IceShark Lighting Conversion

[John Sims]

Strewth!

I had the dubious honour of supervising a shelving relocation at Somerfields in Lowestoft last night. Lowestoft is the most Easterly point in the UK and Somerfields second largest store, but that is a complete aside.

Lowestoft is pretty much the back end of beyond and necessitates a trip of 100 miles each way, more than half of which is on unilluminated A roads through open countryside. Thus, last night was the first time I have had cause to really use my IceShark conversion in anger and I must say that it was superb. At 3:00am, there were no cars about at all so full beam was used almost exclusively. Allied to a Tomtom Navigator, providing prior warning of the shape of the road ahead, the lighting made very easy going of what would have otherwise been an arduous trip.

A superb conversion - highly recommended. [][][]

I'm just going out to tweak the dipped beam position as the difference between dipped and full beam is quite significant and, as a result, I need a little more reach on dipped beam.

 

[Lemon]

Hi John

This conversion sounds great and one I could do with.

Couple of questions:

How easy is it to fit?
How much?
Anything else you changed to help voltage etc(battery earths etc).

Have heard these kits are very good.

Cheers

Lee

 

[944Turbo]

Wasn't just me finishing work at 3.00am yesterday then, I had a nice empty M3,M27 and A31 to play with though, journeys a lot quicker at that time of day.
Tony

 

[Guest]

John,

Use the aiming instructions I included in your kit and move to the upper horizontal on dipped beam. What you want to do is have the beam not intersect the pavement and cut it off while still keeping it out of other drivers' eyes. A basic flat aim from the lens on out. The only risk with this aiming scheme is if you load the boot of the car with a lot of weight. Then you may move the headlight aim above horizontal, however, you have the articulated lenses with little servo motors to easily adjust back down for that weight.

Lee, The harness is fairly easy to install but it is a lot more work on a 951, which you have. I have an '88 951S also. The problem area is getting to the alternator as that is where main power comes from and I also have a new voltage regulator set at 14.4v rather than the stock 14.0v (or 14.1v) that I want you to install. This will bring your battery up to full charge faster and remove that draw from the system. So, you need to remove the turbo intake air plumbing as well as the alternator. There was ONE guy that managed to install the new voltage regulator on a turbo with the alt in place, but that is 1 out of around 300 guys that gave up and just pulled the alt. I'm in that group too, unless you have child like small hands you just don't have enough room to work in. And you can't see what you are doing. Some guys build ships in bottles but most of us don't.

The harness also comes with additional grounding. While this was designed for the headlights it ends up affecting the entire car's electrics. You will see higher voltage everywhere, gauges will read better, windows faster, etc.

I'm sold out of the harnesses at the moment as some 968 owners discovered me and cleaned me out. Actually, I'm 10 kits in the hole. I'm building more over the next two weeks as I have one guy from Germany that is coming over to the States and wants to take back a battery cable kit as well as headlight kit. So, I will get at least 20 done by Sept 15.

The former price on the headlight harness was $185 USD. That is going to go up towards $200 this time due to copper price increases and of course oil. The price of oil is flowing into everything you look at in one way or another. The adjustable voltage regulator is $16.50. I sell some Philips/Narva 100/90 watt H4 bulbs for $12 each, you should probably get 4 and have an extra set. I also have high performance 60/55 watt bulbs but if you have E-Code lenses and the wiring harness you really want to go 100/90.

Which brings us to the lenses. You need to look at them and see what type they are and how road rashed the glass face is. Since you are in the UK with an '88 car I suspect you have the articulated lenses and not the standard 7" round. I think your motor laws changed in the early/mid 80's to require the lamp adjustment from the cockpit. Easy enough to tell, just pop the headlight buckets up and look.

If you want to go forward on the headlight upgrade we will have to talk about the lenses as if they are original I would be fairly certain they have too much road rash and need to be replaced. If they are standard 7" rounds, John Sims has a set of left hand road lane lenses sitting somewhere around his house. If you have the articulated ones I can probably get them a bit cheaper than you can in the UK from what John told me. I also got the articulated lenses for a guy in the United Arab Emirates for cheaper than he could locally even with all the shipping charges.

