About two years ago i bought my first 930! A car that has been an object of my dreams since i was a kid, much like the first time Kelly Labrock came out in the movie Weird Science! I posted about it then on here, but have had kids, a wife, and house projects to contend with, so not much time to mess with the car. It is a 77 930, it has 64k original mile, and i believe the color is tobaco bronze metallic. I'll try to upload pics, although i said i would a year ago and never got to it. I've put 500 mi. on the car since i've had it. About 3 mo. ago i almost totalled it on the freeway when i put my foot into it in third gear and under boost some dumb *** decided the lane he was already going 45 in wasn't good enough and needed to occupy my lane at the same time as me. I let off the gas and jumped on the brakes to avoid putting the Porsche crest up his ***, and wend on Mr. Toads wild ride( 3 complete 360's ), culminating in the ice plants on the on/off ramp of the freeway. Luckily for me i was able to back the car out and drive it home. The only damage sustained are flat spots on the tires from the spin, and a door ding on the passanger door from a sprinkler that i mowed down as i was spinning. I was very very lucky that i didn't total the car as i found out later my wife neglected to renew the insurance since she ***-umed i wouldn't be driving it. Anyway my question is where should i start with the mods? I already lowered it to euro specs, put the bump steer spacers in, and a short shifter, along with Momo interior dress up bits. I think the previous owner had some work done because the car hauls *** and the guage reads 1 bar. Although it's the factory guage and may be in-acurate. I spoke with Dwayne at Vision motorsports around the time i bought the car and he said he thinks he remembers putting a bigger turbo in it, but it doesn't have an intercooler yet, so maybe he's thinking of another car. i never had a chance to take it to him. I'm ready to start enjoying my car again and want to start modding it. What are other enthusiasts suggestions as to where to start?

 

This is the guy you need to talk to. i just bought his '86 Turbo that he modded like no other.
Go to search and type in "blackie". His name is Ralph goes by Rennlist name
"snowboarder54"

let me know how it works out. good luck

 

tl;dr

5150C, my friend, please hit the return key every now and then.
Man, that's brutal to look at.

 

Thanks for the feedback, and apologize for writting a novel.

 

You've probably heard this before, but the best thing to do is spend a few hours search for and reading old posts. The next thing is to lay out a budget since everything is so expensive. When you have a pretty good idea of what you want to do, you can post the list here for a critique.

A quick summary not including labor:

Engine:
headers and muffler $3000
intercooler $1500
fuel head mod $500 (guess)
Engine rebuild $2000 to $10,000
EFI $2000 to $10,000

Suspension:
torsion bars $500
shocks $500
bushings $50 - $700
or coilovers $2000 (guess)

 

And while you're at it, fit yourself for a new snow suit and wax your skis....IT'S A SLIPPERY SLOPE!!!!!

 

That's the understatement of the day.

 

We'll, by trade i'm a specialty fabricator. We have been doing custom and one off turbo kits for over 10 years. I intend to do a lot of the work myself. I can cut the cost on the the turbo related stuff by atleast half. i can buy an I.C. core and make my own tanks. As far as turbo's go, i deal with turbonetics often, and also Spearco, Apex, HKS, etc. As for the exhaust it already had the thermals bypast with a set of shorty headers, which i understand is standard practice. i intend to make my own exhaust like i've done on all my cars. How important is retaining the heat exchangers on the exhaust?

As far as engine rebuilds go, at what mileage usually. Mine has 64k, compression is good, and i only have slight oil leaks from the oil tubes. Other than that the car runs great. It does however have a high idle upon initial cold start up that lasts for about 15-20 sec. and goes away. Faulty warm up reg?

 

Also, what are thoughts on upgrading to coil overs rather than stiffer torsions? Any adverse affects?
I did a search but came up with nothing. I'm currently researching the fuel head mod and efi. I have a 93 BMW 318is with a full 96 m3 drivetrain conversion that we're doing a Tec-3r with wide band o2 plug and play on. that cost about 3k. if the benefits are worth it i might do it to the 930.

 

Wow you're a fabricator and turbo enthusiast and you let the 930 sit that long....! I had my engine in pieces exactly one week after buying my car...LOL

If you want to see what kind of turbo you have pull the rear bumper off, takes a whole 20minutes if that and check the ID tag on the turbo.

Running 1bar of boost with NO intercooler....yikes....have you at least thrown a LM1 or somekind of wideband on there to see how you are at least running?? Last thing you want is a ticking time bomb at WOT...then all you'll have is a nice engine case left to polish...but there is a member on here who can help with that (if you have time).

Hope to see pics...we are all pic ***** on here.

Yasin

 

HAHA...very funny....

 

I played around with it the first week with minor upgrades, even had to replace the alternator and voltage regulator which the dealer tried to sell me as a retrofit for like $1400, but with a little research i was able to replace everything for about $380. It wasn't my intention to let the car sit, but i have three kids and a house I was remodeling, along with running my own business and putting my wife through school. This ate up a majority of my time. So the car sat under the car cover in the garage, out of sight out of mind type of deal.

As for your questions, the guage spikes to 1 bar, but as i stated it's the factory guage and may be in-acurate. I ran an EGT probe in the exhaust manifold near the collector for the turbo and it runs a little on the hot side do to lack of fuel but no detonation is present eighther on the plugs or audible pinging. Adding an intercooler is not a big deal, but i have to replace the tail on the car to clear the intercooler. The turbo carreras didn't have the whale tail so i need to buy one. Than you have to factor in paint and it all starts to add up.

Also i have about 4 projects going at once which is the reason funds have been scarce. I've decided that once the BMW is completed the Porsche project will begin.

 

Too many of these replies hit home.

I didn't own my 930 very long before I tore it apart.

I'm not a fabricator by trade, but I am an engineer at a large machine shop. Even with the fabrication I've done myself which includes the intercooler, plumbing, brackets, etc, my engine rebuild and EFI has been stupidly expensive. Granted I've bought some expensive parts where cheaper parts would work fine, but it's still been a very slippery slope. At least in my case, fabbing my own parts along all my other projects, has stretched the 930 project to over 2 years. With that said, it's been fun and now that I'm getting close to the end, I find myself staying in the garage much later than I should.

 

As I project manager, David, I can tell you that it's the last 5 to 10 percent that will kill you! The devil really does live in the details and the little things. Then there's the whole, "afraid to actually complete it because what if it doesn't work" mind-set! I remember twidling my thumbs when Performance Developments had all of my parts. Then when the **** showed up and I actually had to do someting (no more excuses), I was a little freaked - had to either cut bait or fish...I decided to D-R-I-N-K!

 

I didn't even factor the cost of beer into this project. I went through several last night trying to decide where to drill a hole for the ECU bulk head connector. By the time I decided, I figured I should wait until tomorrow when my head's a little clearer. I've decide on just to the right and a little above the right upper shock mount. I'm hoping I can fold over the harness enough to cover it with the rear seat back with minimal bulging.

I'm excited about being close to complete but I'm starting to get the what if it doesn't work or what if it leaks oil everywhere worry.