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First, a big thank you to thedeckman (phenix engineering) and my friend Rick for assisting in all the work. HUGE help.
In brief, after replacing my AOS with a factory replacement, I had noticed an uptick in oil consumption. I was constantly needing to add oil, especially after a spirited drive. For whatever reason, it had not occurred to me that the AOS might have something to do with it. After swapping exhausts, and deleting the cats, I went for a spirited drive with some friends. Thedeckman stated that he smelled oil coming from my car, especially on hard deceleration. That resulted in a project that went from one thing to another.
We first started by getting the car on the lift to examine what was going on. The AOS had clearly failed and oil was seeping out from it. A bore scope was completed and the bores looked good, and it appeared as if the engine had been sleeved at some point. Thedeckman observed that the engine had clearly been apart at some point. This was all good news, and clearly pointed back to the AOS. But, as with everything, why just change that?
We also observed that my alignment was all sorts of messed up, as the left rear adjustment was frozen in place, with the right rear wheel pointed to the center of the car. This was probably why I always had inside wear on the right rear tire. Additionally, the front LCA bolt was corroded and frozen in place. As I already had Phenix Engineering solid Bushings in the rear, we decided to just replace the front LCAs and replace the bushings with Phenix engineering bushings.
I think that's about it. Here are some pictures of the work:
I ended up picking up a 2001 Audi D2 S8 during the project. 85k original miles, full alcantara, GPS, solar sunroof. Cool car. I've always wanted one after seeing the movie Ronin.
The front right control arm was so bad that we ended up milling it out of the subframe.
Many beers were consumed over the ongoing project . . . .
After completing nearly all the jobs, with the exception of the grill screens, we did approximately 350 miles on the car to test everything out. I was very pleased to see that the exhaust tips were no longer sooty. I no longer saw any tire dust on the rear bumper. The car was also running slightly cooler than before. Actually, the car was amazing. All the little jobs really added up overall. Way more responsive and nimble than ever before. It really feels light on its feet. So after the 350ish miles of testing, I decided to take it on a week long road trip.
On Monday April 12, my fiancé came home from work around 2 pm, and we just packed a few bags and went for a drive The goal was to never use a highway. The drive ended up being five days long and covered 860 miles. We left the house and went north to Keene, NH. We ate at a little tavern in the center of Town, and then continued north. Our next stop was in Portland, ME, where we stayed the night. After Portland, we woke up and headed to Bar Harbor. We ended up finding a cool little Inn in the center of Town. It was actually great travelling to ME in the off season, as the Inns all had vacancy and were pretty cheap. The only bad thing on the entire trip was that a lot of things were not open, including Acadia National Park. After Bar Harbor, we stayed the next day in Bath, ME. My buddy, who built my CJ7, lived nearby and we got to check out his new house. I highly recommend checking out Camden, Rockland, and Rockport. Great driving roads and a lot of places to check out. The following day, we went to Kennebunkport and stayed the night. Also a great place to check out. At it was more touristy, there were some places actually open that we could check out, like the Kennebunkport Brewing Company.
In short, it was an amazing time and highly recommended. The car performed great. The coolant level never dropped and I didn't burn any oil at all. It actually made for a great little road trip car. We took plenty of paper maps and charted out our drive as we went, highlighting the roads we needed to hit again in the future. The only thing bad was that the weather on Friday was not great. My tires were a little worn before all the work was completed, and after 1200 ish miles, the rears were smoked. So, a wintery mix drive home on Friday was not enjoyable. But, overall, a great time. I just wanted to share the progress on the car and the little week long trip. Here area some pictures from the drive:
Incredible product. High level of fit/finish. Highly recommended. Replacing with an OEM AOS simply should never be an option.
997 shifter with bushings vs 996 OEM. For the money, hard to beat. I found the 997 Shifter on ebay for around 125 bucks, and the bushings were around 70 bucks. MASSIVE improvement over stock.
After completing all the suspension jobs, the car clearly had to be aligned. I did forget to mention, but since I first purchased the car, I've always noticed tire dust on the rear bumper. This was all due to the frozen suspension bits we finally replaced over the winter. Now it has a proper alignment for once. It was aligned to 2004 GT3 sport spec.
A couple shots from the day it was aligned. Taken before a lot of the other work, like the center radiator.
After completing nearly all the jobs, with the exception of the grill screens, we did approximately 350 miles on the car to test everything out. I was very pleased to see that the exhaust tips were no longer sooty. I no longer saw any tire dust on the rear bumper. The car was also running slightly cooler than before. Actually, the car was amazing. All the little jobs really added up overall. Way more responsive and nimble than ever before. It really feels light on its feet. So after the 350ish miles of testing, I decided to take it on a week long road trip.
