"16volt" (thecrashingdoor)
12/01/2014 at 11:35 • Filed to: None
5
0|
"16volt" (thecrashingdoor)
12/01/2014 at 11:35 • Filed to: None | 5
| 0 |
Two thousand miles since January, I can say with absolute certainty that it has been best first 2k miles I have ever put on a car. My 930 with all its faults continues to earn its spot in the garage. The last couple of weeks have been great, the repair/reconfigure of the vacuum system is paying dividends. The car will slip the rear end sideways on full chat in 1st and 2nd gear, continue on and 3rd will test your mettle. No one with any sort of common sense will go hard into 4th. The 930 is uncomfortably fast.
I am not too proud to admit however that there have been setbacks, mistakes have been made. A recent eBay experience bears mentioning. A while ago there was a discussion on adjustable WURs. I have read allot of threads on the subject but some key details were lost on me and that in turn has cost me (what I consider to be) allot money. As we previously discussed the WUR plays a key role in fuel mixture when the car is cold, warm and under boost. As I understand it from the factory there is only one adjustment available and it is one way. There is a plug/slug in the housing which can be tapped in with a hammer to adjust the CIS control pressure for the cold phase, once it's tapped in its done, you cannot change it back without opening the unit. Tap it too far and it damages the WUR. A few years ago a gentleman named Brian Leask was modifying the plug for an adjustment nut and screw. This allowed it become adjustable on the fly. His units which came with an extensive binder of documentation detailing how to use the unit and the science behind it are much coveted among the 930 folks, especially now that he no longer makes them. His WUR gives owners control over mixture for cold/warm/boost, something that you would not usually get unless you went to EFI. With the cruise surge and boost cutout problems I was having, I wanted one, badly.
A shop advertises the ability to make WUR adjustable in the same fashion through a partnership with BL so I found and purchased a used unit from a forum member (a new WUR if you can find one is an absurd amount of money) with the thinking that I would send it off to be made adjustable. Upon doing so I learned that the shop was waiting on some machining to take place before they could provide the service, no ETA was available. Bummer. About a day later I saw another forum for sale post for a WUR, this one had already been made adjustable, for the same price as the stock unit I had just purchased no less. I did some research and noted that the adjustment screw setup was different in the parts used than what was used on the BL units, though it wasn't clear just what that meant (red flag #1). I did some research on the seller and noted some negative feedback from another forum member on some parts that were purchased and were not as advertised, there was some back and forth and ugliness in how both sides handled it. I chalked this up to how communication works in the internet/forum age (red flag #2).
I went to the forum member's ebay auction and bought it. Since I already had a stock spare unit (which as fortune would have it was freshly rebuilt) on the way I chose to have the adjustable unit sent directly to the aforementioned shop to be checked out and rebuilt. When it arrived at the shop they reported that it had been tossed in a box with zero packing and vacuum port had been bent (red flag #3). With it being bent there was a good chance that the housing was cracked as well since it's a press fit. I went back to ebay auction took a much closer look at the pics and compared them to images of stock unit. To my dismay, the port was bent in the auction pics. My fault, dammit. Since I f-ed up I wasn't going to bother going back to the seller over it or the no packing material issue. I forged forward with the shop to do the rebuild (red flag #4). Skip ahead a couple weeks the shop reported back that they were close to being done, they had also found that the plug had been hammered so far into the housing that it damaged the internals. Basically "the WUR I bought was a core", they replaced the plug, port and housing then set it to the stock settings. Wait….so what exactly was I getting, you guessed it, another stock WUR freshly rebuilt, for nearly twice the cost (purchase price plus rebuild cost). Obviously somewhere things went totally awry. I spoke more with the shop and as it turns out the WUR I had bought in addition to being junk was only adjustable for cold. The BL units were adjustable on cold/warm/boost. ****.
Given what I had been sold and advertised as a working adjustable WUR which turned out to be broken core I went back to the seller. At this point all I wanted was a 50% refund. This started a flurry of angry emails from him, exactly as he had responded to the other buyer complaints on the forum. Sigh. He offered a full refund if the part was returned untouched….well it had to have been touched to find out it was worthless. Had I taken his word on its condition I would have put a non-functional device on my car which is responsible for fuel mixture, wonder if he would warranty my motor when it ran lean? Doubtful right? A few more emails with him accusing the shop of lying to me and all manner of other excuses and attitude lead us to the agreement that he would do nothing and eBay should make the decision.
