Walter Piescik

Just bought an 02 and I am thinking about safety wiring the coolant hoses to mitigate the consequence of a coolant pipe failure.

Exactly how many are there on the 996tt? I have searched, but can't sort out 996 vs 997 vs gt2 vs gt3.

The hose clamps are designed such that I can get good purchase on them with wire. The 5 I can see under the alternator I can wire such that if they failed, they would leak rather than dump coolant. Are there three more under the power steering pump?

Has anyone else tried safety wiring? It seems to be a much more common tool among motorcycle racers than 4 wheelers.

Save your keystrokes, I'm not dropping the engine; I'm not that committed to the car yet. Just got it, I want to drive it a bit.

Carlo_Carrera

Are you going to track the car?

Walter Piescik

Probably, but probably not with a Porsche club sponsored event. And if welding/pinning is a requirement, then no.

Also please pardon my manners everyone. I forgot Please and thank you. I do appreciate any help,

manimal

Interesting idea!

There are 8 fittings, total. I believe a couple of them are very hard (or impossible) to get to without dropping the engine.

Carlo_Carrera

I do not think safety wiring will prevent a sudden massive coolant loss. Especially in a track situation where the pipes tend to blow at full throttle. Some of the pipes are tucked into tight spaces without places to secure wiring.

That said, it is your car, do what you want.

Third-Reef

You can pi 6 of the 8 easily with the engine in the car. i did while doing the water pump and it added about 1 1/2 hours to the job. there are some tricks of the trade that make it much easier.

Walter Piescik

I saw a write up of drilling and tapping in place for a gt2 or gt3, and a video. The two you can't pin engine in, where are they? Maybe I can wire those, and pin the ones you can get to. I just don't want this thing leaving my wife stranded on the side of the road.

I did a little test with safety wire and hose on a spare engine which indicated that the safety wire to a hose clamp is good for over 150lbf.. how much over I don't know. I couldn't break it. So unless the pressure in the hose is well over 200 psi, it should hold. Burst strength on most hoses is not much higher, and working pressure seems generally to be under 100 PSI.

"02996ttx50

how would safety wire help to ensure "glue" ( adhesive, whatever ) doesn't come undone?

i dont see how that's gonna work.

pfbz

I don't thing safety wire is going to work very well... the hoses are clamped onto short connector pipes, and those pipes are "glued" into the block. When the connector pipe blows out, the hose clamp remains firmly attached to the other end of the blown out connector pipe.

I suppose you could theoretically try to use safety wire as a technique to "pin" the pipes to the block, but there really isn't any place on the block to connect to, and it would likely be more difficult and less effective than pinning.

The below video shows in-car pinning of several of the coolant pipes to illustrate a bit what we are dealing with. Note that I am NOT suggesting this is the best technique, only that it illustrates the coolant pipe connections...

And also note that it's a GT3, not a Turbo, so while both Mezger engines, obviously some differences in what you need to remove to get access.

rael

I just had mine done this week in Phoenix, I'll post the photos on Monday. While the motor was out I changed the coolant tank and plugs. Everything else looked fine. For a 16 year old car it was pretty clean

Walter Piescik

It won't prevent the failure, but it might change the nature of the failure from catastrophic to just very inconvenient.

Like pinning them without welding or regluing. Same goal.

Walter Piescik

How much did you have to pay? The bills I have seen included clutches and gt3 slave cylinders, coils, etc. Hard to tell what's what.

"02996ttx50

it's never "catastrophic" unless you were behind someone on a track when theirs blew out, and you lost it in their coolant residue. i'm sure that's why it's de rigueur for coolant lines to be retrofitted for most any/all track excursions.

for everyone else, its just a PITA repair as needed, or simply a proactive expense. as for me, if i ever did mine? jb weld and done lol.

but your point is well taken.

32krazy!

actually if you pin the fittings before they start to leak the chances of them ever leaking are very small. once the fitting is secured in place it rarely if ever fails. if the fitting is already loose then the glue bond is broken and leaks will occur unless an adhesive is placed on the fitting

"02996ttx50

i've never pondered this as i didn't want to jinx my old car. if you "pin", and the glue finally gives out. does the "pinning" keep the integrity of the "seal" of fittings once held only by epoxy/glue/whatever?