Long promised...here are the as received/tare down pics!

Here are some more of the friends that came up for the ride from the North Carolina woods.

Sorry for all of the attachments. Those pictures are from last year and only on my phone. I am going to be uploading new pictures to a blog where I can link photos here.

Anyway back to the car. There were tons of living ants everywhere in the car. I removed all of the carpets and vacuumed hundreds of ants. I think I got the queen as a year later I am still finding them but they are all dead now.

The leading edge of the hood got dinged in transit I'm going to try and pound it out. The chrome strip on the top of the grille also got lost. Luke I think you said you had some?

Idling problems persist from the previous owner. I'm planning on going through the fuel system from the tank forward.

No comment on 5 speed swap yet.

The engine is running and idling on its own now.
Its a bit rough though and there is some smoke.

Heres the whole shakedown
http://99turbo.blogspot.com/2014/04/engine-running.html

Any thoughts?

It runs!

The smoke out of the tail pipe and dipstick could be due to a clogged crankcase breather. Remove the port from the head and inspect that it isn't full of carbon. Also check the line that goes back to the air box. I have a Volvo that smoked like that once, the cause was a plugged crankcase breather.

Also, the early turbochargers wore the bearings out quickly. Partly because people didn't idle them before shutting them down, partly because they were real heavy and kept spinning after being shut off. So it's good to check the play in the turbo.

Another thing to check is to pull the oil feeder line to the turbo and also the return line. They can get plugged. A plugged return line can force oil past the seals in the turbo causing the car to smoke out the exhaust.

I wonder about that coolant in your oil. Maybe its just water from condensation?

I'll check the turbo play, turbo oil feed and return, and crankcase breather. Thanks for the suggestions.

It could have been just condensation. It really was a small amount just out of the oil filter.

I've just made a post about the exhaust system.
http://99turbo.blogspot.com/2014/04/exh ... t-yet.html

Does anyone know what the diameter of the rear pipe should be?
How about the length and diameter of the flanged cat to intermediate pipe?

I'm not sure exactly what I'm seeing coming off the cat. It looks like the stock pipe (4 bolts) and just a section that had another pipe over it before you removed it. But you say there's a short section on there that's been welded to it?
It looks like you have almost everything to make it work, but they sometimes need some extra work to go together. The slots in the end of the pipe are usually too shallow to allow for a good flare. You may need to cut those slots deeper to allow the pipe to be flared enough. Then use band clamps to hold it together and help it seal. You are using an exhaust pipe flaring tool aren't you?

If you can't get your muffler to fit on the pipe coming off the cat you could buy a new one for a C900. You may need to cut it shorter to get it all to fit.

That tail pipe might be a non-turbo tail pipe. It's kind of hard to tell...

I kinda fell off updates here. Get ready for a montage.

I cleaned the fuel tank, replaced the fuel pump (sounded like a baby rattle), accumulator (wrapt) fuel filter, WUR and fuel distributor (the previous owner had already done the dist but it was either not good or got clogged by the upstream components.

The distributor was the wrong part so that got the swap as well.

After that the motor ran very well. Next I did a full clutch job and the brake master cylinder. The car was feeling pretty good.

I rebuilt the broken front air dam using an SAS fiberglass piece and the hardware from the original. I refinished the rear spoiler and side mirrors. I redid the headliner. The carpets were bleached out so I used RIT burgundy due to bring the color back. I painted all the faded interior plastics. The grille and headlamp surrounds got new paint as well.

I put it all back together and drove up to the Toronto owners convention.

Looks great, the re-dye on the carpet looks to have turned out pretty well. Some day we need to get my silver one, the gray one, this car and someone with a blac one together for a photo shoot...

Looks good!

Chouan wrote:Get ready for a montage.

I'm ready!

Can I come along with one of the '80 c900s? Might make quite the photo shoot!

Looks great, the re-dye on the carpet looks to have turned out pretty well. Some day we need to get my silver one, the gray one, this car and someone with a blac one together for a photo shoot...

Carlisle, this summer! Hopefully, Garry S. will be there with his black car. It would be cool to have the 78 showroom lineup.

Can I come along with one of the '80 c900s? Might make quite the photo shoot

Our 99s don't want to get your long nose, 900 cooties.

Just kidding RadioFlyer. My 99 plays well with 900s!

It's okay, mine's faster anyway.

Another snow day gives me time to write another update from the past.

After the Candian Owners Convention I took a detour on my way home and stopped by Gary Stottler outside Rochester NY. We drove each other's 99Ts which made for an interesting comparison. His car has a completly renovated suspension top to bottom and feels brand new. I know the springs in my car were replaced, but other then that I don't know how old the bushings, ball joints, etc are. I will say the experience showed that while my car feels fine, the improvemet that would come from refreshing these items would be justified. On the flip side Gary is planning an engine refresh, I'm pleased to say my car seemed to pull better then his in its current state. If you haven't seen his black 99 turbo in person it is a treat. To pass inspection and drive up to Toronto I had fitted a non turbo rear exhaust pipe as it was all I had. This required some unattractive manipulations of the pipe. Gary had a turbo pipe so I was able to purchase that. As soon as I got back, I started disassemble the car again to get it ready for paint!

The original paint was not bad, but there were areas that were let downs. Most glaringly was the leading edge of the nose which had been bumped. The driver's side rear quarter had a failing repair. There was some surface rust under the aluminum trim strip that makes the window frame on the doors. Finally the hatch was faded and dented. All of the trouble spots, except the quarter panel, were above the rubber protector that runs along the belt line and below the drip rail. I wanted to preserve as much of the originality of the car as possible so I decided to make the repairs and blend the new paint to match the original. The trick is to get a really good color match and paint in sections that are bordered by details of the car ie drip rails, rubber strips. The Cardinal Red paint code was available from three manufactures, I also had the paint supply shop do a photo analysis of the original paint. I ordered four different colors and sprayed test swatches. The results were pretty good. I get two responses when I show the car; "Wow, original paint!" and "Great repaint!". I don't think anyone has noticed the blend without prior knowledge.

The signal lights, front and rear, we're tired looking. I dismantled them and resprayed the bodies silver. The amber on the front reflectors and rear lenses had faded. Some fancy orange tailight paint is available from Japan, it comes in a comically small can, is very expensive, and the instructions are all Japanese. I guessed and applied it in several very light coats to build up the amber/orangerange tint. The results were pretty good.

I also dismounted, and painted the Incas. I had my hands all over the tires which had taken me to Toronto and back and never noticed anything odd... More on this later!

The speedometer/odometer had stop functioning around the time the original owner started SCCA racing. I dismantaled it to find a broken plastic gear. Top tip: THE way to remove the needle is with a strip of plastic, notched to fit between the spindle and the face then folded up. A strong pull will release the beadle without breaking it. I slipped the gear off another speedometer and JB welded it to the shaft of my speedometer. I also advanced the odometer to match the actual milage reported by the the original owner. Re connecting the neadle is a challenge because it requires some back spring pressure. You need to preload it to some degree. My first attempt did not have enough preload and the speedometer was too fast.

Finally, I constructed a line in for the period correct Blaupunt Radio I also fitted. Essential for a cross country trip.