Hello everybody,
I've gotten my '86 924S back on the road after a long drivetrain rebuild, and I thought I'd write up a post to first of all thank all of the people who made it possible, and share some of the things that went wrong in case that might help others who might be tempted to do something like this themselves.
I got my 924S over 15 years ago, (1)70 000 k's on the clock (with a broken odometer) from the son of the original owner. The car was a little scruffy but no rust, and running basically ok. I immediately did the belts, rollers, water pump, oil seals and enjoyed using the car for over 12 years, replacing things like the suspension bushings, clutch, brakes etc along the way.
After putting another 100 000 kilometers on it, with the engine starting to consume a litre (quart) of oil every 500 k's (300 miles) or so, I decided to try doing a full engine rebuild and some other drivetrain stuff. An unexpected flood right after I dissasembled the engine destroyed most of the parts I had lying on the floor and on the bottom shelves, but as the block was on an engine stand and the car was up on jack stands, they survived the 40cms of sea-water!
Let me start with thanking to some of the experts and suppliers and I'd first like to mention Tom Barker at Augment Automotive. After I started researching my different options for modernising my engine management, I decided to go with his product as I wanted to have the ability to tune my ECU, but as this was going to be my first experience with tuning an EFI system, I was a little scared of going with a full stand-alone. The Augment ECU has been working perfectly for me, and Tom has been a great help all along, showing great patience for an "old man" who had never fiddled with EFI tuning before. His software has been easy to use, and I've come a long way to understanding how to make all of this work.
Also from Augment, I got a rebuilt cylinder head, their road-race cam and wasted spark ignition. All of these are working out very well.
I'd like to thank Jack Braken at Lobb who makes the kit to put a 6 speed 01E transaxle in a 924/944. Power wise, this conversion is overkill for my application, but I do a lot of long distance highway driving, and I really have always wanted a 6th gear to drop revs at highway speeds. Jack was also very helpful, as with something like this, there's always going to be some fiddling around to make things fit and work. The 6-speed conversion is working out well so far, though I did have a few minor problems I might go into later, and I may play around with gear ratios in the future.
One last shout out for this first, already too-long post, I'd like to thank NC944er who's videos have given me lots of ideas and solutions. His video about rebuilding the torque tube inspired me to reach out to Black Sea Engineering for their super bearings, and I installed them with my hydraulic press, taking off the lower cross brace and lying it down with blocks to support the top, getting it all lined up with the torque tube. Using different lengths of pipe and rod, moving the support bar every time I ran through the length of the hydraulic jack, I may have gotten the job done with a little less effort than just turning the nut on a threaded rod...
I've already blathered on for too long, but I hope to come back with first more shout outs to experts and suppliers, then go into some of the problems I had.
Rebuilding my 924S
Of course! I've still got a long list of people I want to thank, and I was planning to post a little something every day, but here's a quick shot of the car after its first drive in three years, back in January. By the end of January, that engine was toast, so I've got a lot of stories to tell...
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Getting back to my list of people to thank for things that worked well:
944 Online in the US supplied some great stuff, the fuel line kit, vacuum lines, the Rennbay OPRV
Henk Bousema at Garage De Loods (928-944 parts.com) in Holland for a bunch of stuff, adjustable cam sprocket, adjustable sensor bracket, EV6 injectors, used parts like a cam belt tensioner...
I had fun visiting the workshop of the guys at Technica Racing Wire near LA to pick up a new engine harness and a harness to run the CSF Spal dual fans. The fan harness works great as does the engine harness, but I had to do a few things with the latter to make it work. There's the big 9-pin connector to the chassis harness that needs to be fitted, which wasn't a big deal, but I had to trace the wires myself. A little messier was the fact that the ECU plug they used was taller than the original, so I had to "massage" the hole in the firewall to get it through. Still, the harness itself is nicely built, clearly labelled, and I don't regret spending the money for it.
Design911 over in the UK was my source for the CSF fan kit, but it seems the CSF radiator is no longer available anywhere, so I got the no name aluminium radiator they offer. That took a lot of massaging with the angle grinder as the brackets are just too tall. It seems overall a little larger than the stock radiator, so fitting the fan shroud also took some "massaging." I just splurged and got these from them:
944 Online in the US supplied some great stuff, the fuel line kit, vacuum lines, the Rennbay OPRV
Henk Bousema at Garage De Loods (928-944 parts.com) in Holland for a bunch of stuff, adjustable cam sprocket, adjustable sensor bracket, EV6 injectors, used parts like a cam belt tensioner...
I had fun visiting the workshop of the guys at Technica Racing Wire near LA to pick up a new engine harness and a harness to run the CSF Spal dual fans. The fan harness works great as does the engine harness, but I had to do a few things with the latter to make it work. There's the big 9-pin connector to the chassis harness that needs to be fitted, which wasn't a big deal, but I had to trace the wires myself. A little messier was the fact that the ECU plug they used was taller than the original, so I had to "massage" the hole in the firewall to get it through. Still, the harness itself is nicely built, clearly labelled, and I don't regret spending the money for it.
Design911 over in the UK was my source for the CSF fan kit, but it seems the CSF radiator is no longer available anywhere, so I got the no name aluminium radiator they offer. That took a lot of massaging with the angle grinder as the brackets are just too tall. It seems overall a little larger than the stock radiator, so fitting the fan shroud also took some "massaging." I just splurged and got these from them:
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