07-27-2006 - Just a quick update on things...

E-mailed the issue with the tach to Dakota Digital and I will wait and see what the response turns out to be. Flash dropped off an Excell distributor that I'm going to canabalize and see if that fixes the problem with the tach. As you can see in the picture below I did get the tach to move, but it wasn't really related to engine RPM, but it seemed to reflect voltage (but that's just a guess).

I drove the car to work on Tuesday the 25th. The carbuerator was a bit too lean and needed to be adjusted and maybe the timing, too. On the other hand, the PCV valve seemed to make a good improvement and the oil leaks seem to have diminished to a great extent! That's awesome news! I took some of the people at the office for a drive in the new car... I think they enjoyed it, quite a bit... and I know that I did...

Meanwhile, Flash has been plugging along on the 914. He found that brake pressure would leak-off while pressing the pedal. After closer inspection he found one of the brake hoses had a hole and he replaced it - viola, no more spongy brakes! Today, he asked me to pick up an Optima battery for the 914 to prevent any more rust being caused by the battery. The hell-hole in this car has it's issues, but it's not too bad, and he would like to keep it that way.

07-23-2006 - Gosh, It's hot!

After the car gets up to temp, the air flowing into the passenger compartment becomes super-heated after passing through the radiator. On a hot day, it becomes very hot in the car and it is not comfortable at all. So, Sunday I decided that I would make a stop-gap attempt at directing the air out the bottom of the trunk as designed and hopefully eliminate the high temperatures from the passenger compartment.

I placed a sheet of plastic-backed fiberglass insulation between the fuel tank and the radiator shielding and duct taped any openings in that area. Took the car for a spin and found that it helped but not as much as I had hoped. So, I put another sheet of insulation against the back of the dash and sealed it with duct tape and took another test drive. Some improvement, but again, not as much as I had hoped for... I did this several more times, tape and drive, tape and drive and it's now a lot better. There are a couple of spots where heat is still coming into the car, but I think I can eliminate those with another pass of "tape and drive". Still not comfortable, but my keys don't burn my hands when I take them from the ignition.

Late in the evening, Flash came over with his rebuilt and painted pedal cluster. He installed it in the 914 and we bled the brakes. The brakes are fantastic and really much better than they've ever been while I owned the car. The brake warning light was flashing after we completed the bleeding. Don't know if it is because of air next to the sensor, or if it's something else like a bad connection, but the brakes themselves are great.

07-22-2006 - Down to business

On Saturday, I got up early and headed out to get parts to properly vent the valve covers. While in town I dropped by to see Jerry Bolke at Classic Touch, who has been my barber since high school. We went for a quick ride, and I showed my ineptitude for shifting at the correct RPM or being smooth.

Once I returned from town, it was time to get to work. Flash came over and we installed the PCV valve which we think will help the engines oil leak issues. Flash also came up with some screws to correctly mount a lisence plate cover, and then I used a Dremmel to cut them to the correct length so that it wouldn't damage the bumper cover.

Finally, I routed the wire from the distributor to the front of the car and installed the Dakota Digital tach converter box. The installation seemed very straight forward and it wasn't long before all of the wiring was routed and connected, then it was time to try it out. Well, that's where the fun ended... I ended up spending hours debugging it and trying different things, to no avail. It was the weekend and I expected that no help would be available at Dakota Digital, but I will get with them this week if I can't solve this myself. According to thier install sheet, I should be able to measure 1-20VAC at the TACH connection from the distributor, but I get less than 1 VAC at the distributor. I plan to install another coil and try it again. Also, once the cover to the coil had been removed it looked as if it had been cooked at some point. Around 9PM, Jody Etchison came over and helped me debug the Dakota Digital issues. It was good to have a fresh perspective on the situation and it made the job that much more fun to have someone to pick on, and return the favor.

When Flash wasn't helping me he was working on his 914. He replaced the master cylinder, took out the pedal cluster so that it could be rebuilt. Most of this time was spent learning how to do the job right (and drinking a beer or two).

