plpete84

More photos are trickling in which means that the rebuild is progressing forward, step by step.

Here is the problem child. The coating actually looks pretty decent outside of the affected area. That said, I was surprised this didn't show up as some sort of spike on my UOA. Either bigger particles not caught or very small ones over longer period of time. Either way, I'll be holding onto that piston as a souvenir.





#6 with some of the coating starting to wear off. The bearing is also showing wear on one of the pieces. This is the theme across all of them. I presume this is somewhat normal, as there is going to be wear given mileage and good that it looked pretty consistent across all connecting rods.





Outside of the cylinder #4, the rest of the bores actually look pretty decent. No other major scoring.





Today, I got an update that the heads and valves are getting some attention. There were some indentations on the top at cylinder #4 but Brandon thinks that it should clean up nicely once we skim the head surface.



Overall, happy with the process and progress so far. Communication and response time has been great, which I appreciate, especially as Brandon and the team have their hands full with multiple rebuilds going on. We might upgrade the injectors once they are tested to 997 ones to better support the 4.1L displacement. 996 ones can work but have shown some tendencies to create lean situations so we will address that soon. Additionally, new springs on the intake side will most likely go in as they have slightly dropped off after being tested. Exhaust ones are looking good. More to come...

plpete84

Things are moving along with the build and should be really picking up over the next 2 weeks! Brandon sent over a few shots of the case halves showing the old cylinders machined out and with the new ones installed. I like seeing how the sausage is made so appreciate this kind of stuff. The little bit of a hit that the head took from whatever the heck was in cylinder 4 was addressed by skimming the surface and staying within their specs.



The new cylinders are in and this means only one thing...the assembly process is scheduled to start today!





With the assembly kicking off, I was able to confirm the completion date with Brandon and have booked a flight to Oklahoma City for May 10th. From there, it's off to Dallas to visit a good friend and will start the road trip back home on Sunday. Tentative plan is:
- Day 1 = Dallas to Memphis
- Day 2 = Memphis to Knoxville
- Day 3 = Knoxville to start of Blue Ridge Parkway -> Skyline Drive -> DC

This is subject to change and I'm open to any suggestions, especially around good roads, cool stuff to see along the way, good places to eat and stay and etc. At this point I'm equally stoked for the new motor and the road trip

wdb

Wow, progress! And your plan sounds like fun. I'm not your engine builder, so take their advice on things, but here are some thoughts I had:
- Initial break-in might involve a series of short-ish heat cycles followed by an oil change. If they take care of all that, it will help with your trip planning.
- First 1K - 1.5K miles: it might not be ideal to be running at steady RPMs the whole time, as you would on an interstate. You may want to plan for secondary roads and several stops.
- Dallas to Memphis: if you can spare the miles and time, swinging up through Arkansas will put you in some fun country.
- The other legs should be relatively easy to find fun roads.
- Blue Ridge Parkway is pretty, but it's limited to 45MPH or 35MPH, it's patrolled by park rangers, and depending on when you're there it can have a lot of cruiser motorcycles and RV's.

Congratulations and keep the information flowing please!

plpete84

Thanks - all great points! I definitely did consider the break-in process and plan to pick Brandon's brain when picking up the car so I do all the right things and break in with longevity in mind. The engine does go through a break-in process on their engine dyno and is considered "track ready" upon delivery. Steve, who is actually local to me, had his 997 motor rebuilt to a bit more track focused spec and after a bit of local driving hit the track with 0 issues or any oil consumption. I think he has 2 track days or weekends under his belt already. With all that I have confidence that I won't have any issue on that front. Here are a few tidbits on the topic from their site:

• Do I need to limit my driving initially on my engine when I get it back? No, it can be driven aggressively. Our process is the same for all of our engines and so they leave our facility "race ready".
• Testing/QA - Every engine we build goes through an extensive QA and break-in process on our Engine Dynometer where we monitor and record every aspect of the engine during testing. We use the ancillaries and the tune that the engine will be installed with to ensure that it is ready to reliably perform on the street or the track when it leaves our facility.
• What oil and change interval do you recommend? We use Driven BR40 for the break in and then we recommend Valvoline VR1-20W50 as an intermediate oil for the first 2000 miles to allow the rings to fully seat. Following that, we recommend Driven DT50 or Motul 8100 5W50 for street use and XP6 or 300V 15W50 for track use along with used oil analysis. Change interval moving forward is recommended at 3000-5000 miles depending on the UOA results. We equate one track hour to equal 500 miles.
• Can I pick my car up and drive it home? Yes.

