I'm Blogging Again - recent event highlights and what's coming.

It's been a few weeks of over-work and under-play.

With the trade show / expo FINALLY underway in Texas I can take a breather and get some non-work related projects done. And I have quite a few of them.

Over the next couple of of days I will be updating the blog on some of the more recent projects and repairs.

- sunroof seal for the 964

- airbox modification for 993

- DACH x-pipe exhaust for 993

A few other things occured during the month that I will cover as well.

- Tacoma,WA Porsche dealer is worthless to me

- Electrical leak in 964 drags down battery after 2 weeks of non-op

- MOVING! Finally getting off my butt and stopping the waste of money on rent.

- Bank of America, with all that money why can't they buy a clue?

I look forward to updating the blog again. At least I know that I've not been bored!

DACH X-pipes arrive!!!

Yeeee HA! Work is hellish right now. Major project commitments, up against deadlines that simply CANNOT be moved, adjusted, or even tweaked (trade show in Texas), problems with systems, etc. etc.



NOT ALL IS GLOOM!!! :) The DACH exhaust crossover pipes for the 993 have finally arrived from North Carolina. Ordered back in October of 2006 it's been a long LONG wait but they are HERE!

Nice looking part. Hand made... looking pretty sweet in it's stainless steel! Came with new gaskets and (oh my.. do I need to replace them) bolts. Looking foward to getting under the car and getting this project underway soon! Aftet I get some more work off of my plate that is!

Larson Porsche dealer - WORTHLESS!!!

ARG!!! Geez. Maybe I'm being unreasonable here.. if so, please reset my expectations.

BUT.. all I needed was a simple frigging air filter for a 1995 993 C2. Noting exotic.. aside from it taking the parts guy 20 minutes (lost somewhere back in the micro-abyss of the parts.. room, thing...) they did not have one in stock! Geez.. it's an air filter... someone people need to replace! Now.. of course I know they need to charge a bit more for overhead and stocking but.. wait.. they DON'T stock it.. well.. regardless, I think asking $42.00 for a paper filter that I just ordered from Pelican ($15.00) and on top of that it would take at least a week to get there (and I'd have to drive the 15 min. across town to pick it up).... is just robbery.

Geez.. I'm frustrated. I've given those cats 3 tries at taking care of me. Besides the slooooooooooooooooooooow service.. there really CRAPPY PPI they did on the 993, and the incredible price of the factory filter... Man.. I'm a little cranky!

Maybe it's just because it's Monday.

Is there a GOOD parts house in Puget Sound? Anywhere? Sometimes I just like to get a project DONE and don't want to wait for something simple like an air filter.


PS. Everything I've bought from them has had to be ordered.. everything.. well.. except the coffee mug, that I broke last week but that's another rant.. oh.. and they are out of stock on those too.. ARG!!!

Wiper Blades - good, bad and the smudgly

It's raining.

It's raing A LOT. And when I say alot for the Pacific Northwet, I do mean A LOT. You certianly find limitations in the capabilities of wiper blades.

In the past I've had good luck with your typical mid-line wiper blades. I don't buy refills, the time wasted screwing around with them is better spent on other endeavors. I also won't buy cheap blades. Well, at least I thought I was not buying cheap blades.

My Mercedes Benz uses a somewhat unique single 22" blade mounted in the center of the windshield. I always order these direct from Mercedes and they work excellent!

The 964 has a set of TRICO blades on it and they are working great. I think a lot of the performance has to do with how good the glass is. In that car it seems nearly new.

But when it comes to the 993, nothing seems to work great, and the TRICO are neven close to being up to the task. They suck. To the point of being dangerous to drive at night, in the rain with those blades.

I suffered through a month or so like this and finally on Tuesday decided enough was enough and replaced the 2 month old TRICO blades with new Bosch units. WOW! What a difference.

BOSCH Blades - 1

TRICO Blades - 0

Rain rain, GO AWAY (and quit filling up my car!)

