LeMons, 24 Hours of

[Dirty Duc]

So, the backstory to this swap:

We raced the original engine for ~500 miles with no air filter... so obviously it needed to be replaced (when it still had a flywheel, I could spin it with my hand).

Some dude up in Phoenix was selling a couple of Volvo diesels as he cleared out his garage for a supposed move to Vermont. The Volvo diesels of late 70s/early 80s vintage were actually manufactured by VW... much like the engine from my mostly VW-badged Porsche. The internet informed me that VW only made two (2) bellhousing patterns, 4 cylinder and 5/6/8 cylinder. Porsche forums said the 924 was a unicorn that used the 5 cylinder bolt pattern on a 4 cylinder. Volvo peeps insisted the VW diesel in their cars was true to form as a 6 cylinder.

Since this is apparently the year of modularity (see my thread about modular Ford engines... spoiler, they aren't), I proceeded to bolt said engine to bits of car.

Either both engines are unicorns (i.e. a 6 cylinder with a 4 cylinder bellhousing pattern), the internet lied to me about one of the engines, or the belief that VW only has two bolt patterns is wrong... a belief re-iterated by a Euro tech I met through Lemons. Either way, the two patterns share (almost) 5 holes. Good enough.

Next problem: The engine came from an automatic, and had an 8 bolt crank. I wanted to use the Porsche disc and pressure plate... the Porsche flywheel only has 6 bolts. So we bought a big lathe. Some of the Porsche flywheel is now bolted to the flex plate... good enough, I hope (Hope is not a method!).

Now it's simple stuff like radiator hoses and wiring. The race is next weekend.

[Duck-Stew]

Flywheel scatter shield is your friend.

[Dirty Duc]

Good point. Kevlar blanket ordered.

Radiator got plumbed yesterday, exhaust at 70%. Tonight is packing for the long drive starting tomorrow afternoon.

[Dirty Duc]

We basically ran all weekend:

We won the "Most Kern county Porsche" award - specially invented for the event.

[ducpainter]

We basically ran all weekend:
<snip>

Afraid to shut it off?

[Dirty Duc]

We did run out of fuel a couple of times... Priming activities consisted of towing the car around the pits until it remembered how to run.

[Dirty Duc]

So, the Porsche continues to live and blow minds at car shows.

Next weekend (Veteran's day), I am joining a friend at the local truck stop to continue driving a 93 Le Baron to Houston to race it all weekend, and... shit. The best laid plans of mice and all. I don't know what the plan is. I have to be on the east coast for work on Monday.

I have further plans for domination at the next AZ race in Feb. Anyone looking for a racecar experience? We/me plan for 3 cars... I would be surprised if we were in anything but class C for any of them.

[Dirty Duc]

The Houston race went well-ish...

We got "Organizers Choice."

The Le Baron suffered from the usual 80s/90s Chrysler product maladies of nearly inexplicable problems that only manifested after an indeterminate time, responded not at all to attempted remedies, and generally persisted until no longer asked to perform above a generally low standard.

That means: It drove 24 hours straight to the race track with no problems (other than not having heat), but when it got there it inexplicably refused to run after an indeterminate time (approximating an hour) after which it would inexplicably "get better" regardless of what we had done if it could wait for about 15 minutes... and if it hadn't happened on the track at the end of an hour, it was guaranteed to happen right when the car went expectantly back out on track after a driver change. After the race it was fine, even in stop and go Houston traffic.

[ducpainter]

Nothing a new wiring harmess and every electrical module still required for it to run wouldn't fix.

[Duck-Stew]

Battery ground cable, go buy a big one & install it battery to engine.  Repeat for engine to frame. 

[Dirty Duc]

Things we triumphantly fixed to no avail:

Battery grounds were jankily screwed on to painted rusty surface.
ECU got cold air duct
Fuel tank inspected, clean as a whistle.
Cap and rotor inspected, knocked off the carbon.
Water temperature sender replaced.
Got the radio working (the fuse is only labeled with "dimmer" or something equally unrelated).
Swapped circuit breaker for fuel pump.
Fuel pressure existed (no gauge, but pinch the hose and you can feel it).
Replaced the front brake pads.
Bled the brakes.
Checked the overly complicated fuel pressure regulator
Checked the charcoal canister for clogging
Checked to see if the fuel tank was pressurising
Not necessarily in that order.

[Dirty Duc]

My current theory is the ignition coil, but the consensus said heat soak couldn't be causing that to intermittently fail... despite it being mounted to the hot, aluminum intake manifold.

It's currently for sale in Houston, but that's not my problem to deal with...

[Dirty Duc]

So, the Le Baron is unlikely to be my problem again. It has notionally (from my perspective) changed ownership... and I don't know who bought it.

I do have a new Lemons project, but I can't talk about it in public forums because I am "runing a classic" and I want to be able to get parts.

PM if you must know, at least until I get outed on the Roadkill writeup.

[Dirty Duc]

[Dirty Duc]

Next outing is next weekend. Shenanigans start 16 Feb with inspections, racing 17-18.