so i bought a porsche.......
01-05-2018, 06:04 PM
#276
Moderator
That would be some **** i would do honestly. One time i was changing an axle on the cobalt and it was getting late so i decided to wait until the morning to finish up. Went to drive the car the next day after finishing up, did a nice wot 2-3 shift and i heard a pop, something felt weird. Pushed the clutch in and all i could hear was gear rattle/noise. My stomach sank. Luckily i added fluid and the trans was fine until i replaced it during a clutch job.
01-06-2018, 01:19 AM
#277
moved along and did some more work. got the front splitter properly mounted. i only had it attached with sheet metal screws, now its securely bolted, and got some trim clips around the bottom of the bumper.
one thing the splitter will help solve is my slight cooling issue. one thing i found is it always ran around 200*f just cruising around. the fan would drop it down a little bit, but even when driving on the highway the temps would creep up and till the fan came on and dropped the temp back down. its pretty clear its suffering from a lack of airflow over the rad, and the rad fits fairly far back from the bumper. my old splash shield didnt fit after the swap, so a lot of airflow through the bumper was being lost before it went through the rad, the splitter fixes this issue. the other half of this is the top, there is a large open space spilling air over the rad. i templated out a cover, didnt have any material to make it but at least the design work is done.
it work out how i really wanted it to, the linkage for the pop up headlights forced me to push it higher up that i wanted. i had wanted to follow the profile of the hood latch bracket but it just wasnt going to work like that.
gonna try and get my washer fluid tank installed finally. i dont have too much more i want to get done before we get the car on the dyno and figure out if we still have an rpm signal problem or if thats fixed. ive got a number of things i want to get done, like rebuilding the rear suspension, but the bushing i want to run are fairly expensive so i dont want to spend the money there till i know i have a properly running car.
in the mean time, here are some pics of installing the trans. the old greaseball
back of the torque tube
one thing the splitter will help solve is my slight cooling issue. one thing i found is it always ran around 200*f just cruising around. the fan would drop it down a little bit, but even when driving on the highway the temps would creep up and till the fan came on and dropped the temp back down. its pretty clear its suffering from a lack of airflow over the rad, and the rad fits fairly far back from the bumper. my old splash shield didnt fit after the swap, so a lot of airflow through the bumper was being lost before it went through the rad, the splitter fixes this issue. the other half of this is the top, there is a large open space spilling air over the rad. i templated out a cover, didnt have any material to make it but at least the design work is done.
it work out how i really wanted it to, the linkage for the pop up headlights forced me to push it higher up that i wanted. i had wanted to follow the profile of the hood latch bracket but it just wasnt going to work like that.
gonna try and get my washer fluid tank installed finally. i dont have too much more i want to get done before we get the car on the dyno and figure out if we still have an rpm signal problem or if thats fixed. ive got a number of things i want to get done, like rebuilding the rear suspension, but the bushing i want to run are fairly expensive so i dont want to spend the money there till i know i have a properly running car.
in the mean time, here are some pics of installing the trans. the old greaseball
back of the torque tube
01-08-2018, 11:06 PM
#279
finally something went right today. i figured today id put the car back in storage, instead i got told if its ready lets put it on the dyno. so right off the bat the rpm glitch issue is sorted out. not sure if it was the ecm causing the problem, or weather the crank sensor gap was too tight before, but on the first pull it went right back to 290hp. in the end, well, here is the chart
414 hp, that was at 18psi, only running around 17 degrees timing, and reving to 8000 rpm. needless to say i havent stopped smiling. im working on editing some video right now.
414 hp, that was at 18psi, only running around 17 degrees timing, and reving to 8000 rpm. needless to say i havent stopped smiling. im working on editing some video right now.
01-12-2018, 11:36 PM
#286
more one step forward, 2 steps back, kind of. when i plugged my ecm in last week i had a high idle, around 2200 rpm, essentially the idle solenoid wide open. wasnt too concerned at the time, figured it was in the tune. when we tried to turn it down, well it wouldnt. we just restricted it for the time being and kept on tuning. looking into it some more and the end result is the ecm is grounding the idle solenoid all the time, including when the key is off. thinking i had something causing it i went through the wiring and found nothing, and when i unplug the ecm the circuit goes open. so it looks like the ecm has an internal short to ground causing the problem.
seeing how i want to drive my car this year and dont want to be without the ecm for another 5 months i set the idle on the throttle body and pulled the idle solenoid off. so far ive only cold started and run the car for a little bit, im hoping through the temp range the idle wont be off too far. dont really want it struggling to idle cold and idling too high when hot, but ill see what happens.