Also, noted on the routes! I plan to leave quite early that day so I can beat most of the traffic. If it get's really congested I'll look at some alternative routes, of which looks like there are plenty in the area. Last thing I want is just to sit on a highway for hours at a steady RPM. That's both boring and probably doesn't lend to ideal break in, whatever might be needed at that point.

2mAn

If you havent done it I would add Tail of the Dragon on the route home

plpete84

Paid the dragon a visit circa 2020 when I first picked up the car and was driving home. She's come a long way since! Not opposed to stopping by again and driving the Cherohala Skyway, which many say it's arguably a better driving road. Just not as popular.

plpete84

I've had a few folks reach out to me for an update since I've had the car for a week now so short story long, here we go....

As agreed with Brandon, I was planning to fly out to OKC on Friday, May 11th to collect the car. The plan was to drive the car back to DC, which I was assured wouldn't be a problem. Because life has been known to throw me some curveballs, what's another one as I embark on this trip. As I put my head down to sleep, since I needed to be up before 4am for an early flight, I heard a ding on my phone. Reluctantly, I looked thinking maybe it's a "u up" from some pretty lady....but it was not....it was Delta telling me that my flight has been cancelled and moved to Saturday. Great, it's not even Friday yet and something went wrong already. I frantically grabbed my laptop to see if there are any other flight options. Original plan was to arrive in OKC by 11am but my only other option that would get me there on Friday put me in OKC at 5:30pm via a 4 and half hour layover in Salt Lake City. But wait, there's more! Upon arriving in Utah, I learned that I did not have a seat for my second flight as the flight was overbooked. Luckily some folks with flexible schedules gave up the seats for some money and I was the last person to board the flight to OKC. Whew, that was close. Brandon was a complete legend accommodating this and staying longer on a Friday until I arrived. Between travel, temps all over the place, 3 time zones, 2 airports and the stress I managed to pick up a cold. Wonderful. Once I landed my buddy, that also flew in, and I made our way over to Slakker to collect the car.

What a sight for sore eyes (and throat at that point)!



Brandon provided me with a bit of a tour of the facility which was very cool to see for me. I enjoy seeing how the sausage (or my engine in this case) is made so seeing all the machines, engine dyno, and all the other parts laid out was a very cool experience. Also, how often do you get to meet the guy who built your engine!? One of the big reasons why I chose to work with Slakker was that everything is done in-house. I think this really contributed to a relatively speedy turn-around and all the control over the process you can ask for. There is no waiting for someone to finish your case halves with new sleeves or waiting on the heads to be refinished, which are in their own separate queue. I think it's a huge benefit that's not often talked about. The whole operation is still relatively young but you could see some great work being done as well as constant improvement to the process.

I know some folks had some concerns about driving the car half way across the country and the break in. The engine has gone through a pretty rigorous break-in process on the dyno where it was pushed hard for about 30 minutes, harder than what I'd probably throw at it. Also, the engine saw about 10 heat cycles and through some procedures that verify blow-by and other things that confirm if the rings are seated nicely I was able to just drive off and enjoy the car. All I needed to do is change the oil when I got home. Heck, I didn't even have any break-in oil in the sump and was able to run Driven synthetic, I think it was DT50. Brandon and I went over the car and I was ready to hit the road! I requested that he save the problem child that was piston #4 which I took back with me as a souvenir. I might get a gold chain and wear it around my neck when I go to C&C or a track day



After departing Slakker, my buddy and I hit a Whataburger and hit the road for Dallas, 217 miles.




