I've had a number of Porsches in the last 10 years. I started out with an SC Targa, then traded "up" to a 993, then a 996 C4S (huge mistake), then "down" to a 968CS then down even further to the lowly and tired SC coupé which this thread concerns.
I've had Gretel for the last 3 years. I bought it for a song before prices went silly. It was very tired and I bought it with open eyes. Since then I've done a full brake refresh and replaced the old heat exchangers with a stainless 2 in 2 out system. In January last year I bought a new house which had a proper workshop. After making the house liveable I did what any bloke worth his salt does and decided to take my old car to pieces.
As the car was arguably the lowest of the aircooled 911s I thought there would be no harm in turning it into my ideal hotrod style car. Not with a view to tracking it, just to obtain the maximum driving pleasure for me. So, lose a bit of weight, increase the power slightly, styling to suit my tastes, etc.
I love the classic 911 silhouette so the tea tray had to go. I also like the impact bumper look, but not the weight of the bumpers. I decided to go with EB Motorsport SCRS narrowbody bumpers and a 964 engine lid. I haven't decided whether to have the engine lid operated by a rocker switch or just off the ignition (through a relay). I test fitted these;
They required very little fettling to fit and the quality seems really good. The notches on the rear bumper for the little reflectors will be going in place of a smooth rear. I'll be changing one of my rear clusters to have a fog light in to negate the need for the bolted on one.
Once I'd decided on a bodyshop to cut out the rust and respray the whole car I dropped the engine and gearbox;
I thought about rebuilding the engine myself. It was rattly and down on power with what sounded like a little piston slap on #1. I'm reasonably handy with some spanners and if it was a Golf GTi engine that, if I messed up, I could buy another to rebuild for £500 I'd have attacked it. However, that's not the case so I decided to farm out the rebuild to Ben at Rennspeed in Gainsborough. He's a great guy and an excellent mechanic. I've used him for work on my cars for some time and he's always got an engine or two on the go.
After the credit card took a big dent these arrived from FVD in Germany;
A 98mm Mahle "Max Moritz" kit taking the 3.0 engine out to a 3.2 short stroke with a 10.3:1 compression ratio. These are designed to work with CIS and single plug heads. I spoke to John Dougherty in the states, explaining what spec my engine was going to be and he's made me a set of cams to suits these P&Cs and the fact I'm keeping CIS.
I have a receipt in my history detailing a rather expensive engine rebuild by a Peterborough firm around 4 years before I bought the car and about 15k miles ago. However, given the state of the engine noise and the lack of power I found it hard to believe. I took the engine to Ben's place and we set about splitting it to see what's what.
We found that the P&Cs were indeed knackered. They look like they'd been badly machined in the past, although where and when is hard to tell. They were very slack and there was some scoring on a couple of them. The Max Mortiz was money well spent it seemed. I did have some luck though. All the head studs had already been replaced with dilivar ones and they were all well set. £700 saved;
Also, it had been fitted with a new oil pump and intermediate shaft in the recent past too;
All the exhaust valves were nice and snug. The inlets were a little loose so new guides will get pressed in for those. Essentially though, there was nothing worrying in the engine and it should be a straightforward bolt back together with the new parts and hey presto, 230-240bhp.
The interior was ripped out and then the shell was dropped off at the bodyshop for remediation and a full respray;
New B-posts required;
The kidney bowls had already been replaced with the later hockey stick type and were still solid thankfully. Just a clean up and reseal for those. The front wings needed some work;
There were a number of other parts that needed some fab and fix. It's had good metal wherever it needed it though. The inner wings were surprisingly solid. The outer sills needed some attention though. The car is currently being prepped for paint and should be ready in the next few weeks. At which point I start bolting it back together, including;
Superpro bushes all round and new fast road Bilsteins;
New D-Zug HID headlights;
New headlining, grey RS carpet set, Black RS doorcards plus dark grey alcantara dash top and door top trims;
Get rid of the old heavy seats for these;
16" 7&8J Fuchs refurbed by Nick Moss to go on;;
The gearbox was crunchy on 2nd and 3rd so Ben is also rebuilding that, but I'll keep the ratios the same. I've decided on fitting a Quaife LSD (or not really an LSD) so I can wave my willy in the pub. It's getting a J West Rennshifter and coupler too thanks to a group buy run by Amallagh on here.
I'm hoping to have it all back together for this summer so watch this space. I'll update as I go along. No doubt I'll have 101 question when putting it back together anyway.
Cheers,
Brewster
