and brake assembly. That was a bit interesting. I just couldnt get the bolt that attaches the arm to the subframe in no matter how many different angles I tried. Walked away and tried the following morning and it took 5 minutes. It is a very heavy job with a lot of loads coming from everywhere. Quite difficult if you only have one set of hands. Just for a record the steel arm bare weighs 6.6kgs  which is not much different to the aluminium arm.

I think I can now finally pass on from that area of the car apart from some gearbox oil.

Next revisit is the exhaust manifolds. Now that most engine bay services are in their final locations i decided to mark out the mods that still needed to happen to the manifolds and send them to the exhaust guy I had lined up to  do the work. Took the whole lot down to him and was greated with "too busy, making money out of replacing mufflers, no staff, cost too much, do it yourself." 

That was a bit disappointing as he asked me to hold back dropping them in for a couple of months while he got through the jobs he had. I have had a similar experience with some upholstery work on the Lotus. There is so much work and so few to do it that the trades are not doing the  stuff they used to do years ago and just doing simple things at high cost. I assume some time inthe future when work is down it will come back to bite them in the arse the same as in the building industry.

I looked at finding some other manifolds that would do the job but all required just as much work as the the ones I had and would not be as efficient. Going back to the original cast iron manifolds was an option but I thought that was a step backwards.

Anyway I got too and made a pair of jigs out of some scrap board I had sitting around and started to cut the manifolds up, relocate the collectors in the correct position and fit everything together. And here are the results:

I managed to use most of the old tube apart from a new 90 degree bend as can be seen. All the gaps are less than 1mm after much work. It was in general easier than I expected apart from fitting the new 90 degree.

Next problem is welding the  together so I purchased this:

This is a DC TIG welder with a HF start function and a very low amp setting which is good for thin wall tube. Yes, I know that TIG welding is very difficult and needs much practice but how else am I going to get this done. I have a whole lot of left overs to pratice on. I am waiting for all the other welding, gas bits and pieces to arrive and I will start my first effort at butchering pieces of tube soon.

The thing cost the grand total of $262 and had very good reviews so I hope this will end well. I have done some soldering, brazing and oxy welding but that was a long long time ago, at school to be exact. I found oxy welding quite easy and intuitive and TIG is about as close as you can get.

Finally back into the engine compartment. wiring loom is in, PCV , breather, vacuum sorted and throttle body, MAF and air cleaner are in place. IO have ignored the ducting which I will leave till after the exhaust goes in. The only place I could get bends that would get the tube to run in the right locations was the Bunnings drainage section.

I also decided to finish the steering set up and see if it all worked. First thing was to test the electric pump. Pump came from a VW Polo and I had a fear that the pump would require a CAN instruction to start. Anyway tried to start it in the manner that most of these pumps are tested, in fail safe mode but there was not a murmur.

Did a bit of reading to see if there was a way of overcoming this but did not find any help. I decided the pump was not worth spending any further time on as it was quite cheap. Volvo V50 pumps seem to be used in the US so got hold of one at the local breaker which I tested in fail safe mode and it worked so I installed that. Was not to difficult as the frame was easier to use than the VW set up. Hooked all the hydraulics pipes to it after having to make a mod to a connector which forced me to have to take out the high pressure pipe. Not an easy job as everything in that loacation is very restricted. Also found I had to replace the Volvo oil tank with VW one. That was quite easy as they are both basically the same pump. It turns out most of them are just another version of the basic ZF/TRW pump. The one from the Volvo has FoMoCo all over it. That was from when Ford owned Volvo.

Attached the hose again, jacked the front end up so I could swing the wheels to prime the system, turned in on , moved the wheel back and forth and dumped half a litre of fluid on the garage floor. Luckily the fluid was clean  so the floor won't be too badly affected. The hose I pulled out had to partially come out again. I had misunderstood how to tighten one of the fittings, what a mess.

Anyway sorted that and another small leak and all good to go again. It works, and quite well I might add. Dropped the car back on it's wheels and the load for a 2.3 turn from lock to lock rack is not heavy at all, even in fail safe mode (about 65% of working pressure). I will be able to use CAN bus speed to adjust the assistance up to 100% and have found a  controller specific for these Volvo pumps which will also allow a manual adjustment through a potentiometer. I can set it for whatever feels best. 

As usual there is a bit of further work required here as the joint attached to the rack has a small amount of movement in it. I think it requires an ajustment to the shim in the joint. But the rest is really positive.

Apart from welding the next big job is wiring the ecu and getting the thing started. Also will be ordering the new seat covers for the Recaros. 

This project has now taken 3 years and about a year of that has been wasted re doing stuff. I think it still has a year to go before it is in some stage close to being driven on ther road.