The car did not skip a beat and boy, that torque was a pleasant surprise. In most cases 6th gear can work as a passing gear and the car gets up to speed north of 80mph with little effort. Driving in Texas was an experience. We were booking it at about 90mph and still getting passed by pick up trucks. One thing that was a big surprise, however, was the fuel economy. Over the 217 mile trip to Dallas, with steady speeds of 80-90mph with a few pulls into the triple digits the car returned 31.6mpg! Bigger displacement, more power and torque and better fuel economy? What else could I want! Speaking of power, the engine dynoed at 371HP and 325TQ. This is with a stock plenum and TB. I do plan to add a GT3 TB and plenum from the guys at Spyder Performance at some point which will gain me another 10HP and some torque. Looking at the 996.2 GT3, which was rated at 381HP and 284TQ (although we know Porsche was probably sandbagging with those numbers) and this puts me pretty pretty much near those power levels with more and earlier torque. With this car quickly becoming my version of "what if Porsche made a 996 GT3 Touring" I'm pretty happy with the outcome. My goal was never to squeeze out every possible HP so to end up where I have, I'm quite happy. As stated originally, the goal was a more powerful motor with which I can have a good time on the track 2-3 times a year and then hop in and do a long road trip. The primary goal was dependability and addressing all the shortcomings of the M96. With the nikasil plated cylinders and matching pistons from Capricorn, larger motorsports main and rod bearings, larger IMS, UAOS and UIDS I've pretty much addressed everything that you could. We even are running 997 injectors that were a bit better suited for the larger displacement.

Saturday was spent in Dallas visiting a good friend of mine. Bike riding, soccer match and a late night at a Korean bar all contributed to me feeling like total poop the next day. Still worth it. Brandon checked in via text to see how the initial drive went, which was nice of him.




Sunday I hit the road with Memphis being the destination. Just under 450 miles. Kind of a boring drive with mostly rainy weather so just wanted to cover the distance. More trucks passing you while going 90 but still awesome fuel economy! Didn't get crazy with the driving given the cold and basically running on cold medicine, Pedialyte and a bottle of 5 hour energy. Don't remember the last time I took that stuff but it really wakes you up! So far no light of any kind, loads of power on tap and didn't look like any oil was consumed. So far so good!




I decided to sleep in a little bit and hit the road to Chattanooga in the late morning - about 340 miles. Somewhat uneventful but as I got closer to central TN the roads began to have turns and there was finally hills and elevation change! I've never been but Chattanooga seemed like a cool little town.
Found a cool spot for dinner called State of Confusion, which felt very appropriate with a cool bakery near by where I got breakfast and some other snacks before hitting the road towards the Tail of the Dragon.







After a good night's sleep and a solid breakfast I headed out towards the Smoky Mountains and the Tail of the Dragon. Thought it would be nice to return there 3 and half years later. Some of the spots of the road were repaved with more pull outs which was great to see. Had a nice opportunity to exercise the engine and get some more spirited driving in. I actually felt pretty rested with more energy so that was great to see.





But wait, there is more! I had a total bonehead moment when while fumbling with my phone, wallet and camera I failed to notice that I never took the key out of the ignition. You can probably imagine what happened next....I came back to a locked car. F*ck. Luckily, I did leave my sunroof cracked open. Several minutes earlier, while picking up a decal at the shop, I overheard the familiar Polish language being spoken and ran into a nice Polish couple with their son who were roundtripping from CT. With their help and some backyard engineering we found a long skinny branch to which we zip tied another stick that resembled a hook and were able to get the key out. A little more excitement than what I was looking for but hey, I was able to get back on the road! Next destination was the Blue Ridge Parkway. I drove to the South Terminus which is the starting point and began to drive. The roads were mostly empty but the weather started to turn for the worse. Light rain and increasing fog made for limited visibility. I did go past the highest point of the parkway, about 6069ft, and past the entrance to Mt. Mitchell. The roads were great and going through a bunch of tunnels was fun. I think the parkway has over 60 of them as a whole. Not wanting any more excitement for the day, I elected to drive to Little Switzerland and get off the parkway after that. It was just too foggy to hold any meaningful pace and do so safely. I had a nice little dinner in Little Switzerland and to my surprise still had some energy in me. Since I needed to get home by end of the next day, I decided to drive towards Winston-Salem and stay in a hotel there. That was only about another hour or so after dinner.














