Porsche Boxster Coolant Tank Replacement

Posted on May 8, 2012 by porschedoc

Had this little Boxster come through the shop after 6 years of storage. The owner was coming back to the states and needed his car back in running shape :) We gave it a good look over and found a few minor things here and there.

The storage unit was starting the car every so often, and they had to jump start the car and crossed the battery terminals. All of a sudden the radio didn’t work. Luckily it was only the fuse on the backside, a fairly easy replacement. It could have been a lot worse.

Fuse location on the radio.

I went to top off the fluids and noticed the coolant tank was really low. That is never a good sign in a Boxster. I pulled up the trunk carpet and found just what I figured I would. A leaking coolant expansion tank. This can really make a mess in your trunk. Unfortunately, it is not an uncommon failure. The bottom of the tank cracks and leaks coolant everywhere. A very similar issue exists in the 996.

There are a lot of hose clamp connections in the engine bay and trunk that must be removed.

Then you can eventually get the tank out.

Working through the engine bay is a very tight job that requires special hose clamp tools.

Old tank next to the new one.

And the new tank installed in place.

Right where the crack occurs.

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Porsche GT3 Stainless Steel Brake Line Install

Posted on May 8, 2012 by porschedoc

Before heading down to Hallett last week, the GT3 came back in for a little upgrade. Since we needed to flush the brake fluid anyway, we decided to go ahead and install stainless steel brake lines at the same time for a firmer brake pedal.

At the same time, we had some new hoosiers to get mounted up as well.

Old stubborn brake lines. Every line came off easy except for the last one! Sometimes the Porsche brake line fittings just don’t fit perfectly on any size flare wrench and they are tough to get off. A little perseverance though, and we had the lines all replaced and the fluid flushed.

Installed and ready to roll!

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964 C4 Race Car Fuel Cell Replacement

Posted on May 8, 2012 by porschedoc

In between events, we sprung a fuel leak on the 964 C4. The fuel cell was leaking near the connections to the fuel pump, so I pulled it out to repair.

Once I got the tank out of the car, I ran into a bit of a snag. First, there were zero markings on the tank identifying the manufacturer. This makes ordering replacement parts impossible. Second, there was not safety ratings on the tank, or date of manufacture, etc. This made determining any possible safety rule violations impossible.

The decision was made to either replace the fuel cell with a new proper fuel cell, or go back to OEM tank since a cell is not required. $3k, or $1k, we decided to go the cheaper route and stick with a used OEM tank. We can hold more fuel, and have an easier filling procedure through the stock fender.

Tank out of the car.

Unfortunately, I found the oem fuel door was welded shut, which required removal of the fender to replace the door.

While we were waiting on parts, I decided to add some weight back in the car. Since we were weighing light, I added the front spare tire back in along with a heavy duty place for the battery box. This will help put some weight over the steer tires.

Once the fuel issue was solved, we took it to alignment. We had not aligned the car since Al picked it up, and it was very out of alignment.

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Shop Work RennsportKC

Posted on May 1, 2012 by porschedoc

Title: “Talking about a bunch of shop work…A big ol’ pile of shop work…Seven to three…..Three to eleven….Eleven to seven” Google searchable? Totally not.

Thursday: Drive to MN to get chump car
Friday: Drive back. Pick up lumber, finish up a few things at the shop. Drink beers
Saturday: Work on Jim (a super beetle) with good friends. Jim runs like a champ, then doesn’t….bad fuel pump. Meh, it’s a VW. Drink more beers.
Sunday: Arghhh Sunday. Shop work. Reinforcing our mezzanine so that we can safely operate within the Grandview City limits. This here 25 year old mezzanine must not be up to code, so we go about strengthening it (P.S. The previous tenant use to put cars up on top for storage)

New LVL beams and 2×10′s. Lumber is expensive! BTW, we had to raise our shop rate to $150/hr. Ok, not really, only $125/hr……..lumber should be paid off in 2025

Wes and I originally set out to install this monster pile of 20 foot beams by ourselves. Luckily, all my friends showed up to help us out (and you can count them….there they are, all 4 of them…I couldn’t possibly have more than 4 friends, because ALL my friends showed up to help). See Sunday’s activities above……No one brought Ho-hos. We had to take down the existing 2×6 headers and replace them with much heavier 2x10x20 LVL’s. Did I mention they were much heavier? Here you can see the first LVL is up and they are pulling down the last 2×6 on that side. Once the beams were up, we had to support them on each 4×4 floor beam with a piece of 2×4 and some 5/8″ x 8″ through bolts for extra support. These 2×4 blocks have a name….Wes knows what it is. I can’t remember the name no matter how hard I try…so I call them Muggles. P.S. Wood is not my thing.

