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Marky's 996 ownership thread.

Hmm, yep I can't find ours anymore Ned. The seller said he only had 3 and me and Craig bought 2 of those.

Cheapest I can see on EBay is a Momo Porsche style one for £33. But it looks to have a silver ring between the centre and outer rim. Usually they're black all over.
You'd need to double check fitment etc before ordering.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/233052053151

Failing that it's about £50 for the proper momo Porsche one.

:thumb:
 
Thanks, I'd seen that one. Had been onto bellavalonte a few weeks ago about the hub and other bits. I got back onto them on Thursday to buy the horn push but they've yet to get back to me.
I've found a genuine omp one with omp wrote on it. Not ideal but I might go for that to get me going.
Had the car out today, messing around in the wet and the car feels great but I definitely think the carbon wheel spoils it for me.
 
Right, I was supposed to do an end of year post to get things upto date but I'll do it now.
Boring post really as I've mentioned most things on various threads but I'll put it here to keep things right.

So anyway I continued using the car until the end of last summer and all was well pretty much.
There were one or two minor things bugging me which I made a note of for when it went for its service in October.

Service time.
So given all the work that had been done by either me and Craig or Jamie at Nelson's I figured it would be a nice easy £150 minor service for once.
Of course the car had other ideas as usual. :wink:

Anyway the list of jobs was initially just -

Carry out minor service.
Check oil pressure with mechanical gauge.
Do an oil analysis for the first time ever.

So the service was straightforward with the only parts being a new oil filter and fresh Millers 10/50 oil.

My oil analysis results came back a week later and confirmed that all was good in the engine. Phew!




I was slightly alarmed by the Aluminium content though, so I emailed Millers and this was the reply.
It maybe of interest to other Millers users.

"The reason for the reading of 25ppm of Aluminium is because of the high levels of Molybdenum in the oil. The Nano range of oils have a high Moly low friction additive in them. When the wear metal analysis is run, the Al wavelength slightly overlaps the Mo one so the machine thinks it's reading Al. The actual value of Al will be much closer to zero than 25. See attached analysis of a fresh oil analysed.
The limit of Al for a petrol engine is 75ppm so nothing to worry about"

So all good in the hood.
I must add Millers are great to deal with, with quick response times and polite, thorough explanations to questions from imbeciles like me. :D

Onto the oil pressure checks then.
My car would sometimes drop to about one bar of pressure when really hot. Never under one bar but I still wasn't that happy.
So Jamie got the car up to temp and compared the dash gauge with his proper gauge, at various revs.

Sure enough it proved what I'd hoped, that my dash gauge read a touch low.

2000rpm when hot and my dash gauge reads 2.8 bar, maybe a smidge more.




Jamie's gauge reads pretty much 3 bar.




So dash gauge reads maybe 0.15 to 0.2 bar under.

Same story at idle. I can't find the dash gauge pic but it was 1 bar.

Jamie's gauge read 1.3bar -




So that coupled with the oil analysis pretty much put my mind at ease.
It was short-lived though but more on that later. :grin:

Now the next issue was a one I'd looked into once or twice already during the 3 years I'd owned the car. An intermittent rough hot idle.

The car had done this during the whole time I'd owned it but it wasn't too bad. It was mainly after a hard drive in summer or if left idling for ages e.g. during an MOT, but despite plugging the computer in at each of its visits to Jamie's, no fault codes ever came up. :chin:

Anyway whilst having the car running for a good amount of time to carry out the above oil pressure checks, Jamie experienced the rough idle and wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Plugging the laptop in showed that for some reason, this time it had flagged up an error code and it was for the MAF.
Jamie rang me to say I'd probably need a new one.
While I was looking around online for one he rang back and said "Scrub that, it was in the wrong way round!".
So basically whoever had fitted the K&N (we think) must have transferred the MAF over to the new induction hose and fitted it 180 degrees out.
That meant that instead of air being channeled into the small hole in the MAF, the small hole was actually round the back with the air flowing past it.
Jamie swapped it around and the car ran smooth as silk.
So a nice cheap fix for once and a good reminder to always start with the simple things first. :grin:

The new improved hot idle also raised the oil pressure a bit due to the revs being a touch higher and a lot smoother.
Hot pressure was now at least 1.2 bar which given what we now know about my gauge equates to probably 1.5bar which is great.