Urg... it's been on hell of a wild few weeks up here. Record breaking snow, record breaking rain (month of November), record breaking lows (first week of December) and now record breaking winds, in what amounted to a category 1 hurricane slamming Washington! I still say Al Gore is having cannibus flashbacks.

So.. of course.. this is the BEST time of year for the car to start leaking... A LOT. Drips where exiting the headliner right over my left shoulder, streaming water down the front of my seatback and also into the rear footwell. And it was just getting worse and worse.

I noticed that one of the sunroof seals looked like it was not perfectly matching up... and the more I looked at it the more I wondered how that all worked! Well.. I tried some silicon. Worked for a bout a week, then the leaks were twice as bad!

Finally, I decided to order new sunroof seals (about $80.00 worth of parts) and planned to have the local shop do the install, being as I was in no mood to screw around with them in this weather... fudge something and be right back where I started. Easier to out-source it and if it's fucked up, THEY have to fix it.

Fast forward a couple of weeks (up to thismorning to be exact) and I stumble cross a post to Rennlist when this all started. What did I find? 4 responses that said I needed to check the drain tubes. "Drain tubes?" I asked?

Yes, well it appears that the seals around the sunroof are NOT designed to hold out the water but instead designed to keep out the crud. The way it's supposed to work is the drain tubes at the rear of the roof channel the water down in the C-pillars to a pair of exits right above the engine compartment. And to fix this problem, all you need to do is run some insulated wire up the tubes and.. .well.. if it's not glued shut.. you should be able to clear them!

A spool of speaker wire I had handy did not do the trick. So it was out into the holiday traffic (I'd been at home all weekend building web and other intel gathering servers for an anti-fraud project). FUN! NOT! At least Radio Shack was close by, and distanced from the mall and sure.. you pay 3x what you should but.. it's HANDY.

$15 later and 10 minutes of performing my best imitation of an automotive Protologist.. and I have clear drain tubes. I just hope that was the problem. Being near Seattle I doubt I'll have long to wait before I test it.

I don't have pictures of what I did... really.. nothing to see other than some wire snaking around insite the roof (snooze). Maybe I should dig up those pictures of the snow.. that *might* be interesting.

Fun with the State Patrol (aka how to cook a burrito on your dash)

I was in oddly aggressive mood for Monday, especially in considering I'd just had HDTV cable and a new broadband connection installed (Qwest DSL is SUCKING!!!! put that in you router and smoke it!)

After the cable guy (who looked and spoke nothing like Larry) left I hopped in the '64 and went off to work. It was not more than a few blocks down Burwell (SR-304), where it opens from 1 to 2 lanes that I came across him. Mr. Mountbike State Patrol (hereforto reffered to as 'The Man'.). Stopped in the #1 lane (Naval and Burwell - 25 MPH zone), I reached the intersection just as the light was turning green. Having seen 'The Man' before I knew he was there. This is where the trouble started.

With a nice jack-rabbit start I launched in a spirited fashion, quickly reaching 25 MPH, leaving 'The Man' a good distance behind, off to my left. My radar detector immedialy went solid 'K' band. GAME ON! He must have known I had a detector, it's easy to spot when on, and even easier when signaly a full-on radar attack.

I maintained my 25 MPH pace, with him right on my quarty panel as we turned left towards the shipyard. After passing the last base entrance speed limit jumps from 25 to 30 (first of many speed limit changes on this section of highway.. can it be a highway with a 25 MPH speed limit.. that's a question for another day). Now following right behind me I change from the middle lane to the left and right before crossing the 30 sign, radar lights me up again. Fortuanly I'd already placed the frozen burrito on the dash. Cooking was now underway.

Leaving the shipyard speed increases again to 45 as it heads west towards SR-3 south. Instead of reamining in the #2 lane, which would take him back to the WSP barracks, 'The Man' dropped in on my tail, I'm sure he was hoping to catch me in the 50->40->50->60 zone known at the town of Gorst, WA.