One side was easy, the other side not so much. A bunch of drywall removal was needed in the machine room.

Some of the standard 2×10′s in place.

Thanks guys! We couldn’t have done it without you!!!

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Porsche 997 Ignition Coil Pack Failure

Posted on May 1, 2012 by porschedoc

My title: Misfires, misfires, oh my! (totally not Google searchable). Actual title….maybe.

Had this 997 limp into the shop the other day with a horrible misfire and flashing CEL. When the CEL flashes….yup it’s bad. Typically a really bad misfire, which I confirmed on the #1 cylinder. Up in the air she goes.

It was funny, not 30 minutes before that I was talking with a customer over the phone about how it was somewhat hard to see coil packs crack externally…..bahahahahaha. I have never seen anything like this. The cool thing about this car is that it is a driver. Rain, snow, shine, this baby doesn’t get tucked away in the garage just because it isn’t 85 degrees out. I think we found our misfire issue.

The coil packs on the left bank were all badly cracked. #1 looked like this. I could see how that might not fire properly.

Compared to a new coil. Failing ignition coils are becoming more and more common these days. While they typically do not show physically like this, they show up as a bad hesitation or stumble and CEL indicating a misfire on that cylinder. Since the coil packs are the modern day version of a spark plug wire, they will need to be replaced now and again just as spark plug wires would have been in the old days.

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Car 54 Gets A Makeover (Chump Car Series)

Posted on May 1, 2012 by porschedoc

Ok, who the heck is going to Google search Car 54 anyway. To heck with that. We got out the paint brush the other day and gave Car 54 a makeover. At the race down at Eagles Canyon, the front fender got smashed in by some totally irresponsible driver. I’m not saying they were from “our team” or from “another team”, but the fender is bent. I think it was the last straight panel on the car. The paint products available now days are absolutely amazing.

We started with this:

And after some sanding and a lot of careful taping, we laid down the new paint and she now looks like this. Can you believe the transformation!

Ok, actually Thursday night after work, we drove up to Minneapolis, getting in at about 3am. Got a hotel room, took a nap until 6am, then headed out to pick up the car. Met up with Jim Bryant of Racing Products Minnesota (RPM) and got the car loaded in the trailer. By 7:30 we were south bound and down, getting back to KC by 3. The car cleared the low height enclosed trailer by 1 inch on the roof. I was going to have a cold drive home with no windows had it not fit! We are also training a new driver. She indicates the pedals are too low to effectively heel/toe. Not sure what she means.

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Porsche 965 3.6L Upgrades (B&B Exhaust Ultimate Motorwerks) Kansas City

Posted on May 1, 2012 by porschedoc

See, two searchable titles in one night! The title I was going to use: “Hot slammin salmon Porsche 965 gets some big HP upgrades.” Totally doesn’t make much sense. Huh, I am beginning to see what Russ means. Actually, while we name each car, this is not the Slammin Salmon. I have named this car the Blue Beast of Yorkshire.

We left off last week with the little 965 in the grasp’s of the evil doctor. The ancient smog pump system was mocking me, so I removed it all. Why? It’s called the food chain. I’m higher up and know how to use tools. This entire side of the engine bay was filled with smog pump equipment. Really a bugger to work around.

The air distribution pipe feeds air from the smog pump into the cylinder head, which then exits the exhaust thinning out the emissions to fool them into thinking the car pollutes less. If you think about this theory for a minute, you realize it doesn’t make much sense in total pollutants. Just a tool to get through that hoop.

Installing the RennsportKC air injection plugs in the cylinder head to cap it off.

Ohhhh buddy. Called up Kevin and Ultimate Motorwerks a few months ago and had him send me this. K27 7200 High Flow S.

And installed on the car….well partially.

And the exhaust almost completely installed. Right now I am fighting an oil line that needs to be replaced with the updated B&B exhaust (remember how we use the best vendor for the application, in this case B&B).