 

 

[Jaffar]

In the last post I ruminated on the second efforts for many of the jobs. Well not a lot has changed in a month. By trying to get ahead of myself has just meant doing stuff again.

I had to relocate the power steering pump and air cleaner as they both interferred with the head light insert. That meant a new aluminium heat shield as well. The pump had to be lowered 50mm and the air filter moved rearward about 50mm. It did mean that the heat shield ended up fitting better than the previous version.

I have also obtained some 100mm ducting for the air intake and found that the changes improved the route of the ducting giving better clearance with the aircleaner and MAF a bit higher up on the heat shield.

It did in the meantime lose a complete load of power steering fluid all over the concrete floor. Luckily fully synthetic fluid evapourates away so there was no stain left which was helped by the fluid being new and with no contaminents. I have also found a small weep in the fluid reservoir of the pump which relies on a spiral clamp. It is very difficult to find a 120mm dia 9mm wide spiral clamp in Australia. Had to order it from the UK, which was handy because I also needed a bunch for the cold air ducting.

While I was working in that area I decided that the wiring at the front of the engine was a bit disorganised using the original brackets. There are 9 sensors in that area so I ripped out the conduits, brackets and tape and had another shot at it.

Looks a bit more professional now.

Next up was the air conditioning evaporator. I purchased the Vintage Air Mini from a local supplier together with a couple of Y adapters for the ducts and a control panel and proceeded to instal it. It suprisingly was not that difficult. The hardest part was re organising the wiring and getting the middle face level duct to comfortably fit when the dash was installed.

Here is a photos with just the evaporator in place with all the ducts attached.

You cannot see it all that clearly but the unit sits comfortably in the middle of the dash without top much interference. I had to modify the Y adapter for the face level vents by heating it up and squashing it by about 15mm. I also had to modify the demisted duct I had made of fibreglass to allow a smoother angle for the feed to the face level ducts.

You can see that there is space behind and in front of the unit such that I can sqeeze my hand in to get at the heater tap to service it if required.

These are photos taken from the side of the unit, front and rear . They are not very clear but you can see the heater tap in the bottom photo and how much room there is behind the unit. I used a piece of the orange duct for the engine air intake to connect the outside fresh air to the evaporator. All worked qite easily.

The final A/c wiring took a little head scratching as I kept the Porsche A/c heater fan relay as the main power source to the system and the system came with 2 further relays for the fan and the power as well. There are now two power relays for the A/c. Next problem was adapting the two cooling fan relays so that the original Porsche cooling fan system worked as well. All done in the end with pulling apart the wiring at the switches and relays a couple of times. I have lost count how many times I have wrapped and unwrapped the main interior harness that runs across the dash board.

I also spent a day trying to figure out why the driving light switch did not have enough wire to reach it's location in the centre console. Turns out I had the driving light and the rear window demister switches mixed up and lost one of the plugs at the side of the A/c. Once they were in the right place all was well. And then I went through the whole dash again testing all the services. Looks like I could all be ok.

The dash now only requires a small warning light to come for the engine oil level (the motor has no dip stick ), the A/c high and low hoses (which are really easy to get at and instal) and a radio. 

Here are a couple of photos of mid works and all in. The yellow is very roarcous. The interior would be like a coffin if I did not do that. That is my excuse.

You can see the new controls for the A/c where the sliders used to be. They are all electric servo contols. They come in a little plastic underdash panel with some cheesey rubber knobs. I placed them into a new panel which also fits the radio and fitted some smarter aluminmium knobs.

Chucked in the back of the car when I purchased it was a panel to fit under the glove box to cover the A/c evap came with the car. The cover fits nicely and hides the A/c hoses on the passenger side. At the same time I managed to fix the poorly fittling glove box lid by applying some heat to the lid with a heat gun and giving it a bit of a twist. Worked quite well.

I think I will also instal a 60 mm long steering wheel quick release to move the wheel closer to the driver. It is a lot better than the  originally driving position by moving all the pedals forward about 20mm which got the wheel away from the knees but I think it wiil be more comfortable with the wheel closer which will also move it a bit higher.

Here is a photo of the newly re installed throttle pedal and the ecu wiring. The ecu is the final large purchase. which will probably happen in the new year. I also found that the dead pedal that was provided with an auto was larger than that for a manual and interferred with your foot when depressing the clutch pedal. Luckily all Porsche did to make the auto version was to weld on an extra plate which was easily cut off.

The ecu wiring is a bit of a mess at present and I think i will need to re pin some wires it to get the whole lot to fit neatly. Once again should have left that job until I installed the harness in the car.

