Project Freiburg: Computer Nerd attempts to fix oil leaks in his '79 930

[bleachii]

Note: I started this project last Saturday and am reposting my thread posts from Rennlist so they are in order and can one day help someone else. I tried changing the verbage in this initial post but may have missed a few items. As an aside I have purchased all my replacement parts from Pelican which works out nicely as they are just a couple of beach cities away from me

Begin Project

My '79 930 (owned since '98) has a number of oil leaks and really needs a valve adjustment as well. The oil leaks have been there for a couple of years now (I posted here about how I was going to fix them and then chickened out) and at least one is really bad (pretty sure its a oil return tube).

I don't drive the car very much so the valve adjustment is due to time rather than mileage. Also, since I plan to have both lower valve covers off it seems to make sense. I know this is an expensive repair at the shop so I've decided if I'm going to keep this car I really need to learn how to do some of these repairs myself. Unfortunately I'm good at working on computers but my mechanical skills are non existant. I've booked 3 nights at a Holiday Inn Express for good measure.

I've 'almost' started this project multiple times now but end up getting nervous and never starting. The whole thing scares the bejeebers out of me. Finally this past weekend I began. I'm going to try and document it here for others in a similar position. I'm a computer nerd by trade so my mechanical skills are oil changes (not on a Porsche) and I once kind of helped a guy pull the engine out of his 911 so I could learn something about my car. Here's a couple of notes about my experience level (this was as of last weekend).

1. Do not own a 17 mm box/open wrench
2. Had to google box/open wrench to be sure I was talking about what I thought I was talking about
3. Have never changed the oil in my 930 myself
4. Didn't visibly know the difference between a heat exchanger and thermal reactor

This is going to be fun.

Last Saturday I took the car for what I hoped wasn't its final trip around town to get the oil heated up. Jacked the car up using the controversial 'sump' method and prepared to drain the oil. Devil is in the details

I used one of those 15 quart oil pans (not good!) with the really small reservoir on the top. Picture included. Removed the oil plug and wow does that oil come screaming out! I had another 7 quart open pan just in case the oil couldn't drain into the pan fast enough. Everything seemed to be ok but the damn oil kept coming, and coming, and coming. Then, very quickly the oil filled and over flowed as I swapped to the 7 quart open model. You can't possibly swap between the two fast enough. Had to be a half quart or more on my floor. I laughed! First step in and I'm already looking like the rookie I am. One thing about oil too, it gets on everything! Oil is not easy to cleanup!

Anyhow, 20ish minutes later I returned to remove the sump plug for the rest of the oil scared to death it was going to leap from the hole, run down my arm and onto my face. Ended up with no issues and all oil out of the car. Also sprayed some of the nuts/bolts holding the heat exchangers to the thermal reactors with WD40.

I did take a few minutes to scope out the upper and lower valve covers as well. Was pretty sure there wasn't an upper valve cover on the driver side until I spotted a small corner of it buried under an intercooler and bunch of stuff I don't know the names of.

Enough fun for one day I decided to call it a day.

Sunday I decided to tackle the filter with my filter removal tool. Nope. Big Filter. Little removal tool. Filter very tight. Will come back to it. The filter wasn't even on my list of 'stuff that will be hard'.

Sunday was also more WD40 to the nuts on the heat exchangers and I decided to tackle a few of the easier to access nuts just to see how difficult they might be. Once I figured out I needed a 17mm open ended/box wrench is also about the time when I figured out I don't have one.

I did have a couple of 1/4 drive 17mm sockets and was able to loosen about 3 of them. Enough to realize just how difficult they are to loosen. And these were the ones where I had good leverage. A few of them look very difficult to access and I'm choosing to ignore the thermal reactor for now which doesn't even look possible. I did spray the thermal reactor nuts with wd40 but I don't even want to think about that challenge yet. I'm familiar with the broken stud horror stories. I'm tackling this one step at a time and right now that's one nut at a time until I get the heat exchanger removed.

So, all cleaned up and not sure if I will have time during the week....or light for that matter. Might not be able to work again until next weekend. In the mean time I'm going to be reading and I'm heading to the store to get a bunch of stuff I don't have including the following items. If I'm missing anything let me know.

