Barely Legal

I got the paperwork processed at the DMV today. I have a normal tag while I wait for them to send me the antique plate. That and the title should arrive in a couple of weeks. Antique insurance is a low $25 per 6 months. The restriction on the plate is that I can only drive it to and from events.

From the SC DMV site.

To obtain an antique license plate, your current title must be surrendered and the department will issue a new title marked Antique. The fee for a new title is $15.00. To qualify for an antique license plate, the automobile or motorcycle must be at least 25 years old. The vehicle is to be used in club activities, exhibits, tours, parades and similar events, but shall not be used for general transportation. When the vehicle is sold, junked, or otherwise disposed of, you must surrender the antique license plate to the department. The fee for the plate is $10.00.

It's Alive! (No, really, it is!)

We had a full crew last night. Ed from work joined, Ed, Eric and myself. We went through the whole troubleshooting procedure for a car that won't run. Fuel to the carb, electronics, TDC, timing, etc. We ended up correcting a few things.
1. Replaced the existing coil with a JY Bosch coil from a BMW.
2. Replaced mechanical fuel pump with another mechanical fuel pump.
3. Added the rest of the test gas to the tank, about 2 gallons. We may have a pickup problem, but It's pretty darn low in the tank. I may be able to get another 1/4" down.
4. Determined the gasket leak at the carb base was causing stalling problems. This will be fixed with a new gasket or some copper sealant.

It was a very good night. We were able to get the car to start repeatedly and run for more than 2 minutes at a time. I noticed the instrument cluster would work sometimes, and sometimes it wouldn't. We'll investigate that if it continues to act up. I image with the removal of most of the dash and the multiple unpluggings, we could have jiggled something loose.

I am very happy the car is running. I think the only thing that kept me from test driving it around the block was the 3 cars blocking the driveway. And that was a good thing.

Now to finish the cage and go through the punch list.

(B) Time for some head work

The Beemer has been acting up the last week. I had three things going on: low on coolant in the morning, white smoke at start up, and sometime it wouldn't turn over, it would just sort of "clunk" when I tried to start it. I ran a compression test and it came out at 205, 205, 205, 300(!), 205, 135(!). So I've got 2 bad cylinders. Looks like I'll be doing a head gasket at the least and a head replace/repair at the most. Parts are about $400-$500. That beats paying a shop $2500-$3000 to do the work. I know this, because I had head work done about year and a half or two years ago. I guess the oil change and Seafoam knocked something loose in the car.

(P) Out with the Front Differential!

In my ongoing attempt to fix the front right axle leak, I ended up pulling the front differential to convert the car from an AWD to RWD. I found a really helpful thread at http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/996-turbo-gt2/51662-rwd-conversion-complete-one-word-awesome.html. If it's good enough for the 996TT guys, it's good enough for me! In reality, I needed to get a car working that I could drive to work and I hated seeing my Porsche up on stands. I had to enlist the aid of Ken to help me get the wheel stub flange off the axle. It has the speed sensor ring on it, so you have to put it back in. Overall, an easy mod to do. It took me about 6 hours.

Should've spent the evening drinking beer...

I reran the power wire for the external control/ignition panel. It then proceeded to melt the wimpy ground wire when trying to start the car. I reconnected the keyed ignition switch and it worked with no problems. I'm trying to remember why I put the control panel in and my memory fails me, so it will come out permanently.

Ed and I were able to get the car started and running. I had to keep my foot on the gas or it would die. Which it did when I got out of the car and let it idle on its own. With the exhaust heat shield and emission pipping off, it sounded pretty throaty for a 32 year old inline 4 engine. We'll plug the 2 emissions holes and other cracks on the exhaust manifold to fix that. We tried to restart the car, but it wasn't playing nicely again. It did kick over with starter fluid, but seems like the carb isn't getting gas. I think I'm going to wire and plumb the external fuel pump.

On the cage front, we worked on getting a backstay in, but I was unable to get my brain to engage and figure out the angle of the cuts to make it work. We got it almost there and decided to call it a night. A bit frustrating, but that's how it goes some evenings.

I also discovered our door bars are too short! We set the main loop back as far as possible, and our door bars are about 8-12" too short. I'll contact the roll cage guy and see what he says. I'm up for just doing this locally. We probably won't get to them until after the first of the year at this rate, so I'm not stressing on it.

A big thanks to Ed for putting up with me and we hope to see Eric next week!