Mac68's Seal Grey C2 TIP ownership and minor tweaks thread

[Mac68]

I purchased this 997.1 in March 2021 and so far I'm VERY happy with it, I love it in fact. I fancied a TIP, which is not a hugely choice but for me it's ideal. Here's my intro thread. http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=144581

I had a PPI carried out by Anthony at Porsche Inspections, very thorough and a nice guy to deal with. I was a nervous buyer but he was helpful at explaining the importance, and how to tackle, the issues he'd found.

The previous owner the car had an engine failure at 80K, about 4 years ago, and opted for a full Hartech rebuild. The rebuild consisted of 6 Nikasil liners, 6 reconditioned and uprated pistons with new piston coatings (not sure which coating), new larger IM shaft and bearing, new crankshaft bearings, all new timing chains, cylinder head skim, which was apparently pretty much the full monty from Hartech, at the time.

I set about tackling some of the PPI items, as some are must do's. I researched a lot of garages and plumped for AMS Porsche in Hitchin. I got an excellent service and think they're a great company to work with. We agreed all the costs in advance and they photographed the car at various stages. They kept back some of the pars for me as I want to have a tinker with them or keep them as emergency spares. AMS offer a Saturday Surgery, where you can get the car on the ramps with the mechanic, have a natter and figure out the "must do's", "should do's" and "want to do's". The car needed quite a bit of work doing, which included a major service, brake fluid, engine out coolant pipes (ouch!), replacement mufflers (which I had fixed up previously as I intend to gundo them), a full TIP full service, new rear brake discs/pads, radiator fan, tandem pump, LTT, heatshields, plugs, coilpacks, oil pressure sender and new AC condensers/regas. I would have tackled some of these items myself as I like tinkering and learning but as it was engine out job it made sense. I intend the keep this car for quite a while and I'm sure I'll have the chance to do lots of jobs on it

AMS found that the RMS seal was made of silicone sealant. Obviously, a previous garage (Not Hartech) had bodged a seal instead of ordering and waiting for a new seal. I also had it bore score checked and thankfully it was nice and smooth/healthy.

Since then the car has developed a weird starting issue, where it cuts out after initially being started, when the revs drop to 700 and upon restarting there's a strong sulphur like smell. I suspect the cats at 125K are on borrowed time so I'm planning to get them replaced along with the failed O2 sensor ASAP.

Next up are my front shocks, which are a bit rusty near the tops and they're hollow PASM shocks. I'm considering having a go at doing this myself. What could go wrong! :?: probably lots of connected suspension parts!

I'm also intending to have a go at making some home made "jackstands", the type that wraparound the trolley jack and accommodate the puck. I'll probably put a small pivot on them to allow for the car to be up on one side only, which is required due to the width of my garage, again what could go wrong :dont know:

I'm intending to do the following at some point:
Refurbed rims
Tidy up underneath, ACF50 as I have a large bottle to use
Paint the calipers (black)
Gundo the exhaust
Slight rust on the wheel archers (a stitch in time)
Fix the drivers seat bolster
Spacers (on my old car this will inevitably lead to new wheel bearings£££)
Tackle the chipped paintwork
Braided brakelines
Tackle the centre console as the soft touch surface has gone.

Here's a recent snap for no good reason!

 

[drmark]

Did Hartech not notice the RMS bodge during the strip down and rebuild??

 

[Mac68]

The bodge was after the Hartech rebuild, well I hope it was

Edit: I didn't make this clear, the car didn't go to Hartech, a garage that the previous owner used took the engine out and sent it on a pallet to Hartech for them to rebuild.

 

[Mac68]

I'm booked in to AMS Porsche to have my faulty O2 sensor replaced and I'm planning to pick up two used CATs from Hertsdriver. I'll get the CATs installed at the same time as the new O2 sensor. This will be the second sensor in the last couple of months, I think caused by having some "engine out" work and replacing the mufflers. I'm told the sensors go often these situations. I'm going to replace the other two sensors as well as a preventative measure.

Hopefully this will fix the weird starting issue I have where it cuts out after about a minute and will remove the constant rattle from the rear of the car, which I assume is the CAT internals rattling around. :x

The MOT is due in Sept and I'm slightly concerned it will not pass as I still have to tend to rusty shocks.

