so i bought a porsche.......
Moderator
05-01-2016, 03:34 AM
#179
after a week and a half of driving it on and off i put it back on the hoist to give it a once over and its been there ever since. 2 calipers leaking, oil pan leak, coolant leak, add to that i needed to change my trans mount and install my short shifter, and lastly change out the valve springs. i never seem to get time to work on the car, even on my days off i end up sidetracked by work stuff. ive got most of the list taken care of now, the only remaining thing is the valve springs.
im wanting to get the car all finished and back on the dyno, however its not really my priority at the moment. the past 6 months has been a bit of an eye opener for me, i ran myself into the ground at work trying to get a vehicle ready for the sema show last year, and i was so burnt out i couldnt get out of bed for almost a week. a routine checkup at the doctor showed a heart murmur, and since then ive been through a pile of different tests, and i just found out yesterday that i have a serious heart condition. right now im just waiting to find out if im going to need surgery or not. not really something i thought id have to deal with at 31 years old. ive been told to take it easy and not work too much, so my limited time i do have to work on the car is even more limited now.
im wanting to get the car all finished and back on the dyno, however its not really my priority at the moment. the past 6 months has been a bit of an eye opener for me, i ran myself into the ground at work trying to get a vehicle ready for the sema show last year, and i was so burnt out i couldnt get out of bed for almost a week. a routine checkup at the doctor showed a heart murmur, and since then ive been through a pile of different tests, and i just found out yesterday that i have a serious heart condition. right now im just waiting to find out if im going to need surgery or not. not really something i thought id have to deal with at 31 years old. ive been told to take it easy and not work too much, so my limited time i do have to work on the car is even more limited now.
05-04-2016, 11:58 PM
#183
thanks for the encouragment guys.
so i rebuilt the 2 leaking calipers (both left side) on saturday, went into work monday to find drips in both back wheels. dug around the shop and found a pair of fd rx7 calipers so i cleaned them up, ill get them on this weekend. not gonna bother powder coating them, id like them to match the front but i dont want issues, i just want to drive it.
so i rebuilt the 2 leaking calipers (both left side) on saturday, went into work monday to find drips in both back wheels. dug around the shop and found a pair of fd rx7 calipers so i cleaned them up, ill get them on this weekend. not gonna bother powder coating them, id like them to match the front but i dont want issues, i just want to drive it.
05-07-2016, 11:56 PM
#185
got the calipers swapped the friday night, new turbo bag put on, hood scoop in on, and today i decided to change valve springs. what a picky job, im used to doing springs on ls engines where your not working with tiny locks on 1/4" valve stems.
car pulls hard now right up to 7500, where i found out the limiter is set lol. beat on it a little, it feels good. it did have to try and be a porsche, as i pulled back into my shop i got a cloud of oil smoke out the scoop, later determined that i rolled the valve cover gasket right beside the turbo and it was leaking onto the manifold. oops. ill get that sorted tomorrow and hopefully put a few more miles on it
car pulls hard now right up to 7500, where i found out the limiter is set lol. beat on it a little, it feels good. it did have to try and be a porsche, as i pulled back into my shop i got a cloud of oil smoke out the scoop, later determined that i rolled the valve cover gasket right beside the turbo and it was leaking onto the manifold. oops. ill get that sorted tomorrow and hopefully put a few more miles on it
05-25-2016, 02:27 AM
#189
been driving the car on and off, weather has been a little crappy the past week. i had a bit of a battle with an oil leak on the turbo, turned out the the drainback fitting was leaking. also had more brake fluid leaks, this time the brake lines on the master cylinder. the lines were quite short, combined that with a bit of firewall flex and i ended up with the flares leaking on the steel lines. i got some fittings and put some short braided flex hoses in place.
i started putting a stereo in it. from factory these cars came with 4x6 speakers front and rear, and the fronts are very shallow due to the location in the door. mine had kenwood speakers in it, but they still sounded like absolute crap. late versions of the 944 s2 and turbo had an optional 10 speaker system, the front ran a 3 way component setup, 5 1/4", 3" and a tweater, and the rear ran a 5 1/4" and a tweater. i ended up finding some of the parts from this system and am going to be adapting them.
i started with the rear speakers, i went with a set of ARC audio xdi 6.5 components. was just enough room to trim the body and mount them in place. part of the old 4x6 hole is still there, i could have made a plate to block it off, however i just used some sound deadener, works just fine. the 10 speaker system used a grill that bolted to the interior panel and housed the tweater. i took the grills apart and epoxied the new tweater rings to the plastic in the grill and put it all back together.
thats all ive gotten done so far. right now ive got it feeding off the deck, an old pioneer 940mp (great deck, 6v pre-outs, but usb/ipod is on add on modules). it sounds a ton better already. as i get more done ill do some more updates. i have a set of Arc audio Arc series 5 1/4" components to go in the doors, i would have liked to go with a 3 way component set to replicate the 10 speaker system, but 5 1/4" is the biggest i can fit in the brackets, and i didnt want to spend $800+ on the morel set (gotta remember, its more about performance of the car, tunes come second). i also have a 5 channel amp and a sub on order.