So we had fixed the long-running rough idle issue and as I said earlier we'd banished my oil pressure paranoia and had received a clean bill of health from the oil analysis.
So it was all good? Not quite.

The only thing left was to check my oil filter for debris. Jamie had bagged it up for me to take home so later on I cut both ends off and unravelled the corrugated paper filter material.
It initially looked fine but when I scraped the pleats with a steel rule I found this.




Brown toffee coloured small fragments which we all know is cam chain guide material.
Basically the small pads in the heads wear from an early age and pieces often break off and end up in the filter.
They can go on for years like this and Jamie has never had a failed engine in due to a snapped guide, however there are stories of it happening, on the internet.

So I had two choices. Either use the car and check if the debris was getting worse after I'd covered some more miles, or have the top end stripped to replace the guides.
Not being a one for leaving things to chance I chose the latter.

So it was back to Jamie's a few weeks later for the work.
The new Millers oil was dropped and binned as if I reused it and found more debris I wouldn't know if it was old stuff in the oil or if I still had a problem.
We could have filtered it I suppose but nevermind.
So £100 worth of oil that had done 70 miles home, then 70 miles back to Jamie's went in the bin. :frustrated:

First it was off with the sump -




...to find this -




Bigger pieces in the sump than in the filter so definitely glad we'd decided to do the work.

Then it was cam covers off and cams out to access the guides.






There's a bit more to it than that involving the removal of an exhaust bracket, manifold and other stuff but anyway.

Once stripped you can do a visual check of the larger guides that live further down in the engine.
You can't swap these out through the heads but you can swap them out without a full strip if needed.
Mine were fine though so no problem.
There's another guide for the IMS in the bowels of the engine. This can't be seen or swapped without stripping the engine completely though but apparently it's only ever the small guides in the heads that wear due to their small size and their profile.

Old guides -






New parts ordered -




I posted a thread at the time discussing perhaps changing the Vario-cam solenoids as these are accessed from inside the rocker covers and we hope not to be in there again for a long time.
They are mega bucks now though so as mine were functioning perfectly we left them alone.

Some other parts renewed but not pictured were the two "seps" (separators in the sump) as these can suck up debris and you can't see into them to check. Not worth risking for the price of them so as I say, they were replaced.

So it was all then reassembled and good to go.
We've just used Jamie's Porsche approved 5/40 oil for now. I'll run it until the summer and probably bring this years service forward a month or two to move back to Millers 10/50 in time for my Euro trip in August.

My last update was after picking the car up from this work. 200 miles thrashing and all is well.
The car feels fighting fit now. It's smoother than ever, mainly due to sorting the idle and it's running like a Swiss watch.
While these issues are a bit annoying and they hoover out the wallet regularly, with every job done or niggle fixed, the car just gets better and better.

Bar a couple of tiny interior rattles I'm busy chasing down there really isn't much left to do.

Next job is sort some minor snags like door seal clips that were broken during the bodywork and then it's get some camber off in time for spring.

As ever, thanks for reading. :thumb:
 
Ya have a heart like a lion, but when you've so much time and money invested in it already it's hard to let go. Only thing is you know what you've got. It'll stand the test of time now and your obviously fussy enough to have it done right.

Did you have millers in the engine before the change?
Will they only check it if it was their oil to begin with?
And how much do they charge to check it?

Sorry for all the questions but I've never came across getting the oil checked before and it dosnt help with the old paranoia. My car has 74'500 odd miles with a good history. Though I'd say the history is purely oil change only to keep costs down. I'd much prefer to do it myself and document it than pay high prices for a very basic thing.

My oils only changed a few months and maybe 1000miles but I'd get the paranoia thing too and can't leave the thing alone.

As always marky, nice job
:thumb:
 
Few similar things to Ive had. I shat myself when I saw the miller analysis as well but got same reasons.

Funny regarding the K&N as I think the little adaptor for the maf must be wrong. I noticed mine was the wrong way round but as it was second hand I thought the previous owner had done it. I know of two other people that have had what you had so it must be set up wrong from the off.

Chain guide wear is a little alarming to be honest at that mileage.
 
Hi Ned,
Heart like a lion. :grin:
Not really but things bug me if I know there's something going on that could be addressed.