onto other things i decided im going to give the rear suspension some love. i got looking at it last week and the trailing arm bushings are soft, the spring plates are off to one side of the torsion tube caps, and the back of the car always had a "squirmy" feel when cornering hard. i was hoping to do a complete rebuild of the rear suspension all in one shot, including blasting and powder coating everything, along with deleting the torsion bars and running coilovers, m030 968 swaybars, etc. well, thats not really in the cards right now. for the time being im going to put in the polybronze spring plate bushing kit, spherical trailing arm bushings, and solid lower torsion tube bushings. i had a hard time justifying the cost of the solid upper torsion tube mounts, but i found some info about turning the factory rubber mounts into solid ones with nothing more than a welder and some fire.
id love to find a cheap set of stiffer torsion bars, my car has the 2nd weakest ones used in a 924/944 (23mm). the car being lighter on the front end (by my best guess around 100lbs) and having 200 lb/in lowering springs, the car is a little unbalanced. not gonna worry about it too much, im going to put coilovers and big swaybars in at some point, would just be nice to have for now.
seeing how i want to drive my car this year and dont want to be without the ecm for another 5 months i set the idle on the throttle body and pulled the idle solenoid off. so far ive only cold started and run the car for a little bit, im hoping through the temp range the idle wont be off too far. dont really want it struggling to idle cold and idling too high when hot, but ill see what happens.
onto other things i decided im going to give the rear suspension some love. i got looking at it last week and the trailing arm bushings are soft, the spring plates are off to one side of the torsion tube caps, and the back of the car always had a "squirmy" feel when cornering hard. i was hoping to do a complete rebuild of the rear suspension all in one shot, including blasting and powder coating everything, along with deleting the torsion bars and running coilovers, m030 968 swaybars, etc. well, thats not really in the cards right now. for the time being im going to put in the polybronze spring plate bushing kit, spherical trailing arm bushings, and solid lower torsion tube bushings. i had a hard time justifying the cost of the solid upper torsion tube mounts, but i found some info about turning the factory rubber mounts into solid ones with nothing more than a welder and some fire.
id love to find a cheap set of stiffer torsion bars, my car has the 2nd weakest ones used in a 924/944 (23mm). the car being lighter on the front end (by my best guess around 100lbs) and having 200 lb/in lowering springs, the car is a little unbalanced. not gonna worry about it too much, im going to put coilovers and big swaybars in at some point, would just be nice to have for now.
01-15-2018, 11:30 PM
#287
still waiting for my rear suspension goodies to ship, but i started really looking into the torsion bar thing. i was hoping to find some cheap used ones, however it seems anything used thats not the common 23.5mm is almost as much as new aftermarket bars. what i did find is a company called California Import Parts, they specialize in aircooled vw parts. they have some torsion bar options meant for vw based dune buggies, and it just so happens they use the same torsion bar dimensions as a porsche 924 and 944.
after a bunch of research i settled on 27mm bars, they are rated around 220 lb/in. many people say to go with a 26mm or 27mm torsion bar for a 225 lb/in front spring, my car has 200 lb/in springs in the front but is a little lighter on the nose than most 944s. im hoping this should help balance the car out a bit while not being too much for the bilstein shocks. honestly id like the car stiffer all around, in the 350-400 lb/in range, but thats going to have to wait till i can afford the set of coilovers i want.
after a bunch of research i settled on 27mm bars, they are rated around 220 lb/in. many people say to go with a 26mm or 27mm torsion bar for a 225 lb/in front spring, my car has 200 lb/in springs in the front but is a little lighter on the nose than most 944s. im hoping this should help balance the car out a bit while not being too much for the bilstein shocks. honestly id like the car stiffer all around, in the 350-400 lb/in range, but thats going to have to wait till i can afford the set of coilovers i want.
01-19-2018, 09:39 PM
#288
after much frustration i finished off my rad cover piece today.
actually the frustrating part was the fact i had it all bent up and partially attached only to find out the headlight mechanism hit it. i didnt really want to start over, so after a few days of ignoring it i just put a couple slots in the top to let the mechanism poke up through as it rotates. so many times with this car ive been on the edge of ordering a fixed headlight kit, but i then i think, what kind of 80s sports car would it be without pop up headlights?
actually the frustrating part was the fact i had it all bent up and partially attached only to find out the headlight mechanism hit it. i didnt really want to start over, so after a few days of ignoring it i just put a couple slots in the top to let the mechanism poke up through as it rotates. so many times with this car ive been on the edge of ordering a fixed headlight kit, but i then i think, what kind of 80s sports car would it be without pop up headlights?
