C11BRA
Suzuka
- Joined
- 30 Mar 2015
- Messages
- 1,063
After checking my car on a ramp for pre-Euro trip 2 weeks ago, I thought I noticed a couple of slightly damp areas at the front of the engine. Viewed from under the car, looking past the gearbox I assumed these damp patches were slight oil leaks from the heads. Not bad enough to worry about. There seemed to be a leak on both banks, LH & RH. When I showed my mate though, the RH (drivers) side had dried up & no dampness was visible. Uh oh I thought........must be fuel (due to evaporation speed). I promptly started the engine & re-checked. As predicted, the RH bank was wet again. With a bright LED light & more attention, I could see it was coming from the circular end of the fuel injector rail where 2 pipes join to feed the LH rail. Now, this area it at arms length from beneath & the same from above. Space for 1 hand. Great!
It wasn't obvious (from this distance) where the leak was coming from. I could see some corrosion so I opted to add a jubilee clip to the hose closest to the leak. After 30 mins struggling, it was fitted.....but made no difference. We cleaned & dried the rail. This time, I stayed under the car whilst it was started. I could see the damp area was coming from the circular end of the rail, looking like a rusty core plug. Great. A quick call to Porsche established that the new part was £750! Wow!
I had a decision to make. Leave the car here, borrow a car, come back at the weekend & remove the engine. Or......
....fashion a temporary repair so I could get home & think more about the repair. Hmmmmm. Temporary repair was attempted. We measured the OD of the rail, visited the local hydraulic hose company, purchased a large diameter fuel rated hose that was just perfect size. We then pre-plugged one end of a short length of hose, applied some 60 second fuel resistant epoxy glue & fitted over the rusty rail end. I fitted a safety wire to help prevent a blow off if pressure built up. After 5 minutes, we started the car & run on the ramp for 30 minutes. All dry.
So, with an extra fire extinguisher, I set off home via the back roads avoiding the M25. All good.
As people will know on here, my Ethos is to keep this car on the road on a tight budget. So an alternative to a £750 rail was researched. A used set from Germany was located for £110 & wow, what a great condition set it was. (photos to follow). I sand blasted the new rails (just a few tiny areas) and applied a tough textured coating to help prevent this again.
Looking at the engine bay. The decision now was to decide if to fit these with the engine in (at home) or plan to remove the engine at my mates garage.
I am slightly cautious that disturbing a 20 year old engine installation just before a Swiss Alp tour might be a risk. I appreciate that we might discover & fix other issues by removing the engine......but, we might also create new issues due to disturbing items unnecessarily.
So today, Fathers Day, I started the "engine in" fuel rail swap.
It wasn't obvious (from this distance) where the leak was coming from. I could see some corrosion so I opted to add a jubilee clip to the hose closest to the leak. After 30 mins struggling, it was fitted.....but made no difference. We cleaned & dried the rail. This time, I stayed under the car whilst it was started. I could see the damp area was coming from the circular end of the rail, looking like a rusty core plug. Great. A quick call to Porsche established that the new part was £750! Wow!
I had a decision to make. Leave the car here, borrow a car, come back at the weekend & remove the engine. Or......
....fashion a temporary repair so I could get home & think more about the repair. Hmmmmm. Temporary repair was attempted. We measured the OD of the rail, visited the local hydraulic hose company, purchased a large diameter fuel rated hose that was just perfect size. We then pre-plugged one end of a short length of hose, applied some 60 second fuel resistant epoxy glue & fitted over the rusty rail end. I fitted a safety wire to help prevent a blow off if pressure built up. After 5 minutes, we started the car & run on the ramp for 30 minutes. All dry.
So, with an extra fire extinguisher, I set off home via the back roads avoiding the M25. All good.
As people will know on here, my Ethos is to keep this car on the road on a tight budget. So an alternative to a £750 rail was researched. A used set from Germany was located for £110 & wow, what a great condition set it was. (photos to follow). I sand blasted the new rails (just a few tiny areas) and applied a tough textured coating to help prevent this again.
Looking at the engine bay. The decision now was to decide if to fit these with the engine in (at home) or plan to remove the engine at my mates garage.
I am slightly cautious that disturbing a 20 year old engine installation just before a Swiss Alp tour might be a risk. I appreciate that we might discover & fix other issues by removing the engine......but, we might also create new issues due to disturbing items unnecessarily.
So today, Fathers Day, I started the "engine in" fuel rail swap.