11Mar2011
Oil Change Day
First thing I knocked out an 86 911 Targa for it’s 6 months oil change. It has likely sat most of the winter, but with 60 degree weather on the way, it was time to get it ready for the season. Up in the air and ready to go. First thing I noticed was oil buildup around the oil cooler and bellhousing. This is typically due to a bad oil thermostat o ring and/or the breather plate gasket. I cleaned …
10Mar2011
997/Cayman Mirror Repair
This procedure is the same whether you are updating to carbon fiber mirrors, or say if you backed out of the garage and caught the mirror on the edge of the garage door and bent it in a direction it wasn’t meant to bend 😉 I ran out to Fairway to check out the mirror off a Cayman today. Figured I knew what was wrong, but wanted to confirm in person. Figured it out pretty quickly after removing the mirror …
10Mar2011
996 Buyer’s Guide
I wrote this article a few years ago and posted it over at the old Porsche Forums/German Auto Forums, and I still get a lot of emails every week about it. Essentially, the same questions were popping up over and over, so I compiled some information related to my experiences working on 996’s. Pre Purchase Inspection: I can not recommend a PPI enough, unless you are a professional Porsche mechanic. Typically they run from $150-500, and is money well spent. …
06Mar2011
A Short Break: KC Auto Show
Every year auto dealers and manufacturers present their shiny new wares to the public at the Kansas City Auto Show. We headed down again this year to see what was new! I still cringe to think of the number of people, kids, etc that climb through these cars, many with no respect for the car, lol. Feel bad for the people buying these examples! Most of the cars there were…well….appliances IMHO. There are a lot of cool technology packages and …
04Mar2011
More Internals
Took a couple of pictures of the camshafts this afternoon. This is the passenger intake camshaft. Notice the missing ring in the middle groove, there should be 3 on each cam. Again, this missing ring rides directly in path where this groove appeared in the front cam housing. And the driver side camshaft. All 3 rings present. And another close up of one of the cracked camshaft housing brackets.
03Mar2011
996TT Top End
Tonight Stephen (PorschePhD) came by with the magical cam tools we needed to pull the motor down the rest of the way for inspection. This evening I pulled the driver’s side apart down to the cams and cleaned everything up so we could do both sides. Glad we did. As many 930 motors as I have pulled apart, I have never done anything internal to the 996TT motors as that was always Stephen’s department at the shop. It was a …
02Mar2011
Finishing the Boxster Clutch
Got the clutch installed this afternoon, and sent the car on it’s way. Since the disc was down to the metal, it did enough damage to the flywheel that I had to order a new flywheel. I think my machine shop could have probably turned the surface on the end mill and it would have been fine, but due to time constraints of the owners, we just went ahead with a new flywheel. New flywheel installed. What a new clutch …
01Mar2011
Boxster Clutch
Drove down south of Louisburg today to diagnose a Boxster that was immobile. Figured out pretty fast that the clutch was completely shot. I assumed the disc hub had separated from the friction ring as there was zero movement from the car with the clutch disengaged. We had it towed up to the garage, and I started tearing it apart. Had the tow truck drop it straight onto the ramps for me. Lots of stuff to remove to get to …
27Feb2011
Cover Me, I’m Going In
Started tearing down the passenger side camtower this afternoon. Found another metal shaving stuck to the cam sensor Cams exposed. Now I have to divert my attention to a 996 PPI. The good phd should be by this week with the cam tools we need so we can pull the cams and see what is going on.
27Feb2011
996TT Engine Continued
Took some time this morning to pull the tranny, clutch, and get the motor up on the engine stand. Now to figure out what is going on in this motor. Again, what is involved in pulling the TT transaxles from the engine. Step 1, remove the plastic vent (3 bolts) Step two, remove the 10mm bolt and bracket. Step 3, pull the rubber plug that, along with the above bracket, hold the clutch shaft and bearings in place. This can …