It got used a lot (which is great) and some things have worn and some things needs some reworking, but the amount of work and development he did still astounds me. And on a 412 - not a Porsche 911, but a 412. Because of his huge amount of work, I call it Bill K's 412, because whatever I do, it will still be on top of his mountain of work.
Anyway, I have been slowly trying to fix things here and there and get it back up to a status capable of daily driving, which I believe it is now. I host a monthly Cars & Coffee event at my shop and a loal VW cluub uses it as a jumping off point for their weekly cruises. I just started up the Cars & Coffee events again, so thought I would take the 412 on the cruise. Other than driving it to and from the shop a handful of times, this would be the most miles I've put on it (maybe 50) and on a sweltering hot day, and through some very slow driving traffic.
It did great overall. It has some issues, which I knew about, but wanted to shake it down a little more. On the plus side - if the battery has a decent charge, it starts up pretty easily. It is cold blooded and needs to warm up a fair amount to prevent stalling. I think it could use a high-idle control or switch, which might be integrated into the SDS EFI, but I think a simple electro-mechanical setup will be great. Like the CIS auxiliary air regulator - it allows more air through a passage until it warms up, only needs a 12V signal.
It has a juddering problem at low rpms and very small throttle opening. It reminds me of vehicles I've diagnosed with throttle cables anchored to the body so when the engine rocked under load, it affected throttle opening, creating and back and forth rocking unless more throttle was applied. It could be a rich condition, or something else, but needs to be sussed out.
Another issue is that leaving from a stop, it shudders. Like a slipping clutch or loose/worn transmission mount. But the clutch holds well under all other circumstances, so I suspect it is something with the mounting.
There is still some shimmy in the steering at certain speeds and loadings. I have the newly made radius rod bushing 'inserts' and will install them soon, along with a nylon washer on the other side, per Ray's recommendation. It isn't awful, but you can definitely feel it in the steering that everything isn't 100% solid,and with the other upgrades and bushings on this car, I can't imagine on a car that doesn't have those.
Shift linkage feels really good most of the time. Once in a while, on an aggressive downshift into 2nd, I got reverse and it ground of course. Shifting into gears was usually great, but I suspect i need to bleed the clutch setup again.
The power is good, but not impressive - remember, I am at 6500ft, so lose 20-25% normally. The punchiness is good, and pull from lower end is nice, but it feels like it runs out of breath around 3500rpm (I haven't installed a tach yet, so guessing). I'm not sure if it is the cam, or heads, or what yet. I am reinvigorated to install the IDF manifolds and motorcycle throttle bodies to see if that is part of the restriction. Plus, the sound from Webers/ITBs is just great.
The exhaust is a little bit loud for my tastes, but there isn't much room for adding a resonator, etc. I think maybe a slightly larger turbo muffler in place of the EMPI item might help, but that's low on the list at this point.
A smaller sportier steering wheel and a Recaro type driver's seat are also on the list.
