It's been a long time coming but today was finally pick up day for Scarlett. All the major mechanical work is done and it was time for me to rack up the miles to break in the engine and transmission and also surface any issues associated with a complete car rebuild. My wife and I drove up there in the GTi since that's getting some work done next but it's pretty funny seeing the two cars side by side. You can really see the scale of how small a 911SC is compared to a modern "small hot hatch".
Chili and Scarlett - 5-15-2020
Finally time to go out and drive - 5-15-2020
Starting Odometer Reading: 164,304 miles
Making sure to pick up my 911 at 9:11am
We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was 85 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny. My goal was to put the car through its paces by running through all the gears and the rev range (up to around 4.5-5K max since we're still breaking the engine in), run the AC (which turned out to still be ice cold) and just press every button, use every switch and just make sure everything was working as expected. More importantly, my goal was to rack up the miles and get this break-in period over with as quickly as possible. I also wanted to run through all the fuel, making sure the fuel gauge was working as expected. The car was running fantastically well and I was really enjoying every minute of it.
Scarlett - Photo by: Tomomi
My office for the day
Get out and drive!
Almost 200 miles into our drive and things were still going really well but it was time to start heading home. We took one final stop to stretch our legs and get some air.
Scarlett - Photo by: Tomomi
As I reached the 222 mile mark, it was time to refuel so we pulled into a rest stop and all of a sudden the most perfect day went downhill fast. I got to the parking spot then the car stalled all of a sudden. I thought I just hadn't clutched in so I tried to start the car again but it wouldn't. Starter was cranking but the engine wouldn't turn over. As unfortunate as this situation was, this isn't my first rodeo and anytime you go this far into a build something can happen. I called up the shop and they quickly came to my rescue, first sending someone to hand me a loaner vehicle while their trailer arrived shortly after to take the car back to the shop (that's some VIP customer service right there).
We suspect right now it's a fueling issue. Perhaps the fuel pump is starting to fail or is clogged up because I let the fuel run all the way down below 1/4 tank. It's one critical piece that I failed to ask them to replace so it wouldn't shock me if it turned out to be that. There werer no leaks and as far as I could see, no mechanical failures were visible. I'm sure it'll be figured out fairly quickly either way. However, this incident did make me rethink my strategy for trying to get this car done by June including paint. Almost any shop I talk to is going to take up to 3-weeks to complete the body work and frankly that means 3 more weeks of not driving the car. That seems pretty silly especially since I should really focus my efforts on making sure the car is running without fault by just piling the miles on.
Fun while it lasted - Hawk's Nest - 5-15-2020
I actually had so much fun driving the car, even the patina stopped bothering me. It's kinda nice having a car that has a bunch of rock chips and faded paint already. You just don't care if a few more get added on. I think I'm going to wait at least until the end of Fall to attempt a paint job. In the meantime, when I get the car back, the ducktail is going off and the stock decklid back on so it'll look less cartoonish. I'll put the new wheels on though to make sure I don't have any clearance issues...plus the tires mounted on them are newer and far better.
I know once we get the gremlins sorted out, this car will run as reliably as my S2000 for many more years and miles to come. I have zero regrets though, this car is the epitome of a pure driver's car and is a realization of something that brings real joy every time you get behind the wheel. It's quite awesome how each car in the current Steguis Motorsports fleet really offers a completely different driving experience from each other. There's no "better" or "worse", only "different" and at the end of the day, if you're going to have a bunch of different fun cars, that's what it's all about.
It's almost 6 months to the day since I bought Scarlett in South Carolina and she's finally done. Ok, I'm lying, there are a few really minor details to button up before I pick her up next week, but basically she's done. Today I took the day off so I could go take her out for a test drive so we can go over anything that might not be to my liking. This was quite a momentous occasion for me because i never even test drove the car when I bought it so today would truly be my "first drive". I also whipped out the camera because I wanted to commemorate this day before the next phase of her build...paint!
I know, she looks like every other 911, but she's mine, and under that somewhat tired exterior is basically a new car. The boys at Speedsport Tuning did a phenomenal job executing my vision. Yes I got the car with an already freshly rebuilt engine by Porsche but they had to deal with a fairly complex CIS to EFI conversion that was not smooth at all and spent hours tuning the car to make sure she runs perfectly. Heck, she starts up faster and easier from a cold start than any of my modern cars! The transmissions was completely rebuilt and improved upon and the shifts are amazing! People say the 915 transmission is no good and everyone needs to have a G50 but this rebuilt transmission is spot on, smooth and very engaging.
