Amber Gramps

In january '07 I purchased the car of my dreams. She is an '88 Manual Cab Carrera with 54,000 miles on her. The car was an untouched stock time machine. Not only was this my first Porsche, but it is my first sports car. When I got her home I quickly figured out that the car was "on or off" or should I say the throtle was on or off. It ran great at wide open, but strugled to get there. At idle it rattled like an old muscle car then as I gave it throtle it sputtered and jumped and dipped as it wound up. Still a great car, but it really needed some work. I masked the problems by running 95 octane most of the time.
Every month I have worked on the car with my friends here on Rennlist. I think the first thing I did was the K&N air filter and Fabspeed airbox cover. This sounded great, but did not really change anything. Next was the distributor cap and rotor. What a difference. I did lots of cosmedic restoration and sway bar work. I replaced the sparkplug wires and that eliminated the ruff Idle. My favorite job was the tranny fluid and LSD additive. I removed the cat and installed a new O2 sensor and that really livened up the car.
i still had several flat spots at various RPM ranges like at 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 RPMs. It was like letting out the clutch and getting whiplash four times instead of once. I wanted to just have one, long, smooth boost of exceleration. I didn't want the jerky climb to the rev limiter that I had (granted everything I have done got me to the rev limiter quicker than before).
So, In comes Russell Berry with exactly what I was looking for. He and I chatted several times about his chip and what it could do for my car. I looked at lots of chips and didn't really understand what they did or how they did it. He explained it very well and discribed how he tuned his car that had similar charictoristics. I don't think it was any kind of horse power claims that convinced me to go with this chip, it was the throtle and timing map and how it tuned the car. I will admit I have only driven the car an hour with the chip in it, but what an hour it was. I got home at 5:30 and by 7:00 I had the chip in the DME box, the box in the car, and the seat bolted down. Nothing like top down driving in 50 degree weather. She was warm in no time and down the road. Talk about giving the LSD a work out....I lit up the back end like never before. It is strong and smooth. I tried the zero to sixty butt-dyno run and I think I'm at sixty about a second into second gear.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted. She is now officially the deamon fish she was born to be. I'll take her to work tomarrow and see if my boss's 997 can keep up. thank you Russell for putting so much time into this chip. Knowing that it's been in your car for 9,000 miles is very reasuring. I can't beleive it excelerates so quickly and so smoothly.

psychoideas

G'day Douglas,
Great write up and glad to hear that the chip made so much of a difference. Stay safe and keep us posted.

theiceman

Hey Frank i just saw your Pic in the 80s pics in OT .. too funny.what a great thread..

LUCKe27

Nice commentary, Doug. Now, those of us dwelling in stockland just need to wait for another sale price to come along.

Amber Gramps

OK, if she wasn't dangerous before, she is now. It's almost un-natural how willing she is to rev up. Russell, if you are out there, I do have a question for you???

Edit: http://www.maxhpkit.com/

yes, it is a site sponsor, and no, I didn't get paid....

rberry951

Hey Douglas,

I'm here, just busy trying to get another computer set up over here on the cape, seems Vista holds a whole new barrel of challenges for my equipment.

Ask away, I'll be in and out while I'm doing other things...

I appreciate your review of the chip. There's really nothing I like more than when somone calls me from their car on the first drive with a new chip in.

Regards,
Russell

Amber Gramps

Russell, when I called you last night and said I took it around the block a couple times I really had only gone on maybe a 5 minute drive around the block.
My question is about starting the car. I have always been able to just tap the key and she fires up. I have a very strong starter and now she doesn't want to fire as quickly. I have never had to put my foot on the gas and now this seems to be the only way to get it fired on first tap. just a slight preshure on the pedel. Not a lot, but some. What is different and what can I do to restore what I had? My idle is set at just under 900RPM via the cable. (I know that's not the right way) what to do? what to do?

did I say demon fish?

Amber Gramps

and since the chip is intended for off road use I guess it would be safe to say that the run up from 100MPH to 140MPH was way too fast. I didn't get to cover much ground.

rberry951

Mine starts better/easier than before. But from what you're saying about your adjustment I would venture to say you've adjusted it so that the throttle body isn't shutting as far as it should, and the TPS isn't properly adjusted to the new 'idle' position. With the engine off, just move the throttle gently away from its stop and back, as it comes to rest you should hear/feel a click in the TPS on the throttle body. If you don't, then your idle switch isn't engaging, and you're starting your car in the bottom of the part throttle map and not the idle map. This actually makes sense. See if you can re-adjust your cable to that the idle switch engages when the throttle shuts on its own pressure, then see if your start/idle clears up.

Regards,
Russell

Amber Gramps

I remember months back Peter Z telling me I should never have my idle set at the cable. I also had some indication that the car had a problem in this department when Marc at Redline told me the Idle had never been adjusted. ...something about a sticker on the screw was still there??? I knew you would have an answer. She is in the shed for the night. I'll get her out in the morning and check for the click. thank you again. sounds like the egg rolls are done.

J. Brinkley

the idle adjustment screw comes with a small yellow plastic cover you have to take off to adjust. The only thing that should be done with the throttle linkage is making sure when you let off the pedal that the butterfly closes all the way and that the off idle switch is engaged at the closed position/ off the pedal.
Also check pedal to the floor that the butterfly fully opens. You want full throttle to actually BE full throttle.
Check the linkage for binding where it goes through the plenum and past the engine tin also.
In theory, your car should want to die when you come up to a stop sign with the clutch in if the off idle switch was messed up. But there are other things involved.
New chips should really require a new idle mix set. On paper at least.
It's possible to put a new chip in and not mess with the mix or the idle and be fine. But really, a new mix/idle set should be done.

J. Brinkley

off throttle switch (red arrow)

Amber Gramps

I have to start by saying you guys are sick and twisted and I worship you now. that is to say that what you said to do actually worked. I started by moving the throtle and didn't notice any clicking sound. I turned the throtle cable screw a half revolution inward and listed again for the click as I moved the throtle. I got the click this time. Thinking you guys are Gods I got in the car and she fired right up. I backed her down the driveway, shut her off and closed the gate. I got in it to go to work and this time she fired up after a second or two. My next stop was Big Gun Exhaust and she didn't fire right up. My second try included a quick tap of the foot and she fired. Second stop was Cal box II where she fired up after about 5 seconds of spin. What is the next step? do I start in on the Idle screw?

Amber Gramps

How loose is too loose for the cable? Maybe the cable is sticking just off of letting the TPS "click". the idle was actually a tad bit higher now.

J. Brinkley

please tell us your not talking about the cruise control cable. But of course if your CC cable was tight this would mess things up.
90% of the throttle is linkage, not cable