01-25-2018, 06:05 PM
#290
its funny, before i bought the car right up to the time i got the engine swap completed, swapping out the pop ups for flush mount headlights was one of the things on my list. however that time i was also wanting to do the 944 turbo front end swap. once i decided i wanted to stick with the non turbo nose i decided the pop headlights had to stay.
got my suspension goodies today.
starting at the bottom right, those are trailing arm monoballs. these are the same idea as the powell cabs for the cobalt, they utilise a spherical bearing in the aluminum shell to replace the rubber bushing. they have a threaded end cap so they dont just rely on a press fit to hold them in place.
bottom left is the solid lower torsion tube mounts, these replace the bushings that hold the torsion bar tube to the body near the bottom. there is also another mount that mounts the top of the torsion tube to the body, i elected to not go with the billet aluminum mounts here mainly due to cost. the factory mount is a rubber and steel block, ive seen these modified by torching out the rubber and welding the metal parts together. figured this was a good place to save $250.
and the coolest pieces, up top are the poly-bronze spring plate bushings. these bushings go in the outer end of the torsion tube and support not only the torsion bar but also the trailing arm. these bushings are under a lot of load, and things get worse when you eliminate the torsion bar and go to coilovers.
the outer part of these bushings is a bronze bushing thats coated in urethane. because the torsion tube and end caps were designed to have rubber bushings here the machining wasnt very accurate, just installing a bronze bushing would require everything to be line honed so it would pivot smoothly. this is where the polyurethane comes in, it allows for slight misalignment and out of roundness the torsion tube and cap are known to have. the inner aluminum sleeve presses onto the spring plate.
the rear suspension in these cars is a little difficult to understand without looking at, although its actually very simple, vw beetle simple. the rear suspension is actually the same basic design as a super beetle irs setup.
got my suspension goodies today.
starting at the bottom right, those are trailing arm monoballs. these are the same idea as the powell cabs for the cobalt, they utilise a spherical bearing in the aluminum shell to replace the rubber bushing. they have a threaded end cap so they dont just rely on a press fit to hold them in place.
bottom left is the solid lower torsion tube mounts, these replace the bushings that hold the torsion bar tube to the body near the bottom. there is also another mount that mounts the top of the torsion tube to the body, i elected to not go with the billet aluminum mounts here mainly due to cost. the factory mount is a rubber and steel block, ive seen these modified by torching out the rubber and welding the metal parts together. figured this was a good place to save $250.
and the coolest pieces, up top are the poly-bronze spring plate bushings. these bushings go in the outer end of the torsion tube and support not only the torsion bar but also the trailing arm. these bushings are under a lot of load, and things get worse when you eliminate the torsion bar and go to coilovers.
the outer part of these bushings is a bronze bushing thats coated in urethane. because the torsion tube and end caps were designed to have rubber bushings here the machining wasnt very accurate, just installing a bronze bushing would require everything to be line honed so it would pivot smoothly. this is where the polyurethane comes in, it allows for slight misalignment and out of roundness the torsion tube and cap are known to have. the inner aluminum sleeve presses onto the spring plate.
the rear suspension in these cars is a little difficult to understand without looking at, although its actually very simple, vw beetle simple. the rear suspension is actually the same basic design as a super beetle irs setup.
Last edited by Sharkey; 01-27-2018 at 01:12 PM.
01-25-2018, 08:15 PM
#292
the 944 is really an evolution of the 924, and the 968 is the evolution of the 944. many of them used the same parts, the suspension is nearly identical between a late version 924, 944 and a 968, so some parts fit cars all the way from 1976 up to 1995. porsches are also a car that doesnt get cast aside very easy, no matter what version it is. a lot of these cars still get raced, there is still a 944 spec racing series, as well as 944s racing scca.
now that being said, a lot of the parts out there are old school designs. most of the parts available were designed before the end of the millenium, and there hasnt been a whole lot of advancement. you look at the engine upgrades for the 944 turbo, and the turbos they use are 25 year old designs, same with the computer systems, most people are still stuck in the era of burning chips. the suspension stuff isnt much better, so many people will argue that the billstein non adjustable coilovers are the best thing they make, they were designed for the 944 cup racers in the late 80s. in fact, the only coilover i know of for these cars not designed in the 80s in the KW suspension stuff.
now that being said, a lot of the parts out there are old school designs. most of the parts available were designed before the end of the millenium, and there hasnt been a whole lot of advancement. you look at the engine upgrades for the 944 turbo, and the turbos they use are 25 year old designs, same with the computer systems, most people are still stuck in the era of burning chips. the suspension stuff isnt much better, so many people will argue that the billstein non adjustable coilovers are the best thing they make, they were designed for the 944 cup racers in the late 80s. in fact, the only coilover i know of for these cars not designed in the 80s in the KW suspension stuff.
01-26-2018, 10:22 AM
#296
Senior Member
The only thing I can see on this page is the youtube vid, none of the pics are working.
01-26-2018, 02:33 PM
#299
Senior Member
