Turnkey Engine Vendor Advice

I remember my IM being a great low speed handler, but a real handful through the high speed corners. The back end would feel planted, but the front end seemed to have a mind of its own. I considered fabricating a small front spoiler, or lowering the front end slightly.

I will not claim to have tried taking my buggy to the limit yet in high speed turns, but one thing I notice on my car and the Hoopty too (what did he say??) is that coming into a turn, if it is even a little bit bumpy, those front tires are going to lock up when the car goes up and grab when the car sits back down. The light front is basically bumped off the road, and so your steering inputs are really not amounting to much. One time in a parking lot under hard braking, I had the front of the Hoopty going forward, and the wheels pointed left on dry pavement. The weight and the tracking of the rear kept the car going straight. More weight up front could help this I think, but would cost you in acceleration. An air dam for the high speed tendancy to lift the light front would make a lot of sense; wonder how that could be done.

How about just driving backwards?

I stopped reading this link when I saw $6k for a 140HP T1 engine - OMG! That's getting into 911 (or a turbo Subbie transplant) area. Guess it just shows my age as I remember overhauling VW (stock) engines for under $150 and them going another 30-40k miles (albeit leaking a bit of oil).

For added weight in front end - try a larger battery (+10#) and mount it in very nose section plus upgrade to a larger gas tank (15-16 gallon vice the normal 10-12 gallons adds 50#).

Wolfgang..... The 6K number included oil cooler/fan, elec fuel pump, remote oil filter, new gages, even the round trip down the valley to CB and every other cost I could imagine to make the upgrade. 6K is probably a lil' high as a matter of fact. But do remember that this motor was brand new with not one used part, from fan belt to pressure plate. Peace of mind is what I think I paid for: I built a long stroke 2110 for less than 2 grand a few years back and honestly, I would not have trusted that thing on any road trip. With my current motor, I'm planning a 3 week road trip for early summer with a very comfortable confidence level.
As for front end weight>> Isn't there a member here that modified his VS to carry a spare tire down in front at the battery location? Since I have a 16 gal tank, I'm a spareless guy. Now, I'm interested in doing the fiberglass work necessary to carry a spare. Any help out there?

Gordon - here is my front air dam

Also, I've read that a low profile standard bumper, carefully contoured into the front body and slightly angled down - like an air dam- might be effective.

WRT front air-dam;

This may sound like a cheesy project, but it worked on my '68 911S Targa. Simply put, I got some of that black rubber/vinyl mow-strip (4"x8' roll found in the landscape section of HomeDepot/Lowes/Ace, cut to fit the front width of my car) and used small 2" L-brackets (from your local ACE hardware store) to bolt/attach to the leading/front edge of the car (8" apart across the width of the section of 'mow-strip'). The finished product looked like it belonged there.

Once it was trimmed for a more asthetic look, I had a REALLY inexpensive functional front air dam that could absorb the abuse of scraping the road/curb/driveway (bottom edge was 3" off the ground). It was a poor man's way of wrenching on a 911S I could not afford in the first place!!!

P.S. - I just saw Dave K's pics and my mow-strip air dam looked just like that!!

Dave: Did you use a mow-strip or edging material, or something more exotic?

gn

Nice job David --- Is the frame aluminum angle?

The air dam material I bought is an actual race car part (now out of production). It is flexible rubber and was used for side valences on sports racing cars about 15 years ago. Its tuff stuff as it was designed to actually rub on the ground under heavy braking. I wish it was about one inch lower - but beggars . . .

The supporting frame is 1/8 x 1 1/2 aluminum angle, cut here and there and bent to contour around the front underbody. The top of the rubber has a built-in U-shaped lip which grips the angle nicely and enables one to hide all the attachment bolts. It was a fun job.

I have NO IDEA if it really functions. Never had the car much over 90, but it feels good up to there.

About 5 years ago I saw an unidentified speedster stored outside under a canvas behind a dune buggy shop. That car had a complete aluminum underbelly (I mean like a Bonneville race car). The pan was beautifully fabricated, fit tight to the body all around with DZUS fasterners, complete with louvers here and there around the brakes. Wish I had taken pictures. There's a project idea for someone to play with.

So let me see if I get this....rather than attach a sub-frame to the car body directly (since there are no bolts showing), you've made up some sort of a sub-frame, contoured to the inside shape of the nose, and attached (it looks like) to the bumper mounts and other places to make it sturdy, right?

Nice, clean set-up, which I wouldn't mind duplicating this Winter. I just didn't want to have anything going through the body and showing.

gn

Here's a shot of the inside frame. Yes, it is basically a separate sub-frame, attached to the bumper brackets. I wanted to fasten the dam directly to the front fiberglass, but my bottom glass edge was not "attachment friendly" (not horizontal enough). I'm happy with the result, and it was a fun mental exercise to figure the inside mounting points. Also, if I really wack the dam onto a curb, it is not even touching the fiberglass, which is good.

David - that's pretty clever!! Like the 'ol saying goes "...Necessity is the mother of invention".