On Monday April 12, my fiancé came home from work around 2 pm, and we just packed a few bags and went for a drive The goal was to never use a highway. The drive ended up being five days long and covered 860 miles. We left the house and went north to Keene, NH. We ate at a little tavern in the center of Town, and then continued north. Our next stop was in Portland, ME, where we stayed the night. After Portland, we woke up and headed to Bar Harbor. We ended up finding a cool little Inn in the center of Town. It was actually great travelling to ME in the off season, as the Inns all had vacancy and were pretty cheap. The only bad thing on the entire trip was that a lot of things were not open, including Acadia National Park. After Bar Harbor, we stayed the next day in Bath, ME. My buddy, who built my CJ7, lived nearby and we got to check out his new house. I highly recommend checking out Camden, Rockland, and Rockport. Great driving roads and a lot of places to check out. The following day, we went to Kennebunkport and stayed the night. Also a great place to check out. At it was more touristy, there were some places actually open that we could check out, like the Kennebunkport Brewing Company.
In short, it was an amazing time and highly recommended. The car performed great. The coolant level never dropped and I didn't burn any oil at all. It actually made for a great little road trip car. We took plenty of paper maps and charted out our drive as we went, highlighting the roads we needed to hit again in the future. The only thing bad was that the weather on Friday was not great. My tires were a little worn before all the work was completed, and after 1200 ish miles, the rears were smoked. So, a wintery mix drive home on Friday was not enjoyable. But, overall, a great time. I just wanted to share the progress on the car and the little week long trip. Here area some pictures from the drive:
I definitely needed to get some new tires after the trip. The rears were smoked. I knew they were worn when the car was on the lift getting work done, but 1200 ish miles really hammered the rears. So new Ultrac Vorti Rs. I know they aren't Michelins, but I've actually been really happy with them. I'm not a trackday racer, and for the spirited local driving I do, they have been just fine. https://www.vredestein.com/car-suv-v...ultrac-vorti-r
After just about 860 miles, the car was running nice and cool.
Fantastic story, car and photos! Makes me happy to see people actually use their cars. It's quite surprising how well these 996s are on longer trips. The ride is just right and you always have the option and joy of taking some more fun less travelled roads. I have a wedding to go to in Hudson / Catskill, NY area and am planning to drive up from DC skipping as much of highways as possible.
Also, the car looks perfect to me. OEM+ and how it should have come from factory with those wheels. Well done.
I recently installed the UAOS - fantastic product. What was your oil consumption like before and after? I'm seeing about a quart per 1000 miles, give or take a bit depending on my driving. Hoping this will cure it for me too! :|
Fantastic story, car and photos! Makes me happy to see people actually use their cars. It's quite surprising how well these 996s are on longer trips. The ride is just right and you always have the option and joy of taking some more fun less travelled roads. I have a wedding to go to in Hudson / Catskill, NY area and am planning to drive up from DC skipping as much of highways as possible.
Also, the car looks perfect to me. OEM+ and how it should have come from factory with those wheels. Well done.
I recently installed the UAOS - fantastic product. What was your oil consumption like before and after? I'm seeing about a quart per 1000 miles, give or take a bit depending on my driving. Hoping this will cure it for me too! :|
I was definitely over a quart. I would add oil after nearly every spirited drive. I wished I was more accurate, but it was a fair amount. I was always adding a gulp or two of oil. And thedeckman would make fun of me because I was always re-polishing the sooty exhaust tips. I haven't burned a drop of oil in probably 1400 miles now. I just checked the dipstick and it was right where it was when I left for Maine. My exhaust tips also are still perfectly fine. And since the new engine mounts, they actually line up where they should.
I was definitely over a quart. I would add oil after nearly every spirited drive. I wished I was more accurate, but it was a fair amount. I was always adding a gulp or two of oil. And thedeckman would make fun of me because I was always re-polishing the sooty exhaust tips. I haven't burned a drop of oil in probably 1400 miles now. I just checked the dipstick and it was right where it was when I left for Maine. My exhaust tips also are still perfectly fine. And since the new engine mounts, they actually line up where they should.
Thanks - appreciate the feedback! And I just did my engine mounts the other day too (RS engine mounts) so definitely know what you mean.
Planning another road trip the end of this month. We might hit Montreal this time around. Just did some more work to the car. Trans bushing, oil, retrofit labs headlights, some interior changes, and a good overall. My friend had the GT3 center delete and gave it to me for nothing. So I added some black contrast bits. It made a bigger change than I expected. I also added a rennline phone mount. Despite loosing the storage bins, I like the system much more. I had only used the bins for my phone, so this seems to work much better overall. Plus, the delete seemingly adds way more space. My friend Rick did the work.
@diddy2003 what a lovely car! Mines a 2001 .1 with about 97600 miles, I'll definitely roll over the 100k soon.