07-21-2006 - Trip to the mechanic

The car got inspected by my mechanic on Friday. He appeared very impressed by the work that James had done. His first suggestion was that only one valve cover was vented and that both sides needed to be vented in some manner or else the engine would hold pressure and cause the seals to leak oil.

I drove the car out and about for a few hours Friday afternoon, and while the day was very hot, the car ran very good and didn't have any issues with cooling - even while standing in traffic for several minutes at a time. Quite impressed.

07-21-2006 - Car specs...

Here is a list of the car specifics from the original posting on Pelican Parts.


Exterior:
Stone Grey Metallic Paint (less than 1 year old)
16x7 front / 16x8 rear Bridgestone tires 90% tread remaining
1” front spacers / 2” rear spacers
930DP front valance from Rennspeed
Brakes: Stock
Rear Torsion bars have been upgraded to turbo models
Rear shocks are heavy duty Boge
Front Shocks are Bilsteins (less than 8000 miles)

Interior: (all recovered in black vinyl)
930 Sport Seats
930 Leather shift boot
Door panels / door tops
Headliner
Rear Quarter panels
Rear trim bars
No heat or A/C
Power Windows

Drivetrain: Less than 5000 miles
4 Bolt main 2 piece RMS 010 high nickel block
041 camel hump head with 2.02 and 1.60 Manley valves
Bronze valve guides and hardened exhaust seats installed
Speed Pro flattop pistons (compression is 10:1
Speed Pro mild performance cam (good idle quality)
Crankshaft has been turned 10 under
Proform roller rocker arms
Proform HEI Distributor
MSD 6A ignition box
MSD Magna 8.5 wires
Edlebrock Performer intake manifold
Edlebrock Performer Carb 600 CFM
Proform Black Crinkle Dress Kit (Valve covers / Air Cleaner / Timing Chain cover)
Meziere WP 337 big block 55gpm electric water pump
Suncoast Products 120 amp alternator / 95 amp spare
Aeromotive street strip electric fuel pump
Aeromotive inline 40 and 100 micron aluminium canister filters
Kennedy Engineering transmission / bellhousing adapter plate
Kennedy Eng starter ring
Sach Power Clutch
915 transaxle from 84 3.2 serviced with SWEPCO

Cooling:
C&R Racing (IRL/CART/ NASCAR) company made the custom 2 ½ “ Alum radiator
Fully shrouded (aluminum) on back with two large SPAL 1700CFM pulling cooling fans
Evans Cooling NPG+ full synthetic (waterless) coolant 6 gallons
Renegade Hybrids remote fill provision
Gates green stripe hose 1 ¼ and 1”

Fuel tank is a stock unit that was cut down to 14.5 gallons and coated with LINE X
Painless Wiring Harness

Exhaust:
Corvette Center Dump Ram Horn manifolds
Magnaflow 2 ½ stainless steel pre-bent tubing
Magnaflow stainless steel mufflers (very nice sound)

07-20-2006 - Nothing new... For now...

I've been reading a couple of articles on adjusting the 915 tranny, in an effort to make shifting into 1st and 2nd a little easier. After reading a few articles it still sounds as if it's a bit of a black art with lots of trial and error before you can get it right.

Also, looked at the back side of the engine and tried to figure out the best way to route the tach wire for the Dakota Digital box. Shouldn't be too bad, and I can route the wire when I'm in the tunnel working on the shift adjustment.

So, not much in the way of progress, but planning and waiting for the heat to diminish to some degree. Here's a picture of the car on the 5th of July. This is the day the car arrived at home and I took a few pictures of it resting next to the Porsche 914 (formerly my play car, but I forced it on my brother - so now it's his burden. No really, it's a great car in need of some TLC).

07-18-2006 - Tach adapter has arrived

The tach adapter (allowing the original Porsche 6 cylinder tach to be used with a V8) from Dakota Digital arrived and I fully planned to install it but... It's just too hot! I took the car out for a quick spin and filled up with fuel before gas prices go up, again. As soon as time and temperature allows it will be installed.