Taking the SR-304 to SR-3 East onramp right at 50, I moved again into the #1 lane as soon as legally possible. He kept behind me but off on my right. Soon the 40 MPH speed and drunk trap (AKA Gorst) would be in sight. With the reliablity of the sun rising, as soon as I was at the 40 sign.. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET, off goes the detector again. You'd think they'd be more creative. Frost is just about gone from the Burrito.

At this point I needed to get into the #2 lane, lest I end up in the wolves den of Police/Court corruption known as Port Orchard. This meant I had to change lanes, placing right in front of 'The Man'. At this point he's all over me, like a hobo on a 50.

I managed to make it through Gorst without busting the 40 limit. Do you know how hard that is in a Porsche.. they don't like going that slow.. but we made it none the less. Down the road the 50 MPH limit sign would be appearing and I could take it up a notch. At this point I moved to the #2 lane (out of #1 which was #2 through gorst.. are you following me here?) as the highway climbs from Gorst, to outskirts of Port Orchard. 50 MPH. He's on my left flank. I could read his badge number of I'd wanted too.

As we crest the hill he begins to pull away. A 60 MPH was coming up soon.. looked like he was getting tired of playing with me. While still barely in sight I thought it unwise to jump to 60 before the sign. It turned out to be a good move.. because right before I crossed into the 60 zone... WEEEEEEEEEEEEET again.. he lights me up, hoping to catch me 'breaking the law'. No such luck Johnny Law. You're not playing with the average driver here.

He remained well ahead of me for several miles.. but still withing sight. There were a few cars between us, but I kept it at the limit. A good song on the radio.. I was in no rush. Another mile or so later I pass a maroon Ford Explorer on the shoulder of the road.... 'The Man'.. sailed right on past.. didn't even see brake lights.. nice.. possible stranded motorist and he whizzes on past.

I guess it was a good call on his part.. as I passed the SUV it had already started to roll and merge back onto the highway.

On last chance remained for him to get me. The infamous 60->50->60 trap before Purdy. It's also just before the Kitsap/Mason county line. He was still in sight.. far ahead of me as we came into the 50 zone. There were a ton of other cars.. no way he could radar me and honestly write me a ticket. Screw it though.. that intersection is the most dangerous in the county, no need to be hero.

As I pass the 60->50 Speed Change Ahead sign I start to slow down.. and I'm doing 50 right as I get to the sigh. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTT WTF?!?! It was full-on signal.. and 'The Man' was way to far ahead of me to be the source. Then I notice that maroon SUV. 1/8 mile back or so.. in my lane... BUGGERS! That's not citizen in distress.. it's one of the WSP's undercover patrol vehicles! No wonder he did not slow down to check on that 'motorist' on the side of the road. He'd called ahead. And then it made sense. As soon as I was next to the SUV, off came the flashers and brakes and he merged onto the highway behind me.

Following the last failed attempt to lock-on with weapons.. 'The Man' turned off on the Purdy exit and headed off to points unknown. The SUV? It pulled onto the shoulder of the highway under the Purdy Cuttoff overpass, at which point I lost sight of him.

My hat is off to the WSP for trolling deep to catch a fish. It was a good trap.. and had I been paying closer attention It would have spotted it before it was sprung. Too bad for them I was not breaking the law.

Sometimes you poke at the bear and you don't get eaten. Plus.. you can have a piping hot breakfast burrito micorwaved on your dash, all at the same time! It sure was yummy.

A Winter Pounding

Wow.. what a nutty week! We had a record breaking month of rain (normally 5 1/2" this time over 15 1/2"). Then we have record breaking low temps (not since the 70's has this area had such low temps).

Driving in the snow and ice in the Porsches was VERY interesting!! On Sunday when storm #1 opened the skies with unusually heavy and very dry snow. The roads were rough but started to clear out by Wendesday.. when storm 2 cam rolling in, leaving a bunch of snow in some areas, and almost no snow in others.

