This installment contains a story of trust and the friends we make through these cars.
Back to 2018:
As related earlier, I sold the red 74 Alfa GTV in the fall of 2018. It's sale yielded some useful money for the family coffers, i.e., university fees, although despite getting a pretty penny for the car, the net still represented a deplorably small percentage of the total, even for a state school*. Being incomplete in my parental virtuosity, I earmarked some of the proceeds for the next round of 911 improvements, namely installing a set of SSI's and doing some suspension work.
(* I think that the cost of college/university is obscene, partly because of what country clubs they've become.)
A year or so before this (so, 2017), a gentleman here on PP had advertised a set of used SSI's for a grand or so and I'd replied, but got my signals crossed with him (and pi$$ed him off in the process ... entirely my fault)**. So when another set came up, this time from a fellow-with-an-amazing-name, Pelican poster Robert Liberty, I jumped but with the caveat no parts seller ever wants to hear
"I really want to buy your parts but I don't have the money on hand, so if someone else wants them, please sell them accordingly, but if they're still available when my ship comes in, I'd REALLY like to have them." Mr. Liberty must have taken pity on me because he stated he wouldn't mind hanging on to them for a few weeks, and in doing so likely passed on a few over-asking offers. The Alfa went under deposit and I sent Bob the money.
These were "real", or pre-Dansk SSI's, and just beautiful objects, exuding aircraft-engine-grade construction and welding. I spent some highly gratifying hours cleaning them and had my son's friend Kyle, TiG a cracked heatshield bracket and add an O2 sensor bung on the driver's side unit.
You may note that these are thin-flange versions and think to yourself that my '82 SC's stock exhaust would have required thick-flange heat exchanges. I'm not sure if I mentioned it previously in this thread, but when I overhauled the car's engine I'd had the cylinder heads done by Craig Garrett, who did his trademark excellent work.
This being my first 911 and me being somewhat green, I hadn't had a good look - with measuring devices - at the exhaust studs, so I didn't ask CGARR to replace them. They looked OK. But after building the engine up and going to fit the (stock) heat exchangers, I found the tips of those studs' threads to be eroded, by rust and heat I suppose, to the extent that I couldn't torque the H.E.'s ... a heavy-pucker moment, I can assure you. But some amount of practicality washed over me, and I found a way to remove material from the thick flanges to make them mezzo flanges, which allowed the nuts to travel deeper onto the studs to where there was still sufficient thread dimension to get a decent grip. So for SSI's, I'd actually
wanted thin-flanges.
**When I'd scuttled the purchase of that first set of SSI's, I'd already lined-up a two-in, one-out '71 MFI muffler from another decent guy here on PP. I'd had to call him and humble myself to renege. But a year later, when Bob Liberty hooked me up, I called the muffler man back - tempting fate ... ("
I know I kind of boned you on that muffler once, but ... you wouldn't happen to still have it, per-chance?" Well, he did, and was gracious enough to sell it to me. Thanks Mr. Szabo.
The change from stock exhaust to SSI's brought with it the required change in the oil piping, and here two other great guys helped me out. The semi-circular hard pipe came from 914GT6 (I think? Bay Area Pelican gentleman). I can't recall where the other hard-pipe came from, but it was Len Cummings who not only sectioned on new hoses, but also had everything - including the semi-circular pipe - yellow zinc plated.
Two final acts of kindness enabled me wrapping up the project:
1. Bruce in North Carolina, flat6pac, suggested I use JIS (Japanese spec) 8mm nuts with 12mm hex-heads to fasten the flanges where the socket needs to pass through the access tubes in the heat exchangers. He told me I'd need a 1/4" drive deep socket to accomplish this, and that it had to be a SnapOn socket, in order to have a thin enough wall section.
2. I asked my good friend Tony, master-technician at my former Volvo store to grab me said socket from the weekly visiting SnapOn dealer. Tony did this, then wouldn't let me pay him for it.
Porsche: We Expect the Excellence, but it's the people who take the experience to the next level.
Thanks for dropping by,
John