2003 Porsche 911 Turb-OOOOH

In reply to docwyte :

Damn. I'm surprised he put that much time on you. He must be a heck of a driver to do so!

In reply to dyintorace :

He's pretty damn fast.  He's also more comfortable with slip angle in high speed corners than I am.  His car has rollbar/seats/harnesses which I think gives you a more secure feeling to push the car.  I know where I'm throwing away time on the track and feel I can easily get 1/2 that gap to him, but the other half will be harder.  I am getting more comfortable with sliding the car around, it's nowhere near as scary to catch as I thought, it responds to opposite lock really nicely.

So I ordered the front Apex wheels yesterday.  They're running a 20% off sale but sadly on the 8.5" front wheels, not the 9" fronts I wanted.  So I ponied up the full boat price ($150 more for the two) for the 9's.  Might as well get what I want and I saved a ton on the rear wheels.

My friend also showed me this book, which has all the torque values of all the fasteners on the car.  That's a useful thing to have, so I ordered it too...

Got some pics of the car at the track event last month.  There's an auto-x in a week or so that I may sign up for, I'm waffling because the spend the entire day there for ~5 minutes of seat time vs doing an open lapping day at the track and getting more seat time than I care for in just the morning...

Finally got time to go to my local Discount Tire and have them swap the race tires over to the Apex wheels.  I bought two brand new front ones and got two lightly used rear ones (with tires!) from a friend.  Well, got a call from the tire place saying one of the rear wheels was badly bent.  Doh!  Got in touch with my friend to let him know, then went over to the shop to check it out.

Yeah, that's pretty bent!  Oddly enough it balanced out with almost no weight tho, which I find strange.  My friend felt really bad but luckily had another rear wheel in his basement.  So I shot back up there last night to pick it up and was back at the tire shop this morning.  Thankfully the replacement wheel was fine, whew!  I'll take this bent one to a local place that straightens wheels and see if they can fix it so I'll have a spare...

That thing was BENT! 

In reply to nsogiba :

Yeah it was!  My friend doesn't remember hitting anything that could've done that, it was a track only wheel too.  So not like he hit a huge pot hole with it or something....

Zoinks! It's amazing that the wheel was bent that much and he didn't realize it.

In reply to CAinCA :

He said he didn't feel it at all.  The wheel had very little weight on it balancing it and it was on the rear of the car.  Not sure what the deal was, just happy he had another spare wheel!  It might not be worth having it fixed, the local places want ~$200 to fix it and a new one isn't a whole lot more.

It's the PCA Club Race weekend this weekend and I love to go to it.  Only solo spec DE drivers allowed and all the race cars are there so lots of eye candy.  My son has a soccer game on Saturday, so I'd have to go on Sunday which I kinda hate to do.  You go on Sunday, run all day in the heat, then come home, unpack the car and have to wake up the next day and go to work.  Bleah.  So I decided to do an open track day today, thinking that most of the people would be there for the PCA Club Race.  It's been awhile since I've done an open day, they can kind of be like the wild, wild west as there's no tech inspection and nobody telling you that no, you really shouldn't register in the "fast" group.

Anyways, got the car ready yesterday and drove out there this morning.  New Apex wheels look nice!

You get a ton of track time at an open day, basically you get 30 minutes of every hour.  So I did 3 30 minute sessions in just the morning and could've (and should've) done 4.  What I wasn't expecting and didn't remember was the amount of traffic I encountered.  I was having a really hard time getting clean laps, in fact, I only got 1-2 clean laps a session.  Many times I just came in early as it was obvious I wasn't going to get clean track time.  Even with hot pitting it didn't matter.  This was due to a few things...

#1  Lack of etiquette.  Despite everyone hearing it at the drivers meeting, people didn't watch their mirrors and let you by.  Or would give you a point by and not lift

#2  People being in the "fast" group and not being, well, fast

#3  People there for the club race and they weren't familiar with the track

Despite all that, I managed to set a PB by 1/2 second and would've done even better if I had more clear track.  The track surface felt great and the car was working well, tons of grip! 

I went out in the first afternoon session and there were new people out with me, as you can buy a morning only, afternoon only and full day pass.  These new people weren't great.  In particular a C6 corvette was doing the classic, floor it on the straights, ignore everyone bunched up behind him in the corners, take the wrong lines and go 1/3 the speed through the corners as he could.  Between that and an open wheeled car red misting and spinning in an uphill left hander in front of me, I called it a day and came in. 

So I should've just bought a morning pass and done that last morning session.  The temps were cooler and the track was better and beyond some typical noob passing behavior it felt safer than the afternoon.  Even though I got a lot more track time, it wasn't clean time like I get during a PCA DE.  So I think my preference is still to run with the PCA as I get clean track time and quick point bys...

