odonnell

Installed a reinforced oil pickup and return tube onto my 951 motor (block is super early 82/83) and the return pipe doesn't seem to fit well at all where it bolts to the girdle. Were there different revisions of this part? It doesn't look like it will be solid.

jhowell371

Personally I don't like the look of that. Is that your original that you had reinforced or a different pickup? Slight grinding/relieving should allow it set flush. YMMV

V2Rocket

What's the 82 83 part look like installed?

odonnell

I have no idea where the original part is, I need to keep looking. This is from a mystery car (probably 86+).

Anyone have photos of this area on early engines? My only photos from the teardown gloss over this.

Breakaway944

I do not know if this will help you out but here are pictures of an 86 block/girdle/tube


you can see the tube and girdle are keyed to each other. Are yours?

Are you going to use the seal for the return pipe? It does not look like it would be very secure (old one was missing-did it fall off?) Or that it is very neccesary. Thoughts? I am afriad it will fall out and get chewed up in the engine.

Breakaway944

87 and up pick up tubes are not compatible with earlier engines, different length. Perhaps return tubes are different too?

odonnell

Thanks for that! Pictures attached - it's clear now this is not the correct part without modification. I need to dig through more parts boxes.

Another thing I noticed is that the tacked nut on the oil pickup appears to be M6, but the hole on the return pipe looks larger, possibly sized for an M8.

On a related note that picture shows how I had to bend the ear on the pickup tube back to being lined up, after it was bent toward the girdle (probably from being at the bottom of a parts bin). I'm tempted to bin it, since it's possibly compromised now long-term. But it's been reinforced and skirted so I want to run it.

harveyf

Not to rain on anybody's parade but I'm not a big fan of aftermarket reinforced oil pickup tubes. If you look at an OEM pickup tube, the tube is connected to the flange using a brazed lug fitting. I am pretty sure this is intentional by Porsche. Like with bicycle frames, this technique puts the least amount of heat into the joint. High heat, as input through an arc based process (MIG, TIG) introduces a "heat affected zone" which in general tends to substantially and adversely affect the local material properties of the tube. The brazed lug connection minimizes this affect.

I know your discussion is about the return tube but you do mention a reinforced tube. I'm assuming it's the supply tube. I recommend putting down your dollars for a replacement OEM tube. It will be good for another 40 years with no worries.

The copper colored area in the pic below is the brazed lug of a new OEM pickup tube.

odonnell

Thanks for all the input guys. To close the loop I ordered an eBay part from an '83 or '84 and it is no doubt a different part. Besides the flange seat to the girdle the diameter is different, and the through-hole for mounting to the pickup tube is different. Pics side by side for comparison.

odonnell

I have also decided against running the reinforced pickup based on Harvey's input.

V2Rocket

Just a thought, Brazing might have been used because the tube is so thin, and tig welders in 1980s west Germany were rare and expensive