Over the last 6 days I took a number of photos, had a couple of near spins right outside the house and even turned back while trying to get to work on Monday. It was sort of fun.. being snow-bound from the office for 3 days.. also drove me nutz with cabin fever! I was happy to take my chances on the icy roads Thursday morning.

Armed with a blanket, box of snack bars, 1 liter of water and 1/2 liter of engery drink in case the roads went to hell. It was an uneventful and unusally light commute.

When I have time I'll post some pics from the week.

On a more auto-centric note, on Monday the 4th I should have a load of parts and supplied arriving, including a special suspension brace for the 993, required when fitting 18" wheels on a 1995 993 (which is what mine is and has). I did not wait to jack the car up and see if I already have the prace. I might, since they previous owner did some upgrades. If it's an extra.. off to FleaBay for it!

The remainder of the parts inclue a pair of DME relays. These are the common failure point on older Motronic / Bosche engine control systems, and if the relay fails the car will not run at all (no fuel). I spare is cheap insurance so one will go on each car.

Another repair that I'll be making is re-soldering the clock in the 964 to hopefully cure it's loss of time and to fix connections that triggered the SRS failure lamp.

Lots to do in the comming days....

Test Drives - first impressions.

Ride quality is excellent! The car feels a lot more precise in everything it does, but not harsh. With the H&R Red (turbo) springs and Bilstien HD shocks it seems like the perfect combination of control and comfort for street use. Today is the 2nd test run down the normal commuting route and both drives were equally enjoyed.

The suspension does give a jarring ride. Some places where the car was difficult to control (crossing heavily rutted intersections) seemed a lot smoother, which I found odd with the stiffer shocks and springs. The reason for this, I think, is the fresh components stopped the tendancy to pogo, because the shocks could not control spring bound/rebound. Whatever the reason, it's a vast improvement AND it did not ruin the day-to-day ride comfort!

There are some drawbacks. I'm not feeling what I'd call bumpsteer but it is a bit more skittish and tends to wander more on the road. I'm sure this is due to the basic (and I mean very basic) alignment I had done Saturday morning.

The reason for the basic alignment initialy is to test the ride height I selected (Euro RS + 5mm) in a real world environment. City, town and soon (some time this week) the state ferry system. All of these provide interesting ground clearance challenges. The ferry is the one I'm most concerned with. Tides in this area an vary more than 14'. That is a lot of ramp angle when you are talking about approach angles getting onto and off of that auto ferries. I hope I don't high-center the car. Nothing pisses off ferry uses more than a dead car or worse.. one fully blocking the loading ramp!

More thoughts to follow as I spend time driving the 964 on the commute. Now, the 993 is going to go in for some TLC, probably an alternator overhaul and to come up with a cleaver plan to hard-wite in the Escort radar detector power harness. I just completed a basic reverse engineering of the spare I have. Hopefuly my assessment is correct and I can duplicate the scheme, creating a switched 12v output to trigger stereo auto-mute as well as flash dashboard lights instead of a tiny LED. We'll see how it turns out.

DONE! (nearly).

After what was much longer project than it needed to be, the 964 is back together and on the ground!

Last night my neighbor came over and we completed bleeding the brakes. Ah.. rock solid. The only task left now is to set ride height (the above pictures is with the springs set at full extension), set the alignment and finally bed in the new brake pads.

For this photo I rolled the car in and out without the brakes. I just could not wait to get it outside and see how it looked as low as it would go.

Jacking the car to bleed the brakes was interesting. The near rear sway bar is quite stiff. At the current setting, jacking the car from it's rear jack point lifts both tires on that side of the car. In fact it almost put it on one tire (left front, right rear jack point). It will be interesting to try it out once alignment and brake bedding are complete.

Later this week I'll post some more pics of the car just before I finished the button up.

It sure was sweet to fire up that engine again. It sounds soooo good with the recent updates. I 'll try to shoot a video clip of it and post this weekend!

Brake supplies finally here!

Finally, the last of the brake supplies for this project have arrived.