So the previous owner of my car put the largest battery that'd fit in it.  Ever since then I've noticed that the battery hold down was loose and wouldn't tighten up.  I assumed the captive nut there was stripped.  A few days ago I went to get my car tech'ed for the last event of the year and a few friends there commented on my loose battery.  Ok, time to look into this a bit more.

I pulled the 15mm bolt out and moved the hold down bracket to look at the hole, fully anticipating seeing some sort of captive nut there.  Instead I found no nut at all!  Holy crap, the previous owner just put the hold down and bolt into the hole and sent it, wtf?!  I went through my collection of nuts and found one that fit, slid it under the battery tray and reinstalled the bracket and bolt.

Battery is totally secure now.  Yes, I'm an idiot for not checking this years ago and taking care of it then....

In other news I've found an oem turbo front bumper cover and it's sitting in my basement.  I also ordered the GT2 front fender liners and upper brake scoops.  The GT2 liners channel the air exiting the side radiators into the scoops, which then channel it into the backs of the front brake rotors.  Since I needed new front fender liners anyways this seemed like a no brainer.  I'll probably take the car to my body shop at the end of October and have them do the work.

Was this the first time tech said anything about the battery hold down?

In reply to DrMikeCSI :

In all fairness, no.  Although the battery really didn't move around all that much, so not much of a fuss was made

So yesterday was my last track day of the season.  Was at the track earlier than usual as I was running track tech and needed to get my car ready.  My friend wasn't there so I'd taken over his garage spot, which has lights.  That's key since I showed up and it was still dark and I needed to swap wheels/tires on my car.  So imagine my distress when I show up and someone else has their car parked in my spot!  Argh!  There were two guys outside talking so I asked them if they knew who it was.  Luckily it was the person in the garage next to mine, they got out of their RV and moved their car.  Still lame though given that the entire paddock was open for them to park.

Anyways, got my car ready, teched a few cars and then was on the track.  It was cold!  Like mid 40's.  The track had more grip than I expected and I was clicking off faster laps, getting down into the low 2:04's.  There was more there but I was too cold to go get it.

Next session out was maybe mid 50's and initially I wasn't going any faster.  Then I finally started trusting the grip and letting the car move around a bit and I hit my goal, faster lap ever!  2:03!!!  Garmin said there's a low 2:02 there too!  Last session was after lunch and at that point it was close to 70.  Track had slowed down significantly, so I wasn't able to improve.  Still, very happy and know there's more there for me to get next season.

My friend with the same car as me, but much more heavily prepped, with triple adjustable JRZ's and another 150hp sent me his fast lap, he's got 15mph on me at the end of the back straight!  It's tempting to add more power but even with close to the same power level as me he's 5 seconds faster than me now.  Yes, with far better suspension but I should be able to get within 3 seconds of his time with my current setup.

Here's the video.  So yeah, 2:03.99 is still a 2:03!!!

Were you driving around Denver last week with the BBS' mounted?  If so, I may have spotted you at Sheridan/Colfax heading west...

In reply to Parker with too many Projects :

Yes, last Friday morning.  I dropped the car off at my body shop down there.  I was lucky, they had a cancelation in their schedule, so I don't have to wait until February 3rd.  Getting the new front bumper cover painted and installed, rear bumper cover painted and new front/rear fender liners put on.

Really happy I was able to get the car in now, before the weather really turns.  Plus this way I've got the entire off season to work on the car.

In reply to docwyte :

Car is looking good! That's awesome about getting into the body shop; I've been getting March estimates to get the S2000 in for the front bumper repaint...

In reply to Parker with too many Projects :

I was pro active with them.  I'd asked them to call me if there was a cancelation but I was also calling them every few weeks to find out if someone dropped out of their schedule....

So I've been looking for a set of the X50/GT2 turbos for years now.  You never, ever see them listed for sale and the few times I've shaken the tree people didn't want to sell them for less than $2500.  Which I felt was too much money compared to the cost of turning my current K16's into K16/24 hybrids.

A friend sent me a link to a post on Pelican Parts, guy was selling two sets of K24 turbos, cheap!  I contacted him, he sent me a video showing them and I ended up buying a set.  Had a little bit of fun with FedEx delaying the shipment and me having to get them routed to a drop box since I had to sign for them, but I picked them up yesterday.

I'm really excited about their condition, no shaft play, no signs of leakage, little to no corrosion and the wheels spin freely.  One turbo does have the wastegate actuator arm repaired and is missing some studs, but that's not a big deal.  These very rarely die, so the plan is to just send it and install them as is. 

See the fixed actuator arm on the wastegate?

I plan on running 1 bar wastegates anyways, either Turbo XS ones from Markski (so they'll replace everything stock) or UMW's 1 bar kit which reuses these stock wastegate housings/arms.  That'll spool the turbo's up sooner and give a fatter mid range.  Along with a 5 bar fpr and the proper tune it'll give another ~30whp over just the turbos as is, for a total gain of 80-90whp over what I have now.

