Another Permanent SAI Fix
 

To make a long story short... The car went in for the infamous SAI check engine light, after of course not passing emissions, my mechanic threw the wrench at it to start the SAI flush procedure. Like some of these cars do, it just didn't want to clean. My options where tear down the engine or as my mechanic said.. "we have an idea that on paper should work, but we have never tried it or tested it ourselves." So after researching this great forum, I found a fellow rennlister, who had success, on what I can tell was exactly the same Idea / concept: https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...manent+sai+fix

So I gave him the green light to go for it! I just picked the car up today and the fix / solution worked again. He even had it run through the state testing facility, and received my clean bill of health :) The only thing they did different from the example above, is the entire plumbing was all done in metal (which I wish I was able to get a snap shot of the top end prior to picking up the car.)

Here are a few snaps of the lower end. What are your thoughts? I had him do some additional mis. things to the car (as I'm going to list it for sale), so I asked him what he would charge to just do the SAI fix? At 10 hours, + mis parts about $1,000. I'm thinking thats not that bad, compared to the cost to tear down the engine? Do you guys think to a prospective buyer that this would be a con, or a pro knowing that the engine has never been torn down and having a solution to the SAI issue?

No cons, unless future buyer wants to make a big deal about the "non-factory" mod. The SAI device is another one of those stupid SMOG device that really doesn't work in the real world, getting rid of it is a blessing.

Hey Robin.. my thoughts exactly and my mechanic's. He found no other reason after testing that the engine should be touched. I feel blessed that the fix worked, and I know that a prospective buyer will have to have some better than average knowledge about the car to understand.

Thats really funny also, because I was just on your web site checking out the odometer DIY.. Mine stopped working on the way home..

Thanks for your input :)

Nice work!

Any pictures and/or decriptions of mods to the check valve area? At what point was the line split to go to each side? Did you use 1/4" ID aluminum tubing? Inquiring minds want to know....

Hi Jimbo,

No, unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the upper end. I've always assumed that the air supply lines, running off the check valve seat, where separate lines that of the check valve??(see sample pic) The lines are a max of a 1/4" cannot be larger, but may be smaller. I'll call tomorrow to get more details.

Thanks,

Mike

Well, it's absolutely a "con" in my wonderful state as your buyer (hell, it could even be someone like me) might not care........but it's been modified. And damn straight if someone gets bitchy down the road whoever owns it at the time will be left holding the bag.

If I were considering buying your car, this would definitely be a pro. No worry about SAI CEL ever!

If the money were no bid deal then just pay to have it fixed. I think it will be a bargining point when you sell the car. It is probably illegal to modify an emission control system. If you don't have the money to fix it correctly then this works. Disclamer, I dislike kluges especially on something special like a Porsche.

carcommander- I think it's safe to say we all dislike kluges, but this is kind of an exception. Porsche designed the system very very poorly. To rebuild the engine ($4000) for no other reason than to fix a minor emissions issue due to a poorly designed system is kind of silly.

Eric - I think that the majority here are in your court as well as I. If there where any other reason that my mechanic could find to tear down the engine, then I would of went that route (especially for $4K) he was more like double that price. But he found nothing wrong with it. I personally hate kluges myself, but I feel in this case that was the better option. The car has 77K on the clock and runs strong, no leaks anywhere. I think that the fact the engine wasn't cracked open just for this issue was the right move.

Thanks for everyones input :)

Forgive my ignorance: does this now bypass the SAI system? Or once it's done, does it facilitate subsequent maintenance and cleaning of the SAI?

Basically this mod is to by pass the "route" from SAI manifold to the exhaust ports. The whole idea is by pass the plugged ports and inject air directly pre-cat during the cold start cycle. Which still sort of meets SMOG law requirement. Because the OBD2 is detecting fresh air and not triggering a CEL.

But the maintenance/regular replacement interval of the SAI valve is still in effect.

Chuck - The following link has a great example of how the system works, when you follow the supply tubing, you can see it runs into the Cylinder heads, this fix, just by-passes that section and it runs around the engine instead. And no you still need to maintain the SAI check valve.

Hope that helps explain it better :)

http://www.kronowit.com/porsches/sai-flush.html

I'm sure any potential buyer can get the special "+$5000 to restore Porsche's klugey system to its original klugey temporary functionality" price. You'd pay it, right? :D

Don't see this as a Kludge in any way - it's a good mod just like going from Monroes to Bilstein, stock exhaust to RSR's, etc....