awdmig

Hello all

This is a long overdue post. I acquired a mint 03 turbo coupe 6MT February 2022 after a lot of searching. I always dreamt of owning a GT3/RS but I'm your average wrench and a gt3 is beyond my reach.

Here is my car the day it arrived from the dealer:



I bought it sight unseen (risky). But had an iron clad contract. The car is originally from the US but been in Canada forever.

It was owned by a Porsche executive and came with a stack of Porsche dealer service records. I bought it from an Indy dealer who got hit by Covid and was unable to sell cars due to construction delays and lack of storage space.

I was able to track down the previous owner who was more than happy to talk to me about his car and described how he missed it and regretted selling it. I knew that previous owner willing to chat about his car, receipts for service the car should be great.

It was so good that at 55,000 miles (92,000km) it passed safety with original brakes from factory (yep 20yr old pads / rotors).

Here it is picking it up, got a ride from my neighbor in his ex-race car converted to street.


This was after hours, I had never seen the car and the shop had to leave the keys hidden for me to pick up.

On the way home in a cold Canadian night I couldn't help open it up. That drive was both fun and disappointing. Fun cause it moved and was mechanically very sound, it also smelled like brand new. I could tell it had never been parked outdoors even in the summer for long and stored indoors.

Disappointed because well for an ex-track junkie who has driven /ridden in dedicated track cars and aspired to own a GT3 this car handled like a Lincoln Continental.

The next issue was when I got home and reversed into my garage I stalled it multiple times, the clutch engagement was all over I figured it needs a bleed. And then right that instant the oil pressure dropped to ZERO And my heart stopped beating then back up to 5, and while the blood pressure in my head was equalizing it did it again. I shut it off immediately and decided to check the oil and popped the hood except the engine is in the back... but in my state of mind I was perplexed until my neighbor who had driven me pulled up and came to check it out. Being a machinist and car guy with a built motor in his C4 he got me thinking straight. Engine in the back.. .got it.

But there was no dipstick... the point of my rambling is to point out I knew nothing about this car. It was very different and unique from anything else and I'm used to a lot.

I knew I had a steep learning curve, I'm a visual learner so reading stuff and close up pictures didn't help as I couldn't visualize the general areas. I decided to tackle the oil pressure issue to get myself acquainted with the car.

I replaced the oil pressure sender by lowering the engine from the engine mounts.

I changed the gearbox oil and the stereo as I wanted Bluetooth and GPS

I installed a Sony AX7000 head unit as it has a built-in amp. I'm driving the dash and rear speakers with the head unit. I installed a small Kenwood amp to handle the door woofers and rear shelf sub. BTW the rear shelf sub has 2 speakers 2ohm but wired in parallel. Maybe this is the design intent and the factory amp can drive 1ohm but I've never seen an amp go that low so I wired it in series for 4 ohms total.

The stereo setup





The car was fun but the suspension bugged the heck out of me. I started researching on coilover setup. I looked at KW, AST, Motons, MCS, Ohlins, H+R and Feal.

I finally settled with Ohlins as my goal for this car is to be OEM+ and be able to revert to stock. I want to be able to track it but I might get out there 1-2x per year.

Along with the suspension the clutch bugged the heck out of me but since the car was fine and I knew the clutch is due to the power assist system. I decided to enjoy my car last summer and not tinker with it until I had a plan.

Well in April 2022 the boss announced we will be having a new member to the family so my focus shifted to the family and work. But I researched and noted mentally things that I'd like to address.

Here is my plan :

• Suspension overhaul (coilovers and spherical joints)
• Clutch hydraulic conversion to remove the accumulator (previous owner replaced it 3x
• Change fluids, old hoses, coil pack update to 997 units

So I purchased :

• EPS LCA x4
• EPS tuning forks x4 (these have a impressive bushing)
• Rennline F+R bumpsteer kits
• Camber King rear adjustable Camber arms
• Wheel studs (more on this later)
• Ohlins Road and Track
• Sachs 2.5 clutch kit with solid disc
• Luk DMFW
• Wavetrac diff
• 997.2 gt2 1-2-3 gear set
• Bbi slave, OEM master, reservoir, cap, some lines and o-rings for the clutch hydraulics

I think that's enough for a now. I'm much further along with my car but I'd like to Thank f@powdrhound for several million posts on various topics and f@paopao for helping me figure out fine details and providing emotional support 24/7 as I do the night shift with the baby.