 

[Mac68]

Quite a bit of what I want to tinker with requires the car to be in the air and after researching wide ramps, and being disappointed at what I found, I thought I'd have a go at widening some ramps.

I bought two second had sets locally and set about chopping them up and joining them together again. The dark blue set are technically 2 tons but the light blue are made of much better material but they're shorter so I opted to add to the dark blue set.

I have a stick and mig welder and started this off with stick but realised I was getting quite a lot of poor welds, I guess due to contamination, so decided to stop and cut out the offending welds and re-do them in Mig.

Initially I was going to put an extension on each but with one extension they will end up 30cm wide, which is enough for my tyres at 26.5cm.

I'll add side rails, some supports in the middle and the outside and add to the wheel stop at the back.

 

[Mac68]

Following advice sought on this thread http://www.911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=148267 I've replaced my rear droplinks and whilst at it painted the ARB, replaced the ARB bushes and painted the two of the three rear struts.

Quick snap showing droplink, bushes and painted ARB and strut.



I also replaced the front droplinks.



I was quite lucky, one of the front droplinks required an impact driver to remove it from the shock whilst the other side only needed hammering out.

Car up on up on my widened ramps. I also made widened extensions for these ramps but have now realised that I should have just made the ramps longer. I'll adapt the ramps this spring.



Whilst under the car I thought I'd have a crack at the manifold bolts to see if they move.

They look bad! I assumed the bolts would seize and snap.



Thankfully I got 11 out with the just a ratchet!
The 12th one is kind of difficult to reach as I only have deep socket so have bought a standard length socket and will use a swivel adaptor.

Clean manifold bolt thread



Thinking about it my car had a full engine rebuild about 4 years ago at Hartech. A mechanic removed the engine and sent it to Hartech and at this stage either the mechanic or Hartech probably sorted any issues with seized bolts. Either way it's appears I've dodged a bullet here!


Next on my list of works:
* Front ARB bushes and paint the ARB
* New rear coffin arms and tuning forks (car has clunk over pot holes and bumps from the rear offside)
* New manifolds
* Fix the exhaust silencers and gundo at the same time. (I patched up the silencers last year but used mild steel, which was a mistake)
* Paint the calipers (black)

Lower priority:
Sort paint work, chips and minor rust at rear arches
Sort seat bolster


Thanks to everyone for their input on my various threads. I've learned so much on this forum. I don't think I would have tackled the droplinks without knowledge gleaned from here.

Cheers and happy new year!

Mac

 

[rob_p]

Nice thread and car - very similar to mine (except for manual).
A couple of thoughts:
Manifold bolts - you are spot on in that they will have been out for the engine rebuild. Mine went to hartech for a rebuild and after I replace the bolts with stainless and I now remove every year or two and clean up with the wire brush drill attachment and then apply some copper grease. Makes it very easy if I ever need to remove the manifolds in future and good preventative maintenance.
On your exhaust, I have some gundoed silencers for a 3.6 and some spare manifolds sitting in my garage. Feel free to pm if you are interested in doing a deal. Silencers have seen some action but still perfectly functional- I replaced with a switchable system last year.
Cheers

 

[Mac68]

Nice thread and car - very similar to mine (except for manual).
A couple of thoughts:
Manifold bolts - you are spot on in that they will have been out for the engine rebuild. Mine went to hartech for a rebuild and after I replace the bolts with stainless and I now remove every year or two and clean up with the wire brush drill attachment and then apply some copper grease. Makes it very easy if I ever need to remove the manifolds in future and good preventative maintenance.
On your exhaust, I have some gundoed silencers for a 3.6 and some spare manifolds sitting in my garage. Feel free to pm if you are interested in doing a deal. Silencers have seen some action but still perfectly functional- I replaced with a switchable system last year.
Cheers

Cheers Rob, I've ordered some SS bolts and will swap them out now as a preventative measure. I'll PM about the boxes and manifolds.

Mac

 

[Mac68]

I had a spare hour so got my car on blocks and tackled the remaining 12th. It's tricky to access due the the large rubber pipe to the thermostat.

Using a combination of a shallow socket, swivel and 1/2 to 3/8 adaptor.

It came out and was replaced with a SS bolt.