924Board.org

[-nick]

For the love of God the thing is finally on the road!

She sprung to life yesterday afternoon. Of course, there had to be one last hang-up. The good folks at Autozone who I took my battery to for a fresh charge apparently didn't press the "start" button on the machine! So I was welcomed with a dead battery when I first tried the ignition. Talk about sweating! I thought the engine has hung up. I quickly put a wrench on the crank bolt and it spun smoothly (whew!) so I grabbed the jumper cables and had contact.

Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of a RUNNING, not leaking, brand new in every way, 931. She's running pretty nicely so far, but has some hesitation at mid-rpm's. I think I just have a vacuum leak somewhere. No sweat, I've got 20ft. of original braided vacuum line coming from Pelican. I think the mix is a little off still too, I'm just reading the plugs to get it close before I send it in to the exhaust analyzer. Right now I'm running stock boost until I get the engine a little more broken in. I think I have a kink in the boost gauge hose since I'm not getting any signal to the gauge. I'll have to get that taken care of before I start upping the boost. Another note on the engine- this sucker is loud! The cat has been gutted, but otherwise it's completely stock. At idle it really rumbles but driving it does quite down very nicely. Just has a great sportscar growl. The idle noise was a little surprising. No complaints, it sounds fantastic.

The alignment is way off in the front (I replaced the tie rods). But it still handles VERY nicely. I went ahead and dropped in the 200lb Welt springs and I adjusted the stock original koni struts up a touch. Everything else in the suspension is stock except the 968 adjustable rear sway. I'm so happy with the suspension feel, that I might keep the stock 23.5mm torsion bars and get rid of my 25.5mm bars rather than install them. It takes bumps in the road extremely well (much smoother ride than my friend's stock '96 Eclipse) and it still remains quite stiff at the same time. The best of both worlds. I can tell that it is a much heavier car than the old '77. Getting the front end re-aligned will bring back some nimbleness, but it definately isn't as tossable as the '77 was.

The electricals seem to be working better and better the more I use them. I cleaned up the crown ring of ground wires under the dash and ran an extra wire from the crowns to the post behind the center speaker cover in the dash. The resistance from the crowns to the battery dropped from something like 10 ohms to about half an ohm after running the extra cable! Before cleaning the ring at all I was getting as much as 100ohms resistance between them and the neg on the battery! The voltage gauge reads about 11volts with all the lights on and the wipers going. With everything off it reads a healthy 13.5V +. I know that the gauge reads a couple tenths low compared to my multimeter and I also loose another half a volt or so through all the wiring.

Well, I lied a bit when I said there are no leaks- the plastic radiator expansion tank seems to have a crack somewhere near the cap. I'm getting some bubbling around it when it's up to temp. The oil temp gauge is pretty interesting. On the highway last night it sat right at 80C, around town it's showing just under 90C. These are from the oil pan. Pretty cool temps! That oil cooler must really work.

The dogleg trans is taking some getting used to. I won't deny that I accidently hit reverse looking for first! But only once, and it was dark It shifts excellent though. Upshifting and downshifting is very smooth in all gears - except that d@mn 1st gear. It has popped out of 1st. It happened at very low speed when I was pulling into a lot that had a bump going up from the road. Under acceleration is stays in place just fine. I'll have to remember to keep my hand on the lever when I'm pulling in and out of driveways to keep it in gear. Worse things could happen. I also can't seem to downshift into 1st at anything less than ~5mph (tops). I've heard this complaint from others about the snailshell so it must be inherent. I can live it.

I took some pics that I'll get up later on today so stay tuned...

-nick

[CMXXXI]

A big congrats to you!! I know the feeling - I finally got mine back on the road three weekends ago, and this past weekend I finally put the hood back on - so, I'm legal and can venture out of the neighborhood once again. After not having driven it in so long, it takes some getting used to.

We'll all cross our fingers for you that you don't eat another set of pistons.
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'79 Eurospec 931

[Kenodog]

Three must be a lucky number.I found my last vacuum leak today,tightened it and now she runs smooth and strong.I can't believe how much power it has compared to the old engine.I put in a new headliner yesterday to so the car has that new car smell.Zuffen has a series II intake for me so I can FINALLY install the intercooler and really see what this puppy's capable of.Now to finish installing the speakers in the door panels and some custom mounting of the amp and subs and woo hoo this summer is gonna rock!
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1979 Euro 931, Olive
1981 931, Sabine
1991 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4, Ricky
1996 Ford E-350 ex-FedEx Van
2014 Mazda CX-5 (Kinderwagon)
2019 KTM 790 Adventure
2024 KLX300
2024 KLX140

[welder]

Nick very well done, it's great to read about someones car finally getting back on the road again. I'm interested in hearing about the suspension and handeling. Congratulations
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I have a 78 n\a currently under restoration.

[CBass]

Four is a luckier number, I find

I just spent about a week and a half getting my brother's '81 931 back on the road. It had exhaust gasket issues... About a year ago, we pulled the entire exhaust system off, and replaced all the gaskets with high temperature exhaust gasket material from the local parts store. Here's what went wrong. Since the '81 exhaust manifold was cracked, we pulled it and replaced it with an '80 manifold he had acquired and had welded. It was an earlier '80 manifold, and didn't have provisisions for the seal ring, which we kinda made a mess of removing it from the '81 manifold. It was welded in with 4 generous tacks.

So we put the exhaust back in the car, and it ran like a dream. About a week went by before the turbo to manifold gasket blew out completely, not a trace left. So the car was off the road for some time. Eventually, we got a new seal ring, it was $30 CDN from the dealer, and I welded up the cracks on his '81 manifold. I made new gaskets out of 14ga soft aluminum, great stuff for making exhaust gaskets. I highly recommend using aluminum for this.

We only ran into about a dozen severe snags, so I'd say the job went pretty well, didn't even take two weeks working on it part time. Another happy 931 is on the road

It must be summer soon, all the 931s are coming out of hibernation!
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'81 931 in various states of assembly

[Roger]

Congrats its gotta feel good!
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1981 924 NA

Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything, but you
still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

[CMXXXI]

[-nick]

Hey CMXXXI-
I thought all the turbo's came with factory AC? I definately don't blame you for not wanting to take a joyride in those temps&humidity.

-nick

[CMXXXI]

Nope, no A/C - ever. Remember, mine is Euro-spec, and in Europe A/C wasn't a "standard" option on many cars back then. (Maybe not even now, their climate is fairly mild). Maybe in the hi-end BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, but for the mid-price range cars it was pretty rare. I've toyed with the idea of "retrofitting" the factory A/C, but the more I think about the hassle involved, the extra electronics, the added weight, etc, etc I've tossed that idea aside. I'll just have to live with the "2-70" version of things (2 windows open, 70mph).
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'79 Eurospec 931

[ropndave]

Hey I found that adding an after market AC will run about 1200.00 US Just add power. Much cheaper that attempting to put in stock parts.

[J1NX3D]

my euro doesnt have a/c or a sunroof. it gets very hot with both the electric window switches burnt out !!
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'86 944

[kye]

....and driving with the hatch open probably isn't advisable!
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it's funny, but when they said "Anything is Possible", that's exactly what they meant....

[J1NX3D]

[kye]

i'm talking about the rear hatch! that'd get you a whole bunch of ventillation... I know you have one of those, I can see it in your avatar pic!
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it's funny, but when they said "Anything is Possible", that's exactly what they meant....

[J1NX3D]

lol!! true!! maybe i can rig it to open at intersections??
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'86 944