07-17-2006 - Nice evening for a drive...

07-15-2006 - What is that noise?

For the first few days after getting the car home I worked on unloading the car. James had packed it full of boxes of stuff related to the car (and I still haven't figured out what all of the stuff is...). I worked to get the car licensed and insured, and took the car for an occasional drive down to the lake and back. Great fun!

After a few days I noticed a new sound. Some sort of loose and vibrating noise that was driving me nuts. Soon afterwards the alternator belt started to squeal and upon closer inspection I found the the lower alternator bracket had came loose (vibration noise) and causing the alternator to squeal. A quick run to Flash's house to pick up a stainless bolt and I was back in business (see picture above).

While I was under the car I noticed that the oil pan appears to be leaking as well as the brass connectors for the coolant connections (see picture, again). And James had mentioned that the intake leaked oil, so that'll be taken care of at the same time. Also, I've noticed some lifter noise and I want to get the lifters adjusted. Flash suggested taking the car to Steve Allen to fix the leaks and adjust the valves, since he has years of experience doing just that sort of thing for the race cars in the area.

Today, the tach adaptor from Dakota Digital is supposed to arrive and I should finally be able to see what kind of RPMs the car turns at highway speeds.

07-04-2006 - 07-05-2006 - The trip home...

When we left for home with the car in-tow around 2PM CST (that's a guess), almost everyone had been awake for nearly 24 hours and starting to feel the effects. We plowed on through the night, and took turns sleeping in the back of the truck. Around 10pm on July 4th, I pulled in to buy some fireworks at these massive fireworks warehouses in the Smokey Mountains. As luck would have it, they were having a fireworks display and so we relaxed for a few minutes and celebrated our independence with some fellow Americans. It was a well needed break from the road, and we all enjoyed the chance to stretch our legs and take in the view.

All too soon the fireworks were over and we were back on the road toward Arkansas. It would rain sporadically. I remember at one point I awoke to the sound of rain, but I didn't see any water on the windshield. I asked John if it was raining. He said, "No, it's bugs." Everyone took their turn at the wheel, and it was difficult to keep going, but around 1PM the next day we rolled into Blue Eye.

John and Sean went home for some well deserved rest, while I spent a couple hours with my brother examining and discussing the new car. Around 3PM we unloaded the car at the shop, Flash left for work and I promptly took a shower and hit the sack.

06-07-2006 - 07-04-2006 - The Shipment of the car...

On June 7th, James started working to find a shipping company and he found a really good deal (maybe it was too good). On the 8th we descided on the company ("Fleet United Auto Transport") and James got the order for shipment in the queue. Through some fault the pickup wasn't scheduled to start until June the 14th, and then it was supposed to take 1 to 8 business days for pickup and another 3 to 5 days for the shipment to arrive. That sounded good, and so we waited and we called, and we waited and we called. Then we waited some more and called some more. And we became frustrated and 8 business days past the 14th passed and still we waited. And we called and we talked and we got the run around, and we got mis-informaiton and still we got nothing. So, at the end of it all we gave them $150 for processing our order and I finally ended up borrowing my brother's truck and trailer and spending 39 hours on the road with some close friends to pick up the car. Thanks for nothing "Fleet". I'm in-debted to Sean and John for ever for going with me on the road-trip from hell - but I have to admit that I had a lot of fun (except for the lack of sleep!). Also thanks to Flash for letting me borrow his truck/trailer, and thanks to James for helping us get out of Savanha.

06-04-2006 - Spotted the car

On June 4th, 2006 I noticed a post on Pelican Parts for a 911 converted to Chevy V8 power and thought that the time had come for me to stop putting it off and to finally buy the car I've always wanted. I spoke the to the owner, James Hamm (one hell'ova nice guy!), and after a few days of mulling it over I bought the car.


James told me that the car wasn't perfect and it needed some work, but that didn't scare me and I looked forward to getting my hands dirty and getting this beast fully road-worthy. This is where the story begins.