i started putting a stereo in it. from factory these cars came with 4x6 speakers front and rear, and the fronts are very shallow due to the location in the door. mine had kenwood speakers in it, but they still sounded like absolute crap. late versions of the 944 s2 and turbo had an optional 10 speaker system, the front ran a 3 way component setup, 5 1/4", 3" and a tweater, and the rear ran a 5 1/4" and a tweater. i ended up finding some of the parts from this system and am going to be adapting them.
i started with the rear speakers, i went with a set of ARC audio xdi 6.5 components. was just enough room to trim the body and mount them in place. part of the old 4x6 hole is still there, i could have made a plate to block it off, however i just used some sound deadener, works just fine. the 10 speaker system used a grill that bolted to the interior panel and housed the tweater. i took the grills apart and epoxied the new tweater rings to the plastic in the grill and put it all back together.
thats all ive gotten done so far. right now ive got it feeding off the deck, an old pioneer 940mp (great deck, 6v pre-outs, but usb/ipod is on add on modules). it sounds a ton better already. as i get more done ill do some more updates. i have a set of Arc audio Arc series 5 1/4" components to go in the doors, i would have liked to go with a 3 way component set to replicate the 10 speaker system, but 5 1/4" is the biggest i can fit in the brackets, and i didnt want to spend $800+ on the morel set (gotta remember, its more about performance of the car, tunes come second). i also have a 5 channel amp and a sub on order.
05-30-2016, 01:36 AM
#190
did some more this weekend. got the front speakers in, they were being a giant PITA so i didnt think to take any pics. the speakers i used were arc audio ARC series 5 1/4 components. i know ill have it apart again later to try and get the panels fitting better so ill get some pics then.
also got a sub box built
i designed this to fit my spare tire well. initially i wanted to do a fiberglass box to use the entire spare tire well, however i calculated out the volume and it wasnt quite enough to work well with a ported setup for my chosen sub, but too large for sealed. the box ended up at .81 cubic feet, the upper end of whats recommended for my sub for sealed. once i get my sub and amp ill be building a top trim plate to finish it off.
also got a sub box built
i designed this to fit my spare tire well. initially i wanted to do a fiberglass box to use the entire spare tire well, however i calculated out the volume and it wasnt quite enough to work well with a ported setup for my chosen sub, but too large for sealed. the box ended up at .81 cubic feet, the upper end of whats recommended for my sub for sealed. once i get my sub and amp ill be building a top trim plate to finish it off.
05-31-2016, 12:56 AM
#192
gotta keep tinkering with it, its the only thing that will keep me sane (or my version of sane anyhow).
got some more stuff today. after putting 100km on the car last night i decided that the steering wheel is too far away. the steering effort is fairly high because of the manual converted power rack, so its a bit of a workout for the arms. picked up a momo quick release hub used today, although im pretty sure its actually a knock off. either way the wheel is 2 1/2" closer to me now, feels better sitting in the driveway, ill see what it feels like on the road tomorrow. i also had my new engine mount bushings show up, so hopefully i can get rid of some of the vibration from the urethane bushings that are in it.
now the cool stuff that showed up, my stereo gear.
from the first thought of putting a stereo in this car i had this amp in mind. its an impressive little package, 100w x 4 and 500w x 1, and the cool thing is ohm load means nothing, it puts out the same power from 2-8 ohms. i have its little brother, the pdx5 in the cobalt, its been in there for 7 years now without the slightest issue. as for the sub, that was a little different story, ive never really played with alpine subs, but i know they are decent, and i was looking for a good sq sub, i figured id give the s type a shot. im not after huge bass, just a good clean sound.
thats how it works with the box, sort of. ill be building a top trim so the sub and amp will be flush.
got some more stuff today. after putting 100km on the car last night i decided that the steering wheel is too far away. the steering effort is fairly high because of the manual converted power rack, so its a bit of a workout for the arms. picked up a momo quick release hub used today, although im pretty sure its actually a knock off. either way the wheel is 2 1/2" closer to me now, feels better sitting in the driveway, ill see what it feels like on the road tomorrow. i also had my new engine mount bushings show up, so hopefully i can get rid of some of the vibration from the urethane bushings that are in it.
now the cool stuff that showed up, my stereo gear.
from the first thought of putting a stereo in this car i had this amp in mind. its an impressive little package, 100w x 4 and 500w x 1, and the cool thing is ohm load means nothing, it puts out the same power from 2-8 ohms. i have its little brother, the pdx5 in the cobalt, its been in there for 7 years now without the slightest issue. as for the sub, that was a little different story, ive never really played with alpine subs, but i know they are decent, and i was looking for a good sq sub, i figured id give the s type a shot. im not after huge bass, just a good clean sound.
thats how it works with the box, sort of. ill be building a top trim so the sub and amp will be flush.