So, that is the scoop. E-Mail me at wraydan@msn.com with any questions if you want to move forward on this.

Regards,

Dan

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Lemon

Hi John

This conversion sounds great and one I could do with.

Couple of questions:

How easy is it to fit?
How much?
Anything else you changed to help voltage etc(battery earths etc).

Have heard these kits are very good.

Cheers

Lee

Hi Lee,

If you'll excuse me I'll copy in the following which I posted on Titanic:-

Much of the reduction in lighting, apparently, comes from the degrading of connections and wiring. A small reduction in voltage transfer can result in a fairly significant drop in wattage.

The IceShark kit addresses this by providing a new heavy duty dedicated lighting loom which connects directly to the alternator. An upgraded voltage regulator is also provided. This alone ensures the best output from your current bulbs. It also allows the deployment of 100w bulbs (though nobody would do that obviously).

The final thing is to fit new lamps. While your current lamps may look OK, tiny stone chips on the glass disrupt the beam pattern and the silvering looses its sparkle over the years. IceShark does supply Cibie lamps for R/H drive but these don't fit 944's with height adjustment so your best bet is your OPC (IRO £70 each IIRC)

I've had the pleasure of driving back and forth to Lowestoft the last couple of nights and can't believe how good the lights are. The beam pattern and intensity is so good on dipped beam that you don't necessarily need full beam, but when you switch the blue dashboard light on"¦"¦Wow!

If I have one criticism it is that you can dazzle yourself off reflecting signs (and the back of speed cameras).

A really great conversion. Do it before the winter comes so you can enjoy it.

I didn't fit the kit myself as it was done during a service, it is easier with a lift or ramp as you need to get underneath to get at the alternator - which is the most difficult part.

IceShark does post on this forum fairly regularly, so you could e-mail him directly to get a cost but I would anticipate that worst case would be £350 including new lamps from your OPC.

 

[Fen]

ORIGINAL: John Sims
IceShark does post on this forum fairly regularly, so you could e-mail him directly to get a cost...

As is ably demonstrated by the comprehensive response from IceShark immediately preceding this post... Don't you just hate it when somebody says what you want to say while you are typing it? []

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: John Sims

.....IceShark does post on this forum fairly regularly........

How spooky! It's fun when you post at the same time.

With regard to setting up the height of the lenses I have come upon the ideal solution:-

I lifted mine a bit yesterday, before last nights trip, but they proved to be just a bit too high (I set them without me in the car and with the tank 2/3rds empty). But.... because we have headlamp leveling, you can lower the headlamps to the optimal position while driving. When you get home, point the headlamps at a wall and mark the position, then turn the leveller to "0" and with a screwdriver adjust the lamps back down to the point you maked on the wall. Perfect!

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Fen

ORIGINAL: John Sims
IceShark does post on this forum fairly regularly, so you could e-mail him directly to get a cost...

As is ably demonstrated by the comprehensive response from IceShark immediately preceding this post... Don't you just hate it when somebody says what you want to say while you are typing it? []

ORIGINAL: John Sims
How spooky! It's fun when you post at the same time.

Damn! It's happened again! []

 

[Lemon]

Cheers John and thanks Ice shark.

Will go and shake the piggy bank and see if father christmas will come early

Bye[]

 

[Guest]

Voltage drop through resistance is the key to headlight performance. And you need to take care of positive as well as earth since the electrons make a round trip.

I built a blue water sail boat, go anywhere in the world, in my younger days. In non critical systems a 10% drop was ok. In the electronics 3% drop. So I got pretty good at sizing things and building terminal connections.

Porsche has horrible wiring. It is undersized and the terminals are bare copper crimped on automotive bare quality wire core. The terminal interface between the barrel and wire core corrodes and you can't see it unless you saw it in half. It is a mess and some cars have up to a 40% drop in voltage down to the headlights.