Some pictures of the car...more to come later

Turbodan

Congrats. looks great enjoy. great colour
why anyone would make a race car out of a c4 is beyond me...heavy front end etc...
MVL is very hit and miss, mostly miss from my experience. I think they don't allow ppis?
are you in the local whats app group yet for 6tt?

awdmig

Thanks for the compliments, sorry no time for Whatsapp due to busy family life. And I'm more than happy with MVL and happy to recommend them to anyone. plenty of shops selling Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolls etc. I don't think I've ever seen anyone of those let the car out of sight.

I'd prefer to keep it about my car here as its my way of documenting the progress and my ownership. Hope that's okay

kamlung

welcome...even though you have been hiding in the corner for a year already...

awdmig

Thanks!

Forgot to mention above that the car came with a Fabspeed exhaust and I have my 4yr old with me all the time so the exhaust has to go. It's not loud or obnoxious but not suitable to have with a young child.

So in order to address my dislike for the clutch, the few preventative maintenance items, the exhaust swap to OEM and research I realized that it was best to pull the engine and transmission together.

I would normally do this myself but we just moved to a new home and new baby on the way, it would be crazy to take on this job.

I spoke to my friends at MVL and it was actually very reasonable to have them do the heavy lifting. They are extremely familiar with 996 in particular and primarily deal with exotics. They haven't done the clutch hydraulics etc before but a quick explanation of what I'm trying to do the mechanic was on board.




And out came the engine

Dock

Congrats on the 996 Turbo.

theprf

Very nice.
I'd throw all those EPS parts in the trash. Google up EPS Control Arm failures and EPS Tuning fork failures.

kamlung

I'm not a fan of Fabspeed after they lost credibility on a thread i came by where the owner was trying to reference a 996 turbo project when all the pictures posted was clearly of a 997.

my kids love the Kline exhaust i put on... looks like the shop knows their stuff...

2fcknfst

Congrats, eh!

Turbodan

sounds great. I don't have much experience with MVL other than checking out a car for someone who ended up buying it, but recall at the time no ppi allowed. They had a few huge warehouses filled with luxury cars mostly Range rovers, and Porsche. they must have done well selling those over COVID.

911 Rod

Welcome to the group!

Lady Silver

I love it when you guys speak Canuck....
BTW, I am 2nd generation Canuck, born in the US.....grandparents born au Canada....Messier

awdmig

I wanted to put the K-line but then I wanted to put the wavetrac and 997.2 gt gears even more

Thanks eh! How's the STi?

They have always had warehouses with cars on multi storey racks of all kinds not just ranges and Porsche, some even the manufacturer's have had to be reminded they built. They won't sell crap and other than wheels and exhaust they don't sell modded cars. I can't think of an instance but I can't imagine them leaving a customer hanging if they mistakenly sold a lemon. But knowing the mechanics well and their skills I doubt you can slip one by them. But they are used cars at the end of the day.

Thanks

I'm your typical immigrant but been here long enough to Canuck aboot it from PEI to Alberta

awdmig

I quickly did and did find the one thread and Amazon.com reviews showing failures on the tuning forks. Scary stuff if it happens. Not sure what I'll do about it. I'm thinking I do most of my work and am under the car often so I'll probably have to keep an eye on it. Definitely next time around won't be going with them. Maybe incan machine something to enforce the problem spot on the round bushing in the tuning fork

awdmig

These are the coolant hoses from the engine bay. If you run them on Pelican or other Porshe friendly sites the current parts should come up.




Lines all pinned basically how sharkwerks woukd