I could have gone with a lesser fluid, or even a better fluid (at $60 per 1/2 liter) but this is regarded as one of the best and when ordered from Amazon.com it's also one of the most economical. With specifications that vastly exceed DOT 4 requirements I should not boil out the fluid unless I really, really screw up by over-braking.

Also in the kit is a bleeing bottle to keep the fluid from making a mess on the floor and facilitate easier bleeding of the brakes.

Starting on 964 Rear

With the front buttoned up and only bleeding of brakes remaining I've began work on the rear of the '64. Looking at the lower mount points this will be a breeze. Nothing need be distrubed in the alignment adjustments. Rear sway bar should be far easier to access than the front.

The big problem will be gaining access to the tops of the rear struts. As you an see, the motor is stuffed into the rears of these cars. Plenty of parts are in the way. Since I replaced the stock airbox with the cone intake I can at least see the tops of the rear shocks. Not so on the driver side. Removal of the blower fan seems to be a requirement and likely the only holdup on completing the rear of the car. Time will tell. More as I start to unbolt parts.

Buttoning up front end

Finally, found some time to get working on this project again. If feels good to have things put back together. It's been far too long that car has been in the shop. With it just a tad more than 1/2 way done I see light at the end of the tunnel.

To be clear on this. The project is NOT difficult nor is it that time consuming. I've simply had some problems setting side the time to do it, with family, work, board meetings, club meetings, needing to eat and do laundry (house cleaning etc.). It's just been a time conflict issue. If you plan to do this sort of work. Fear not, it's EASY! A little time consuming but a long single day set aside to just knock it out and you are done. Only people with weird work hours other self-imposed restructions will find it and extended project.

Onto the pics and a little bit about what all those new shiney parts are:

---

All the parts back together
New Bilstein struts, H&R 965 Turbo springs, Axxis Ultima brake pads and new Zimmerman rotors. At the suggestion of others I painted the new rotor hats in high-temp (1200F) silver paint. They look fine now but will soon begin to show rust. The rotors on my old race Miata did the same thing. Nature of the beast when the ocean water is 1/2 a block from your house. It should keep it looking clean and sharp!



Assembled with my fabricated droplink.
Here is the driver's side of the car, viewing assembly from the front. You can see the sweet new pads, big vented rotors, new stainless front brake lines. What is sort of unusual and I'm not even sure I'll keep them in service for long, are heim joints and grade-7 thread-all that are serving as the sway bar droplinks. You can see it crossing just in front of the strut from the steering knuckle to the bar. It's an interesting method of doing this, dropping the link off of the steering knucle instead of the lower control arm. The way the front suspension the car is engineered is like nothing I've seen before. I've worked on number of cars with strut front-ends but the way the assembly works (camber and caster changes) through it's travel is facinating. This is the last time those parts will look that pretty.



Buttoned up and on the ground.
And finally, wheels re-installed and placed on the ground. I think you can see why I painted the rotor hats. They are quite promenent with the factory wheels (due to the great degree of front-end offset compared to most wheels - meaning they are further outboard than most). Again.. soon they will never look this pretty again.

I've got big balls..

.. monoballs that is. The MODE monoballs for the 993 arrived last night. These things are really trick. Adjustable camber plates with monoball tops for maximum camber adjustability and precise steering. I can see why these cost more than 1/2 a Porsche Unit!


In other news.. feck.. it'd getting cold. If you are reading this from the midwest or upper Eastern seaboard you're likely just laughing at me. But hey.. for us.. this is getting a little chilly! Brrrrrrr. I don't eveny those of you that live in the snowbelt... (why anyone built anothing more than an ice fishing hut up there is beyond me).

Things starting to go back together again.

I've made little progress this week because of numberous distractions. Primary of which has been work.
Secondary was selling a motorcycle Monday night which took several hours to complete. Geez that kid was peristant.. in the end he wore this old man down and I folded. Not completely but I did take less than I wanted for the bike. There is a point where it's just not worth battling over any longer. Besides.. it's not like I sold it to buy groceries or make my rent or something like that. It was more about not having to insure it any longer!


