My 1985 Prussian Blue 911 Coupe - aka. the keeper

Tracking Oil Consumption - aka. discovering how soon I'll have to rob a bank

Since buying this ‘85 with 119k miles on it last May, I’d been worried about oil consumption. She smokes a little when started, has never had a rebuild, and a couple spark plugs (two middle cylinders) showed a small amount of oil residue. Fortunately, two round of careful measurements after many hard drives shows an average of one quart per 1100 miles. I got closer to 1400 miles per quart in the first test which involved a significant portion of long highway drives, and 800 in the second which was almost exclusively short drives (20 mins or less) with lots of high-rpm back roads. Since I’m told “good” is a quart per 1000, and min acceptable is a quart per 600, I’ll call this passable! What a relief! Back to driving. FYI: I’m using Valvoline VR1 20W-50.

Looking for posting advice - should I have created this thread in a different part of the site? Perhaps "Builds and Project Cars"? Or in "Grassroots Motorsports" instead? I'm not getting any conversation here (though perhaps my car is too mundane?)

Thanks for any advice! Just looking for fun interaction, suggestions, and feedback. Thanks!

Blake

Blake 

more pics of car please. 

I am quiet because I am envious. But definitely following. 

mr2s2000elise said:

Blake 

 

more pics of car please. 

Well, that at least is easy to oblige! I find the car rather photogenic, so I have taken more than a few pictures. More will come in the fall when it is no longer 103 outside (that is the actual temp here today).

I don't like to read 

I like to look at pics 

and threads like this (where I love the subject matter), when updates happen I come for two reason 

1) more pics 

2) if it's for sale yet 

keep posting the pics and we will all come 

mr2s2000elise said:

I don't like to read 

 

I like to look at pics 

 

and threads like this (where I love the subject matter), when updates happen I come for two reason 

1) more pics 

2) if it's for sale yet 

 

keep posting the pics and we will all come 

Well, #2 ain't gonna happen, so I'll keep the pics coming.

That is a really good looking car. I like 911s, and blue is my favorite color. I do not blame you for wanting to keep that as a forever car.

Throttle Pedal Adjuster and Door Handles from Rennline followed by a spirited test drive

Time for another update with a few pics. Despite making minor adjustments to the throttle pedal and brake pedal positions, heel-toe shifting remained a challenge due to the distance b/w the pedals' planes. Based on my preferred method, I decided that raising the throttle pedal would work better than adding a side-extension to the pedal. Enter Rennline. Their throttle plate adjustment mechanism allows one to both raise and tweak the angle of the plane of the throttle pedal (note in 2nd pic below that all 3 screws adjust independently, allowing adjustment of the throttle plane in both axis). Install is easy. Results were excellent! Heel-toe is much easier now.

Also, the plastic interior door handles were getting old and too flexible for my taste. I was constantly worried one would break in use. So I ordered and installed these black powder-coated aluminum units from Rennline. Install was, again, easy, and they feel SO much better and more secure. Since I use the door handle everytime I drive, it's proven to be a welcome modification.

Finally, with the work done, it was time for a backcountry drive with a good friend in his turbo NA Miata. The cars are well matched for a country drive. Miatas were what got me into driving on track (I owned, wrenched, and thrashed both an NA and NB Miata on our now closed Texas World Speedway for years). Fun to be out for a cruise!

Looking for suggestions or ideas for wheels and tires for my '85 3.2 Carrera. Pictures below are with current setup of stock 15" fuchs, 7" wide front and 8" rear (20mm spacers on the rear, too). I love the period-correct look, but hate the scarcity of available tires in these sizes (195/65 front and 215/60 rear). The only option that has great grip is the awesome Pirelli reissued P6000... but they are $334 each!! Nuts! I had to go with the only other options I could find - BFG Advantage TA front and Cooper Ultra rear. They're much more affordable, but at 600 to 620 UTQ tw, they suck at performance! That's been useful for learning the balance of the car since they break away easily and predictably, but I'm ready for more grip, especially in the front! The BFG Radial TA which I couldn't find at the time but now can would get me down to UTQ 400, but that's as low as I can go in stock size w/o the Pirellis. 

There are lots of options available in 15" if I go with a much smaller sidewall (e.g. Maxxis, Proxies, etc.). Typical size in the rear would be 225/45r15, which should fit with a smaller spacer. That would get me a bit better acceleration (more mechanical advantage w/ smaller diameter). Trouble is, that creates a ~6mph at 60mph speedometer deviation b/c the tire diameter is significantly smaller. That seems pretty substantial, and I know of no way to adjust the speedometer/odometer ratio to correct that in this car. It also might make the car look incorrect with such small tires.

Better option (to me) seems to be to trade someone these 15" fuchs and tires for 16" in 7" x 8" fitment. That allows many more high performance, affordable tire options, and at the standard 225/50r16, reduces speedometer error to less than 1mph at 60mph.

So my question for you all: am I missing anything in this analysis? Does it make good sense to try to trade my original 15" fuchs for 16's? Any downsides? From what I can tell, 16" with 205/50's should fit the front fenders w/o rolling, correct (no spacers in front)? How about the 225/50r16 in back on 20mm spacers? Too big? 

