An unexpected day tinkering in the workshop; it's been a slow week this week, with the "Beast From The East" and "Storm Emma" coming in from east and west directions to the UK, it's been flipping cold, very icey, a decent amount of snow and (weirdly) freezing rain. Too cold to muster the willpower to venture outdoors.

So, I got the expansion tank prepped for powder-coating by filing down the welds on the lid and the base. Lewis deliberately welded them "generously" with this intention in mind.

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Next job, start plumbing the hoses for the water system. Much as the Aeroquip push-on fittings are impressive with their "simplicity", they're an absolute sod to assemble. Coincidentally my best mate phoned earlier, and we both remembered assembling these in years-gone-by on various race cars....we both agree on them being a tough job. The hoses are double layered with a cotton centre, then a tape outer to reinforce the hose. It makes for a very tough hose that won't expand under pressure, but it also means that getting it over the barbs of the fitting gives you a good workout. The primary application is for oil rather than water, so it's way OTT for this application. There's a shock.

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Pleased with how the water return line sits neatly behind the radiator...

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...and also how the bleed hose and sensor housing sit, with the bleed hose using an existing hose in the tinware. I'll need to re-route one of the wastegate hoses, however....

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Some more Aeroquip fire retardent sleeving is on the hoses that run to the turbo and near the exhaust system. Top tip, for tight fitting sleeve like this, use an airline between the hose and the sleeve to inflate the sleeve; some quick bursts allows it to shuffle forward a few cm at a time, works a treat and certainly easier than wrestling it on normally.

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Next job is to buy another Q-Max hole punch to open up the hole already in the tinware, that I'm using to feed the header tank outlet through. As shown, it goes through at present, but it's going to rub against the metal; a grommet is needed.

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An alternative, which I'll research later, would be to use a bulkhead -8AN male-male fitting, then a selection of fittings either side. Probably overkill though. I'm hoping that the height of the expansion tank above the rest of the system - specifically the pump - means that the pump won't have to self-prime (which it can't do, it's deemed a circulation pump)...the water level should always be higher than the pump unit. That's what I'm hoping anyway, time to test it in the next day or so.

Well, blimey, that's a nice birthday present...I've just noticed that today, this stupid little project of mine is now the most viewed and most replied to thread in the Engine forum. Notice that I didn't say "the best", it's a very long way away from being that, but is perhaps the most used anti-insomniac, lol. Thanks everyone, here's to the next 6 years!

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This would make a great book.Mystery and suspence.

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Happy birthday btw...

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Hi Spencer, it is deserved, but I wait personally for the cherry on the cake of the starting up of your engine and the first tours of wheel of your Titine on a very beautiful video! ;)

Funny you mention it, I may well edit it to a level where I can make one of these Print-on-Demand books (I think Apple provide this service) and keep it as a coffee table read.


Thank you!

Yep, I'm looking forward to that first fire-up as well mate...perhaps I'll get Lucy to fly the drone around, to get some 360º footage. My hands will be shaking too much!

Also most used inspirational and motivational thread!
Thank you, for sharing with the rest of us “mere mortal” PORSCHE addicts, your “super human” DIY achievements 😉

Cheers Costa...Haha, we're all addicts, you're right! I keep meaning to shoot you an email mate... ;)

Seconded. Love your updates. Keep up the good work!


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Thank you, Sir!

Just a quick update this evening....

A conveniently located business meeting today took me past the doorstep of Think Automotive again....luckily....as I needed yet more fittings.

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Not so much today, but it enables me to route the feed from the expansion tank into the water circuit a lot neater than the above pic, where the hose was looped around. Looked a bit shonky in my opinion, and needed a bigger hole (waiting for another Q-Max cutter to arrive) and a grommet (likewise). Instead I went ahead with my idea from the other evening....

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Of course, it'll need re-plating in black, but the existing hole is PERFECTLY sized. If I'd have tried mounting the 90º elbow the other way around and using a 90º fitting on the outside, then it would allow more clearance for removing the valve cover. I may well reverse it over the weekend and remake the hose. But in principle, this looks a whole lot neater I think.

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The hose you see above will then go to the tank outlet, once I've determined the length (by using The Force) ;) )

You sir are an inspiration! Fantastic work!