Halogen bulbs vary light output at the 3.4th power to voltage changes. Drop 15% voltage and you just lost 50% light. The other way around, eliminate 15% voltage drop and you increase light by 100%. So, wiring is where you need to attack the problem.

In my harness I use #10 AWG wire, which is pretty heavy duty. The wire is marine grade tinned and 105 stranded. That is 105 individual strands in the wire core. Stock usually has 19 bare copper strands. I use tinned copper connectors, crimp them on, then solder. Soldering creates a molecular level bond. Then I seal them up with electrical silicone and glue line heat shrink. A lot of work, but they are never going to corrode in our lifetimes. Voltage drop is under 1% on 100 watt bulbs. People regularly see 400 or 450% increase in light output with the harness and 100/90 watt bulbs over stock.

And the harness is covered in fireproof fiberglass sleeve that is good to about 1200F constant use, so, you are pretty much set. All the above is what makes it so expensive. I went balls to the wall on it.

Regards,

Dan

 

[Fen]

I think I want one just because it sounds so cool... Not yet though, cars that don't get driven much at night don't need fancy lights as a priority.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Fen

I think I want one just because it sounds so cool... Not yet though, cars that don't get driven much at night don't need fancy lights as a priority.

Ah yes but, cars that go fast need good lights so that then they can go out to play at night when there aren't cars that go slow about. []

 

[Fen]

True. I can't compete with you guys and your 3am but it was after midnight when I got back from Silverstone and roads were quiet. Thing is my lights are OK, even without the driving lamps in the bumper I just guess they could be better. Now, the key question: How much does the IceShark kit weigh? []

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Fen

Now, the key question: How much does the IceShark kit weigh? []

A hell of a lot less than the tree or lamp post you hit 'cos you couldn't see it! []

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Fen

......Now, the key question: How much does the IceShark kit weigh? []

Shed loads. It uses 105 strand #10 AWG wire with crimped and soldered connections of nautical proportions. But then who wants light weight light. [][]

 

[Guest]

I think it is around 2 pounds for the harness. I don't have a real accurate scale here for small items. It is 4 pounds when I pack it up in a box and all the protective material. Not a big deal, pull your rear seats as they are worthless, or go on a small diet if you are concerned with weight.

 

[Fen]

Weight is a standing joke with my car, I wasn't seriously concerned about it. Heavy light though, is that something like anti-matter, John? Is there some way that driving a car projecting heavy light can create a black hole in front of it and make it go faster? [&:]

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Fen

...........Heavy light though, is that something like anti-matter, John? Is there some way that driving a car projecting heavy light can create a black hole in front of it and make it go faster? [&:]

You could be on to something there. I thought Beaky went better at night because the air was cooler and damp but perhaps it is because the IceShark conversion creates a pool of heavy light infront of the car. []

 

[Guest]

Hey John,

How much did those replacement lenses end up costing you with VAT and all?

I have another guy that wants to upgrade but he is not sure if his articulated lenses are too road rashed or not and whether he needs to replace them also. He lives in London so I told him he should get together with you and you could put the cars side by side and shine on a wall to make judgement on condition.

Depending on price you paid, I may be able to get the lenses cheaper for him if he decides change out is in order. With exchange rates flying all over the place, crazy things can happen.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: IceShark

Hey John,

How much did those replacement lenses end up costing you with VAT and all?

I have just waded through a depressingly large stack of invoices relating to Beaky and can confirm that on 06/05/05 I purchased the following by telephone order from Colchester OPC:-

2 No Headlamps P944.631.911.00 @ £58.62 each (less 10% PCGB discount + VAT)
2 No Retaining rings P944.631.907.00 @ £12.49 each (less 10% PCGB discount + VAT)

It is worth getting the retaining rings as they have new mountings on them. I didn't use the rings themselves as, apparently, you need a special Porsche toll to separate the leveling motor from the ring. I'm surprised that I had two rings the same number, I thought they were handed.