Unfortunately, we are having an issue with the fitting connecting the factory oil line to the new line from B&B. They have outsourced their fitting production and well….they need to outsource it to someone else apparently. A minor hiccup I am sure…the exhaust note and power increase will be worth the wait.

Factory line in the wheel well. If you deal with installing aftermarket parts, you deal with aftermarket issues on occasion. Not a huge deal, we just need to figure out what the specs need to be on the fitting and get the right one coming….or plug in the welder……

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Fabspeed Motorsports Porsche 944 Exhaust Install Kansas City

Posted on May 1, 2012 by porschedoc

Our web and marketing expert keeps telling me I have to be more “search orientated correct” in my blog title posts. In fact, I was told this as he held a nice big burger from Paul’s drive in under my nose. Everyone around here seems to think I am motivated by food for some reason (Send all Ho-ho’s, french fries, and donuts to the shop to my attention…I don’t eat foods that begin with the letter M (namely the big three….Meatloaf, Mash Potatoes, and Mushrooms….please forward those straight to Wes). If you haven’t eaten at Paul’s drive in in Grandview, I highly suggest you try it. Take antacids with….a bottle. Oh so good. Anyway, back on topic. I think titles like “Out with the old crappy exhaust and in with the new” is just so much better ;) But I will follow orders…..for now.

If you follow the blog and have seen how many Fabspeed exhaust systems we install and sell. It’s a lot. Why? Pretty simple really, in certain applications they are the best out there. And in other applications some other companies are better. We love mixing it up around here and using the best product for the specific application that we can find. For the 944, Fabspeed is the best out there.

We did the koni upgrade on this car a few months ago, and it was time for an exhaust upgrade. The old exhaust was starting to show it’s age, and well…..we like extra horsepower and a better sound.

All this stuff needs to go :)

That old heavy stuff out of the car and the new stuff laid out next to it. mmmmmmm

Bolting everything up into place. These systems go in pretty good in regards to fitment. Not much to have to mess with.

Oh yea!!!!! Down the road she goes!

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Porshce 356 post purchase inspection

Posted on April 19, 2012 by wes

So a customer brings us this perfect little 356 driver.  Very clean, all there, just the right amount of patina. Seems a tune-up is in order and a re-jet for 2012′s version of RFG is needed.

first thing is to get these babies clean, if you are in Kansas City and are looking for a shop that knows Weber carburetors, stop and see us.

Yuck.  Where is all that coming from?

Of course when we pulled the sock and scoped the tank it looked pretty bad.  So the tank gets sent out and I tidy up a little rust up front.  Skip doing the tank and we will be right back here in no time.

After the bead blaster.

Primered, painted and re-installed. Now we also have clean carbs, we will have clean fuel, and the door to the steering gear doesn’t look like it will rust in two.

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1994 Porsche 3.6L Turbo Modifications Part I:

Posted on April 18, 2012 by porschedoc

We’ve seen this car in here before, now it is time for some big modifications :) The 1994 3.6L 911 Turbo. In my opinion, the 94 3.6 turbo is the the iconic 911 turbo.

Name the movie:
–”What the f- w’you mean you don’t have one? Eighty thousand dollars for this car and you ain’t got no damn cup holder?”

–”It’s $105,000 and this happens to be one of the fastest production cars on the planet. Zero to sixty in four seconds, sweetie. It’s a limited edition.”

So lets get started.

Starting out with replacing the old suspension. While the car was riding on M030 springs, it just didn’t quite do it. So we decided to go a different route.

KW Variant 3. Separate rebound and compression adjustable :D

Old suspension ready to come out. The process up front is exactly the same as our 964 from yesterday.

A much better look and ride in my opinion.

To get to the rears on the other hand, a lot more stuff has to come out of the way. Off comes the intercooler, AC compressor, and air box. We will be replacing the air box with a high flow intake.

Then you can see the strut tower to get to the rear shocks.

Once the suspension was in, it was time to start getting rid of the exhaust system.

We’ve seen these mufflers getting tossed time and time again ;)

Headers out of the way. Once those were out, then I could start tackling removing the ancient air pump system, starting with the manifolds at the heads.

And once that was out of the way, then out came the actual air pump and associated lines. Stay tuned.

Karl Wilen
porschedoc@rennsportkc.com
RennsportKC

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