Lighting
Oxygen Mapp Gas Torch
Propane Torch
PB Blaster
Sil Glyde (for the Oil return tubes)
Snap Ring Plier Set (per pelican tech article)
Torque Wrench
.0025 and .003 feelers (back side method)
Beer
Marijuana

I'll post more as I continue to make progress and/or mistakes.

Take Care,
Brian

[bleachii]

Do Not use these.

[bleachii]

Monday night:

Borrowed a neighbors larger filter removal tool and replaced the filter this evening. It was on tight and required quite a bit of strength to loosen. Too tight for me to do by hand.

Also managed to loosen 6 out of the 14 nuts holding on the heat exchangers after spraying some PB Blaster earlier today. Some are accessible but very tight while others are not easily accessible and appear to also be very tight. If I can't get a box wrench around a nut in a tight space is the next best bet a open wrench? It feels like too much brawn with the open wrench might slip since it doesn't have as much grip as the box end. Really don't want to strip any of them. Is heat the next step maybe?

[bleachii]

Courtesy Pics -

[bleachii]

Tuesday Night:

So last night I went to Sears and Harbor Freight to find a better tool for removing a few of those difficult to reach nuts where the heat exchanger connects to the thermal reactor. The 2 top nuts on each side were giving me fits. A sign of the times the stores (particularly Sears) have so few clerks it's very difficult to get help. Anyhow, I left with just a pair of overalls and a long handle 17mm wrench.

When I got back to the car I realized I could get to the bolts rather than the nuts with a socket and an extension. So, the problem was mostly that I was tackling the problem from the wrong side. They were still very difficult to remove but I managed to get them all loose.

So as of last night all of the 14 nuts are loose and I was able to remove the right side heat exchanger exposing the valve cover. I can see that it is leaking as well so that means I have both lower valve covers leaking and at least 3 of 4 oil return tubes. Will remove the left heat exchanger tonight hopefully.

Couple of questions if anyone can help. Any recommendations on a cleaner to start cleaning these parts? Lots of grime on the heat exchangers. Also, looking at the photo of the thermal reactor there is a smaller 'tube' looking thing right next to it. Anyone know what that is? (Someone posted on Rennlist that it is the EGR Filter) Anything I need to know before I remove it? I can't get to the right side oil return tubes without either it or the reactor being removed. It looks to be the easier component to remove especially based on comments above regarding the studs.

Including some pics from last night's work.

[bleachii]

Alright. Did some more homework. Finding information is not proving to be very easy as I am having to piece it together from reply's, other threads, various books, etc.

Based on now understanding that EGR stands for Exhaust Gas Recirculation I'm guessing no issues with vacuum/fluids per my question above. I'm not yet certain but it sounds like EGR, EGR Valve, EGR Filter are all pretty much synonymous.

Per a google search (about.com) I learned this about what the EGR does: emission control device that sits between the exhaust and intake manifolds on a vehicle engine and regulates the amount of spent exhaust gas that is mixed into the intake stream. Its purpose is to cool combustion chamber temperatures to the threshold that reduces the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The higher the combustion temps, the higher the formation of NOx.

I pulled out my 101 Projects book and 911 Performance handbook and while I can't find anything in the 101 book I found the following in the perf handbook.

p. 72 states: Focus of 1975: California Emissions...."first year of the abominable thermal reactors and EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) for California cars."

Sounds like in later years this setup made it's way to other US Porsche models as well (personal hypothesis) and not just CA cars since I dont' believe my car was specifically a CA car. It came into the USA via the Pacific Northwest and was delivered to a collector in Seattle area. I purchased it from him in '98 and have the original window sticker and dealer delivery info. It was one of the last cars delivered in Dec of 1979. I don't have the info in front of me but I believe it came in via Canada (Vancouver I believe).

OK...all caught up on the thread. I'll keep up with both threads as I continue on this project. I'm sure one day down the road there will be someone else like me that will find this useful. We'll see if the trend continues but so far I am having a blast working on my car.

[drmatera]

if nothing else your post is amusing...

good luck and i'm impressed you are tackling such a job as a wrench turning newbie

[kycarguy 935]

Beautiful color blue.

[Helmsy]

+1 on the Blue. My old boy almost bought one that colour about 20 years ago.

I ended up with a black on black but still love that blue.

[bleachii]

Whats up Doc?! Thanks for the good luck. Hopefully this will all be 'amusing' at the end and not a train wreck. I'm treating it like an Everest expedition. Ripping out parts is like getting to the top. Not until I put them all back together and the car starts did I return to base camp successfully Potential removal of the reactors is like the Khumbu icefall...well without the potential death part.

