A baloo is a bear!
I know I've been away from here, but I've certainly been spending time with/in the 911.
At the beginning of the month, I got a text from Duane (Wik) that a somewhat local PorscheBro was in need of assistance. DW and I discussed the issue at hand and I consented to giving out my number to Michael to see if I could help. That was July 2.
Michael had let out some smoke in his car after installing an Adapt Motorsports fuse panel upgrade and wanted another set of eyes to help him assess the damage and hopefully repair. We discussed his car and compared our schedules and elected to meet on July 11 at his house in SW Ohio. (he couldn't exactly drive his car to me)
Now I've been putting off (waiting to accumulate miles?) re-torquing the head studs on my car as well as checking valve lash and putting in 'real' oil. I was pretty close to the 1000 mile mark (approximations required as my odometer gear had turned to sand if you recall) and the time was at hand. I keep up with Gabe's build and saw the trouble he's had due to a loosened head stud after a rebuild and was convinced if I drove to Michael's place without checking my head studs, I'd be in the same boat.
July 4th came and went and I was running out of time to get the work done.
July 9
I [finally] expelled Kelly's A3 from the garage and swapped mine end-for-end so I could work on it with the door closed. (bugs, man. bugs) Jacked the car to the moon, jackstands in place, oil drained, knocked off the valve covers, oil everywhere (not really...just messier than I wanted), and let's check the torque. All of the studs save 2 needed ~30-90* of rotation to achieve full-torque. Good thing I checked, eh? IDK if I fouled up the install, or if this just happens with steel studs, or if the car gawds just like throwing me curveballs. Regardless, it's sorted now. I traded the torque wrench for the Kirk valve lash setting whatchamajigit. I read the instructions ~3 times and still wasn't 100% confident how the heck the thing was designed to work. So I flopped on the ground and rolled/slid under my car to see if putting it in situ would make more sense. It did. It made a lot more sense. That little thing is bloody brilliant.
I'm happy to report my valves were largely in-spec with a few outliers ~.14mm instead of .1mm. But in short order, they were all set and I was ready to button up the car.
Car pushed out, turned 'round, and pushed back in.
Not so subtle reminders and key removed from ignition.
I called it a night at this point.
July 10
I had to go to the office for work so I called around to some friends for input on oil. I've been running Rotella Dino 15-40 up til now and wasn't totally opposed to continuing to do so, but thought I'd see what my friends had used and liked.
Had to make more than one stop, but ended up finding these bad boys on the shelf at an AutoZone in the next town over.
Sauced up the hog and it was time for a test drive.
There were some changes I'd been planning for the tune, so I took this opportunity to make some tweaks and get a copilot to hold the laptop. So I asked Kelly if she was into a drive and then dinner. She agreed. We drove around for about an hour, maybe 90 minutes (Sorry, Canadian/Euro friends. IDK the metric equivalent.), and ended up driving past where her aunt lives. *about 17 miles from our house LOL* We stopped there to say hi and while I was hammering away on the laptop adjusting the calibration Kelly's aunt came home. Greetings were exchanged and we were invited in. (still no dinner)
Kelly had a few beers and Doritos with her aunt while I had some M&Ms and water and before ya know it, it's after 10pm/2200. (still no dinner) I was like, "Oi! I've got to get up at 0500 to drive to Ohio. We best hit it." We get in the car, and I try my best to idle out of the neighborhood. As we're idling away, Kelly advises she would still like some dinner...and picks a Taco Bell (no complaints) that's ~10 miles from the house...in a totally different direction that we're heading. (no audible complaints)
We haul donkey to Taco Bell, we eat in car, in the parking lot (dining room closed), then drive home. I pack the car, charge the laptop, set out some clothes and finally crawl into bed. It's 2330/11:30pm.
July 11
Early alarm
Shower
Clothes
Sunglasses
Wallet
Hoodie
Vans (can't drive this car in slides and it breaks my heart)
Yeti
Roll out
Tank up with 93 octane and hit the road proper. It's 0545 when I leave the gas station.
I drive for an hour...ish? The sun is above the horizon and blasting my retinas. My RayBan mirrored Aviators don't stand a chance. I have no visors and failed to put on the ballcap in the back seat. To the chagrin of Dick Clark, I squint and bear it. #crowsfeet The car feels weird at cruise, so I bust out the laptop. *totally safe at 70mph (10000kph?)* The sweet spot for weirdness is 15% throttle and 3k rpm. I try to tweak it whilst driving, but Indiana roads aren't known for being smooth. I take an exit and as I crest the rise, there's a gas station with a Dunkin. I power-up with a double-chocolate donut, tweak the tune a trifle more, and back on the road. Much better. Not quite right, but absolutely better. I press on and eventually reach Michael's place at 0810. I hate being late for my scheduled 0800 arrival, but he doesn't say anything and I'd traveled nearly 130 miles. Still more accurate ETA than most pizza places, amirite?
Michael's 911 is an 81SC that's PTS Canary Yellow. It's super sharp and has some really nice touches.
Unfortunately, it also has some crispy wires. The front has a few wires that are damaged, but they seem more symptomatic than causal. So we move to the back. More crispiness and some char. Now we're getting somewhere. I pull the big aluminum panel that the CDI and rear fuse panel and defogger relay are all mounted to and set about looking for a source of the short. We don't find it, so we start replacing wires. Fix the rear, fix the front, feeling pretty good, but not 100% because we still haven't ID'd the root of the issue.
While Michael and I are repairing wires and cleaning the affected areas (while you're in there...), Jay was looking at the rear fuse panel. Guess what he found.
Do you see how close the screw head is to the terminal? Close enough for there to be some charring where it'd shorted the terminal directly to ground.
The moral of this part of the story is this.
If you install one of these Adapt Motorsports fuse panel upgrades, take the whole rear panel out and make sure the screws you use have sufficiently small heads to prevent this.
Easy to fix is the best kind of fix. Michael found some smaller screws, put a small widget of shrink-tube over the heads for added protection, and it was time to put everything together.
Unfortunately, Michael's journey isn't quite over. His CDI was fried during the short. So he's got some parts on the way and I expect he'll be on the road in no time at all.
By 1800/6p, we'd been working pretty much straight through for 10 hours, save a lunch break, and I still had a bit of a drive home. So we parted ways and I embarked to return to the loving arms of Kelly. Alas, once I made it into Cincinatti, the western horizon had grown ominously dark. I hadn't driven the 911 in real rain, let alone on the freeway. My brain raced with concerns about my ventilation system letting in water, my windows fogging, the engine getting wet, my alignment with a trifle too much toe-out, the charging system that would now be required to run everything at the same time, etc. Fortunately, there was no water ingress, the car ran fine, and the windows did not fog (actual miracle). Which was awesome. Because the alignment did exactly what I thought it would. The car was particularly darty on wet roads at 60-70mph (9000-10000kph). The crazy cross-winds didn't help at all. It should go without saying that I had both hands on the wheel and was very focused. So focused in fact, that I didn't notice I'd been spotted.
The rest of the ride home was largely uneventful despite making truly awful time. More rain, traffic, etc. I did eventually get home and Kelly was excited that I'd made it.
I can't thank Bryan, Tony, J, Kris, Duane, Michael, and Jay for all the support on Saturday while we fixed Michael's car. It's good to be part of such a giving & helpful community. I can't wait for cruises and hangs in the future.
Oh yeah. I'll probably even work on my own junk sometime soon. #fingerscrossedfreddy #Ionlyseeonelebaronfreddy