From Winston-Salem it was about 340 miles / 5 hours to get back to DC. Had a solid breakfast and hit the road, which was mostly highways. I got back to DC a little before 3pm, having covered 1,787 miles. This car is a road trip monster. It's pretty hard to describe how easily it just ate up the boring miles and felt very at home at about 80-85mph. The engine was super smooth and just hummed along. At those speeds, you're close to 3500rpms so having all the torque on hand made passing super easy and if you wanted more oomph just drop down into 5th and go. The engine is broken in but it will take some time for everything to fully settle in. I did the first oil change now with FR50, since I have 2 cases of it. I plan to run it for 3k miles and then change again. After that I'll probably go back to 5k mile change interval. I need to send out the first sample for UOA and I'm sure it will be pretty ugly. Only at idle, there is some ticking noise that goes away immediately when you tap the accelerator. Brandon said this is common with lifters making some noise with the thicker 50 weight oil at idle and as long as it goes away with revs/oil pressure it's a non issue. It will very possibly go away as the engine further settles in. Now that I think about it, the old motor made a similar noise at idle, albeit more faint. I still haven't driven the car "in anger" but hope to this weekend. With fresh oil, I also finally had a chance to add Skip's baffles for the UIDS. Getting the UIDS to seat was a bit of a PITA with the tight fit but that's a good thing I guess because the baffles are creating a good seal for each chamber.










The car got a much needed wash and now it's time to address few other things:
- front lip needs to be repainted
- polish and redo the ceramic coating since there was some paint work done after the deer run in
- the spoiler decided to stop working and sits a bit crooked
- might do a quality of life upgrade for potential future exhaust manifold removal. While the bolts are not baked into the heads I might convert them to Ti/Al studs with copper nuts. This should make removing things much easier in the future.

More to come....

KJinDC

Welcome back! Great post and what an awesome adventure it's been from purchase through now. I hope it continues to get better. Let's catch up sometime this summer? I'll bring the GT3 out and you can feel the difference (i.e., lack of torque!).

-KJ

De Jeeper

U mean ..... lack of torque under 5k rpm.

SlakkerRacingDev

Awesome post and pics of the drive home. What an adventure! And yes, having a pickup with a 9" lift kit, neon lights, and tires taller than your car fly by you when you are doing 90mph is almost an experience in and of itself, but fairly common place in the DFW area.

It was great to meet you and thanks again for letting us be a part of your magnificent 40th AE build! I look forward to more updates and seeing your cars continued progression.

plpete84

Thanks and let's definitely get together! Days are long now so shoot me a PM and we will get something on the books I haven't driven a GT3 of any kind yet so it will be a treat to try one and see how it compares. I'm sure both fantastic driving experiences with their own unique characteristics. I'll bring my camera to grab a few nice shots.

The time is now! They do pop up for sale somewhat regularly and are not getting cheaper so might be a good time to pull the trigger

Brandon - once again, great meeting you too and thanks for making a somewhat of a complex process simple! I look forward to racking up more miles this summer and through rest of the year. The car is 20 years old so I'm sure it will keep me busy with little stuff popping up here and there (like the spoiler) but the motor is the one thing that I won't have to worry about

plpete84

Just rolled over 1k miles on the new oil change! I'll be changing the oil again in 2k miles and then will move to 5k mile change interval most likely. I should get the UOA for the first change soon and it will probably look pretty ugly as stuff settles in.