Aww shucks, lol, cheers Jayson. Just a "Garagiste"/ambitious tinkerer...

Spenny,I would love to own a copy of your book.Please let us know.

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Weekend update time....

Hmm. Not one of those weekends where I feel a huge amount has been done; certainly not a "full-on" weekend maximising every minute.

Quite a few finishing jobs this time - which I guess is the nature of the beast at this stage of the project....

I removed both wastegates, so that I could switch the springs over for the lightest ones that came with the kit.

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Installed previously were a pair of black springs (0.6 bar). Because we're now controlling both the opening and closing of the wastegates using air pressure (versus using just the spring pressure to control valve closure). In effect, all we need the spring for is to stop any valve fluttering, so the green 0.3 bar springs are now fitted. Wastegates back on, ready to go.

I took this opportunity to re-work the Aeroquip heat proof sleeving; I'd previously fitted a size that was too big, on the basis that I didn't want to strip off all the -4AN fittings to allow it to slide over. But it niggled me that it was overly fat, especially now that the water hoses are now running in the same area. Using the inflation trick, these hoses now have the tighter sleeving on, looking a lot better.

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The 90º -8AN elbow for the header tank feed has now been switched around, as mentioned the other day. A lot better now, the fitting clearing the valve cover nicely.

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Some fettling of the hot return hose so that I could punch another hole in the tinware, and allow the 1/4" bleed hose to feed through....

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All of the wastegate control hoses are now finished; a few hoses needed making from scratch after adding the second boost control valve.

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Next job, get all the water cooling parts off for plating and powder coating. Hoping to get these back in time for a weeks vacation at the end of March....that's the week I have mentally cued up for installing the engine back into the chassis.

I look forward to!!! :)

Spenny, those stacked boost control valves are very cool, would look the dog’s balls even if they didn’t do anything. John

:D Haha, thanks! It's getting a bit busy with the hosing in that neck of the woods. This is looking more like an exercise in plumbing than it is in engine building.

Evening folks, a busy couple of weeks at work has meant that I've not had too much time to do much on the project...but...I'm now on "staycation" for 10 days over the Easter period, using up a few days of vacation leave before I lose it at the end of March.

Time to draw up another To-Do list, have a tidy-up and get cracking. My aim is to have the engine back into the car by the time I return to work. Not necessarily finished and ready for mapping, but certainly a long way towards it. Surprising how many odd jobs you can find when drawing up a list, and to be honest, after finishing scrawling stuff, I thought I was a little closer than I am.

However, a productive day today has already ticked off about 5 or 6 items. Some things I just can't do until I get the plumbing parts back from the plating shop. They do a good job but bloody hell they ain't quick; glad this is the final batch to be done.

On the other hand, the powder coating shop were super quick, turning it around within 2 days. The radiator and pump support brackets....

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And the expansion tank, now cleaned up and with the fittings assembled...

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....and quickly installed into the engine bay. I need to take it back out, as there was a backplate fitting that's interfering with the tank. Behind the backplate are 3x rubber vibration mounts, Male/Female; they screw onto studs that are set into the bodywork (female side of the rubber mount) then the male stud passes through the aluminium backplate and is fastened with a nyloc. The length of this stud and nut protrudes too far, and hits the back of the tank, so I've made 2x ally spacers for the top mountings and have ordered a female/female rubber mount, so that I can use a caphead screw to fasten the backplate. The mount isn't here yet, so that'll be a 5min job on Monday.

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Some fine-tuning of the turbo heat shield was also quickly done today, in order to help me rotate the CHRA. Unfortunately, Garrett have spaced the turbine fixing bolts so that they interfere with either the banjo fittings for the water cooling ports, or if you index it to clear them, then it fouls the oil feed restrictor we need to run. Not a problem, just cut out the centre mounting hole for the shield, keeping the front and rear fixings.

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Some easy wins with a few other minor (to insignificant to mention) jobs today; I think tomorrows task will be to finish the copper spark plug spacers. I wasn't too successful with this a few months ago, as I was struggling to consistently part-off the correct thickness. I now have a far more robust parting off tool for the lathe which cuts beautifully. I have my rotation vs thickness calculations, so should have these all done in an hour or so in the morning. Plugs can then go back in and valve covers on, followed by the coil-on-plugs and harness.