Answering your questions -
Yes I had millers in.
When I originally wrote this reply last night I thought they analysed any oil but maybe not. Give them a ring and check. If not there are other places that do. I've been up 24 hours as I write this so my brain is frazzled. :wink:
It's £25 for a kit, basically a bottle and a label (plus then analysing the contents obviously), or you can pay £35 for a two year kit.
I only done the one to see what I thought of it.

http://www.millersoils.co.uk/services/oil-analysis

Oil analysis coupled with chopping your old oil filter up to examine it, is about as much as you can do to monitor things.

So yeah I still haven't had a break from the bills yet but like you say I know it's right, or rather as right as it can be without a full rebuild.
I've literally done everything you can now without a tear down.


Hi Graham,

Yeah if you don't know what you're reading on the analysis results (which I didn't) you can get a fright. :grin:

You may well be right regarding the K&N. My Indy said something about the cable to the plug not being long enough to go the other way without undoing it and changing the clasp or something so he couldn't understand how someone could have done it.
I'm glad it finally showed up with a code though. :wink:

Those little cam chain guides can start wearing very early in the cars life. My Indy has seen them like mine at 50 and even 40-odd thousand miles, so I'm not particularly worried about that.
I said it on a different thread but basically the lower edges of the chain links start cutting into the tensioner pads, however once they get so far into the pad, the centre rollers of the chain are then running on the bit of land left proud in the centre of the pad.
This must massively slow any further wear down, as my Indy has seen them worn at 50k, yet looking not much worse at 120k.

I know a few lads with low milers who've had them done. Some on here.
Like I say I could have just monitored it but I'd rather sort it.
I wasn't too worried about the guide snapping, more about if a piece of debris managed to block an oil way or something.

Anyway it's all done, but I've actually seen something else (air cooled) I'd love to buy, so we'll see what happens.
There's only 2 things stopping me advertise mine this week, Brexit which I'm not too bothered about and the fact that whatever I buy I'll have to do all the work again on, to get it as sorted as the 996.
So I'm trying to keep my sensible head on for another year and actually reap the rewards of all my hard work on mine. We'll see.
:thumb:
 
I'd say anyone reading this would bite your hand off to get that car.
I'll always give you a bad price for those seats :lol:
 
Ah, air cooled.... The force is strong... :D
It's been 2 years since I sold my 964 and I have to say that despite being a great car, the 996 doesn't quite hit the mark. However, I'm not going relent and go back. Or am I? :?: Nope. definitely not.
 
Another one contemplating the move back to aircooled!
The price correction in full swing means I am increasingly tempted back to one.
 
Asking prices are still pretty high IMO. I'd love a nice old 3.2, but finding one for sensible money would be a challenge. Having said that it me ages to find my 996.
 
Cheers Ned, if I ever put it back to standard to sell, then you may get a chance of the seats. :thumb:
They'll do wonders for your bad back those will mind. :D

Yep lads air-cooled is where it's at for me. They are the cars I grew up loving.
It's probably very rose-tinted though and the grass is always greener, so I don't want to be too hasty as whatever I buy I'll want something else a few months later.

Crash that's gorgeous. 8)

Kas and g911, yeah the prices haven't bombed have they. The cars are toys though so most owners won't sell if they don't need to. I know I won't.

I love impact bumper cars but the engines don't sound as good as I'd like and the drive is a bit too agricultural, so for me it would be 964 or maybe a 993, but as I always say I've never understood the fuss around 993's.

Graham I can't really afford one either but where there's a will, there's a way an' all that. :grin:

So anyway I'm casually looking but I won't try and sell the 996 unless I see something interesting that I want to go for.
Pretty much what we are doing with our house at the moment too.

In other news, I was getting a light scratching noise from my steering wheel when steering.
We'd obviously mated up the copper contact pad to power the horn, a bit too closely to the base of the steering wheel boss.
Me and Craig whipped the cowls off to adjust the control stalk unit back a bit and once we did my previously perfectly functioning horn wasn't working anymore.
It only works with the ignition off. :frustrated:

I think we have a fix which involves running a new earth lead from the one part of the column that is still earthing properly.
How the heck it worked before though is anyone's guess. :dont know:

I'll update if it's a success.

Cheers. :thumb:


PS. The car I had a casual eye on requires paint (I spoke to the owner today) and I can't be doing with that so soon after having the 996 done, so I think I've ruled it out.
 

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