03Jul2011
951 Coolant Leak
Had a mystery coolant leak in this 951 🙂 Typically when a you start finding coolant on the driver’s side or around the front of the car on a 944, there are a couple of quick (and likely) spots to check. The first one is the coolant port on the radiator for the small expansion tank hose. This is just a screw in fitting with a paper gasket. Over time the gasket will shrink, or the plastic will become brittle, …
03Jul2011
944T Part 5:
Well, got the head back from the machine shop on Friday. Got everything prepped and ready to go, then went to clean the surface of the block for the new headgasket and made a startling discovery. If you remember, we had an issue with the waterpump where the coolant had eaten into the mounting surface of the pump (on the block). Well I started cleaning the block surface, and found the same issue on the number 1 cylinder, and it …
03Jul2011
More Prepping For Road America
DE in 1 week! Our annual pilgrimage takes us to the Northstern Region’s HPDE at Road America. We have been doing this for many years, and wouldn’t miss it! We even talked a few people into heading up with us. This 996C4S needed a new set of brakes and a brake flush before heading north, but I knocked it out today and it is ready to roll. Front brakes coming apart. And some fresh pads 🙂 Repeat in the rear, …
22Jun2011
Damn 928’s ;)
Somehow these things are still floating around. You know what they say about 928’s…..95% of them are still on the road today….the other 5% were actually able to be driven home. On the list was transmission lines. True to 928’s, if you have to replace something at the rear of the car, you inevitably need to disassemble something off the front of the car to make it possible, so I pulled the front brakes off…….ok, well there were pads and …
20Jun2011
944T Part 4:
Took some time this weekend to get the head cleaned up and ready for the machine shop. My initial thought was to put in valve seals and slap it back on, but after seeing some very slight coolant erosion in the face, I decided it was best to have the head resurfaced to clean up anything that my cause an issue. Dropped it off this morning, so hopefully will have that back in a few days. Head off the car. …
17Jun2011
Redneck Wrenching ;)
Well with the roofers blocking access to the garage, I needed to knock out a little 996 work. A simple oil change, resetting an airbag light, and finding a faulty brake pad sensor were on the list: Redneck oil change 🙂 And then it was on to find the bad sensor. Of course it couldn’t be obvious, and of course it couldn’t be the any of the first 3 wheels I tried. It had to be the last one. Turns …
Got the car buttoned up yesterday and thought we were going to be good to go. The problem with these really really low mile cars is that once you start driving them, stuff starts failing faster than you can fix it. On the initial warm up, I kept getting a puff of smoke off the passenger side of the engine. When it didn’t stop after a few minutes, I looked underneath and found the head gasket was leaking externally onto …
15Jun2011
944T engine work continued
I got the 951 up in the air today and started poking around a little more. Always exciting to see what you will run into next. My plan was to retension the belts to the correct spec, then start on the headers. Ummmm not so much. ROFL. Some people shouldn’t work on cars they aren’t familiar with, lol. We all have our moments, but this is AWESOME! Some things put a big smile on my face. Needless to say, this …
15Jun2011
Boxster Ignition Switch
After I got the alternator done in the Boxster, I got a call on another Boxster that was having intermittent start issues. I packed up some tools, grabbed a spare ignition switch, and headed north. And the patient tucked safely in it’s garage. And the culprit….the notorious ignition switch. Older 944 and 911 owners always keep a spare DME relay in the glove box for imminent failure. Boxster and 996 owners should carry a spare ignition switch, lol. New switch …
15Jun2011
Boxster Alternator
Had a busy tow day yesterday, lol. Had this Boxster S come in yesterday with a bad alternator. Picked up the part and got to work this morning. Getting into the front access panel. Note the top cover really doesn’t have to come off, you just need to pull the speaker box to get to the carpet clips. And the alternator in the top left corner. Now the fun. Two bolts and the belt come off, then you get to …