Any guidance is much appreciated!!

I really like the look of the 15" wheels, that being said it sounds like they are not practical. 

I do seem to remember that if you go to 16" Fuchs you need to roll the front fenders if using the 911 16x7" spec'd front wheels. Just something to keep in mind and research. 

Great color, even if it had air conditioning, it would not work all that well anyway.

You will be able to give that car to one of the kids in the back seat when you die.  When the little trigger thing breaks on the outside door handle, there is a fix where you don't have to replace the whole assembly, if the window stops working, it is probably the switch on the passenger door, which impacted the driver's side.

Oh yeah

Pelican 911 Tech Forum

Toebra said:

Great color, even if it had air conditioning, it would not work all that well anyway.

You will be able to give that car to one of the kids in the back seat when you die.  When the little trigger thing breaks on the outside door handle, there is a fix where you don't have to replace the whole assembly, if the window stops working, it is probably the switch on the passenger door, which impacted the driver's side.

Thank you for the tips! I do hope to pass this car on to my kids if for no other reason than it will force them to learn to drive stick and maintain an old, mechanical car. And as for AC, I built a modern AC into the car last summer thanks to parts from Zims and Griffiths. It cools VERY well even in Houston-area heat.

There was an outfit in SA that was doing air conditioning for old cars like that.  Knew a guy who had some installed in his bug that actually worked well.  Something about the compressor efficiency, which was not great in the stock unit.  

There is a TON of info at that pelican 911 tech forum, fairly astounding really.

Those stock Fuchs are out standing wheels, forged and light, limited tire selection now though.  I think you can go up on size though with the stock wheels.  Problem is, you are not the only guy with this issue, so trading up to 16" may not work out.  

this is what the 225/45 looks like in back.  Maybe 225-50 in back and 205-50 up front.  Keep in mind that they didn't put fatter tires and wider wheels in back by mistake.

TWS pictures make me sad. 

That was also my first track and one that I truly liked. I'll never forget open air sleeping on the upper walkway during a NASA weekend. It was a special place. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

TWS pictures make me sad. 

That was also my first track and one that I truly liked. I'll never forget open air sleeping on the upper walkway during a NASA weekend. It was a special place. 

I drive by the remains of that track at least once a week. I've had to fight back tears at times I miss it so much. I'll be forever grateful for the many weekends I spent at speed there refining my skills and moving up to advanced ranks, and the many people I met along the way.

In reply to TheRev :

I've got 16" Fuchs on my C3.2. If you get the non-turbo size they-re not that expensive but IIRC 6" and 7" wide. I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure I'm running 205s in the front and 225s in the back.

16s were an option since I think the early 80s so they're not that hard to find, at least in the narrower size. The other option would be to go for 17" replicas, there are a few brands around that look decent and have much better tire selection, but you lose a bit of that classic look.

Well, if those awesome pictures don't get you some traffic, nothing will. Awesome car. I have to make an argument for keeping the 15s. Not sure how good an argument it is, Keep it stock, pure, etc, blah something, blah.

Beautiful car. 

Thank you all for the input on wheels and tires! I reached out to our Houston-area PCA chapter, too, and got similar advice. Apparently, 16" Fuchs, especially in the 7 and 8" sizes I want are very pricey, and there's not a big market for my 15's. So this would end up being a LOT of money. I can't swing that at this stage in life. So I'll stick with what I've got and save my change for some of those Pirelli P6000's. If anyone knows of a discounted set let me know! Or a sale! Or anything! Sizes I'd need, ideally, would be 195/65r15 front and 215/60r15 rear.

I just checked, I do have 205s on the front and 225s on the back with the narrower 16s. 

oliverthom707 said:

Thank you! I got lucky on color. I'd never heard of Prussian Blue and had never seen it in person till this backed out of the transport truck. 

?? Is there a reason you copy/pasted text I wrote in an earlier post, oliverthom707?

One of the reasons to love an old car: there's always something to tinker on when you need a weekend break. This weekend: replace driver's door check stop (more on that below), adjust the door position, touchup paint the wiper arms and replace the blades, add the badge gasket that a painter left off whenever this hood was resprayed years ago, come up with a better way to mount the front plate, and a bunch of other little things. Yes, it's hot in my garage, but a portable AC helps a bit. When done, clean up and get the wife's minivan back in spot #1 to ensure a happy week ahead :-)

Door check stop: two things to note for those with older 911's. First, the door reinforcement kit from Rennline or Pelican is well worth adding before the check stop distorts or destroys the sheetmetal in the door. Second, newer check stops are MUCH stiffer than the old models they replace. When I installed this one, the door was too difficult to open. Pelican came through (as always) with a forum on the problem and an ingenious fix: take the check stop internals apart and shave an 1/16" off the rubber "springs." Worked like a charm. Also check out their advice on quieting the pin-pop problem on these doors as they age - a thin washer where the check stop mounts to the chassis fixed it completely.

Still looking for 16" Fuchs? This person is selling a set out of California:

Connected with a friend named Kase Griswold for some top notch pictures of the car this weekend. Not bad for 35 years old!

Beauty

Can I politely request not to put that horrendous Oddyssey in the picture frame? WOW. Talk about a buzz killl