Back to cars... this is what it currently looks like up front. I'd have it back on the ground by the stock drop links are more than 2" too long. Crap.. I need to order more parts. Havn't had time to get them aquired. I was trying to find a better price than $110 each but now it looks like I'll not only have to pay that but I spent 3 days trying to save money that I ended up never saving. Arg. I hate when I do that. It's parallels the bike. Didn't feel like fighting for a couple of hundred dollars that I'll soon forget about. Just wanted the deal done. Hasta la vista Honda!

I honestly want to get the rear started... I doubt I'm racing this weekend.. just too much to do and no time to do it in. It's nearly winter anway, which was the reason I started this project.. I'd have all the time in the world to finish it. I think I need to take my time... enjoy the work on the car and not rush it due to self-imposed deadlines. Live is too short to stress yourself out!

The name's Bond. James Bond.

Like a scene out of a 007 movie, the 993 laid down a could of smoke this morning that any spy would be proud of.

What it all amounted too was me being a dumbass. I overfilled that oil tank. 911's are dry sump engines, so all the oil is stored in a tank, typically about 13 quarts of the life preserving fluid.

My dash oiltank gauge has a bad sensor and it's always reading low. Not wanting to blow up a $15,000 engine in a new-to-me car, I try to keep on top of it. Yesterday I was over the top on it, literally.

Upon startup this morning, for the first time, I was greeted with a big cloud of smoke. YIKES! CRAP! I link I screwed up my oil level check proceedure and overfilled the tank! Thankfuly tt quit smoking almost as quickly as it had started.

Warmed up, off to work I go. Needing to accelerate into traffic, I put my foot in the go-button. WHOOSH! "HOLY MOTHER OF *****!!!" A blue-white cloud so thick *all* traffic behind me dissapeared. And since it was not steam I really hung around, covering the roadway. Dang it!

I'm really, REALLY glad nobody had a crash. That scared the heck out of me, and I'm sure was an attention getter to those behind me.

I drove a short distance, got off the highway to a deserted road, and tried it again. This time no smoke. Tried many times, doing a couple of WOT launches from a dead stop. No smoke. Hopefuly it blew out what I'd overfilled.

I'll see when I leave the office today, if they wish a farewell to 007.

964 suspension work continues and broken tools.

It's Wednesday and things are going along much more quickly than I had expected, considering the quantity of write-ups regarding the suspension work. So far the front has rivaled my old Miata for easy of work. It's been a breeze. The ONLY challenge I've had so far was getting the nuts removed from the tops of the front struts.

No size of vice grip was able to hold the shaft with enough grip to get the nuts off. I ended up taking them to the local Porsche dude across town at MaxRPM (Alex THANKS for taking time out of your busy day to use the super impact gun to remove those things!). It took him some time to get them loose but now they are off and progress can continue.

I did run into an issue with the 10mm Allen head bolts. In fact it was the tools that had a problem. 3 tools died while attempting to loosen the lower bolts on both sides. Oddly enough a Tiawanese tool from Schucks Auto Supply was the only survivor (two of the dead tools were American made life-time tools.. which will be returned for replacement some time this week). I'll post some aftermath photos as well as some other interesting shots once I download them from my camera.

See ya next time.

964 work starts, 993 parts arrive and 8-stars of Thai

964 work starts
More mod madness is underway. Last night I put the 964 up on jacks and started the suspension overhaul. Where I live, there is a pretty strict time frame within which it's sort of OK to make noise. That ends at 10:00pm. That left me less than 2 hours of work but I think I did pretty good for my first time in there really tearing stuff apart (pics will follow later this week).


First off, the car is much easier to work on (so far) than I had feared. Why did I put this off so long? Stupid fear. So within those 105 minutes I had to work on the car I accomplished the following:

• Up on jacks. It took a while to decised where to jack and place the stands.
  
• Remove front lower aero-pan, to expose suspension
  
• Removed front flex (brake) lines.
  