I drove my friends K24 car last Friday and it definitely spooled slower than my car by 6-800 rpm.  However once it got moving it definitely had more power and more importantly, held full boost and power all the way to redline.  I really prefer that feeling, I like motors that are still rock n rolling up to fuel cut vs the faster spool but running out of breath at 5000rpm.

So I need to order some parts like gaskets, crush washers, studs/nuts etc for these, then I'll install them.  Also will move the turbo oil tanks over from my turbos to these.  Very happy with this OEM+ upgrade!

Ordered up a bunch of parts today.  Wanted to get new oil line check valves, fcp euro had the OEM branded ones for $182, which I was about to buy until someone gave me a link to the Porsche ones on Pelican for $100!  Wow, ok, almost half as much for the real Porsche part?  Done!  So I ordered all the gaskets, studs, nuts, 2 front brake rotors and spark plugs from FCP and the oil check valves and oil tank o rings from Pelican.

Next thing is to get the 1 bar wastegates from UMW.  A friend has a cobb accessport I'm going to pick up and then I'll head to The Boost Creep here locally to have them dyno tune it.  The owner there has a 996 turbo like mine, so I figure I'll be in good hands.

Picked up a GT2 foam frunk organizer.  I don't know why I didn't think about this but ever since I went to the 997tt brakes the factory spare won't fit anymore.  I looked into the cost of a 996tt s spare, as it will fit but paled at the $600+ shipping cost.  Grabbed this from a local p car guy instead.

Looks good!

I'll throw in a warning triangle and one of my old Audi medical kits in there too.

I also took out the subwoofer and got to my ECU.  Same friend I got this tray from has a cobb accessport I want to buy.  He went to an aftermarket ecu setup but forgot to unmarry the Cobb before he pulled his ECU.  So we're going to plug his ecu into my car so he can unmarry the Cobb for me.  Basically he's using my car for the wiring harness and power source...

Needed to replace some studs on one of the turbos.  I used an M8x1.25 tap to carefully clean the threads and I put in studs that are meant for a VW VR6 exhaust manifold.  They're like 1/10th the cost of the Porsche ones but are basically the same thing.  Double nutted them into place. 

Also picked up a new 5 bar fuel pressure regulator from a friend who wasn't going to use it.  That was a lunch well spent!  Later this weekend I'm grabbing a Cobb Accessport from another friend.  Timing of that is a little variable as a snow storm last night has made it impossible for me to get the car out of my garage for several days.  He might drop by my place this weekend with the Cobb and his ECU.  We'll plug his ECU into my car to basically use my harness/power source/obd2 port to unmarry the Cobb from his ECU and then I can use it. 

Last thing I'll need is the 1 bar wastegates from Ultimate Motorwerks

So met a friend for lunch Friday and he gave me a brand new 5 bar fpr.  Then Sunday another friend came over with his Cobb AP and ECU.  We unplugged my ECU and plugged his into my car so we could unmarry his Cobb.  He's gone full Motec in his car and doesn't need it anymore.  Thankfully he still had the ECU and unmarrying the Cobb was super quick and easy.  So now I have that.  Last thing I need are the 1 bar wastegates...

So my front brake rotors have cracks in them that'll catch my fingernail.  Time to replace them.  Sadly I didn't get them from FCP Euro like I should've but I bought this set from them...

Easy enough, get the front of the car up in the air

Wheel off, not sure if you guys can see the cracks but there are a bunch...

Remove the small 12mm bolt holding the pad retaining bolt into place.  Push in the retaining spring, pull out the bolt and spring.  Retract the brake pads and remove them.  Now remove the two 10mm allen head bolts holding the caliper into place and move the caliper out of the way.  Why Porsche put a hard brake line going into the caliper is beyond me.  So stupid.  Hang it with a bungee cord out of the way and remove the two phillips screws retaining the rotor.  Remove the rotor.

Assembly is the reverse, torque the caliper retaining bolts to 63 ft lbs.  Now onto another project.  Since I needed new fender liners anyways I got the GT2 ones that have a hole in them to direct the air from the backs of the radiators.  Then they hit these air deflectors and go into the back of the rotors.  Clever.  I used some zip ties to hold them into place and drilled two small holes in the fender liners to hold them into place...

Do the same to the left side and all done.

Next project is sealing up the hvac blend doors...

Are the front rotors handed?

If you are going to remove the calipers often, it might be worth getting the Rennline Caliper bolt kit. High quality stud that you screw into the upright, and use thread sealant so they will not come loose. Then you use the nuts included in the kit to retain the calipers. The reason for this is that the uprights are aluminum and they strip if you R&R the caliper very often.