joepaluch wrote:


from this statement I would say we all need new valve springs. our cars are more than 20 years old. and have "untold" hours on them.

Is there a "low cost equal" way of doing this Joe ? or is that not what you were saying.

mcmmotorsports wrote:


I completely disagree. This is allowed all the time in 944 Spec. I have replaced literally hundreds of bolts on my car with higher strength cheaper ones from the hardware store. As long as the replacement parts serve the same function as OEM and provide no performance advantage, what's the difference. We're not talking high dollar tuning or trick head jobs. This is a question of using OEM parts to provide greater reliability.

joepaluch wrote:


I had 2 inner springs fail during the 3 hour enduro at Autobahn. It took me several more race weekends to track down what the issue was. The car would just loose power in the upper RPM range because the outer springs would keep the valves from floating in the lower RPMs.

The way I know the broken springs resulted in the tweaked valves is that after I replaced those two springs, those same valves leaked while performing a compression test.

My 83 motor had unknown milage (at least 165k) and about 12 weekends of HPDE and racing.

SvoChuck wrote:


That's actually what I'm proposing. Even if the "OEM quality" springs aren't as good as real turbo springs, they are a hell of a lot cheaper than OEM na 944 springs. Replacement is easy too. Just pull the cam tower and use compressed air to hold the valves in place while the springs are swapped.

-bj

Rules creep is the #1 class killer.

This does not appear to be a real problem anyway. Very few incidences. And a new spring can break at any time as well.

cbuzzetti wrote:




Again I am sorry for feeling so strongly about this, but I have been around racing for a long time. I have seen classes come and go because of things just like this. I have deserted many classes once the powers that be allow this type of thinking to take over. I chose 944-SPEC because I believe, in my heart, that the powers here have the same desire as I to keep this class what it is without allowing it to get out of hand. All it takes is one small exception to a rule for it to snowball into failure.
Valve springs today, stronger valves tomorrow, aftermarket OE Spec cams to keep from wearing out the lobes that the stronger valves created, etc, etc, etc.

While I appreciate the concern about "rules creap" we are talking about "cheap" racing here and not more expensive racing. I believe we have lots of guys that will speak up if the doomsday rules creap starts.

That being said, rules that make our cars more dependable also make them LESS EXPENSIVE to race. There has been talk, as one example, about allowing even more radiator opening area because the premire 944 reigon, Arizona, needs as much cooling as posible to make our engines MORE dependable. More air into the radiator means LESS performance (more wind resistance) but more dependability in hot weather so why would anyone care if someone opens up the radiator opening more? That is what our class is about, lower cost racing and increased dependability. We have 20 to 30 year old cars. We all need all the help we can get to increase our depenability and keep our cost down. Requiring a Porsche part that costs more versus an "or equal" seems wrong, to me.

I don't see this as a "rules creap" issue at all.

I had an inter spring fail and was having problems at the top end that just kept getting bigger. If turbo springs are less expensive and make our engines MORE dependable and less expensive to race AND provide NO PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE, I am all for it.

I think we have enough guys that will speak up and stop rules creap that adds cost or performance to our rules and am not troubled by it. I can choose to change something now or later when I need to, my choice.

What a great class of 20 to 30 year old race cars. We all need to cooperate to keep it going in the positive direction that it is going now and realize that we will need to make allowances in the future as parts get harder and harder to find.

Big Dog

"the premire 944 reigon, Arizona, "
HA . Don't you mean the birthplace, seasoned, older, 1.0, Mark 1 mod 0, debut, fatherland , motherland, cradle, infancy, fountainhead, wellspring, genesis, dawning, inception, provenance, etc etc etc.

So I will give you that 944-spec was once in it's infancy back in AZ. But The "premire" is Heading East !

btw the rest of the post was well said Jim.