Out of town PPI uncovered a small oil leak on the sump return line, left side, at the case. A 34mm gland nut needs to be tightened (silver in color, at center of pic.)

Shop said that it's easy to turn that nut, but it's impossible to get at easily. Quoted me $400 (4.7 hours?) mostly to remove and replace the heat exchanger.

Is that the right procedure and the right number of hours?

Anything else I should consider doing..."while we're in there"?

 

Sounds like you need to look for another shop while you're in there. Boat payment must be due. It's like the shop that charged me 6.5hrs to repack my CV joints { 2 hr. is correct time} and $145 for the " CV boot kit" { $20 is correct amount]. I got hosed because I didn't know any better. Maybe I'm wrong but I read somewhere that taking the heat exchanger off was a 10 min. job. What do you experienced guys say?

 

4 hrs?!?!?!?!? Tell them to go (word removed) themself!!!

It takes me about 10 minutes to remove that heat exchanger and that's with a car on jackstands lying on the floor, not car on the lift as shops do. Plus I think you should actually get to that nut without removing the HE, at least just taking one end off is enough.

In any case (even if you have engine tray on), with the lift, this shoudn't take more than 30 minutes to do and that's with driving the car on & off the lift and drinking a beer after the job.

That's more than robbing.

 

- Jack up car (5 minutes)
- Remove under tray (2 minutes)
- Remove R-tube (10 minutes)
- Tighten nut (1 minute)
- Refit R-tube (10 minutes)
- Replace under tray (5 minutes - it's a b*tch)
- Lower car (1 minute)

34 minutes - include extended coffee break...1 hour on the outside (that's the outside of the solar system dude).

I could probably do it in under an hour, and I don't even have a workshop.

Peter R.

 

Do be gentle when tightening the connector! Don't over do it...

 

I wonder how this nut tightens, anyone took the oil return out and remembers how it tightens back?
or is it a classic clockwise nut? it looks like the white nut is in the black one... and as if the black one is not fixed on
the flexible oil pipe.

 

Kinda be careful here. There silver nut thing is a threaded insert that is screwed onto the case. The black nut thing is the oil line that is screwed on to the silver thing. You have to determine where the leak is cominng from. Whether it is between the case and the insert, or the insert and the oil return line. Most likely it's the insert and the oil return line. In that case, you would want to turn the black nut while holding the silver insert and not letting it move. If you just turn the back nut, you may turn the silver insert, disturbing the seal, and causing more leak while not fixing your original one.

BTW, according to the factory manual, the silver insert is locktied to the case and torqued to a pretty high value like 65ft-lb or something.

 

Both insert and oil return line nut tightens to the right normally. No counter clockwise tighten stuff here.

 

excellent info here, thank you very much...

 

There is a 5 cent crush washer under the fitting in the block. I would loosen the oil line, remove the fitting, and a new crush washer and reinstall. This can be done without any removal of the exhuast manifold. These guys quoting 4.7 hours have either never seen a Porsche, have no tools, or are complete crooks. Could also be a combination of these three. Total time should be about 5 minutes from the point where the picture was taken.

 

Bob is spot on - - more often than not, I find the fitting to the case loose when removing the oil line for engine removal. Certainly replace the crush washer and you dont need to remove the HE to do this.

 

I am not sure the job can be done without removing the oil return tube and the fitting in question is installed with Loctite sealant. I would be very certain that I got all of the old sealant (dried and hard) out of the threads in the case (without having it go IN the case) before I reassemble the bits. I don't think its a 5 minute job, but their estimate is very.....generous.......to themselves.
Good luck, Jerry