I have made some brackets so that the ecu fits where Porsche had the original located.

The job between now and Xmas is to weld up the exhaust manifold. I am procrastinating on this job very badly. I have all the gear now all I need is the courage.

[Jaffar]

I finished off the previous post expressing my fear of welding, a fear well placed. I also notice I made some ghastly typing errors.

I am gradually getting through the welding but it is a struggle. I created a rod for my back in choosing to TIG weld the hacked up manifold, but no one forced me to do it.  I have realised that re using the old pipe just makes it harder as one of the golden rules of TIG welding is cleanliness and the next one is cleanliness. No amount of cleaning both the outside and the inside of the pipe can stop the imminent threat of blowing a hole at the end of the tube as a result of contamination. Ease off with the amps, arc up the argon to stop the blow outs and you do not have sufficient amps to get a good weld.

Allied to the problem is my eye sight depth of field is poor and my hand eye co-ordination is not great. I have used an amazing amount of argon gas, which is not cheap, and my welding has moved from a moonscape to a line of dog shit. At least the welds are now deep.

You will not be able to see them because they will be wrapped with glass to keep the heat away from the intake, wiring and a/c pipes.

I increased my pain by deciding to route the two exhaust collectors next to the gearbox, rather than under the foot well, and from there to under the torque tube. Under the foot wells was a bit agricultural and I was also finding some clearance problems on the driver’s side with the rear mount of the control arm. So I cut the whole lot up, re aligned and shortened pipes and put them all back together again. Below are picks of the re hacked manifold (still a little bit of welding to go) and the journey around the bell housing. I did get good clearance in the end with the steering column as can be seen from the last photo.

 

 

This has been the hardest part of this swap by a long, long way. I can see why this job would stop a lot of projects in their tracks. It would be very expensive to have someone else do the exhaust from engine to tail pipe. As an aside I am thinking, after getting the car going, of getting rid of the ice, t/t and gearbox and converting to a Tesla small drive in the rear. Then I can forget about all this stuff and worry about something else. Also I am going with an electric a/c pump, which will work with an electric conversion if I do It. Also is easier to deal with in making it work with the ice. The GM pump has to be operated by the ecu which is a pain and an electric unit is self contained.

With the dash in I could test some of the instruments. Found that the fuel gauge was not working so pulled the sender apart and found one of the one of the wires broken. Did another bit of my ordinary soldering and the problem was cured.

Speaking of the dash, a radio has now been installed. I am quite happy with this. It has blue tooth so I can use for phone calls and stream music from my phone and also digital radio. All for the princely sum of $48.  I also think it looks a bit better than some of the usual makes and all functions work without any problems. Better than the $24 one I purchased  previously. Funniest thing is I saw the same $48 radio in a very expensive resto mod 911.

I have written previously that I was not able to use a dip stick because of the way I routed the oil pick up to the pump. I thought about it a bit and realised the problem was the dip stick was too stiff and would not move slightly aside of the pipe. Fixed it by swaging a new more flexible bottom portion of the stick (the one on the left) and now it works ok. Swaged in a couple of indicators of high and low to replicate the old end.

I had ordered some seat covers for the Recaros from a firm in Sugarland, Texas. If you read the reviews 90% are good and the balance are scathing about poor service and leather quality. I can see the reasons why.

I purchased new leather covers for the seat and backrest bolsters and the headrests. I will do the inserts separately as I am going to use Porsche  script cloth. I received a parcel in January with the bolsters but no head rests. Also the seat bolsters were the wrong shape, even after they asks me to double check what bolster shape to use. They have sent through the head rests but not the seat bolsters. They then ask me to send back the incorrect ones and they would send a new set which are on their way.

The leather is thin which is glued to a vinyl substrate but feels robust.  Everything so far fits ok considering the repairs I had to do to the foam, they look alright and only cost $500 but boy are the suppliers difficult to deal with. The cryptic emails you get from them are very strange. You never really know what is going on and the best thing is not to get shouty.

Next on the agenda is to finish the exhaust up to the catalytic converter and then on to installing the ecu and try to start her up, with the emphasis on try.

[sjm]

Quite the process, doing good work, keep at it 🙂

[Rob]

Love your work @Jaffar, and your writing style - clear and concise. Hope you push on and finish this project to your satisfaction.

[Jaffar]

6 months since the last post and I feel little has been accomplished.

In the spirit of doing jobs multiple times, I have had to do most jobs more than multiple times, particularly the exhaust.

The manifolds are now finished, painted wrapped and installed. The amount of times I tack welded the 3 into 1 collectors only to find that they oriented slightly in the wrong direction was a bit harrowing. Then to get them to fit to the two into one collector was just as interesting.

