CalvinC4S

RS gear question.

Are you staying stock on 1-2 or how do you do RS gears on a 50/20??

mcipseric

fun! How about RS Engine and Trany Mounts to your list?

JM993

If you haven't done so already, I'd recommend supporting your a/c compressor on a platform of some type (I used a step ladder). That way you can close the engine lid and save your hood shocks.

Cheers,
Joe

NP993

Yes indeed, no way around it.

Stock 1,2, and 6 -- RS 3, 4, and 5. I got the gears a couple of years ago for $1200 (for all three!) and have been waiting to put them in...why no RS 6th? Because I really like the stock 6th, nice and tall. It's great for highway cruising. No need to go lower.

Already have Wevo engine mounts, and the tranny is getting the RS mount.

Thanks, that's a good idea.

NP993

Today's progress. I got the engine and transmission separated and the clutch/flywheel removed. The RMS is weeping a small amount of oil and a new one will go in. The clutch disc has tens of thousands of miles still on it -- not even close to the rivets. My car was owned by a female doctor for many years who I don't think was a lead-foot. The input shaft splines are nice and rusty, which must have been a cause of the stickiness in the shifting, especially when the engine was hot.

I removed the engine carrier and John at Rennline welded on Rennline's carrier reinforcement. Interestingly, my car -- a late June, 1996 build -- had some factory reinforcement already done to it that nobody at the shop had seen before on the earlier 993's (see second to the last pic below). The factory must have recognized that this was a weak spot.

I removed the fuel injectors and they're filthy. These will be cleaned and flowed. The distributor came out and will have the drive belt replaced. All that's left to remove are the axles, for the CV joint service.

Tomorrow I'm sending everything off (including the gearbox) and then I'll have the brakes, CV's, and subframe mounts to take care of while everything's away getting worked on.

Wilder

Noah,

Cool job. RS gears and LSD...

Two suggestions
- ISV cleaning and adjustment for LWF/clutch: https://rennlist.com/forums/993-foru...n-for-lwf.html
- If you're feeling ambitious, port the VRAM runners: https://rennlist.com/forums/4440142-post39.html

NP993

Thanks. I always thought that the stalling problem doesn't manifest itself in the varioram cars, only the '95s?

I don't think I'm going to do the Vram manifold. Some day when I get 9M heads and hot cams, I'll do that. Right now I doubt it would make the slightest difference, and might even reduce performance by slowing the speed of the intake charge.

TheOtherEric

Like others said, change the power steering belt and the plug wires too.

The engine carrier thing is odd. Definitely was welded after production by a prior owner, probably to fix some cracks. And the little plate is strange. Keep in mind that these welds are NOT for reinforcing the problems with the carriers, which is the welds around the mounting holes. Since you're installing Wevo mounts, you need to do the proper reinforcing.

Wilder

My bad you're right.

NP993

There are two pics above of the carrier, the first is of the factory reinforcing plates, the second is after the Rennline reinforcement was welded on. The plates in the first pic are factory, apparently something the factory started doing on the later 993's. Or at least that's what I heard....

TheOtherEric

Ok, but i'm saying the reinforcement in the first pic doesn't address the weak points, which are over near the ends. Glad to hear you did the Rennline part. That's a nice piece.

fast_freddy

I don't know if you've done the upgrade yet or not but I would most certainly do RS/Evo uprights, Evo tie rods and new ERP bushings all around. I finished mine just last week and the difference is amazing. Budget wise it's not too dreadful either, the only unexpected thing I had was having to replace the ABS sensors in the front.

If you do the above and need to get it aligned I have a kinematic toe tool as well that you can use if you like.

NP993

After a couple of weeks off, we're back in business. The rebuilt, regeared, and LSD'd gearbox arrives back tomorrow from Joel Reiser at Reister-Technik, who has been a real pleasure to work with. I highly recommend him for your Porsche service needs: http://www.reiser-technik.com/

While the gearbox was away at Joel's, I had the distributor rebuilt, the injectors cleaned and flowed, and ordered a new alternator. I also installed solid rear subframe mounts from Rennline. Today I got the distributor and injectors reinstalled, and made a major discovery: the source of a minor oil leak that was driving me crazy.

The source of the leak is a bad gasket on the varioram actuator that's on the bottom rear of intake manifold -- it's the actuator that sits right up against the engine shroud, right behind the alternator.

The varioram manifold has a cutout in it that the actuator seals against. The pics below will make this clear. The actuator in my case was gunked up with oil crud, which I had noticed before. What I didn't realize until I could examine it closely today was that this wasn't just some gunk buildup, but an active leak that was dripping down the shroud and making it look like there was a leak in the breather area at the front of the engine. Not a big leak, but it was annoying.

I cleaned the actuator very carefully, removed the seal, got everything cleaned up, an am going to reinstall it with some Curil-T sealant, unless anyone has a better idea. The seal itself looks fine -- it's not rotted or cracked or dried out.

Onward to the pictures.

NP993

And here's the play-by-play for doing the subframe mounts. Those of you who end up ordering these from Rennline, you're going to see these same pics in your instructions.

Akerlie

Noah,

Where you able to remove the actuator without lifting the manifold ?
I have a leak at the same place and would like to get it sorted, interested in knowing how you did it.

Akerlie