The engine runs and sounds terrific mated with SSI heat exchangers and Dansk sport muffler. It has just the right amount of grunt and ruckus without being annoying. Nothing compares the sound of an air-cooled flat-6. You hear absolutely everything and it just sings to you.
I really love how the interior worked out. It's not complete yet as I still have a number of things to install myself later but the Momo Prototipo Heritage wheel, the Momo Targa Heritage wooden shift knob, the custom red and rotated tach by North Hollywood Speedometer really add to the aggression factor. I love how the black Rennline aluminum pedals add a touch of modern without screaming for attention. Even the rollbar, which I waffled back and forth about doing, I think really gives the interior some "purpose". I was extra relieved that the new key I got cut by a local locksmith from a really worn out copy of one of the original keys actually worked.
As I mentioned in the previous update, the hood and decklid struts were replaced with Rennline mechanical struts and it no longer pushes up on the driver side of the decklid causing extra unevenness.
I'm extremely happy with how everything turned out. The car drives exactly as I hoped. The KW Classic dampers, new Turbo tie rods and refreshed suspension bushings really make the car ride like new with a distinctly German, firm, yet supple, attitude. Once these are matched to wider wheels and fresh tires, I think it's really going to wake up.
We're not at the end of the build yet but while a lot of people tend to always start with the cosmetics, those are always last on my list. The important thing is that the car is fully mechanically sorted and once I've finally broken in the engine, I know I can push her hard without a single bit of hesitation because I have confidence she'll do exactly what I want.
Finally, here's a little video of me taking her out for the first time. It's not terribly exciting. I was making sure not to rev the car out too hard as I'm still well within the engine break-in mileage but what a momentous day this was. She's definitely "Steguis" approved.
It was the first truly gorgeous weekend in 2020 with both days being sunny and in the mid to upper 70s at its warmest (actually I think we touched 80 on Sunday). My wife and I decided to go for a nice long drive to upstate NY to get out of the city and enjoy the weather even if it was just a long round trip drive. I figured since Sunday was going to be the warmer of the two days I'd take the Cayman out on Saturday and the S2000 on Sunday so we could drive with the top off and get some sun. First off, let's see how Saturday ended :(
Kay getting loaded onto the flatbed - 5/2/2020
Let's backtrack a bit to the good part first though. We drove up to the Hawk's Nest and followed the scenic route along the Delaware River. Although Hawk's Nest itself was pretty busy with bikers, the rest of the route was actually pretty empty and it felt great to hear the echo of the flat 6 in the valley.
Stretching our legs by the Delaware River - 5/2/2020
For the most part the drive was uneventful. We cruised along, enjoyed the fresh air, then turned around and started driving home. Half way home, my check coolant warning light came on. I thought that was a bit odd since the I had just topped it off last weekend. The engine coolant temps were stable so I just cruised slowly for a bit and it went away after a minute or two so I didn't think too much about it. I'd just double check the level when I got home.
Then I noticed the coolant temps creep up. Of course the useless dash coolant gauge didn't move because that's never accurate anyway. I have a Scanguage hooked up to my OBD2 at all times showing me true coolant temps read by the ECU. The car normally hovers around 198F when warm and cruising but it had now gone to 210, then 220 and now 230. I stayed in 6th gear, slowly driving on the right. The rest stop was only a mile away so I wanted to make it there. I saw the temps go back down so I thought I'd make it, then all of a sudden, the check coolant light goes on, I see the coolant temp shoot up to 245 so I quickly pull over onto the shoulder. I don't see any smoke coming from the car nor was it making any strange noises but clearly something was wrong. I get out of the car and see this, a streak of fluid on the ground (thankfully just on the shoulder) and a pool of coolant all over my front right wheel.
Trail of fluid - 5/2/2020
Coolant pool - 5/2/2020
Thankfully we had just passed an exit and after a quick call to AAA, they had the flatbed there in 15 minutes (talk about service). We were loaded up and on our way just a few minutes after. We got the car up in the air and found the culprit, two unsecured hose clamps going from the front right radiator to the center radiator caused the coolant hose to work its way loose.