I fear cracking will occur at some of my early welds. What I did find is that if I used a smaller TIG welder electrode and welding rod, even though the progress was slow, there was less chance of a disaster and generally the quality rose from shit to awful. See the picks below.

Next is the cat and after cat pipes in stainless. 😞

Have more to post but it looks like I have reached my photo limit. The photos are a bit horrid due to being taken with a phone at very low resolution. Will have to renew my membership 🙂

[Jaffar]

Figured out the reason for a tea tray spoiler.

A desk!

More electrical checking happening along with ecu install.

[Jaffar]

I am now onto the mid and tail pipes, all from stainless. I ended up buying the cheapest 3" diameter Ebay cat and muffler I could find, total spend $180, both in 304 stainless and the quality looks ok. If the system is too raucous, I have room to stick another resonator or muffler behind the cat and under the drive shaft.  

Unwelded Cat and mid pipe.

Here is the mock up of the rear section in situ, partly tack welded and partly clamped. When I put the final link piece in, between the clamp and the green tape, it slid in perfectly. My welding  may be still shit but my cutting up mandrel bends thas become pretty good. Now all I have to do is muck up the whole lot by welding it together.

There is a requirement for some insulation near the CV joint boot. Looks worse on  the first picture than the second.

[Pork Chops]

How'd I miss this build?!  Right up my Kirsty Alley!  Subscribed.

[Jaffar]

All finished and installed.

On to the next saga.

I decided to change from using the GM a/c compressor to an electric compressor. The main reasoning was that the late GM supplied pumps require the ecu to run them, similar to the alternator. The algorithm that runs the compressor entails information that the car does not generate as the Vintage Air a/c evaporator is pretty basic. Using a simpler set of parameters based on the ecu alone will not get it to work properly. The variable compressors such as used in the newer GM vehicles are on all the time even at their lowest operating state when the A/c is off. Old compressors have an electric clutch.

An electric compressor is your traditional on/off operation and far easier for the layman to sort out. To install a traditional engine driven compressor would have been pretty difficult for my skills. I also liked the fact that the motor now only powers the alternator and the water pump. If I installed an electric water pump, I could look at just one auxiliary and then if I installed an electric alternator, I could get rid of all ancillary drives :-)

Anyway, the electric compressor required a change to the electrics both for the fans and the a/c. The system now uses 6 relays to operate so I decided to take advantage of the added complication to add in a manually overridden high and low speed function for both radiator fans in addition to the 944’s high and low speed function for the cooling fan. So out comes all the previously installed wiring and in a new lot.

Here is the wiring diagram for the fans.

I have learned a bit about auto a/c through this process and trying to buy an electric compressor. This is all good info for 944 owners as they traditionally have a bit of an issue with their engine driven compressors.

You can buy compressors from China for very cheap but some have too large capacity for small auto applications. There are a number of commercially available packages in Australia which use small capacity units. You are paying up to 10 times for the privilege of them sorting out the major conundrum of which one to use.

The info in places like Alibaba is not very helpful but what you are looking at is a capacity of no more than 13cc. This appears to be the smallest available for automotive scroll compressors. The majority available are integrated packages and the unit is quite large.  I was looking for a non integrated package with 13cc capacity. Eventually I found one after much tooing and froing with a number of suppliers. Cost was $331 delivered. The vendors were hopeless and the info received very sparse but I can see from the label on the compressor that it is the correct capacity and it is much smaller package than the integrated models.

I had to sort out the wiring which was incredibly vague and used a full rainbow of non intuitive colours. Some of these suppliers specialise in obfuscation. I had to sort out the hose fittings: they are standard but what standard??

The positioning was a bit of do it again balls up as well. Initially I decided I would install it in the plenum on the driver’s side. Looked like just enough room. Not ideal for weight distribution but being further back in the car was a bonus.  This entailed moving the windscreen washer bottle again after it was moved as a result of the power steering pump location. The a/c compressor just did not fit so back to the drawing board. Looked at a number of locations which all had a problem. Then a revelation came to me, why not instal it in the passenger side footwell to replace the foam kick board.

I made a plinth to sit in on and under the plinth sits the inverter. This is all covered by the carpet in the regular location.

As a location for the a/c system it is ideal.  Cool location with short runs to the condenser and evaporator. For the car, the 7kg in total weight has moved to the middle of the car and down low. The wiring and hoses are also shortened and centralised. The only issue I see is the noise of the unit. I have quite a bit of sound deadening left over from the fire wall refurb so will use that and see how it goes. I do have a lot of room down there to work with. If it is too noisey I have an idea that I might put the compressor in the battery bay and put a couple of 6v Optima batteries (very well secured) in the passenger footwell.

