Thanks, also a frustrating fact is that I tried to send this to a shop and both BBI & Vision would not take on the job or were requiring the engine be dropped in order to do it. Those are the most reputable Porsche shops I know in LA... my trusty BMW-centric shop does do work on Porsches was willing to take it on as an hourly rate job... who knows they might end up cleaning up my mess if Im getting close to the 9/28 (PECLA Track Day), but for now its me in my garage doing it.

 

Mini Update:

I got 5 of the 6 intake manifold bolts out, along with a whole host of other things in the way. Need to get a stubby 3/8" drive, only have a 1/4" and that isnt going to cut it. The 99 has hex head and I definitely do not want to strip anything. So it waits.. until next weekend.

Meanwhile, I figured since I had the duckTAIL off and a few minutes I could answer another question I have had on my mind.

Stock Decklid


DuckTAIL


I'm calling it a 15# savings because of the fan, which brings my estimated weight reduction down to 95# (15#-duckTAIL, 60#- Recaros, 20#-Rear Seat Delete). I still have a few more things planned, but I think I'm going to fall a little short of my goal of 150# of easy weight loss. Maybe I should lose another 15# myself LOL

 

You don't get the weight reduction on the spoiler until you call it a ducktail. 😂

 

Dang, first I had to rotate my centercaps... now this

 

Finally had time and went out and got the stubby (actually bought a set of them from HF... $10 lol)


Going in blind, but I've had to do this once or twice before


Close-up


And the trash that came out... a few coolant lines and a toasted AOS


Coolant lines capped.


Just need to reinstall now... one of these days! Wife is taking the kiddo for the day this Saturday so I hope to have most of this wrapped up. Fingers crossed because after this the next few weekends are booked with out of town events. I still have the ground-wire repair left as well so I have to make the most of this Saturday

 

One week later update.

I went through all the stages of grief this weekend. Started by denial that I was going to have to drain the coolant to get this other end of the AOS Crossover pipe out. Once I saw that the wires that I also needed to replace were behind this, it was obvious I was going to have to drain the coolant and remove this hose.

Here you can barely make out the brown wire that was part of the other issue I have to deal with...


Lots of access to work...
/sarcasm


A small dose of acceptance as taking the hose off and draining the coolant revealed easy access to the wires and, though minute, access to the bolt that holds the AOS hose and breather to the block. Pic below shows the "repair" that someone did a long time ago ... and the other 2 wires that will need a repair also. I'm removing all of these brittle wires and doing it right.


That out of the way gave me motivation to get the new metal pipe from @Porschetech3 installed prior to the long Saturday ahead. However, I now moved on to anger as I fought and fought with the pipe to get it in the OEM location. Bargaining happened, but proved fruitless as anger returned. Turns out the pipe is installed in a totally different way than the OEM one its replacing... depression as I now have to fight it to get it back out. That was how I was going to start Saturday, my one "full" day that I would get to work on the car without much interruption.

Saturday begins with the update from Skip that I was doing it all wrong. When I finally got started anger returned and luckily the only destruction was a few scratches on the pipes finish and one clamp that came off and was going back on. 'fixed'


This is where the pipe is supposed to run FYI, all the way against the 'front' of the engine bay


With the pipe finally in the right place, I started making actual progress. That means no pics. I got the AOS installed and hooked up, with relative ease. Getting the intake manifold back on was a fun challenge of trail and error. It took several attempts to get the bitch-bolt back on, I dropped it a few times and had to go on fishing expeditions to get the bolt back from the depths of the abyss. I also had to remove the intake a few times because of the routing of the AOS hoses and things that were supposed to go over the top of the intake, not underneath. Eventually the intake manifold was on, rear intake pipe was on and I was spent. A full day, but the finish line is in sight. I made a list to organize my thoughts and try to make sure I use the limited remaining time wisely.

Last night I had a small window to go out and the goal was to get the IPD Plenum installed and it actually wasn't too bad. Not easy, but also not as much fighting or cursing as I was prepared for. However, after it was all buttoned up I realized that the throttle cable was supposed to go over the top (recurring theme, amirite?). I wasn't about to pull the parts off, so I had to get creative. The solution was a LOT of zip ties with a socket on the end. Think of it as a fishing line with the socket as the bait.