• Removed front calipers (those bolts are TORQUED).
  
• Boot liner removed to access to shock towers.
  
• Disconnect battery (I plan some airbag work in parallel)
  
• Removed front rotors. They would make decent boat anchors.
  

At that point, I was out of time.

First thing in the morning I got up, made coffee and started to work on it again. After re-reading the online articles on the project, went after the 4 big bolts that hold on the front struts.

This requires a 10mm allen (post) head socket. After a lot of creaking the first bolt budged on the driver side. Next I went to the lower. Creaked then made a weird sound and got very VERY easy to turn. The allen head spin in the tool! The cheap Chinese toolset (that had worked find on my bikes) lost the battle, reduced to junk. Next I used a 6-point 10mm socket on the post. That socket quickly exploded into multiple pieces (I'm not using an impact hammer here.. just a breaker bar.. well.. it broke alright).

Needing to get to work, and with most of these required tools in pieces, I packed up, cleaned up and hit the road, stopping at the tool shop for some replacements. I'll have at it again tonight.

993 parts arrive
Awaiting me at the office this mornign was a FedEx box containing the H&R springs, destined to ride in the 993. Woo Hoo. More suspension work. I still need to source the Bilstien shocks for this update... and waiting on the new rotors too. Oh, also over the weekend I added some Big Oval tips to the 993. Need to get those pics posted too.

8-stars of Thai
I think I've lost my voice (or at least my ability to see, eye are filled with tears). Much to my delight (dismay) there is a good Thai restaurant right scross the street from the office, so I got there often. Over the last few weeks I've been ratcheting up the heat on my meals. When I found out they go beyond 5 starts (1-5 is typical, as far as I know), the escalation began.

Head waiter let me in on the 'extra' star secret and said he's tried 7 stars once.. could not finish it. So I tried out 6. Whew.. heat but.. I felt I needed more. Went to 6 1/2 stars but still wanted to kick it up.

Last week I ordered 7 stars. My coworkers came in complaining of watering eyes in thier offices.... AH! I was just about there.. .but.. I was still able to eat the food with impunity... but how much further can I push it before they say 'Enough! Cook his food in machine shop solvent!'.

Today, I pushed to 8 (on a scale of 1 to 5). The heat is starting to come on. Everyone got a good laugh when I grabbed a soda from the break room. I guess I'm beat read, sweating and eyes filled with tears. Ah.. this is what I'm talking about... at little heat in the ol Thai food.. :) Tomorrow.. it will be 8 again.. and if that does not put me in the hospital.. I might go to 9!

993 Bonding is complete

I hesitated to say much but I was having a little trouble with the 993 as a daily driver. Compared to the 964 it felt 'loose' on the highway.. not really connected to the driver. I'd been looking over parts and could not find anything *wrong* with the car.. it just felt funny.

Until this weekend.

Following a weekend of driving the kids around I noticed some rattles around the rear and Saturday night got in the back seat area with a philips screwdriver and went to work. About 20 and several trim screws later.. it was all battoned down. Then I went about checking tire pressures. Something I should have done earlier.

While working at the track on the 964 I noticed that my rear tires needed a lot more pressure than I thought they would to keep from rolling over on the sidewalls. Hm.. could that be the cause of the loose feeling? The tires are a 35 aspect ratio.. hardly and sidewall at all. But why not run them up to 42psi and see what it gets me.

What did it get me? A brand new feeling car. Crap... that vauge feeling was all due to the tire pressure in the rears being far too low.. that.. and the fact that Toyo also makes TOTAL PIECE OF SH*T TIRE in the form of the Proxes T1R. (that R must mean something other than race.. you fill in the blank). Geez. Sidewall flex is king at Toyo from what I can tell. The tire the T1R replaced (T1S) was notorious sidewall flex and making even the sportiest of cars feel vauge. Everyone raved about how much better the T1R was. Well.. I can only image how big of a TURD the T1S must have been! Geez.. how do I make these sorts of mistakes.

