Hi guys,
Ok, so here it is......... the last few things I can do to the car before it's off for paint work and finally finished.
First off was a new air intake. I'd had the Evoms one on now for nearly 5 year and fancied a change, a few weeks after this, up pops an almost new EuroCup GT Twin Air Intake. I'd seen one of these not long after I bought the Evoms and thought they looked really nice. So, I took the plunge.
Old Evoms.
New EuroCup.
Now, I have heard that apparently the Evoms is a better design as it doesn't suck hot air from the engine like the EuroCup would due to its enclosed design. But I can only see this happening whilst the car is stationary??? When driving the air passing underneath the car would pull the hot air away, plus with the air going over the top of the car and being pushed/sucked in through the engine bay lid would push the hot air down and out the bottom??? Anyway, who knows. For what BHP I may or may not lose, it doesn't really bother me that much. I personally think the EuroCup looks amazing and it really cleans up the engine bay and although no one will ever really see it, I'm happier with the new one.
Time to fit the Ohlins.........
First was to get the car back to Marks. We put the car on axle stands so that all four wheels were off the floor. This just made it a lot easier to work on.
We needed to finish off rust proofing and painting the front arches behind the strut top mounts and in the whole of the rear arches as these had not been touched yet.
So, wheels off, front bottom ball joints out, track rod ends off, brake callipers off and top mount bolts out and then both front struts just drop out. Then with the rears, just strut top mount bolts out and the bolt from the bottom of the shocker out from the hub and then they just both drop down a bit and pull out from the top.
On inspection both rear arches were in pretty mint condition. There was the odd dot of rust on the seams but that's it.
We started on the front as there was very little prep work to be done. Just wire brushed the surface rust off, prepped it and painted it. As with the rears, it was pretty much the same, file away the surface rust, prep and then paint.
Although that all may have sounded pretty easy, it took most of the Saturday to get it all done. So, we just left it for the paint to dry so it was nice and set for the week after so we could refit the new suspension. There was a little shopping list for Porsche, couple of rubber grommets for the front wheel arches and new rear shocker nuts and bolts.
The following Saturday it was up to Marks nice and early to make a start on refitting. I love this part.
The Ohlins Kit.
We put it all together using the settings that were supplied with the kit. Everything went together perfectly. As you would pretty much expect.
All the wheel arches at this point were looking excellent, all ready for the new suspension. We started with the front and then moved on to the rear.
Time to fit the Ohlins.
Only issue we had with the rear was that in all the images it shows the rear anti roll bar brackets sitting right at the bottom of the strut, but according to the measurements diagram it had to be 32mm down from the height adjuster nut. We set it up using the measurements diagram as the image diagram could have just been for show. But after fitting the shocker in place we realised that the anti roll bar links just wouldn't fit with the brackets in that position. We then set them as per the diagram showed, and they just slotted into place perfectly.
Then it was back onto its wheels and that was that. Job done!
The following Monday I purchased the Snorkel bit for the engine lid that galahad pointed out to me. Turns out it's a genuine Porsche part??? For a 997, some special equipment or something. Looks good though.
Old one.
New one.
So last but not least, I purchased a new set of Black and silver centre caps, these are none genuine but will do till some become available.
Next is a service in April. It's getting......
Service, using Millers 10w 50.
New uprated 997 gearbox internals and slave cylinder.
New low temp thermostat.
New genuine water pump and gasket.
New genuine AOS.
New Top Gear Stainless Manifolds and poppopbangbang's titanium studs.
Air Con recharge after new rads fitted.
This all being done it's only a bit of paintwork then the car is pretty much finished, god knows where I'll go from here.
Thanks for reading people, and for all the comments left.
Craig