A quick story from someone who didn't quite know about the fact that there is that trombone cooler in the front fender in my SC.

I was trying to figure out why I was getting a hing amount of gas fumes in the interior of the car after a full fill of the gas tank (turned out to be those cloth braided lines that connect to that plastic overflow thing) but anyway. I noticed that after driving the car for a while it would completely go away, but since I was aware of a potential issue, my eyes and ears were perked up to almost paranoia... I noticed every once in a while when I got home that there was this weird gurgling sound coming from what seemed to be under the floor of the passenger seat. It made no sense. Sometimes gurgle. Sometimes no gurgle. Me idiot. Gurgle be sound of oil flowing through the feed and return lines of the cooler.

But that sound seriously freaked me out. It just made no sense. I actually had to sit there and go through a logical series of steps to rule out what was going on. Obviously I knew there was no coolant gurgling around anywhere in the car. It couldn't be the remnants of whatever is left in the a/c system... I thought that maybe it was some sort of return line for gas, but I ruled that out because it wouldn't gurgle... So the only thing left was oil... But I didnt know that oil flowed there, but once I looked under te car I saw the lines and "cooler" and figured it out.

Then I immediately realized that I thought I knew a lot about cars, but really, in p-car land.... Notsomuch...

But this was when the car was my dad's and I had my UrQ as my daily driver.

Now the 911 is my DD, and the urq is in the garage in stasis until I have the money to support two handbuilt limited production German exotic cars from the early 80s.

At least the 911 doesn't have the fuse box from an 83 VW rabbit.

Michael

Thanks for the replies! That's a pretty funny story UrQ. I go through similar things with my older BMW.

Is the diagram on the previous page from The Porsche 911 Story? If not, where can a guy get stuff like that?

I have, or rather stole from a friend, the buyer's guide. Also, I live about 70 miles north of Seattle where there's many fine porsche shops. (Aker's, John Walker, Squires, Chris' to name a few) I also have a competent mechanic here in town but he despises the 911 layout. He'd be able to help me out in a pinch but I'll be going to JW for regular service. PPI will definitely be done prior to any purchase!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

There seems to be many The Porsche 911 Story books. I don't care about anything beyond the Carrera 3.2. Which one should I get?

That is a great book. As you say, buy an old one and it'll only have aircooled info in it. Buy one on Amazon and it has all the same stuff + waterpumper info.

Also don't miss 101 Projects for Your Porsche 911 from our host. Even if you don't plan to work on your car there's plenty of learning to be done in there.

The first book I would buy before your purchase is "The Used 911 Story" by Peter Zimmerman. It is up to the 8th edition and is an invaluable resource to find the right car written by a very knowledgeable aircooled guy. "The 911 Story" by Frere is also a great book, as is Wayne's book especially if you plan on doing your own wrenching, in which case you also need a Bentley manual. I would also recommend "Excellence Was Expected". The new edition is very expensive, and can keep you reading for years, but you can pick up the original single volume used on Ebay or perhaps here for a reasonable price.