Well.. put in more air pressure and wow.. tightened up the feel. Now it was as fun and tighter if not more so, than the 964!!

All is well with my insane little Porsche world. Note to self.. what might *seem* like a good tire pressure on the rear of a normal car is utter foolishness on the rear of a 911/964/993/996/997 (and I'm thinking the same is true for Boxters and Caymans).

Now that I'm totally comfortable with the 993.. the 964 will be going under the knife for a full suspension tune-up (shocks, springs, sways, you name it!).

More to follow........ including my writeup on the new 993 performance 'Big Oval' tips fetched off of eBay this past week!

993 Big Oval Tips (another fleaBay score)

I didn't find them, nor was I the first to try them out. Instead of reaping the benefits of those that bravely went before me. In the world of Porsche parts, quality is king and some manufactures take that to mean, they can charge 3x the normal price for a basic part under the banner of a certain level of 'quality'. What I've found is that it's not often the case.

In this case, a factory big-oval tip is several hundred dollars. A similar artermarket part from a renown PCar parts manufacture is around $500. These little babies... Fifty-bucks! Of course I was concerned about fit and finish but others had raved about the deal so I toss my 1/2 C-note to the wind.

I was not dissapointed. Here are some pics of the parts as I unpacked, compared and installed them.

New parts unpacked.
The polished finish, quality flare on the flange and black painted interior were more than I had anticipated. They feel like quality parts.


Big megaphone construction.
Here my little helper shows the interior of the product. What surprised me most is how much better this part was than the factory Porsche part in both constrution and finish. Inexpensive does not neccessarily mean cheap!


Comparing the parts
Factory part on the left, new part on the right. The difference in size and finish is obvious. Interior of the stock part acctually looked like would induce some turbulance and back pressure. The aftermarket part is smooth on it's interior. So far, so good.


Part installed.
It did not take much effort to get the new part installed, aligned and tightened up. Looks like a quality factory part to me. Except.. in the next picture you can see there is quite a difference.


Comparing stock (left) for new (right).
It's quite easy to spot the new part on the right. I think it looks a lot better, fills up the valace opening, and.. it's so shiny!


Done
Final results. Looks good. Inexpensive. Easy to install. My gear-head neighbor Bill, said it even sounded different when I headed off to work on Monday. If you are interested in this part I can get you in touch with the FleaBay seller that sold them to us on Rennlist. Fast delivery and big bang for the buck!!

TGI Freaking F!!!

Finaly Friday. What a loooooooong week. Very little done with the cars, besides drive them (took the 993 into work today.. ah.. such a sweet car but sill needs some tuning). It also stopped raining today. This picture was taken last weekend, when it was raining, sue me. One of these days I'll shoot some decent pics of it. For now.. this will have to do.


MODS:
On second though, that is not totally true. I did fix the rear seat belts this morning so the kids can safely ride in the back of the 993. There were some factory latch 'stop's in the belts that prevented them from getting tight enough on my little people. A small application of a hot iron to the offending buttons took care of that in short order!

PARTS!
Some new parts arrived yesterday. Cosmetic stuff primarily. Ho.. so what arrived.. righto.

A pair of 'Big Oval' exhaust tips. They will do a better job of filling the rear valance where the stock tips live now. Cosmetic, maybe a tiny sound alteration. The best part is the COST. So, you can order these an option from Porsche for around $700 or if you are a bargain shopper $500 from a couple of the aftermarket manufactures.

Well.. Rennlist pays for itself over and over and over again. This time.. a group buy was arranged form an eBayer that had a very nice set of these tips for sale.. for.. well.. around $55.00 SHIPPED!

Mine just came in the mail, but are still in the box in the back seat of my car, parked in the parking garage a couple blocks away. What mental defect makes me want to drop EVERYTHING and run out there, get the box, bring it back and open it? LOL. It's OCD I suppose (or just OD).

CATCHING UP? - NOT YET.
And I still have some posts to finish, but I did post pics from my exhaust mods on Sunday. Getting behind already.

As always, more to come!