Yes, once again a further change but I’ve got used to that. The plinth you see in the photo is some 8 ply. Wood is good at absorbing the noise, is light and stiff. Will see how it goes. What you cannot see in the photos is a number of mounting brackets. The wired box in the foreground is the inverter. The iterations of the wiring for the fans and the inverter were staggering, but eventually after many blown fuses managed to get it all to work.

Finally this is what happens when  you get wiring circuits wrong. Very easy to do.

 

[Rob]

Hey Jaffar! Loving your work. It's nice to see someone who not only does a ground-breaking project, but finds the time and talent to write about it in a concise, understandable way. Keep the reports coming and good luck with overcoming the various obstacles!

[Jaffar]

Thanks for the odd compliment gents. I try to be entertaining on some very dry subjects. Also helps me keep a sense of humour in the face of adversity.

I have all this stuff prewritten in a Word document as it is much easier to edit and has a spell checker. The problem is I write it and leave it to later to post so it gets a bit old.

I am up programming the ecu. What a circus. Using the ecu I have purchased means I have software which can handle heaps of complex services and any number of strategies but it is a bit hard to get a grip on for someone coming in from the cold. The biggest issue at present is DBW.

Anyway…..

Also required a more powerful alternator. Later GM vehicles were fitted with a 140amp alternator with the same bolt pattern as the earlier 100 amp. The added bonus is that it is smaller and lighter and readily available s/h for $50 shipped. There are heaps for sale. They are also clutched so they have a smoother operation.

Photo of front of engine. Everything is much simpler.

I also converted the alternator to stand alone operation for the same reasons as the a/c compressor. Although the ecu could operate the alternator I would have had to add in some more sensors and set up strategies in the ecu which was a pain. I found a stand alone alternator regulator which also monitors battery condition for the princely amount of $35 shipped from Texas.

Pulled apart the alternator and with one solder joint and three mechanical joints converted the alternator. All pretty easy for even my shitty skills. Although I did wreck the original trying to figure out how to do the conversion. Could not figure out how to put the rotor back in without damaging the brush holder which I dually did. Too late I found an explanation on Youtube.

Pictures of alternator and wiring hanging out from what was the original plug.

[Jaffar]

This lot has happened over the course of a month or so.

The ecu arrived two months ago from Iceland. It is a very small unit. I chose this unit about 3 years ago as it could operate the required number of services for a 4 cam, DBW, VVT, V6 engine. Came in one package, I did not have to buy any other controller, all in the little box. This is a bit of an issue with some other manufacturers. This other nice thing is that the set up and tune is very transparent so you are not tied to the manufacturer for some settings like cam sensing and DBW. 

It sat in front of me for a few weeks while I summed the courage to attempt to make it all work.

It uses Molex mini connectors which are incredibly difficult to use. As is usual when I sent my wiring spread sheet to the manufacturer, he advised that some of my wiring set up was wrong so I have had to re plug the connectors, which is a real bear of a job. 

I made an extractor tool from a very small piece of thin wall brass tube and this lasts for 2 or 3 extractions before it bends and I need to remake it. It is made by cutting and grinding the end of the tube to 2 points like a fork and they are used to push in the retainers on the connector. 

Here is the location, where the old ecu was originally installed. Used a piece of ABS as a mounting base on the Porsche bracket as it is light and flexible, so absorbs a bit of shock. The wiring is a mess but when I am confident all the services work I will tape it up and it will look a bit better.

I have re done some circuits a number of times to get it too look a bit organised and did I say how I hate the little connectors. When you have to do a de pin and re pin you are in a world of agony. Very difficult to extract and re crimp, especially in situ.
I do not know how many times I have altered my wiring spread sheets. There are 3 worksheets, ecu, under bonnet plugs and fuses and relays.

Wiring, I think, is now ok but I am a bit scared of powering the thing up only to see the ecu fry. (Now powered up and no fry up).
The manufacturer has had to work me through the process. It is (for me) new and very trial and error.  I have to date sorted out the following:
Turn it on without burning out the ecu.
ECU kill switch for emergencies, anti theft and quick reset when trying settings that do not work.
Fuel pump relay turn on.
Oil level sensor
Oil temperature sensor in place of water temp which is all original Porsche.
Drive by wire (need more shmoozing)
Cam and crank location sensor. (done)
Road speed from the speedo for the power steering. (bloody amazing)
Lambda, MAF and MAP appear to work
I think it will be able to get the engine started before Xmas. I hope.

