Well after a look at the weather forecast (terrible as it was) I decided that I should take the day of work and make the most of the last day of sunshine for the week, and go for a bit of a road mish in the 928. It's the first long distance (which really isnt long distance compared to what some of you guys in europe and the US manage) run I've taken the car on since I got it, and I was incredibly happy with it. Truly I never knew how amazing these cars were until that drive, it blew my mind. 6 hours down, 6 hours back, and I swear if I weren't tired I would turn around and do it again. Incredible.

Some pictures from the journey, some of you may be interested in them. North Island of New Zealand, it was a drive from about 1/4 of the way from the top of the island to the middle of the island, nice narrow windy roads with little traffic (any speed signs you see are in kph, so divide by 1.6 to get an idea of the turns)





First photostop was Lake Taupo, the lake itself is actually the crater lake for the volcano (Taupo) which is dorment. Still a very impressive piece of countryside.







And the final stop was at Tukino, sadly the weather wasn't as pristine as I thought it was going to be down here so you can't see the main features of the volcanic plateau. Directly ahead of the car is Mt. Ruapehu, an active volcano that we ski on, to the right of it is Ngauruhoe which is another active volcano that we don't normally ski on (heliskiing only, although its been a bit grumbly lately so it's less common now). And nice and close to Ngauruhoe is Tongariro, which is a dorment volcano that gives the area (Tongariro National Park) it's name. Really disappointed that the clouds were all gravitating towards the mountains, it would have been perfect to get them in there too





And of course the drive home, the sun looked pretty neat so I tried to get a decent shot of it. I couldn't stop because I still had 4 hours of driving to go and I intented to go to work the next day!





Now to satisfy the requirements of the forum, and of course for my own interest. On the drive I noticed that (strangely so) as I got further south (and it got colder) the temp guage was edging towards the upper 1/4 mark (ie. top to bottom it reads red line, white line, white line, white line, it was getting a bit closer to the uppermost white line) whereas when I started to head north at the end of the drive it was starting to move towards the middle, which is where I would expect it to sit (and also it is where my great uncle's '79 is almost permanently stuck at). I'm not really well versed enough to know why it worked out this way, I was sitting at about 90mph for most of the trip stable rpms except when passing which wasn't exceptionally common. I would have expected the needle to be sitting somewhere near dead center.

I noticed one a separate occasion while spinning the fan slowly by hand that the resistance varies as the fan went round, which I put down to the silicon grease inside the clutch of the fan being cool and having settled nearer the bottom of the unit, but as I said, I don't really know enough about it. Any suggestions would be great.

Incidentally in NZ emissions don't seem to be a particularly important thing (considering the number of livestock I guess a few cars is like a grain of sand on a beach) and I was considering removing the stock fan and replacing it with one of the two electric fans I have found on the internet, and disconnecting the smog pump at the same time. The two I found are the single fan on 928MS and the duel fan on 928gt...

I'm an electrician by trade so I'm not completely useless with my tools but in terms of car mechanics I am reasonably new, so I am keen to get some pro's and con's of both, ie. which one pushes the most air, which one is easier to install and which one allows me to keep as much of the original gear in tact as I can etc etc.

Once again, any help is fantastic and if you are still here cheers for sticking with the rant!

(ps: it's 12am so if any of it doesnt make sense just sing out and I will try to clarify tomorow after I get some sleep)

(edit: I am aware of the chip in the windscreen too)

 

From what I understand, both fans would give you the same ratio of original peices gone. The main point of the switch is to remove the belt-fan, removing a charge from the engine crank.

The fans from 928gt probably offer more air flow than 928ms.
However, knowing that the 928ms already offer as much to more airflow than the stock belt driven fan...

As for easiness of installation... I think installing both is probably quite easy.

One last thing to take into account is the price.

928GT : 495$
928MS : 357$

 

And shipping from the US

I converted my 81 to electric since the stock fan doesn't fit with the supercharger.
You could try rebuilding the stock fan, not the easiest job but I've seen it done successfully. Friend of mine locked his 100% tight for a track car, it's always spinning 100%.

To switch on the electric fan, IMO the best way is to pick up a VW radiator fan switch. It fits in the stock location and adds a second terminal. This way the stock front fan is still hooked up and the new fan kicks on just like a factory unit would.

 

When driving at 90 mph you do not need ANY FAN you have plenty of airflow ! You might wish to change the thermostat and the seal ring behind it in the housing 928 106 163 00 ...when the thermostat opens to let coolant flow through the radiator it ALSO closes the hole in the housing which recirculates the coolant in the engine a poor seal and some % of the coolant never goes to the radiator never has a chance to cool. The horsepower loss is rather low because the belt driven clutch slips at about 3,400 RPM. Save your money for other more important things

 

Beautiful pictures and a beautiful car indeed!

PS - be careful driving on the wrong side of the road like that!!

Ken

 

Definately food for thought, could you point me in the direction of this housing? All I have is the parts catalogue from 928gt and the workshop manuals on CD, and I can't seem to find the PN 928 106 163 00 anywhere in either?



Is the green or the red circle what I am looking for?
Unfortunately the car is boxed in by a horrible () 69 camaro so I can't get in and have a poke around right now without death threats from it's owner but it doesn't seem like a 10 minute job =P

(I'm new to the idea of working on my own cars beyond changing oil filters and the like)


And don't worry about driving on the wrong side of the road, they conveniently put the steering wheel, pod, pedals and even the handbrake on the wrong side of my car which makes it a little more manageable

 

What model year is your car ? It helps to put that in your signature so all know.

 

the seal is not found on the early cars before 85s. (scots racer doesnt have it as the t-stat will rest against the water bridge casting) however, the later cars have it and mine was TOAST. when they are toast, parts of the seal are missing and circulating in the cooling system, plus the t-stat cant do its job as jim says, some of the water can recirculate in the engine. my recent overheating issues could have been do to this.

there is a picture of a bad one on the progress report thread of the Holbert stroker project.

mk

 

Ah yea sorry forgot about the MY, it's an 84 ROW S2.

 

Actually that seal WAS introduced in 1983 so your car should have it ....the parts picture you were looking at was NOT for the 1984.

 

hmm interesting I would have thought the dating on the pdf files would have been talking about the start of the MY rather than the end of the MY ie. that is from the ROW 82 file, the next in the list is ROW 86. That'll teach me for being too lazy to get the CD out. Thanks again Jim!