1970 2.2S Elfenbeinweiss

[raspy2point2]

So if your Partsklassik is no good ; what next? What about Classic Retrofit CDI system? anybody have experience with these? Chris

[uai]

So if your Partsklassik is no good ; what next? What about Classic Retrofit CDI system? anybody have experience with these? Chris

I'll move to something comepletely different (It's a BMW that I have the CDI at the moment) it will get a COP with crankfire and programmable EFI.
But I have looked at the classic retrofit and would have bought it if the german distributor still had some 3 pin on stock. He didn't have. Due to brexit It became unattractive no longer costing 800€ but now costing 1000+€ which is about the amount I paid for a full blown programmable engine management.

[frederik]

Hi Uli, that is a very nice offer. I hesitate with the thought of sending a case to Britain and getting it back with all the Brexit import/export issues though. I have an appointment in early May to have the engine tuned by my trusted mechanic and I'd love to have the CDI+ installed by then so it's included in the tuning process as the CDI+ manual suggests. So I'm looking for a unit off the shelf here in the Netherlands currently.

Interestingly, I noticed in the paperwork that a "new" used CDI was installed in this car about a year ago.

[frederik]

I've been trying to contact Rens Ruts, who restored the car in 1996-97 and was lucky enough to get a call back from him this weekend. He remembered the car and its owner at the time vividly and could fill in lots of details that I didn't know. It appears the car has been in storage since around 2002 until 2018 when it was sold to a Dutch collector. That certainly explains why it's still in such a good shape for an older restoration. And it definitely became clear that no expense was spared and he could confirm that the engine was rebuilt as well with new cylinders and pistons to 2.2S stock spec. Just as I hoped.

There are some interesting rear wheels on the car: they are 7 inch but not the RS type and according to Mr Ruts, very rare and available as a factory option in the early 70s for racing purposes. From the outside they look exactly like 6" but you can see the difference on the inside. The current tires are 195/65 P6000 so they are a reasonable fit both front and rear. I was planning to change to 185/75 CN36 when they are worn but I don't think those will fit well. I suppose 215 width tires will fit but I think I prefer the "earlier" classic look and feel of smaller tires.

And finally, the weather cleared up and it was time for a nice early morning drive, with photos this time!

The engine seems to come more and more alive. I've adjusted the throttle linkage just right (with the knowledge I got from Ed Mayo earlier) and this definitely improved the throttle feel and fixed the behavior of the idle switch. I'm becoming rather addicted to that last 2000 rpm rush to the redline... And I really like the 901 gearbox, it's almost telepathic how it slots into the right gear (in contrast to the 915).

[frederik]

This week I did a small trip to the Eiffel en Ardennes. Great roads and mostly empty if you avoid the major arteries, just snaking through the hilly landscape. It's still early in the season so the trees were still leafless unfortunately. But the car! What a privilege to drive the 2.2S on nice roads, the engine raspy yet smooth and then coming alive beyond 5000 rpm. Incredible how you can wring it out beyond 7k and it just wants more. It feels zippy and light and quick. You can feel the nose being a bit nervous going into a turn, then becoming planted as you brake into it, then the back squats when you power out, with that soundtrack... incredible.







Of course, a few problems surfaced along the way. That's good because I can fix them before we leave for Le Mans Classic at the end of June, the next trip...

- The speedometer was broken during my initial test drive, and repaired by the seller. Unfortunately after a few hundred kilometers it failed again. I also can't reset it with the knurled knob below, it seems to be stuck.

- There is an insistent squeaking from the left front suspension, seems to me like the anti-roll bar bushings. When I sprayed some WD40 on it it was silent for a few minutes, then started again. My local shop said everything looked like new and suggested I just started driving to see if it would go away, but it doesn't. Mainly just annoying.

- Need to install a relay for the front lights, the switch gets hot so I can't leave them on all the time.

- The boot lid sometimes pops open, I think I need to unscrew the bolt just half a turn as it seems very tight now.

- Clutch creaks, I think the pedal bushing needs some grease. Unfortunately that means it needs to be disassembled.

And I did something stupid... I had some grinding going into reverse so decided to move the pedal stop a little further. That fixed it but I went too far, then later on a spirited 7k rpm second to third shift there was the most horrible noise from the rear. I really thought the gearbox had exploded or something but to my surprise I could just shift and drive on normally. After I realized that the clutch now went too deep, I readjusted the pedal stop and that solved it. I think a rotating part of the clutch assembly hit the clutch fork, is that possible? Everything worked normally afterwards so hopefully no damage was done.

[Simonjjb]

Very nice car and story !

[frederik]

Thank you! Looks like you've got quite a nice collection of cars BTW.

[frederik]

This week I had some time to install relays for the front lights using the set from Kroon. The switch got so hot that I couldn't leave them on, which I like to do for safety especially since all cars today have daytime driving lights. The Kroon kit is made very well although the wires are too short to route around or under the fuse box, they need to go over it which is a little bit messy. Per the COA, my fog lights aren't original to the car and this became obvious from the haphazard way the fog light relay was wired, taking their power from the poor light switch! Fortunately could rewire it to take the power from the low beam relay. One ugly connection remains, maybe I'll redo it at some point. The light switch stays cool and everything fits, so I'm happy for now! (Sorry for the rotated picture, the forum doesn't seem to like portrait mode.)

Furthermore I swapped the speedo with the one from my Targa but that doesn't work either. The seller had sent the speedo off to be repaired, and also needed to replace the pick-up at the gearbox. Somehow that seems to be broken again. I'll have the speedo tested to be sure.

Loosening the hood bolt a quarter turn made it pop open all the time, a half turn seems to have done the trick -- I drove for 1.5 hours with it staying neatly closed so hopefully it's perfect now.

Never a dull moment! I had forgotten how much effort it takes to truly sort these cars, sort of took that for granted with my Targa (after two years of teething problems).

[frederik]

The S is at Porsche Twente where Sven Haverkamp now works, who previously rebuilt the engine for my Targa. During the rebuild and tuning afterwards I discovered that we got along well and he works the way I like: thinking things through from the bottom and truly wanting to find out what actually happens, instead of going for a quick and easy fix that doesn't really work. Tuning the MFI for my Targa by driving around with a AFR meter in the exhaust made a huge difference to how the engine ran and behaved, so naturally I wanted him to do this with the S as well.

Here going through the CMA procedure with the correct protractors:



He found that the car runs too rich at part load, but turning the enrichment screw on the pump doesn't do anything. So the pump is off to be checked and find out what's going on. Hopefully it will be back soon!

[frederik]

Let's update this thread... The car is unfortunately still at the workshop. The MFI pomp turned out to be faulty and it was restored by a Dutch specialist. Unfortunately, after that it still didn't run well. Too lean at idle and full load, and if enriched, too rich at part load. I've written up a whole topic about it here:
https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...cam-adjustment

Finally we decided to send the pump to Eisenbrandt in Germany for a second opinion. The results came back this week: turns out the pump is somewhat out of spec, the thermostat doesn't work well and the barometric device is broken. The injectors are also out of spec. So, I've given the green light for them to restore the pump back to spec, and hopefully this will solve everything once and for all! The 2.2S has been at the workshop since May so it's about time too... I miss it.