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can't speak for how all shops do this, but SPM uses the bbi billet inserts that Spyerx mentioned. bbi made them beefier to make welding a bit easier/safer, but they also help if you go the pinning route since they give you some more material to thread.
so for my car, the stock pipes will all get pulled out and tossed (maybe i'll keep as a souvenir) and the new bbi ones are tapped into place and pinned.
this youtube video shows another method where they retain the stock pieces and go with a knurling and JB Weld approach. i haven't heard of people on here doing that for their GT3s, but sounds like this shop has done this on a number of Porsches.
dont be foolish.
they WILL fail, it's a matter of when.
which car fails when? that's a crap shoot.
i have garage queens, i have track *****. which fails, no pattern.
when i dropped motor, some fitting are tight. some you lightly pull it, falls out
i had them all pulled
2003
Porsche 996TT
Coolant line let loose at Indy HPDE
21,672 miles
Going to shop 8/29/15 to have the coolant lines pinned.
Outcome should be good after writing check.
My mechanic had replaced my cracked, leaking coolant expansion tank only a few days before the incident. While driving on the highway on a warm day (90+F), I got the coolant low warning and I immediately exited the freeway. I thought it must be due to the previous repairs and had the car towed back to mechanic's shop. He was puzzled as he checked all the hoses to the tank and couldn't find anything wrong. Later in the day, he sent me this picture he took using a fiber optic camera.
I'm not sure which fitting this is. He fixed it by having a machine shop knurl the fitting and glued back as seen in the video Saru posted.
It's back on the road but obviously we have to fix all the fittings before I'll be confident driving it in hot weather or long distances. We're going to make a plan to pull the motor, check the clutch, replace lots of rubber, and fix all the coolant fittings. I don't know which route to take be it pin, weld, or knurl which is why I'm researching this and how I found this thread.
Coolant pipe failure is an inevitable problem with the Porsche GT1-block equipped models (GT3, GT2, Turbo). Bonded together by adhesives, the factory pipes will eventually fail and be catastrophic.
As the best preventative fix/solution for this problem, BBi Autosport offers replacement billet aluminum coolant pipes to be permanently welded. Compared to the factory fittings, the replacement BBi billet fittings offers superior metallurgy to allow stronger, higher quality welds.
We offer this complete service at our facility in Southern California from start to finish. For clients that are not local, we work with many Porsche dealerships and shops throughout the US to have the parts shipped to us for the welding service.
Despite this being the best solution for the problem, the biggest caveat is being able to properly weld the fittings as it requires extensive surface preparation and skill. We developed special tools here to pressure test each set for for leaks prior to shipping.
I had BBI to mine over a year ago, many, many track days later they're holding with no issues. On removal, a few of the pipes required little to no heat and very little force to remove. Ticking time bomb....
07-29-2015, 08:13 PM