06-25-2016, 02:30 AM
#193
forgot to do more updates while i was doing the stereo, but its now 95% done. the only thing left to do is build the top trim plate for the sub box. im very happy with the way it turned out. its such a simple setup (2 sets of components and a sealed 10) but it sounds wicked. i had my boss tune it, he has built a number of complex high end systems, and he was dumbfounded on how god it sounds. acousticly its terrible, the front mids are aimed at the side of the seats, the rear mids are half covered by the interior panel, and the left and right tweaters point at each other, effectively canceling them out. but i guess the sum of the components just work well together.
other news, my wideband started giving me issues, its an innovate lc-1 that was used on this engine in its previous chassis (actually it was used on the original 2.0l turbo in that sunbird first). i decided i should upgrade to something a little newer, so i picked up an innovate scg-1.
so its not just a wideband, it combines the innovate mtx wideband with a boost controller, along with a shift light. it has one feature that really drew me in, and thats the afr failsafe. if while in boost, above the preset boost level, it detects a lean condition (also programable setpoint) it will reduce boost to wastegate pressure. it doesnt have multiple presets like some of the more fancy and expensive boost controllers, but thats not a big deal to me. ive got the boost dialed in with the wastegate for my low boost, and i can easily turn the solenoid control on and off, so its like having 2 levels.
and being i dont need 3 things that display boost (current gauge, microtech ecu display and new wideband/boost controller) im removing the boost gauge and putting in a pyrometer. figure itll be another nice thing to have.
other news, my wideband started giving me issues, its an innovate lc-1 that was used on this engine in its previous chassis (actually it was used on the original 2.0l turbo in that sunbird first). i decided i should upgrade to something a little newer, so i picked up an innovate scg-1.
so its not just a wideband, it combines the innovate mtx wideband with a boost controller, along with a shift light. it has one feature that really drew me in, and thats the afr failsafe. if while in boost, above the preset boost level, it detects a lean condition (also programable setpoint) it will reduce boost to wastegate pressure. it doesnt have multiple presets like some of the more fancy and expensive boost controllers, but thats not a big deal to me. ive got the boost dialed in with the wastegate for my low boost, and i can easily turn the solenoid control on and off, so its like having 2 levels.
and being i dont need 3 things that display boost (current gauge, microtech ecu display and new wideband/boost controller) im removing the boost gauge and putting in a pyrometer. figure itll be another nice thing to have.
06-26-2016, 11:57 PM
#194
got the wideband/boost controller installed yesterday. everything went well except the boost control solenoid comes with fittings and hose way too big for any wastegate fittings ive seen. the wideband and boost gauge features work well though, ill have to play with the boost controller once i hook it up.
now the bad news. today the flywheel and ring gear decided they no longer wanted to get along, and the ring gear lost. its always sounded a little off when cranking, but nothing that terrible. went to start it today, it cranked about half a turn, heard grinding and let go of the key, from then on the starter just spun. turning the engine by hand helped, i managed to get it started again and drive home (was an hour from home). so, looks like the engine is coming back out.
now the bad news. today the flywheel and ring gear decided they no longer wanted to get along, and the ring gear lost. its always sounded a little off when cranking, but nothing that terrible. went to start it today, it cranked about half a turn, heard grinding and let go of the key, from then on the starter just spun. turning the engine by hand helped, i managed to get it started again and drive home (was an hour from home). so, looks like the engine is coming back out.
06-29-2016, 01:39 AM
#197
yea. worst part is im waiting to hear the eta of the clutch and flywheel combo that is still supposed to be getting built for it, so im kinda stuck. dont really want to spend $450 on a new flywheel if im getting a whole new clutch setup given to me, but at the same time i dont want to wait too long and lose the summer. and putting a stock flywheel in is not an option, i just dont trust a cast flywheel in something built to be fast. been looking at an exedy chromoly flywheel, think thats the ticket.
07-07-2016, 01:42 AM
#198
broke down and bought an exedy flywheel. still havent heard when im getting my clutch/flywheel, and im not gonna wait any longer. it showed up the other day, if i feel good enough im going to try and re/re the engine this weekend.
i also might have a line on the holy grail of transmissions for the 944. it comes out of the 944 s turbo, only built in 88 and 89. 1st and 2nd gear are shot peened, the case is strengthened around the diff, has a limited slip, and a built in oil pump that feeds a cooler. these things are known to take 450-500hp and an equal amount of torque from an ls engine. my transmission is working fine, but once i turn the boost up i doubt itll last very long.
i also might have a line on the holy grail of transmissions for the 944. it comes out of the 944 s turbo, only built in 88 and 89. 1st and 2nd gear are shot peened, the case is strengthened around the diff, has a limited slip, and a built in oil pump that feeds a cooler. these things are known to take 450-500hp and an equal amount of torque from an ls engine. my transmission is working fine, but once i turn the boost up i doubt itll last very long.
07-11-2016, 02:12 AM
#199
well i got the engine pulled saturday. it stripped 6 teeth off the flywheel in one spot, and 1 random tooth in another. kinda odd. got it swapped out and set the engine back in, called it a day. sunday i went to the shop, although i was feeling like crap, and after discovering i had to pull a bunch of stuff apart to install the new starter (i pulled the starter off the engine when it was out of the car) i was feeling even more deflated. all i ended up doing was putting the downpipe in and re-doing the coolant lines to the turbo.
