Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Fitted my new RS wheel today in place of the original.
Amazing difference and well worth it for the feel of the car.

Might have a go at fitting the Alpine Head unit with bluetooth tomorrow ? Or may not

Need some pictures of those wheels on the car!! (I have a wheel fetish! lol)

New windscreen fitted - this time the chap didn't crack it!

Ordered http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engine-Management-Performance-How--S-/dp/1932494421/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346244759&sr=1-1 to help me with mapping the car and getting the most from her with out cocking it up.

Changed the oil cooler gaskets on saturday, easily the messiest most horrible job i've ever done! Not dropping oil out now though. Only took us an afternoon though, was expecting worse.

4 new shocks to fit, and either a CV or rear ball joint (In all likelihood both!) on the passenger side to do in the near future.

Part of a long term resurrection, some recent progress

corner plate tacked on to check outer sill and wing repair panel fit (2nd attempt - tempremental welder)




inner sill repair getting there




an opportunity to teach the boy basic metal shaping !



great to see all the work being done to keep cars mobile and enjoyable

Brian

A bit more ECU fettling after reading my book and a good run down to Portsmouth and back last night.

A couple of bits to look at around the AFR at idle and also around boost - I can happily hit 1 bar (after market gauge plumbed into the inlet manifold) and the AFR is reading around 12.5 ish so rich enough but is 1 bar to much? I suspect it might have tried to go higher but I put a cut off at a smidgen over 1 bar just in case.

stripped the front suspension with a view to upgrading, rebushing & cleaning

Just got my beloved white turbo back from the bodyshop following a paint touch up on the bottom of both front wings where it had a tiny orange spot due to a stone chip on each side threatening to emerge!!.

Now thinking of using some of the wax injection items recommended on this forum in the sills, rear quarters and possibly even removing both front wings and doing them on the inside at the same time.

Also been looking at my red 968 and thinking I had better get the 3.0 turbo engine built so I can enjoy it next summer.

Surely it's not worth just building one engine, must be easier to build two?

Broke down. Looks like the head gasket.

Oddly enough I think I have a very similar picture with my old blue 968 on the back of an AA lorry. LOL



Edited to add a picture of my first 968. It's not as if I don't look after my cars. They don't want for much.


Just tracked down the other photo. It's the start of a new collection 'My Porsches on the back of AA lorries'

Oh no Olivaw!!

What were the symptoms?

Where's it gone on that truck?

ab54666, you want me to build one for you too?

Going to be building a 2.5 for the TWR car at the same time and a 3.2 to build for next season, but there is always room to build more!

Hi Jon,

The symptoms were as follows:
1. The car started to feel lumpy and I had to change down to second when driving at 30. When the revs were high it seemed okay.
2. The temperature started to creep up a little, but not much, maybe what you'd see if you were stuck in traffic.
3. When I was in traffic or stopped at junctions, the whole car started to shake quite badly and at one point
the exhaust started to bang up against the bottom of the car.
4. Eventually the temperature needle started heading north, but I pulled over before it hit the red.

There was no obvious loss of coolant, but the coolant level in the expansion tank was lower than expected.

Luckily I wasn't far from the office so I let it cool down a bit, not that it really seemed to be that hot (no steam)
and then drove the quarter of a mile to get somewhere more convenient.

When the AA man looked at it he squeezed the coolant pipe coming from the top of the engine and lots of bubble started streaming into the expansion tank. He then got out a syringe type instrument, filled it with a blue liquid and while I ran the car a little he dipped it into the expansion tank. The liquid turned green which indicated combustion gases in the coolant.

I had the car taken to GT-One in Chertsey as they're just around the corner from where I work.

Blue fluid = Chemical Block test - The fluid turning green or yellow means you have hydrocarbons (Unburnt fuel) in the coolant, where it shouldn't be.. Pretty definitive test really, you sometimes get a blown headgasket which will pass the test, but if it fails it is quite certain.

So does sound like the headgasket

I was going to say if you had taken it home I would have swung past at some point to have a look, I need to go up to your neck of the woods (well Farnborough) anyway at some point sooner or later. Just been putting it off.

Let us know how it goes, if you need any advice or help, just drop us a line or give us a call.

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the offer. The irony of all this is that there was an article on the PCGB & 968UKForum websites warning about this and I had decided to add it to next years list of things to do, thinking with the few miles I do it would last until then, not that there were any obvious signs that it was going. Having said that I was looking at the temperature gauge over the weekend wondering to myself if the needle usually went above the 1/3 mark. That may have been an early sign, but it wasn't obvious enough and when it went it went. The article was written two years ago, but unfortunately I didn't see it until last week. For anyone else with a 968 (regardless of the mileage) I'd recommend you get the head gasket done if it hasn't already been done.

I'll see if I can get the garage to take some photos to give everyone an idea of what their gaskets could look like.

Agree wholeheartedly. It seems to be accepted now that the victor reinz original gaskets are good for 10-12 years. Every original gasket I have seen has been a mess, mine included and mine was not original, 12 years-ish as far as I could work out.

If you care about your 24s/44/68 and do not know the history of your HG then get it done!

Prevention is better than cure on this one! Ensure you have 2 straight faces to whack your new gasket between!

Stuart