Thanks for sharing your photos and the road trip info. I'm headed north on i40 from Wilmington NC to Nova Scotia on Monday. I had planned on 4 days. Overnight in philly, a day at the simeoni museum (might do this on the way back in May. Or both times). Night 2 in Bangor or bar harbor, then to my destination on day 3/4. But your mention of the roads around Acadia and other non interstate drives has me thinking. In prep for the trip I've mounted new ExtremeContact DWS06 (it might get cold again, on fact it looks like it, so summers are out). New rads, I did not add center, it's a road car. New front strut top mounts, OEM reservoir and brackets, OEM water pump and low temp thermostat. While in the there my Indy found a soon to fail major hose, so I may have dodged a bullet. Fresh alignment of course,
a few weeks ago had an oil change fresh motul 5w40. Dropped the sump and scoped. Thankfully, only a very small patch where the coating is lightly worn, dead at the bottom of cyl6. Replaced the sump baffle with the latest 997 part as well. I'm good to go, suspension is all fresh OEM and at stock ride height on gasp! 17s. I'm a contrarian I guess, I like the mild dentist car look, as I've mentioned before. I had plastidipped my twists black, but on the rears it did not survive the new tires mounting. So I peeled the fronts as well, back to silver, mine are pretty rough. When I get back I'm going to get them refurbished and also order new wheels with summers. My list of things to do to Savannah is dwindling in proportion to the contents of my wallet. Ah well, she brings me joy, you have to do things for yourself right? Soon I'll be doing the UAOS, oil cooler, refurbishing the starter, fresh injectors and a few other things as well, later this year. For now though, drive it and smile😎. I can't guarantee great photos like yours, but I'll give it a shot. Oh one of the first things I did was fit RFL headlight kit and led'd all the other things. Night driving is so much less daunting with good beams! Safe travels to you!
@diddy2003 what a lovely car! Mines a 2001 .1 with about 97600 miles, I'll definitely roll over the 100k soon.
Thanks for sharing your photos and the road trip info. I'm headed north on i40 from Wilmington NC to Nova Scotia on Monday. I had planned on 4 days. Overnight in philly, a day at the simeoni museum (might do this on the way back in May. Or both times). Night 2 in Bangor or bar harbor, then to my destination on day 3/4. But your mention of the roads around Acadia and other non interstate drives has me thinking. In prep for the trip I've mounted new ExtremeContact DWS06 (it might get cold again, on fact it looks like it, so summers are out). New rads, I did not add center, it's a road car. New front strut top mounts, OEM reservoir and brackets, OEM water pump and low temp thermostat. While in the there my Indy found a soon to fail major hose, so I may have dodged a bullet. Fresh alignment of course,
a few weeks ago had an oil change fresh motul 5w40. Dropped the sump and scoped. Thankfully, only a very small patch where the coating is lightly worn, dead at the bottom of cyl6. Replaced the sump baffle with the latest 997 part as well. I'm good to go, suspension is all fresh OEM and at stock ride height on gasp! 17s. I'm a contrarian I guess, I like the mild dentist car look, as I've mentioned before. I had plastidipped my twists black, but on the rears it did not survive the new tires mounting. So I peeled the fronts as well, back to silver, mine are pretty rough. When I get back I'm going to get them refurbished and also order new wheels with summers. My list of things to do to Savannah is dwindling in proportion to the contents of my wallet. Ah well, she brings me joy, you have to do things for yourself right? Soon I'll be doing the UAOS, oil cooler, refurbishing the starter, fresh injectors and a few other things as well, later this year. For now though, drive it and smile😎. I can't guarantee great photos like yours, but I'll give it a shot. Oh one of the first things I did was fit RFL headlight kit and led'd all the other things. Night driving is so much less daunting with good beams! Safe travels to you!
Sorry for the delay. Work has been very busy.
Your trip is probably over, and I hope it went well for you. I leave tomorrow.
One of the more important things I have learned to bring on a road trip are actual paper maps. A good portion of my last trip had zero cell service. For that reason, I spent some time looking for good maps to keep in the car. My fiancé takes notes as we drive and which roads we like. She either highlights the road or marks which ones we like. Also, we generally come up with a section of road to explore at each food break. Sometimes, if we end up at a cool spot, we stay and check it out. Kennebunkport was like that. We were driving through and realized all the cool stuff to check out. So, we ended up hitting the brewery and getting a room at the hotel on the water.
Regarding tires, I have different tires on the car now. Nitto NT 555 G2. 235/35 19 and 305/30 19. They have been awesome so far. Very compliant, quiet, and comfortable. I have zero track time with them, but they have been great on the street with plenty of grip.
I will post pictures as we go. Starting tomorrow. Might head to Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, or even Canada. Maybe all of them.
I will say that the headlights make a HUGE difference. I am happy I added them before the trip. A very dramatic and noticeable difference from the old OEM lights. The high beams are insane. The projector is both high and low with the kit, plus the OEM high beam, so very bright.
04-28-2021, 01:53 PM
Winter Projects Completed followed by Road Trip
