73 S sportomatic

Just bought a 73 S with sportomatic and have a couple questions. First, are there any other sporto people on the list (73 S or otherwise). If so is the sporto still on the car or did you convert it to a 5 speed? What problems came up? Next, did the 73 S sporto's have an external oil cooler? This one does not. What is the purpose of the hole in the left side engine sheet metal (approx 2.5 inch diameter) that has a screen wire type cover. Was it normal for the engine temp guage to not have numbers but to have only the white and white arcs? Looking forward to hearing from others on the list with sporto experience.
John
john&marsha@fuse.net

Hello

First, are there any other sporto people on the list (73 S or otherwise).

I´m Mechanic and we have several costumers with sportos ( from 68 to 78 )

If so is the sporto still on the car or did you convert it to a 5 speed?

Most had been convertet due some problems, lower resale value and atypical driving style for Porsches.

What problems came up?

Most had been relatet to poor/negletet maintaince.
Bad oil and vacuum leaks are the begining from the major money pouring. Some parts are NLA or very expensive so a 5 speed conversion is a comon "cure".

Next, did the 73 S sporto's have an external oil cooler?

In germany all S had external engine oilcoolers. The sportomatic runs with engine oil.

This one does not.

Sportos have a own temperaturesensor and a own overheat idiotlight.

What is the purpose of the hole in the left side engine sheet metal (approx 2.5 inch diameter) that has a screen wire type cover.

MFI, preheatet intake air ? Its oppesite from Cyl 2 and maybe 1,5" diameter. Runs down a 35mm hose to a small exhanger and a 40 mm hose upwards on the rear to the rear engine valance going into the thermostatitic controled mixing flap.

Was it normal for the engine temp guage to not have numbers but to have only the white and white arcs?

I think this was normal for the 73 cars.

Grüsse

Roland, Thanks for the reply. So far the sporto is still in the car. I am in the process of taking the engine, oil tank, suspension and fuel tank out so I can clean it up and start replacing them with parts from a 75 I parted out. I understand your comment about the MFI heat riser from the exchanger to the MFI pump, but this is in addition to the hose for the MFI pump. So far, when I removed the oil lines to the tank, I saw no evidence of lines for an oil cooler. Seems strange that an S would not have an external oil cooler even though I understand how engine oil circulates through the sporto. John

Hello

OK the MFI pump has a 22mm diameter hose ( actuall they are two one to help isolation ) from the forward outlet driver heatexchanger backwards to the middle from the schroud into a short pipe and then up to the warmupregulator intake.

The preheating for the motor runs from the meshed intake a bit forward down to the seperate exhanger and from there up trough the rear engine duct stright up to the prehetmixervalve siting on the left corner.

German delivery S & E sportos always had the seperate cooler except the T Sporto-versions. Those came with all ventet discs. I know one 72T sporto witch came with oilcooler, S Package and AC from the factory yet factory bill didn´t charged the external Oilccoler. We think it was in the AC package ( witch cost some 30% from the total sum ).

It looks like you go to convert to a 3 pedal setup ;)
I would recomend to keep the old parts.

Right now sportos are undervalued as everyone wants to drive the car but some collectors will always like to have a original maybe one day original and runing sportos will have the same value like "normal" Porsches.

Grüsse

Roland, Thanks again for your help. This week end I took the engine/trans out and also the right front fender. Based on what I found behind the front fender, I think that it is a good bet that the car was previously 'tapped' in front. The damage does not seem to be major although the repair work was not the most professional. The good news is that I have 2 front fenders and a hood that is almost new. The bad news is that the damage probably explains why there is no front external oil cooler. My guess is that they just tossed the whole thing over board. However I still have to look for holes in the body that might suggest oil lines at one time. Right now the dirt is so thick, it covers quite a bit.

I agree with you about keeping the sporto parts. Not sure yet if it will stay original or be converted to 5 speed but if I do convert, everything will be cleaned, preserved and cataloged. In any case, today I am listening to my 20 year old and leaning towards sporto.

Based on what I know now, my guess is that the pre heating tube located in the left side engine tin betwen the MFI pre heat pipe and the sporto oil pump at the end of the cam was designed with a hose coming off the left heat exhchanger (the car had SSI's when I got it) that the PO removed at some point. It probably was used to preheat the vacumm lines coming off of the base of the left side MFI stacks.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment, I need all the help I can get. Or for people like me who are graduates of the Alfred E. Neumann school of life: "Learn from the experiences of others, because you can not live long enough to make them all yourself".

John

Roland,
Just got off the phone with a nice young fellow in Frankfurt that has a nice 72S targa for sale in White,with under 100,000 kilos. He mentioned that his brother just sold a 73 S coupe that was even nicer with a sportomatic. He said that they had it forever cause nobody in germany would buy it. He said it ended up going cheap(whatever cheap means), I wish I had known about it!!

Rick, Thanks for the comment. Actually the sporto is kind of interesting to drive. Not sure if I will do the conversion. Right now I am on a cleaning/rehab thing that will take a while.

Here's another question for the group: What is the free wheeling disk between the torque converter and the transmission?

Always good to hear from the group. Thanks

John












r

Hello

Clutch disc ;)

Grüsse