Just picked up my '07 GT3 from the dealer after having to repair/replace one of the water manifold sleeves. Apparently this is more common than not (see February 2011 issue of Excellence article). The car only has 7,200 miles and while on a spirited drive my coolant level warning light came on. I checked my water temp, it was normal at 175, 30 seconds later it shot up to 250! Rear view mirror revealed tons of smoke out the back end. I stopped and opened the rear decklid to find the motor saturated in coolant. What appeared to look like a broken hose was in fact a manifold sleeve that disengaged with the hose still attached, dumping the entire contents of my coolant reservoir onto the motor and rear tires. Thank god it's still under warranty. I was told the cost to repair at my expense would have been 2K. I have since found out the only real fix is to TIG weld the aluminum sleeves, of which there are 8, into the manifold. Why Porsche didn't do this at the factory puzzles me, but knowing of this problem and not RECALLING to correct is troubling. If I'd been under a heavy G load when this sleeve fell out, saturating the rears, it would have certainly broken the rear end loose big time resulting in ??? Be forewarned!

 

I'd make them drop the engine/tranny (at their expense) and allow you to have them welded in (at your expense)

Doing a 996TT right now, engine is out for a clutch, LSD and some other items addressed. Owner had one of these pipe come out as well, on the track, lucky it didn't result in a crash. It happens but I wouldn't say it is common.

 

Big thread on rennlist regarding this topic as well. This effects all GT1 block cars, 996 and 997.

If you pull your motor for any reason (clutch), I'd also have the fittings welded.

 

Dealer tech told me that they've done "several" of these repairs to the same fitting at the same location. Drivers side, top rear. Knowing what I know now, I would have gladly paid to have all the fittings welded at my expense while the motor was out. I'd call that cheap insurance. Unfortunately, too late now.

 

I had a buddy have this happen on the track. He was lucky. Nothing was around the track, but he did a few spins in the dirt, and proceeded to catch the track on fire.

 

Is there any way that I can do it without the motor out?

 

You can maybe do the welding on one of the connectors without dropping motor, but for the remaining four on 997s, you have to drop the motor.

 

My mech got it all done without dropping the engine, just removal of a number of peripheral parts.

 

That's impressive IMO, I could not have imagined that it could be done.