03-18-2006 - Quick zip through the woods...

Today my brother, Flash, and I went for a little cruise over the lake and through the woods. Flash was driving his 914, and I took the 911 - it was great to get them out and stretch their legs a bit. Won't be long until we'll have lots of opportunities to take drives, but for now good weather is still a luxury that we take every chance to avail ourselves of...

I worked on the passenger side window regulator after ordering parts from DC Automotive. The parts didn't exactly fit, so I'm going to have to call them and see if I can get the right parts.

Oh no, more winter!

Yesterday, I took the Porsche out and had a great time with the car. Unfortunately the Porsche saw it's own shadow, we tried but we couldn't outrun it, and now there will be six more weeks of winter.

Nice day for a drive!

The weather in the Ozarks has been extremely nice this week, but that's about to end. Rain is forecast for the next few days, and so today was my best bet to drive the car for a while (it's been several months since I've had the chance to drive it!). Now that I'm sure that the car will clear the driveway entrance here at work I'm much more likely to drive the car on nice days.

01-16-2007 - End of the rat attack!

Well, it's been far too long since I've updated this page. Not much has happened since the rat attack on the 911, but that's about too change. I purchased some new carpet from a guy on PelicanParts.com and it was shipped today.

11-19-2006 - Will Bimen's Velomobile

Sunday morning I had the pleasure to meet Will Bimen and his Velomobile. The Velomobile is pedal powered and designed much like a recumbent bike with a aerodynamic skin made of carbon fiber and Kevlar. Will said that he had started his trip in Colorado then progressed up to Illinois, then down to Memphis Tennessee, and is now headed back to Colorado. The Velomobile is equipped with headlights, turn signals and a brake light that is powered from a 12 volt battery pack. The battery pack is recharged via a solar panel that he places on top of the Velomobile. He said that on flat ground he can travel at a sustained 22 miles per hour and that a comparable bike, without the aerodynamic shell, he would only be able to maintain 17 miles an hour. If you would like more information about Will and his adventures or human-powered vehicles, then you should check out his web site at www.9th-hennepin.com

11-18-2006 - Let it roll...

Friday and Saturday we continued the re-assembly of the GTI. About 6PM on Saturday evening the GTI was finally all bolted together and buttoned up - Ready for a test drive. The first few experimental trips were without incident. So far, with about 100 miles on the clock the motor hasn't leaked any fluids, acted improperly and every function of the car works exactly as it did before the engine swap (Touch wood). In fact, except for the massive amount of time spent, the oily spot on the shop floor and huge metal lump sitting in the floor, I would think that the car was exactly the same as before the valve-to-piston impact. I'm glad that it's back on the road and thanks to Flash for his help and ingenuity in those critical times.

Trials and tribulations...

This weekend the work on the GTI continued. The old engine is now officially out of the car, and we have examined the top of the pistons by looking down into the spark plug holes with a flash light and there has definitely been valve impacts on cylinders 2 and 3. I have started swapping over parts from the old motor to the new and I think all of the new parts that are needed are on the way - until something else breaks.

On a side note, there has been a rat that has taken up residence in my shop about two weeks ago. The first week he was there without my knowledge and did a lot of damage. This past week has been a constant hunt to find and kill him. I am happy to say that the little bastard is dead and I can start cleaning up the mess he made. He ate a fuel line, some of the wiring and the carpet of the 911... Now I know what Rat Bastard really means!

Saturday night we started playing around on the Super Beetle and decided to put the new windshield seal in... Long story short - the windshield is now broken. Searching around I found a replacement for around $50 + shipping. I may check some local places to see if I can get a better deal.

And the dead-beat goes on...

Last week I bought a motor for the GTI. It has 75K miles on it, and hopefully it should be good for a few thousand more. The timing belt, tensioner, water pump, thermostat, etc, etc showed up and so I'm ready to that bit of work. Picked the motor up from Jeff, seemed like one really nice guy, and the boys at Hoods Motorsports (www.hoodsmotorsports.com) really helped with some good advise on making the swap. Appreciate it guys! Maybe sometime when I'm back up your way I can buy you a beer.

The GTI saga continues...

