Reply to "ZF & Porsche"

May I offer a little different way of thinking? I'll offer some stories (experiences) and give the moral of the story...how to think about it.

I have two vehicles, a Pantera and a Toyota. One's for fun the other for transportation. The transportation vehicle, the Toyota, is just to get from point A to point B and back everyday, unless I decide I want to four wheel it once in a while, which isn't often. It's desirable qualities are reliability, economy, resale value, comfort, visibility, easy to drive, and it's got the style package, TRD stuff, options, so I think it's got some style too. I pulled the front wheels and brake calipers last weekend to put new disk brake pads on before the old ones wore down and harmed the rotors. At 60,700 miles, the front calipers were 65% as thick as the new brake pads I was going to install, so they were 35% worn down. I didn't need to replace them, but will, only I can wait a couple of years before I do it and still I'll have 50% wear only.

So I drive the Toyota easy in traffic, don't rev it too high, don't race to the next stop light, since I've got them all timed out already and 5 mph over the speed limit gets me green lights all the way there and back, usually. It keeps wear on my machine to a minimum, keeps me from having virtually any maintenence costs, keeps my driving record clean, and keeps me out of accidents driving it like that. Good gas mileage too. Just the routine costs of gas, oil changes (4x/yr), air filters (3x), spark plugs (1x), and it's in tip top shape, since I keep it washed and parked in a garage.

The Pantera is for sport. It's to drive, and secondarily all that other stuff, like getting photographed and generally stared at and the awe factor. Sometimes I want to drive it but avoid all the stares, sometimes I like all the attention. What I want to do is avoid getting tickets when I drive it, and people staring at it sometimes makes me want to oblige and show off, like a little performance demo, for the masses stuck bact at the newly green light I was at and they're still at, as they shrink to small dots in my rearview. That's fun. But it can be costly.

I think you see the moral of the stories.

May I be permitted to suggest that you can just double clutch it to get the performance while waiting to do the overhaul? Figure out where the rpm's are that allow the silkiest smooth operation of the ZF, speed/rpm's for each shift point, there's only 5 so it's easy to figure out. Most of the time, drive like that. It's easy on the equipment, and you'll get more miles between overhauls like that. Most of the time, it's just point A to point B anyway, so you may drive it like I drive my Toyota, and get way better service life and economy from your Pantera & ZF. The more I push my cars in the past, the more repairs they needed. And race cars get overhauled from front to rear spoiler between every racing event, polar opposite to the point A to point B vehicle.

And, since I like to get that sport driving adrenaline rush, I'm prepared to track my Pantera and do the obligatory repairs and maintenance which goes with that behavior pattern.

When I do, ultimately, have to R&R my ZF, I'd like to be able to upgrade it to the state-of-the-art, so I'm sort of making a few suggestions to our usual ZF guy to maybe look that direction and see if them triple cone rings can be adapted to the ZF. His bro already did the air shift rapido update to his experimental ZF, and it gnashes gears. So, I know he wants to look around and see if he can get the latest and greatest in his tricked out ZF sport machine.

And even though I sort of drive gently in the Toyota, on cold mornings it doesn't shift as amoothly as it's supposed to. Oil viscosities inhibit the synchros at low temp, so I just wait until it wants to slide in gear easily instead of forcing it. I wish to delay, not accelerate any repairs schedule for my daily driver.

One last story. I drove my very first vehicle until the wheels nearly fell off. An Econoline 200, 1969 Ford Van. I drove it from 150,000 miles until I sold it with 300,000 miles. Back then, I was in love with it and going to keep it forever. I drove it like it was a Pantera, which was what I dreamed of. I had to replace everything, and I mean everything on that van, with the cheeziest of hand tools, too.

No more. I don't even drive my Pantera as hard as I drove that Econoline Van. It would be way too expensive. Unlike the Econoline Van, I've never had my Pantera's wheels airborn! Guess I wanted that van to be a 4x4, like the Baja 1000 racer, along with the Pantera function, along with the daily driver function. I grew up and now think, "If I'm pushing machinery to 100% or 110% of design performance, I should expect 50% to 25% of the 'life expectancy' of a normal vehicle of the same make,model, year, mileage, etc. I also know it's really hard for one vehicle to 'do-it-all' and serve each function well.

Finally, you got a beefy motor, Coz. This means you can put more stress on the ZF's innards, which means you can make it need repair just that much quicker. Just ignore them stares for a while, and don't show everybody what it'll do. Just when you want to, which the more often, the more expensive.

I'm thinkin' "triple cone synchro rings" for speed shiftin' the ZF, that's what I wanna see someday. You too? If you're gonna tear her down, learn all about it, maybe it would be kool to trick it out while doin' all the talkin', learnin' and searchin' and finally the wrenchin'. I don't know if it can be done to a ZF, but I know there's commercially avaiable triple cone ring synchros for the purchase price, just not for the ZF, that I know of.

Just a few ideas for you to kick around is all.