Update. It works!! First attempts the ignition was 360 degrees out of sync and the first kick sounded like everything had exploded. Took about 3 days summoning up the courage to try again after I got the cams synchronised with the crank and the ignition timing in the correct cycle.

Idling is reasonable smoothly. And I have revved it to 2000 rpm without any visible issues. No oil leaks and good oil pressure. Motor sound solid and the feeling through the car is solid as well, no vibrations and tininess. I am glad I retained all of the interior sound deadening, and re did it in the engine bay. VVT is the next big adventure.

Will put some coolant in and maybe take it for a little spin for the first time in about 20 years. Stop press, one radiator leak and one thermostat leak so no go. Most things for these engines are quite cheap but an O ring for the thermostat is $45!?

One problem with using modern stand alone ecus on older vehicles is that the older vehicles use mainly high side switches and newer vehicles low side switches. I have a few services in the car that need a high side switch to operate so it looks like I have to power them through relays. Luck I ended up with heaps of mini relays when I purchased the motor.

So rather than a pre Xmas start up I am on to a pre Xmas drive around the block.

I am now up to date.
 

[Rob]

Hitting some sixes now Jaffar! Can't wait to read about the first drive!

[Jaffar]

The banana has turned it’s wheels under it’s own steam for the first time in 20 years.

As usual a job isn’t finished until it’s been done 3 times. To let the motor run for an extended period I had to fill the cooling system and unsurprisingly, half an hour later it was empty. I had managed to put a hole in the new radiator’s core when I installed the radiator. Second fill found that the temp sensor was leaking and third time found a seal had failed at the thermostat. Lost two loads of coolant tracking them all down.

Next problem was the clutch would not release. The pedal was good when I re installed it but I found the seals in the master had failed and when I wanted some clutch there was none to be found. Pulled the mc out and replaced the seals and after a fair old problem with getting it bled it was now releasing.

To get a good bleed it was necessary to jamb the pedal all the way down for 12 hours to get out all the micro bubbles. Unfortunately, there was still some drag on the disk and I could not get the gearbox to engage 2^nd to 5^th while stationary. Took some advice from the fellow in the US who rebuilt the box and he suggested a larger bore master cylinder.

I contacted a vendor in Texas who does kits for V8 conversions for 944s and he had a kit for AU$400 which seemed somewhat pricy. I ended up purchasing a $24 Ebay 7/8th inch master cylinder which had the correct thread on the plunger to match the Porsche attachment to the clutch pedal.  The new cylinder needed an adapter plate as the attachment flanges were vertical not horizontal but that made the installation quite easy. In the end I needed an extender for the pushrod but that was easily found at Bunnings for the princely sum of $2.90.

I have become quite proficient at bleeding by myself particularly with the clutch bleed screw next to the master cylinder. Just need to be patient to let the air bubbles pop out by themselves. When the bubbles stop, do up the bleed screw, push the pedal to the floor slowly a few times, jamb it to the floor (with a piece of tube and board set against the drivers seat and leave it for a few hours. Re do 3 or 4 times and the pedal comes up solid.

With the bigger master the pedal has more meat which is nice. It is not heavy but you can better feel the take up point. This method of bleeding  can be done in the same way with the brakes particularly if you have Brembos as they have the bleed screw facing upward at the top of the calliper. All you need is a bit of clear tube so that you can see the bubbles as they come from the bleed screw and a receptacle that does not fall over all the time (twice!!).

Here is the new clutch master:

Just to prove it did move about 50 meters here are some photos of the car out of the garage while driving it in 1^st and reverse. Most notable thing is (other than the horrific state of the paint, which does really make it look like a very over ripe banana, yellow on one end and charcoal grey on the other) the rear is too low. It was ok when in the garage but dropped 20mm after the short run up the lane. Looks like a German Shepperd with bad hips.

Will leave it like that for the time being. I will need a pair of at least 25.5 mm torsion bars for the rear and will wait till I can find some before trying to reset the rear. Anyone got any?

Next was to sort out why the motor was not running on all cylinders. One problem was an accidently cut injector signal wire. Next was a software set up issue. The last cylinder was very mysterious.

I was trying to integrate the use of MAF and Map in the VE fueling. Way above my pay grade and every time I set it up the motor would either not start or run on all cylinders apart from 4. I went through the whole field of issue including DBW and then injection and ignition angles and when these events should be but still no luck. Back into the wiring again, no joy.

Next was to compare the set up with a near equivalent car. Used a BMW n/a 6 as a comparison and still no joy. Decided to switch the fueling strategy from volumetric efficiency to air mass. That sorted out the rough running but not the 3 cylinders. Realised that the fuel map I was using was AM rather the VE. Bit of a dopey move. Borrowed the VE map from the BMW and went back to VE on the car and now it is running smooth but still on 3. It is surprising how a sophisticated ecu will just allow for all sorts of problems.