After a few days I have decided just cut my losses and move forward….with my growing collection of rebuilt stock WURs. Arrgh. And I know that posting all this opens me up to all manner of criticism, so be it. I don't think anyone can be harsher critic of what I should have done in retrospective then myself…or maybe the seller. J
Moving onto to better news, we have had a spate of warm weather in the PNW. That has let me continue to burn down the 930 project list. Friday I decided to re-visit the sunroof project. If you don't remember when I initially dug in I found a few missing and broken bits. A quick visit to Pelican and a few days later I had what I needed so now it's all back together and complete.
I took advantage of another friends shop day and his expertise with gauge repair to work on my PLX gauge project. Mounting options for extra gauges in the 930 are somewhat limited and/or expensive. Through some research I found a member who had utilized an old broken clock to serve as a housing for the PLX gauge. Brilliant, I found a broken clock for 40 bucks shipped and set my friend to work on it. The tricky part is removing the press fit bezel, initially this is all I wanted help with as my patience is not such that I was confident I could do it without it becoming a hack job. My buddy make quick work of it, smart choice Shannon. We then decided to re-use the original lens as a backing/mount plate for the much smaller PLX gauge. Before I could jump in he carefully began modifying the lens.
While we waited for the paint to dry I went about replacing the passenger side door seal as it had a tear in it. Before I could even finish he handed me the completed gauge install.
This is a shining example of why I love the car community and the friends it has brought me. I really do love the fact that my friends have as much of a hand in building each other cars as they do their own. With the help of another friend I tackled installing the Rennline pedal covers. Four completed projects in two days, it's good to be the king.
The following day was to be a net loss. There was another break in the weather so I decided that a quick vacuum was in order. Couple of interesting notes about the 930. Underneath the floor mats there is no carpet. It looks like this is common with old 911s, that being said, pretty cheesy Porsche. Increasing the cheese factor is the wood panels where the floor meets the front "firewall". Those Rennline aluminum replacements seem like a bargain.
I have been under this dash before, it's never a confidence inspiring experience. The previous owner had an alarm and stereo "system" put in. The install is a total hack job (imo). I usually just back away slowly and try to erase the image from my mind. Well…I hadn't so much as had the vacuum going for 4mins before I turned it back off and grabbed a screwdriver to dig a little deeper in hopes of cleaning it up, just a little. Big mistake.
There are two separate hvac blowers in either kick panel. On my way home from the shop I noticed that only the driver's side of the defrost vent was blowing lukewarm (as hot as the 911 gets) air while the passenger side was cold hence why that side always fogs first. Innocently I thought I would just pop off the two kick panels and take a look. Once the last screw was removed from both panels out poured a rats nest of alarm and stereo guts to the floor. Remember the Christmas light scene with Russ and Clark Griswold from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, yeah, just like that. Like someone who has just been sliced open I immediately tried to stuff all the guts back in…..no success. Ugh. On the passenger side where the stereo guts were I was able to relocate to bulky cheater amp to a temporary location till I remove the stereo completely. A cursory inspection and test of the passenger side blower leads me to believe it's not operating correctly/completely.
At this point the skies had darkened and I could sense that rain was on its way. I needed to close the patient immediately. Moving on to the driver's side the blower motor had been knocked off the mount in the floor, the fresh air hose and hot air hose were both disconnected. I have no clue how any heat was actually making it to the windshield. With the alarm "brain" forced to share this space with the blower motor there is nearly zero chance that anything would fit right. After fighting with the stupid hoses to get them reconnected for literally an hour and a half I was able to get it all back together working a little better than before. It's now totally clear to me that this alarm crap needs to go or at the very least be completely re-wired. Then the rain started. With about 1.5 square feet of the car being vacuumed I decided to call it a weekend.
Next time on "What not to do" we explore just how badly I don't need new wheels. Thanks for reading.