My 997 Carrera S progress..

Great thread. Great work and great car. Love what you have done.

Thank you for posting.

Simon

Excellent read! Hope you enjoy the Porsche experience. Saw an E46 CSL at The Hare meet near Chelmsford on Saturday and struggled not to come home and search the internet for cars for sale !! :? The induction inlet on the CSL looked massive.... :lol:

Paul, Thanks for the tip, I do need the geo doing, now the car is lower, the wheels have some negative camber (perhaps that is reason for the better feel..) but now the car has settled, I do need to get it booked it for a setup.



Thanks Simon and Steve.

The CSL is an immense car, infact, the normal E46 M3 is, I have really grown fond of the 997 now so I can't see me replacing it with a CSL, much to my girlfriends delight. I do hope to get myself an E46 M3 to strip out and turn into a track/drift toy.

No updates on the 997 at the moment. I have planned to perform an oil change and fit the centre rad kit on the upcoming bank holiday weekend, no doubt I will take some pictures along the way.

A picture from a PistonHeads meet last month



Cheers

excellent work you have done , the car looks so much cleaner . The engine bay before and after pics are the boll@x :worship:

Very enjoyable and readable thread, thank you.

Great thread, I don't see that many of this type of thread on this forum. Nice work, and with the DIY stuff, I have to say I'm not that much into doing stuff myself. I have done some things but nothing like what you have done.

How you getting on after lowering it? I lowered mine with TechArt springs which are made by H&R, lowered it about 15mm. How do you find getting around now on normal roads? How much lower is it now? Looks much lower than mine.

Congrats on a great looking car.

Really nice!!!! :thumbs:
Seems that quite many did move from E46 M3 to 997.
I did the same!
I had also E64 M6 on my mind, but I'm really happy that i did went for Porsche.
Still looking forward to first track day with my car. :drive:
I think if you would went back to E46 and even CSL, you would not be satisfied anymore.
Once you go to the dark side.. there is no way back!
That is at least how i feel, now still driving also M-cars almost daily.

Thanks guys.. Hope it inspires some more DIY threads, normally the best things to read on forums.

I like to keep a visual diary of the bits I do to my cars, it's nice to look back on as things progress. I also keep an excel spreadsheet where I log everything I do, a bit much but it saves checking back through receipts if need be.

Isysman - I have to say, I'm finding it perfectly acceptable. I was worried that the car would be too low and that I would end up grounding out the front bumper over bumps but thankfully, it still sails over them. I have an inclined entrance to the area where I work on my cars and I do have to take that at an angle but I'm fairly used to doing manoeuvres like that so it's no trouble.
I haven't tried multi-story car parks as yet but if I know I'm going to one I tend to use another car.
General driving, no issues, the car rides MUCH nicer and the steering isn't so light at speed, it takes bumps much smoother thanks to the progressive coils and I haven't a single complaint over the OEM springs. I think it's -25mm.

Thanks AMH, I also considered a M5/M6 but I really wanted a manual, I think yo are correct about not going back..

Over the weekend, I gave the car some more attention. Oil change and fitted the central radiator/X51/GT3, whatever you refer to it as, kit.

The car still has 9 months or so until it's official service is due and has only covered 5.5k miles since the last.
Using the recommended oil, genuine Porsche filter and a stainless magnetic sump plug, I set about doing the oil change. Extremely easy job which perfect access to the oil filter and sump plug.

The oil came out much cleaner than expected, I also used a strong magnetic which I placed by the drain hole on my oil tank which would help catch any ferrous particles in order to identify a potential issue, I also cut open the oil filter. Much to my delight, there wasn't a single particle found anywhere!



Perfectly "clean" filter on the outside, same for the inside.




New stuff in, job done


Saturday morning, radiator time..
Really straight forward job, quite enjoyed this. Annoyingly, I didn't take many pictures once I fitted the rad with the bumper off!! I spent a fair while cleaning and treating the radiators, plastics and behind the bumper!