Coolant hose going to center radiator popped off - 5/2/2020
I had all my radiators replaced, new center radiator and roll bar installed late last year but hadn't really driven it much since then due to business travel and winter. The shop is taking full ownership of the situation and the car is already being retrieved by trailer to be taken in to be fully sorted today. Mistakes happen and I know this will easily get resolved. While I'm annoyed that we had to go through this, the upside is that this didn't happen on track and we didn't get into an accident. The point of this post isn't to place blame but rather a reminder to double check things after major work and also how important it is to have real gauges in your car to monitor what's going on so you can act appropriately before really bad things happen. Sadly, we might have caught this earlier on if this was a normal year since usually by May all my cars would've already been up on lifts and given a once over in preparation for the season but with the current situation the way it is, I hadn't gotten around to it. I love this car and can't wait to have her back on the road again very soon.
Determined not to let what happened Saturday afternoon dampen this weekend, we took "old reliable", a.k.a. Bumblestook, out on Sunday. With the top off, basking in the sun, it's everything that's great about roadster life. Heck, I even dusted off the "real" camera.
Top down (off) fun! - 5/3/2020
Top down (off) fun! - 5/3/2020
It's always interesting when I take Bumblestook out. She gets a ton of waves and thumbs up from young guys on bikes to old guys in old trucks, drivers of every kind. It seems there's something about this old girl that gets her love and respect and for a retired race car, that's all you can really ask for.
Oh, this Blipshift t-shirt I wore on Sunday summed up my week 100%...
We're now in the final stages of the build where 90% of the work is done but as everyone who's embarked on any major build knows, the last 10% with all the little details is always the most tricky. The boys at Speedsport Tuning have been putting work in.
Getting the ride height finalized and aligned - 4-9-2020
Getting the ride height finalized and aligned - 4-9-2020
With all the suspension work done, it was important to get the car aligned before heading out on the road for the first time. I specifically got the KW Classic suspension with 19mm raised spindles so the car could be lowered properly without upsetting the geometry. I'm not a big fan of super slammed cars so the goal was always to go with the euro ride height.
You'll also notice how the rear decklid seems to be lifted a bit on the driver side. Since the ducktail is fiberglass over a gutted OEM decklid, it weighs less than stock, so only one decklid strut is hold it up to prevent it from shooting up when you open it. The downside of this is that it applies pressure on that side alone resulting in this weird flexing. If you know me, then you know that needed to be addressed so we're fixing this by installing Rennline mechanical decklid struts in lieu of the hydraulic struts. Not only does that eliminate the upward pressure on the driver side but it should also be more reliable in the long run.
Sitting pretty on her new ride height
I think one of the happiest moments for me during this build was getting the video of the car firing up for the first time since it arrived at the shop in early January. It sounds so proper with the SSI heat exchangers and Dansk sport muffler. It's such a raw sound you can only get from an aircooled Porsche.
First Startup - 4-9-2020
Of course, that also means that the car needed to be taken out for a full test drive and to double check the tune. I've gone through enough builds and rebuilds of my cars to know that it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings and this was no exception. What should've been a nice long "installation" drive, resulted in a fairly short 2 minute drive. The tape you see on the driver side is for holding the wires going to the wideband o2 sensor in place so they could make sure the car wasn't running lean and sure enough it was, so the drive had to be aborted.
Shop test driving the car - 4-15-2020
Two of the six injectors were acting up causing the lean condition. Upon further inspection, it turned out one of the injectors was DOA and the other injector issue was attributed to a bad solder in the wiring harness provided in the EFI conversion kit. I had a second set of injectors shipped out to them and the replacement worked just fine. They also fixed the soldering and other less than ideal things with the wiring to make sure everything was no longer going to be an issue.
The car is now running strong and sounding pretty excellent. She's still getting the tune adjusted and most of what's really left are all electrical such as the replacement of the entire front fuse box to one from Classic Retrofit, fixing the broken light switch, putting in the custom tach and getting the new Blaupunkt head unit installed. We're a little less than 7 weeks away from the artificial deadline I set for myself to get this project completed and we still have a respray after I get the car back so it's going to be close. My seats from GTS Classic should be complete in the next 2 weeks so hopefully if I can get the car painted in May, the final pieces can be put in for a mid-June completion.
When I went to Speedsport Tuning 3 weeks ago to check on the car's progress, I didn't know that would be the last time in weeks that I'd be able to do so. The boys over there have been continuing to work and be busy on a number of projects including Scarlett. After they had re-assembled the transmission, they were not content with the tiny bit of play in the input shaft and took the it apart again to redo the shims and make sure it was perfect. This unfortunately delayed the project as we had to wait for new bearings to arrive. They finished getting everything together and today the engine and transmission were reinstalled into the car for the first time in 3 months.