Flash and I worked on the GTI some this weekend. We pulled off a lot of pieces to inspect the timing belt and we found that the timing belt was fine. The timing belt tensioner on the other hand wasn't fine. The stud mounting it to the block had broken and caused the failure. The motor will have to be pulled so that we can drill the offending stud and use an E-Z Out to hopefully get that sucker out of there. We followed directions exactly - so the stud was installed with a thread-locking agent (AKA: We're so screwed!).

On the other hand the Beetle project moved forward - the body is all back together and primered. The engine isn't running very well right now - hope that we can get that fixed and I can start driving it this week.

FRAK!! The GTI Bites the Dust!

Today hasn't been the greatest day. On the way to work the GTI just died while driving down the road. Called my brother, Flash, to help me get it home (I owe you big time, bro!). Flash listened to me turn the car over and instantly descided that the timing belt had broke - and he was correct. About 30K miles ago I replaced the timing belt, tensioner and water pump - just trying to keep it well maintained. Anyway, I'm certain that it bent the valves when the belt let go. I'll probably find out more this weekend, but I'm fairly certain that it's dead for now. Now I've gotta get the Beetle up and running for a daily driver. Other than that - this day has really sucked!

The Beetle's resurrection continues...

I finally got around to sealing and priming the Beetle this weekend. It doesn't look great, but it's a lot better than bare metal and rust. Lots of rust repair still needs to be done but for now the surface rust is gone and it's much more weather proof than it was previously. And it's all the same color - mostly...

Over the weekend a few friends came over and we had a good time. Mike took me for a ride in his turbo-enhanced R32 - wowzers! That thing is crazy-fast! I was able to return the favor to a very small degree in the 911, but it just isn't the same without all wheel drive. I also gave Reggie a ride in the 911, and while I didn't really get on it, he seemed fairly happy with the ride.

A bit off topic...

Here are some pictures of my current project. It's not the 930 V8, but hey, it's all good. The top picture is how the Beetle looked about a week ago, since then all of the fenders and trim are completely removed and a lot more sanding has been done. The bottom picture shows the car when it arrived about two weeks and a couple of days ago. The middle picture was a test to see how the car looked in primer (which is the color I plan to paint it - semi-gloss black). It has some rust on the body (just behind the side glass on the passenger side) that goes all the way through, and the fenders are beat. On the plus side, the car runs good and drives great. If all goes well the body should be sanded and sealed/primed tomorrow, but a lot of work needs to happen tonight before that can be... That will leave the fenders, hood and engine lid to sand and seal. Once I have all of the surface rust under control (my main goal right now), the plan is to cut and replace the rusted sections of the body with some help from my friends (I trust thier welding ability much more than my own).

No signal?

I have been working on the car, trying to get the tach to work, but to no avail. After trying several different things I have discovered the the MSD ignition isn't producing a tach signal. Not sure what I'm going to do now. But, it's good to know what the problem is - or to think that I know.

I have a new project. It's a 1974 Super Beetle and I've been working on it for the last few weeks trying to get it ready for paint. There hasn't been much time to work on the Porsche, but this winter I hope that I can rewire the car and install a heating and cooling system, so that it will be ready for next summer and be very comfortable.

08-14-2006 - Down on the farm

Vacation was great! Some nice time was spent kicking back on the farm with my son.

Flash and I did play with our Porsche's a little bit, but didn't get a whole lot accomplished. Maybe sometime in the near future we can spend a day working on them.

I did spend a day working on the shop and getting it a bit more organized, but it still has a long way to go before it will be done. Need to finish wiring up the HDTV projector and surround sound in the office before we can start the sheet-rocking. Also, I need to run power to the air compressor and finish that installation.

08-06-2006 - Vacation time...

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to update things on the blog. The past week my son has been visiting, and other family issues have been much more important, so the 911 has been on the back burner to some degree.

I did a quick swap on the coil to see if I could get the tach to function. I found that if I turned the key "almost" to the off position that the tach would work, the RPMs were wrong, but it did work. Just as luck would have it, I was doing this near dusk and outside at my brothers house. When I turned the key to the "almost off" position, I noticed that the headlights of car would pulse with the engine - and so determined that when the key is in that position that it's running solely on the alternator instead of the battery. I don't know what that tells me, but I thought it was interesting.

I also removed the door panels and examined the window regulators on both sides. The regulator on the driver's side works great, but the passenger side needs some work. I found the issues with the regulator and now I need to get parts. While I'm in there I plan to finish wiring up the mirror and the passenger side window control on the driver's door.

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)