Anyway, a bit more digging, pulling out the injectors and cleaning and testing them, swapping around the ign coils to see if they were ok and finally moved the plugs between cylinders and thought I found 3 dud spark plugs. New plugs installed and now running smoothly on all 6 cylinders for a moment and then back to 5 or would not start.

Eventually went back to an early back up of software and bit by bit eliminated all the changes I had made until the one I though least likely was it. Every time I tried to implement the MAF into the fueling strategy the engine falls over or looses a cylinder or two. The MAF is nice as it covers the air mass info at low idle or when the VVT introduces overlap into the valve timing (manifold vacuum become weak).

Since discovered that the MAF requires a frequency input. The ecu has one but it is being used for the crank sensor so I have to pass on the MAF until the software is upgraded to have more frequency inputs.

The story does not stop there. So I now have 6 working cylinders but I cannot get the thing to idle less than 1350 rpm. Peering into the engine bay while the engine was idling I noticed that the intake manifold was now trying to suck itself into the engine. The top was too light and soft. So laminated some more glass on the top to stop the movement. 

That lead me to think maybe I had air leaks in the manifold which was allowing the engine too much air and the ecu was compensating with more fuel, more revs etc. So a new set of gaskets but still 1350 rpm. Back to the software. After a few more attempted fixes finally found the issue. I had the target throttle position at 2% per the standard  software, which equates to approx 1350 revs. Reduced the target to .1% and now it revs around 700 rpm.

It is very satisfying to have a smooth running engine to the point I will not take it to the dyno for the time being but let the ecu learning function do it’s work once I get VVT, knock sensing, alternator charging strategy and the Lambda sensors sorted. I really thought I could not do this. I did enjoy the process of problem solving, which I guess is what I do for a crust.

I am now starting to understand how these ecu’s operate and how to manipulate them. A dyno in the end will obtain peak power but I am surprised how well the car runs on the BMW fuel strategy, GM V6 ignition curve and a Chevy DBW set up.

The interesting thing is the ecu will make the car run on 2 cylinders. It is quite amazing. One cylinder will not work but 2 is ok.

A/c hoses and gassing and more electrics are next.

 

[sjm]

Patience of a saint. I would be chucking things. 
It’s getting there, keep up the good work. 

[Rob]

@Jaffar Thanks again for taking the time to do a write-up of the latest work. There's still time to do a video of the remaining work - perhaps you should invite @MFX over for a joint presso?

[Jaffar]

Thanks for the comments gents.

I will try something by video once I get it driving around. If I shot videos of what I was doing I would be  running the worlds longest and boringest Youtube vids as I do things soooo slowly.

It really frustraties me watching me do things! This thread does not include half the  amount of mucking  around that happens while I  try to sort stuff out. All should be aware of that by my mucking around with wiring. You have not seen the amount of connectors I have cut off and re done because  I have made an error or decided to go in a different direction.

I have taken to putting stuff straight into the bin quickly if it does not work out  rather than stuffing around trying to get stuff to work and gettting frustrated  with it. Big example is  getting  the ecu to deal with high side switches and relays. Just too hard. I  have given away trying to operate some of the Porche stuff through the ecu and  just installed  2 sets of sensors, one set from GM through the ecu and another from Porsche through the normal wiring. Much easier, just a bit of wire replication.

I have lately considered changing tack and swapping the motor over to a later 944s2 or 968 DOHC motor. Would probably make the car worth something more than nothing, but then I  look at the cost, the extra weight and bulk, the absence of power and smoothness and all the hassle of getting the bits. The LY7 was so much easier than sorting out the original engine and getting a bit more power from it or doing  a latter Porsche engine  swap.

But  people will just go "why did you do that abominaltion". Was a cheap car at the time, would have only been used for parts, and  was a way of  getting a decent uplift in power and torque.

Anyway a longer update is coming. The problem is these days all I am doing is sorting small stuff. Bit like pulling  the wings from flies.

When I try to get it to drive properly and I have to pull it all apart again that is when the fun starts with updates.

Cheers.

 

[sjm]

You’ve come this far, would be a shame to go back to stockish. 
Who cares what other people think anyway!

[Jaffar]

So many little jobs and I feel like I have got no further on this thing. I have driven twice around the block and the second time the engine decided to revert to running on 5 cylinders after getting it up to 6 for a few days.

Here is a list of the stuff that has happened over the past 2 months.