Engine and Transmission Remarried - 4-6-2020
Engine and Transmission ready to go in - 4-6-2020
There was a bit of a clearance issue with the newer exhaust piping coming out of the Dansk sport muffler so a bit of "tweaking" needed to be done on the rear bumper. This isn't too surprising of course as this entire exhaust system was really made for an older mid-70s 911.
Exhaust pipe won't clear
Perfect fitment now
It feels really good to see all the mechanical bits come together.
Transmission
I also got some better pictures of the KW Classic suspension installation including the new, beefier, Turbo tie rods.
KW Classic front strut with raised spindles +
Turbo tie rod
Rears shock
Although the car's physically back together, there's still a number of things to do. Most importantly, the wiring for the EFI conversion needs to get finished and the engine needs to get running on the tune. There's also a number of electrical odds and ends that will get worked on once we know all the mechanicals are working as expected.
As the build is soon coming to a close, I drove up to Speedsport Tuning to grab all the parts taken off the car to move into storage and snap some recent pictures of the build. Although the transmission housing came from the machine shop over a week ago, the transmission rebuild hit a snag when the new bolts for the differential arrived from Porsche with the wrong dimensions (a bit too short).
Scarlett - Speeedsport Tuning - 3/16/2020
Um, that new diff bolt is too short (left)
Well, at least the new, correctly sized bolts have finally arrived so they can finish the transmission build this week and it can rejoin the engine and the whole thing can be remarried to the chassis.
Transmission housing fresh from machine shop
Gears back together with fresh synchros
Wavetrac diff installed -
everything fits nice and tight!
The DAS rollbar is all bolted in. Fitment is really good as expected. Rear seat backs and seatbelts deleted. The Rennline black aluminum pedals and billet adjustable decklid hinge is also in now.
DAS rollbar installed
Rennline black aluminum pedals
Rennline billet adjustable decklid hinge
Finally the KW Classic suspension is installed. The bushings were still good so those were left in. The upper strut mounts and ball joints were replaced. The tie rods were also replaced with new turbo tie rods which are beefier and recommended upgrade. Ride height still needs adjustment along with corner balance/alignment of course.
KW Classic shocks installed
KW Classic shocks installed
Although there isn't much left in the build, there's still a few details that need sorted. For instance, once the engine is back in the car, there's likely be more adjustments made to the EFI tune to make it run correctly. Wiring also needs to all be checked out including the installation of the new classic retrofit fuse box up front. The new radio also still needs to go in. Right now the focus is on getting the mechanicals sorted. Optimistically we're looking at the end of March before she'll be street ready then off the body shop to get her freshened up.
There is absolutely nothing emissions illegal in the Cayman but I haven't been able to get it inspected because ever since I modded the car for STU at the end of 2018, I've had on and off P2196 and P2198 (bank 1 or 2 pre-cat O2 sensor stuck rich) check engine lights. I made so many changes it was really hard to pinpoint the cause but for sure I had a variety of exhaust leaks from the generic gaskets provided with the Soul Performance street header. I eventually changed them all to OEM Porsche gaskets and I definitely don't have a leaks anymore but the CEL still came back...argh!!!
Reloading the Tune - 2-23-2020
Also, it seemed like no matter how many miles I'd drive the secondary air would never set readiness. Obviously between the recurring CEL that I'd have to reset and readiness not setting, I couldn't get the car to pass NYS emissions inspection despite nothing actually being wrong with the car. Well, I stumbled across one random post on Rennlist where someone had a similar issue and it was related to his tune and reloading it fixed the issue. Last week, before heading out to PCA Tech Tactics East, I loaded the stock tune back and then reloaded my FVD tune and lo and behold, within just 40 minutes of driving, no pending codes and all the readiness codes set.
Ready for Inspection - 2-23-2020
OBDLink with bluetooth OBD2 reader
I drove the car another 200 miles that day to PA and back and today drove the car to Camber Toe Performance in Lynbrook to get inspected today and passed with no issues. I don't think I've ever felt this relieved since we brought Bumblestook back to being street legal in early 2018. Anyway, the real point of this post isn't that I passed the annual emissions inspection but rather as a reference for anyone else that runs into this issue on their 987 Cayman. If everything else looks mechanically sound and you've done everything including changing your O2 sensors and put in new OEM gaskets, maybe you just need to reload your tune.