'Tuk and Helm....thanks for checking in and the compliments on the color. Funny...I originally was after a black car but being in my late 20's at the time I didn't have the patience to hold out for it and found this car while waiting. Still love black on black.

Tonights goal is to remove the left heat xch and maybe a oil return tube just to see how that goes. Interesting that on Rennlist multiple people have said that it is not necessary to remove the HE to get to the valve covers. I guess there is a way to get in there but it sure seemed really tight to me. They did not need to be removed for the return tubes.

[oilonly]

Good luck with the work bleachii. I'll be watching. I try to pick up any info I can on these cars.

[bleachii]

To answer the question regarding access to the valve covers with/without the heat exchangers on... look at the following pictures. The first shows access on the left side through wheel well with heat exchanger on. Looks accessible.

Second pic shows right side looking through wheel well and access is not out of the question but by no means easy unless you move the oil lines perhaps. Last pic shows access via underneath but without the heat exchanger. There is minimal access from the bottom with the heat exchanger installed. I guess it could be enough if you worked in tight spaces at various angles. Not out of the question.

Seems like it's worth it to remove the HE to do a valve adjust atleast on the right side but I could be missing something.

[bleachii]

Thanks Oilmang!

[bleachii]

Alright, now I have a decision to make and I need your input please. Since I had easy access to the left side return tubes I went ahead a began to remove one of them. Even compressed with the circlip removed I am unable to get it out.

It's a physical size problem. Between the thermal reactor being in the way and some metal tube that runs through that area there is no physical way to remove the return tube. It will not fit no matter the angle or direction. I could crush it but I'll have the same issue with installing the new one.

Either the metal tubing needs to be removed or the dreaded TR. I'm leaning toward the metal tubing. I've posted pics...could someone tell me what that tubing is for? Looks to be an injection system? More smog plumbing? Any issue with removing it. It connects to the engine in 3 places on each side then up to the upper engine bay via a cloth/braided hose. I can loosen it and drop it down out of the way I think.

First pic: Metal piping as it attaches to braided hose and goes up to upper engine bay.

Second pic: Left side TR, metal piping and Oil Return Tubes (one is loose as I began removal)

Third pic: Right side metal tubes, EGR and TR. Showing access difficult without removing atleast EGR and most likely the metal tubing.

I'm leaning toward the metal piping and not the TR. Gave up for the night....I'm gonna sleep on it and wait to see if anyone has any other ideas.

Maybe spend some time with wife.com tonight to score some brownie points for more nights in the garage later this week.

[bleachii]

Supervisor.

[johnnywishbone]

it would seem to me that the thermal reactors need to go away. you can always take the car to a reputable indy for smogging.

needs tensioner update? living dangerously. i'll admit i'm paranoid. jp

[A930Rocket]

You can remove the air injection spider to hive better access.
If you have the $$$, it would be a great time to install a set of headers. Why do it
twice? They'll give you tons of room to work on your car.

[krasuskyp]

Mr. Bleachii - love the post. Not everyone here is blessed enough to be master mechanic, just add water.

Another Minerva - FTW! With cork gut - beauuuuuuuuutiful. Good fer you!

Btw - your supervisor pic slayed me - made the thread. HA!

Jimbo beat me to it - I cannot see how one could rightfully go about re-installing ***ANY*** of 'that'. Wow are those systems simply horrendous. Once out, oh man - OUT.

Even if you have to beg/borrow/steal, rustle up some headers and one of Brian's exhausts for that and really wake her UP.

Heck, even some used ones off the Classifieds or something. ANYthing. Srsly.

Ha also btw @ wife.com...

Good luck w/ your plight - me I have the fecal touch... very unMidas.

[JFairman]

beautiful rare color car you have there.

looks like it's been well taken care of and garaged. the bottom is way cleaner than most with hardly any corrosion from looking at your pics.
nice oil "S" hose support bracket with adel clamp someone fabricated there too.

with a little patient code rewriting in dreamweaver you could.. maybe.. convert the wife.com to a wife.org

[A930Rocket]

BTW, to get your old tubes out, just get a big pair of slip joint pliars and squeeze the tubes flat. You're not re-using them, so have it. The new ones should be small enough to get in there and then expand them.