The idea was to use the line of zipties to go over the top of the pipes and pull the cable back, up and over. Without the right tools for this, my improvised fishing line, coupled with an extended magnet did the job.


I was very proud of myself and happy... until I realized I also forgot to hook up a vacuum line... I've got about 16 days, but no free weekends to meet the 9/28 deadline.

Fingers crossed

 

Your doing awesome and keeping a sense of humor, congratulations. Your update makes me doubly grateful that I had access to an experienced Indy who installed the UAOS and Skips upgraded hose for me. That said, you should be proud of taking this on. I'm impressed and you're motivating me to do more wrenching. I have to, there's no one here in rural NS to help me anyway. Thanks for your update! Keep fighting the good fight mate.

 

Got that little vacuum line in. A big benefit of having the opportunity to walk away and come back.

 

Progress!

A buddy was able to make a housecall for me while I was out of town and deal with this little issue that I didnt want to haha







More trash... crusty wires joining the AOS and deleted coolant lines

 

Almost done...

I took the coolant reservoir out earlier in the process to give myself some more room, buuuuuut didn't reinstall it in the order I took it out. Obviously with the intake manifold in, I had a LOT less room to get it in. I used my Dad-Muscle to get it in. There was only one small casualty: the fuel (return?) line. NBD right?... I tried for a minute and decided I'm better off checking all of the other work off the list and I could come back around. Buttoned up everything else, torqued up the engine mounts, installed the skidplate, installed the wheels, duckTAIL, etc. Coolant is in, with the vent opened up. Leaving town tonight for the weekend, but thinking I need to get the car to someone to make sure its properly bled, give it a once over and deal with that fuel line.



Really trying to avoid getting someone else involved but the car technically does need to get teched by a shop before PEC-LA will let me play on their playground

 

Eventful evening after being gone for the weekend.

Step 1 was dealing with the Fuel Return Line.




Previously had tried the "Biggie squeeze it to make **** fit" method and was unsuccessful. No more joking around if I actually want to be at the event on Thursday (which is non-refundable at this point)

Luckily Skip ( @Porschetech3 ) is a peach and explained again this method of creating a jig to myself and my buddy. It still didn't make sense to this idiot, but my friend understood and we got to work creating the jig using stuff I had laying around the garage.

Its working!


With that done, we buttoned it up, and moved on to Step 2. Vacuum bleeding the system. My friend had a nice Snap-On tool to handle this. No pics of that, but with that done we wrapped up everything and went to fire it up.

But nothing. Checked the battery and it was showing 12+ Volts. But nothing.

A frantic call again to Skip and we were discussing what it could've been. The car was reacting as it there was no power at all. Discussions of ignition switches, 80A Grounds, etc were mentioned but I knew it was something stupid. But what!?... My buddy had an idea and figured it out quickly.



Remember that ground issue from much earlier? From the last time I drove it? ... Well, I thought it was the 3 ground wires to the fuel injectors, but boy was I wrong....

New ground strap and a battery tie down (that was MIA) should have me fired up tonight and driving it tomorrow. 1 day before the PEC event .

Huge thanks to Skip and my buddy Omar... and Kevan. So grateful for an awesome community of car enthusiasts.

 

Good job on the fuel line jig/press . That hack has been used by quite a few Rennlisters in the last decade to repair the fuel line in a pinch, I designed/used that on my 99 over a decade ago and still going strong..

Pass it along on to others when you see them in need, that's what we are here for...

Have fun on the Track, keep the rubber side down...

 

Thought I was out of the storm! Pelican Parts had ONE ground cable left in stock and I had just enough time to pick up my kid and head straight out there to pick it up.

Success!




or so I thought... Car immediately came to life with the new ground cable, but so did the hesitation and stumbling. Got some codes and it looks like I have a vacuum leak.

T-Minus 30 hours...

 

Check the plenum boots if u removed them. No one gets them back on correctly the first time.

 

That's my thought too. Mine has an IPD Plenum which was a pain, but all things considered I havent lost all hope haha

Probably have a long-ish night ahead of me, but Im going to give myself until 2pm tomorrow before I throw in the towel.

Is there anything specifically I need to know? I remember seeing arrows on the boot but had no idea what they corresponded to or which direction is should be pointing to