Before


The kit (For anyone interested, the radiator has a capacity of 500ml as I filled it with water to find out prior to fitting).


Painting some of the torx screws


Bumper removed


Stuff +iPad following Maxie' guide! (I chose not to remove the lights and washer jets from the bumper.


Filthy duct which got cleaned and treated. Rads were fairly clear of debris as 911BOX had them cleaned when they painted my front bumper, I still gave them a brush once I removed the ducts and a blast with an airline.
[

Annoyingly, no pictures with the radiator fitted and ducts, rads cleaned without the bumpers. So straight to the finished article.


Took the car for a few laps and managed to put back in all of the coolant which I captured. I had to filter this as there was a few bits and bugs floating around in it, really not sure how they've got in there.. I also managed to get in 300ml of additional distilled water,I think there is some trapped air still but I simply haven't driven the car enough to shake it out..

Next, low temp thermo.
:thumbs: :thumbs: :bye:

Just to update, I have used the car a few times since fitting the radiator and I have noticed that the oil temperature sticks at a firm 92 degrees on average town driving, I'm pretty sure it was stuck at 100 previously. I suspect the change is a mix of both the new oil and the radiator.

I was able to have a spirited late night drive and I couldn't push the oil temp over 105 degrees, on this drive previously, I was seeing close to 120.. In addition, the other noticeable difference was in how quick the temperature dropped back down to 92. I always drive the car gently prior to turning it off, a cool down run so to speak, normally this would have been up to 10 mins after a hard drive, now, I'd say less than 5 mins!

So, great mod for cooling the car quickly and helping to keep temps down.. Better for oil, engine and the mind!

Now I just need to get a moment to fit the thermostat and report on the differences with that fitted. :thumb:

Hi Mark,

Just read the post and well done, you have been a busy man.

Love the car and what you have done with it.

I wanted to ask how you went about putting the film on the rear lights. I too want to get some dectanes when I have saved up enough to spare.

Where did you get the film from and how did you apply it?

Thanks

Great thread , well done :thumb: :thumb:

Loving the no number plate front , ive just gone to the garge and taken mine off

Thanks chaps,

The tint film was from ebay, not this seller but same stuff.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Red-Rear-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5403f8de50

It's pretty good for the price, I used a product called Lamin-X before but simply can't find a reseller for it anymore.

Really easy to apply, clean the light, mist some water onto the light, peel off the backing to the film, mist some water onto there, apply the film to the light starting at one side and with some sort of squeagy, slide that over the top in order to push arm and water out from in between both surfaces, really easy!

Does look good without a front plate, I'm getting slightly paranoid with not having one so I need to pull my finger out and use the stick on one I have. I plan to stick it to a magnetic sheet and place magnets behind the front bumper so I can add/remove as I please.

Latest update, I'm about to go to Dubai for a week for my 30th Birthday, so what better time to send off some parts which make the car impossible to drive!

[



Steering wheel, gear knob, plastic piece in front of the gearknob, hand brake handle and trim are all off to Jack @ RoyalSteeringWheels.

I cannot wait to see what these come out, his work was perfect on my M3's steering wheel.

I have some light marks on the centre console so I am debating whether or not to send the entire thing off for the same treatment along with the door grab handles.

Prior to removing the above, I found that it gets to 167 very quickly..... :cop: :bye: I thought these were limited to 155?

You're getting confused with VAG cars. Porsches are sports cars and are not restricted. My Boxster did over 155mph not that I ever did that of course

What are you having done to the parts you removed?

I'm not sure it's a VAG specific thing, I thought all German cars were limited to 155MPH to meet some sort of regulation.. My M3 wouldn't go over 163 until I had it mapped.. I just had a quick google and found that Porsche do not adhere to this German "agreement"..:grin:

The parts are going to be retrimmed in black alcantara with grey stitching. The steering wheel is receiving some further work in the form of extra girth and thumb grips being added.