Hand brake warning switch. The Porsche one is really ordinary. Mind you the hand brake lever is very flimsy so new switch from Altronics and slid a piece of ally bar into the handle which has stopped the thing from bending as you pull it on.

Exhaust manifold crack – aaagh. Manufacturers weld cracked and the pipe broke near the head. Rewelded with shitty welds, painted and wrapped again to cover the evidence.

 

ECU output for ignition light moved from one pin to another. Now works consistently. The ecu manufacturer cannot explain why.

ECU pin dislodged – found while changing over the alternator light wiring.

Fixed A/c compressor power and turn on wiring – found a short. Would have made a beautiful fire.

A/c hoses installed- just ask me how hard it was to get the hoses through the bulkhead seals. Ready for gassing and then I can close up the interior and put the passenger seat in.

New ignition electrical switch – just decided to give up. I guess it was 40 years old, but soft, I am older than that and still haven't given up.

Re organise wiring behind radio and a/c controls – just a bit of a mess after going in and out of there a number of times.

Additional positive bus near battery- too many wires on the battery with the a/c and the power steering pump. Now a bit better organised.

New battery – with all of the above mucking around the 6 month old battery decided to collapse. At the same time secured the battery cover so that I do not have a unscheduled fireworks display.

New oil pressure sensor – the previous cheap Chinees one worked back to front.

Additional GM oil pressure sensor to ecu - for engine safety.

Swap coolant sensor back to GM type connected to ECU – for engine safety.

Additional Porsche coolant sensor for instruments – used to run the coolant temp from the ecu now have two sensors and I know the inst panel one is now ok and can be used to calibrate the GM sensor.

New spark plugs – engine reverted to running on 5, wiring and coils all worked so tried plugs. Did not fix the problem and cost $100.

New injectors - ended up being clogged injectors from sitting around too long and junk in fuel line. Flooded engine and had fuel coming out of exhaust. This could have been a real disaster. Also, lesson is do not by cheap Chinese micro filters. Instead, I bought some cheap Chinese injectors.  They work!      

I now know how to test spark plugs and injectors on this thing.                                                                                                                       

Intake manifold leaks - At slightly above idle the pressure differential was so high that the sides of the manifold cracked and engine went berserk and frightened everyone in the area (not for the first time). Also new gaskets required to settle down idle. Two efforts at making my own as the GM and aftermarket ones did not seal well enough. This motor generates a serious manifold vacuum at idle, I guess it has something to do with the 11.5:1 compression ratio. 

New intake manifold access plugs- blew out on backfire and engine went berserk again. They need to be screwed in rather than plugs. The leaks will be an ongoing chase down as manifold leaks affect idling and make an annoying whistle and everytime you find one another takes it place.

Intake hose altered to make it easier to take on and off for above reason.

Moved injector wiring out from under the intake manifold to avoid possible wear and shorts or current leaks from the tight fit.

Tracked down parasitic drain on battery to power steering pump. Have to figure out how to put a relay in the system to enable the pump to be disengaged from the battery when the engine is off. This is a bit of a pain. Now found this cannot be done as the pump will go into fault mode, which is fine at present because it is not yet controlled by the computer but will be an issue once ecu controlled. This is canbus stuff and I have no idea what I am doing.

Re route clutch hydraulic lines as too close to exhaust. Noticed this when I re welded the exhaust manifold.

Re oil the a/c compressor as I blew out all the oil when testing it. The oil costs $50 for 250ml!! Changed engine oil again as I think I might have contaminated it when I had the injector issue and petrol out of the exhaust.

I am not sure the Llamda sensors are working correctly. Will only know after I drive the car for a few klms at steady speed.

Alternator control shifted to ecu although I do not know yet whether it is working correctly. I can see the ecu recognises the voltage in the system and I can see the ecu issuing a turn on command but only driving around will tell me whether this is working correctly.

Adjust front camber and toe in. At least the front wheels do not look like the car is collapsing and fit nicely in the guards at 1% neg camber.

Stripping the under bonnet paint. What a mess. Found the easiest way was with a propane torch.

Engine is now working correctly, runs smoothly and revs cleanly apart from a slight revs dip when I quickly release the accelerator. I think it has something to do with the ecu idle control and the PIDs to control it or may be just instability in the very large throttle body. It runs a bit rich at low speed but only driving and the ecu learning will fix that as I do not understand the theory of volumetric efficiency enough to adjust the mixture and timing to sort it out. I cannot figure out whether the ecu process has been really difficult or I am just dim as I have had little help from the manufacturer in this fine tuning process.

Waiting for larger torsion bars to arrive to finalise the rear suspension and new plugs for the intake manifold. I will then get a temporary permit to drive and take it for an extended run and see how much the tow home will cost.