edfishjr

Doing the timing and balance shaft belts.

New timing belt is in and tensioned. The existing balance shaft belt I found to be off one tooth at TDC, but only the upper shaft pulley. See pic.

Edit: Got the car back on the road. Yup, engine a little bit smoother than it was before.

Now, I'm dropping the rear suspension to install the M030 torsion bars, bushings, and the super-secret bump stops!

Braymond

Where did you find the blue dot/white dot springs? I've been checking eBay, but most springs have been early 944 and not from a M030 optioned car.

I've been thinking about going to one of those 944 part-out yards to see if I get lucky, but it seems like a total shot in the dark.

I am seriously questioning the legitimacy of these rules that say we must use 30+ year old springs and offer no replacement alternatives.

burglar

That's why they sunset cars in Street after 30 years. Still legal locally, but not nationally.

edfishjr

It's not the SCCAs problem to provide alternatives for all the stock parts that go out of production. Heck, if the ABS module on my MY2000 Corvette goes out there's absolutely nothing to be done.

I got my springs from a guy that now races a 944S2. At one time he'd had a turbo that used them.

Now that I know about the 944 Facebook forums that form the major markets for used 944 parts, I bet I could get another set in a day or two. Forget Ebay. My experience is that everything you could ever want is available from these guys that buy up parts and cars for resale.

PedalFaster

Ed, are you bringing the car to Lincoln in two months?

knfeparty

There's a set on my old 944 that johntorg has for sale. I think he still has the car. It had m030 everything even the tbars

edfishjr

Doubtful. Once back together I suspect it will be nearly undrivable for a while as I work out the tuning.

burglar

You are running out of eligibility chances.

edfishjr

I think the car is eligible until the end of 2019, so it could go to Nationals 2 times after this year.

"through the end of the 30th calendar year after the manufacturer-designated model year of the car."

So, I think that means 1989+30 = end of 2019

Does this seem right?

burglar

Not sure, but I think you should come to Lincoln this year just in case.

PedalFaster

Agreed. burglar will help you sort out your wacky handling on the test and tune course.

burglar

Yeah because I did a great job with the 911. ( Unless that was the joke.)

PedalFaster

Nah, I was just volunteering you as the only guy on this thread who's definitely going to be at Lincoln.

Ed, I don't share your pessimism -- the changes you're making aren't that radical, are they?

edfishjr

It's the bump stop thing that may take some sorting out. I gotta get with it and get this thing back together...

On another note, I've been thinking, reading, testing shock stuff on the BS Corvette that was returned to stock and not yet sold.

I threw the Ohlins back on it with a mod that I thought might make them silent, after we put them on a dyno to try to figure out what was making noise. We could see the teflon-lined spherical joint deforming and decided that the metal dust cap was hitting the shock body. But, the 'fix' didn't work. They were quiet when first put on, but made more noise as the miles accumulated, just like before. Very mysterious.

Anyway, I tried high compression damping (what I used to race it at) and very low rebound, lower than I'd ever run, I mean sooooft, both in front and back. (Still autocross alignment, stock front sway bar.) These Ohlins have good compression damping at only 1 in/s, then blow off, so the transient response was still good. The rebound is linear with a broad range of adjustment.

The increase in grip with 3rd rank tires (old RE760) was pretty amazing, even on the street, compared to the stock 14K mile shocks I'd put back on, and especially on our somewhat bumpy autocross site.

I did this after reading Jan Zuijdijk's book, which has got to be the worst written and translated book ever published in English. (He's the Z in JRZ and was Koni's development/race man for many years.) I'm now a real believer in relatively low rebound damping, i.e. no more than necessary to control the springs. Let the car move, but keep the tires on the pavement. Dennis Grant preaches this as well.
In any production car with stock springs, they are so soft that very little rebound damping is actually required.

I was re-reading J.Z.'s book because I'd bought some single-adjustable monotube JRZ's (no remote reservoir) for the rear of the Porsche. We had set them to 125 psi gas pressure. Then I re-read the book and he claimed (3 separate places!) that they needed 25 bar (= 360 psi!) or they wouldn't develop proper compression damping because it wouldn't develop enough delta-P across the piston. I thought about that a while until I was sure I understood exactly how a monotube works in compression, then went back to my shock guy.

He was very nice, had also read the book, said J.Z. was wrong, but, hey, let's go test it! So we did.

We retested the baseline 125psi and got exactly the same curve as he'd given me before. Then we upped it to 250 psi. Zero increase in compression damping at any shaft velocity.

My shock guy says that, so far, he's never seen a monotube that needed more gas pressure than whatever level is required to prevent cavitation under worst-case compression conditions, which can vary, depending on how it's valved. More gas pressure than that does not improve compression damping, in spite of what J.Z. wrote. He says my shocks only 'need' 75 psi to prevent cavitation, as presently valved.

It was also pretty amazing how hot the shock was when we took it off the dyno, even though the rebound was adjusted to the minimum and we didn't run it for long.

sjfehr

I'll be at Lincoln this year, too (AS), and am always happy to drive other people's cars at the TnT!