Just got my car back from having the coolant pipes pinned. Motor had to come out, and while it was out we replaced several of the hoses. Unfortunately, the brand new hose that connects the power steering pump to the oil filter bracket developed a pinhole leak after the assembly, so the motor had to come out again to replace that hose. Porsche replaced the hose at no charge, but no help on the labor.

Anyway, back in business and ready for the season!

Jon

 

Congrats- that's a BIG job. Had mine pop loose last year at the track an had 3 fittings welded but couldn't get to the others with engine in place. Hopefully I got the main problems.

 

My question is two fold:
1. Has anyone here had a coolant fitting pop loose besides one of the 3 in the back of the motor by the water pump? It seems all the ones I have read about are one of the three in the back.

2. Am I correct in assuming that the 3 rear fittings are accessible for pinning with the motor staying in the car with minor disassembly? I'd like to pin the most failure prone fittings now and do the rest when the motor comes out.

Thx.

 

I think that the answer is "yes" to both questions. I never lost any of them myself, but I know that the one behind the power steering pump has failed for several people. I had the three on the water pump housing done last year, and my tech was able to do them with the motor in the car. The one behind the power steering pump is also accessible with the motor in place.

For the oil filter bracket fittings and crossover pipe, fugeddaboutit. Motor has to come out for those.

Jon

 

Thx Jon. That's what I wanted to know. So I can pin 4 out of the 7 fittings without having to drop the motor.

 

Thats good to see Jon . I am happy for you!

 

I don't track or race my car. Would it be a horrible idea to wait until the coolant hose fails then try to repair/pin? Or does this preventative repair require the pipes to be intact for it to work? I figure worse case for me is I leak coolant on the street, require a tow, pin the pipe and replace missing coolant.

 

Congrats Jon, peace of mind.

Sounds like Porsche threw in a body slam to go along with the pining. Sorry about that.

 

yes you can wait, most people who do it for preventive is because when you are on the track at 120 mph with someone going the same speed 3 car length behind you, it can get dangerous.

If your engine has to come out for whatever reason though, i would do it at the same time.

I will do mine also as preventive maintenance because i do race the car but if i didn't, i would wait. Or if you have winter like me here and have a 6 month down time, better do it there than in the middle or the summer and lose the car for a coule of weeks on top of that...

 

There are 8 fittings to be pinned, not 7. 2 on the oil filter bracket (note two photos, one for each side), 2 on the connector pipe, 3 on the water pump housing, and 1 on the pipe behind the power steering pump. The 2 on the oil filter bracket and 2 on the crossover pipe are pretty much inaccessible with the motor in the car. See jpfilp's thread on this for the authoritative details:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ts-needed.html


The failure seems to be more prevalent in cars that are tracked, but there are many examples of non-track people who have had the failure. If the pipe blows out, it would be too late to pin it. You can almost guarantee that if it does occur, it won't be at a convenient time or place. If it happens on the highway, you could take out a lot of other people. Up to you, of course, but I am glad that mine is done.


Thanks J-P and Larry. Got another one today - went to put on my new tires that I just had mounted, and one of them was at zero pressure. Huge leak around the valve stem. Another trip to the tire shop tomorrow...

Jon

 

I'm having all of these done at Vivid while my car is there for a new clutch and a whole bunch of other things requiring the motor to be dropped. They're pinning all 8 fittings plus replacing the 3 water pump hoses with new ones (2 are 996 parts and 1 is a better 997 part). They had trouble with that power steering hose too and had to get a new one from Porsche. The cost wasn't too bad since the engine was out already anyway, and those 3 hoses were all about $20 apiece, plus about the same for the power steering hose (I think?).

 

Good that you're getting it done. Wow - they had trouble with the same hose. Must have been a bad lot of them. Good that they caught yours before they reassembled.

Jon

 

Congrats! Thanks for sharing!

 

This is such a common problem lately. It's the new "second gear pop out".

 

Only a lot more expensive to fix. Cars are getting older, and the epoxy is degrading.