Droops83

I was at a POC track event at Streets of Willow Springs this weekend in my 951 (engine is bone stock, running stock boost level) and I was having intermittent lack of power/boost issues all day, and by the end of the day I had no boost whatsoever, and I could hear an exhaust leak, but could not find it and drove home with no boost (in case you are wondering, a 951 is REALLY slow without boost!).

I put it on the lift tonight and unbolted the wastegate outlet pipe so that I could watch the valve while applying air pressure to the signal line nipple, only to discover that the valve was not there! I found it in the exhaust pipe resting against the inlet screen of the cat. No wonder the exhaust was rattling on the way home! Luckily I have a couple spare wastegates at the shop, one of which was good and I am back on the road with full boost.

I have not taken the original wastegate apart yet (threaded end of the valve is intact, would only partially thread back in) but I have never seen this happen to a wastegate, 951 or 930 (I work at a Porsche shop). Has anybody else experienced this?

lart951

is the wastegate shimmed?

Rich Sandor

I actually have had this happen when i first got my car. Mine too was found in the exhaust. The shop suggested that the wastegate may have been taken apart and reinstalled at some point, and when it was reassembled perhaps the valve was not installed properly.

Droops83

I don't think so, it would only boost to ~10 PSI before this happened (verified by real boost gauge), and I bought the car from the original owner who never modified it. I will take the WG apart the rest of the way tomorrow to check it out, but I doubt that it has ever been apart. If somebody HAD taken it apart recently, that would explain this, but I have driven the car for ~60K miles and this suddenly happened yesterday.

alxdgr8

Time to upgrade to an aftermarket one! They work in the opposite manner so you shouldn't have this problem.

Van

I have a nice used Lindsey Club Gate (single port) if you're interested.

teamcrossworks

Having taken apart my share of wastegates...the valve is threaded into the diaphragm housing and can come loose from vibration like any other bolt can . Clean up the threads, apply some thread lock, tighten and should be good as new.

Droops83

Thanks, I will keep this in mind, as I will be keeping things stock for now to stay in class for POC . . . . but I did have a good used stock WG on the shelf and I am back on the road with full boost. I will contact you if this one acts up!


Thank you, I did try this first, but the diaphragm turned out to be toast as well. Thank goodness I have a bunch of spare 951 stuff laying around!

JustinL

I've had this happen too. It was a good excuse to go to a tial.