IT'S ALIVE.....almost

All that and still under $200 ;-)

 

Global warming effect may keep the sun shining longer for you (hope you get to use that beast soon and for a long while)

Great news Ron

Ron-

 

I'm very envious. 1 and 3 are things I'm planning on doing as time permits. 4 is something I should've done a long time ago, and I can see 2 (although I'm really VERY happy with the Dellortos).

Ron,

Glad to hear you'll have my favorite roadster on the road soon.

Fingers are crossed that everything is perfect.

I'll tell you something I will NEVER do....add up all my receipts and bills.  I suspect it would be enough to buy a new Boxster, but what fun would that be?

I don't know.......you could wave to all of those secretaries driving Boxsters, couldn't you?

 

Some of them are not secretaries, a know at least a couple that are struggling young models who need a apartment, a monthly stipend and a affordable Porsche.

 

You do what you can to help young people get ahead. 

The only concern I have right now is gearing for the 901 gearbox.  I'm worried that the standard 911 gearing will be too high for my car.  With my tire setup, 5th gear at 60 mph will have the engine turning only 2000 rpm.  My mechanic, who knows a lot about air cooled engines, says that the engine will not be working hard and that 2000 rpm will be enough to properly cool the heads.

I'm not so sure.

I know a few of our members have 901 gearboxes.  If you're reading this could you post your tire size and 5th gear rpm at 60 mph?

What gears do you have in the 901?

I don't know.  I do know that throughout the lifespan of the 901 gearbox there were a lot of gear ratio choices.

I would expect with you fixing the engine issues and also adding the front oil cooler you should be ok. 

I've read on the Samba of guys gearing 901's closer to VW gearing for use in beetles, but never heard of someone using the gearing you have, even with a much bigger motor. It'll be a great experiment to see if it works; sorry I can't offer any more. Al

According to Cory, if you have a 901 from a 914, it is way different gear-wise than one from a 911. I would guess a 914 sourced trans would be the answer and flop the ring gear back to the Speedster(rear-engine) side.

In between owning my IM I owned a monster Miata, which for those of you that don't know, is a Miata with a 302 Mustang engine/tranny stuffed in it.

This car was fast!

I had a new tranny built for the car and decided to go with a high 5th gear.  With a V8 in such a light car I thought the car would still have decent torque in 5th.  The engine turned over 1700 rpm at 60 mph and it was great on the flats, but anytime I came to a hill (even a slight one) I had to gear down to 4th.

I guess I'll have to wait and see how this turns out.

Actually the 914 transmissions have a taller 5th gear of ZD.  Also with a 914 you would need to swap out the nose cone for a 901 anyways.  Only benefit to the 914 is that they are a lot cheaper typically.  Some of the gears in the 901/902/911 boxes can fetch you some serious coin.  By looking on the bottom of the transmission you can get a guess as to what you are working with from this website.

 

http://www.blueskymotorsports....p;id=17&Itemid=6

 

If you can get Coolryde, Kevin over at Mendeola to chime in he knows all about these swaps.  He has put many 901 and even 915 style transmissions into these cars.

 

 

Ron- Do you know the code on the transaxle housing?

No I don't, but I'm going in to have a look at the car on Friday.

Waiting on the exhaust coating.   Waiting.....waiting....

Originally, we (my mechanic and I) decided to go with a 1 in 2 out muffler, like the one used on the V6 Camaro).  The plan was to connect it to my newly purchased A1 header and give the car dual exhausts (with the pipes exiting out behind each rear wheel).  One of the 'out' pipes would go towards the front of the car and then turn and go over the transmission tunnel, then turn again and head towards the back of the car.

I've always lusted after the center exhaust pipe and after some discussion we decided to scrap the exiting behind the rear wheels idea and have the pipes both come together in a center location, behind the engine.  The end result, I hope, will look very similar to the setup on a Boxster S.

 

 

 

You will really like replacing a dizzy with crank fire...set it and forget it.  Good luck, ambitious list.

Ron, if you go Megajolt, I can help. Don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for the offer, Danny.

My mechanic says the CB kit looks fairly straightforward.  If the CB kit ends up not working like it should he's very familiar with megasquirt.

You mean like this look Ron? 

Yes, but instead of one pipe I'll have two.

Ron,

you mention over heating as one of your problems.  did you add an additional air supply, as others have, through a hole in the fire wall as mentioned in another thread?

Peter

My overheating problem was not because of a lack of incoming air.  I drove around with the engine hood closed and propped open four inches and it didn't have any impact on the oil temperature.  It did significantly cool the temperature of the shroud, throttle bodies, alternator, etc.  With the hood closed, after a long drive, I couldn't rest my hand on the shroud.  With the hood propped open I could.

 

I will be doing some testing, when I get my car back, to see if there is enough air coming into the engine compartment.

 Ron- You can have reasonable oil temps and still be overheating; a cht gauge will confirm. If opening the engine lid makes a difference to the shroud temp then the motor's not getting enough air. Depending on the oil temperature sender's location and the amount of oil cooling that's at it's disposal (eg- extra cooler with good airflow), a motor can happily cook itself to death and never register abnormal oil temps. All the more reason to run a cht gauge. Al 

I do have a CHT gauge.  It's from Westach and the gauge never read over 325 degrees.

 

 

 

So scratch that idea....