I forgot about the photos that get taken at the Tail of the Dragon and purchased the below:



I finally got around to fixing my rear spoiler as well. The car got nervous before being shipped out to Slakker and 2 days before it was collected the wing started to sit crooked closed and deploy unevenly only to go down again after a few seconds. This also threw the red light / message on the dash. Not wanting to spend $1400 on a new unit I tore into the mechanism to see what I find. In my case, the steel lines that actuate the two black curved rods? that move the spoiler were the culprit. The have some sort of solid lubricated housing that is plastic, which basically crumbled into pieces and prevented the line from moving smoothly. I ended up taking the whole unit apart, cleaning it and reassembling it. Watch out for the 2 springs that hold the 2 steel cables under tension in the black housing under the motor. I had an "f me" moment when one shot out into the air and landed somewhere in the engine compartment. Luckily I found it. The foam insulating the metal housing was also pretty gone. I used the same foam I used to fix the heater blend door to wrap them and then went over again with cloth tape for good measure. Now the wing is back on and operating as it should. Look forward to being able to buy and install the "GT3 Touring" style lid that artnd is working on (https://artndvehiclestudio.com/produ...ouring-spoiler)



Still few little projects to do:
- repaint the lip as it's looking "distressed". Using an adhesion promoter this time and might screw around with a roll PPF to give it some extra protection.
- pull the bumper to fix a piece of loose black plastic under one headlight.
- with bumper off, check the center radiator and lines to make sure nothing is kinking.
- clean and recoat the leather interior with Colourlock
- remove the rest of the tint and figure out what to replace it with.
- continue to rack up more miles and maybe sneak in a track day towards end of season

Finally, a close friend of mine was finally able to collect his new Lotus Emira so I went to pick it up with him. It's still in the break in period but can't wait to drive it soon. Insane value for the money imho and hope you like attention because we had countless thumbs up and people bolting across parking lots to talk or chase you down on roads. Was quite surprised that they come with AP Racing brakes and braded steel lines straight from factory. The shift action is fantastic and throttle actuator you see in rear view mirror never gets old. With double wish bones all over, this thing will be a hoot to drive.





More to come...

connect_yvr

Pete, this thread is awesome. Your updates are always equally well written and photographed. I just got a 40th AE a few weeks ago with a lot of work to do (PO left me with a lot of deferred maintenance, but a good price to compensate), so following your journey has been enlightening and inspiring. Looking forward to seeing how your journey continues to unfold!

cloud9blue

Wonderful posts. For long term ownership, I think Porsche is the better way to go if you are in the States. Emira is nice (I put down deposit for one back in 2021), but it was a bit underwhelming when I drove it at their Hethel test track.
996/997 are better driver cars--that's why I ended with the Porsche instead of the Lotus.

plpete84

Thank you and congrats on your 40AE! What number car did you pick up? They're 20 years old so there will always be something to do but glad you were able to get it for a fair price. The benefit is you get to choose how to address the maintenance / upgrades and will have the peace of mind of knowing it was actually done. Enjoy the car, and especially the driving experience it provides.

Thanks! You might be right re. the Lotus but we all choose cars for different reason. My buddy is a Canadian Brit and loves the Lotus brand + he wanted something different and I can't hate him for that. I don't think he will ever push the car as much as I would and so far it has proven pretty enjoyable and engaging, especially at slower and out of jail speeds. I think a 911 and even a Cayman is way more usable but if it's your 2nd or 3rd car, then I'd probably consider one as well. My 996 is my only car so it fits the bill perfectly. Good on you for being able to experience it at a track though! I'm sure it was still a blast. All that aside, I think there is a lot to be said for it being the last Lotus with an internal combustion engine and a solid manual transmission. That's a rare combination. Throwing in a manual is not enough imho if that manual stinks. Combine that with the striking looks and I can't see it aging poorly. We're going to detail it this week and ceramic coat the wheels and brake calipers as it's now half way past its break in period. Happy I didn't have to worry about that with the new 4.1L motor! Zero smoke of any kind on start up since collecting it and all the oil is still in the sump 1300 miles later (after recent oil change)!