Spyerx

I don't believe sharkwerks has inserts. The Sharkwerks pipes are for 2 pipes off the oil cooler that tend to fail and these replace the rubber/plastic OEM ones. The BBI pipes are replacement billet inserts that are to be welded in, these replace the OEM inserts that 'blow' when they fail, sharkwerks pins these, and I believe they pin the OEM inserts. The benefit to the BBI pipes is they have a flange and extra material for welding. The OEM pipes are very thin. If you are going to weld you may want to consider getting both.

mooty

pls show oem insert and bbi insert.
getting confused

Serge944

Reuse original fittings. When I first saw aftermarket ones advertised I thought it was a joke. They are unnecessary. Maybe people would think that they just need to spend $200 on new fittings and overlook the required engine drop and $2k in labor?

gmgracing

Here are some pictures of the welding service that we offer at GMG. To date, we have not experienced any failures.













-Jerry

F1CrazyDriver

Getting oil and water welded ?
Sounds like a lot of welding. In okay w water pipes being welded. Oil... Not sure. Plus like I said I'm 99% street. Car has 29k. Only 200 miles ever track. This is my road trip car. Coolant blowing in middle of trip = not good. Leaking, okay to get me to next town.

Spyerx

No, 2 different issues. The sharkwerks pipes address a leak that develops on 2 rubber pipes off the oil cooler that carry coolant. It's another one of those while you are in there things as the engine does need to drop to swap these should the begin leaking. These do not blow like the glued fittings.

The billet pipes bbi uses are simply an alternate to the Oem fittings. Feel free to use what you feel is best. When discussing with my shop they prefer theirs, and can use Oem, it's not like they are going to retire selling these pipes. It simply gives more surface to weld due to flange on the pipe. With a great welder the Oem pipes should be fine. Otherwise the method is exactly as gmg posted. Remove old pipes, clean, prep, weld, reassemble.

Sharkwerks pipes: http://www.sharkwerks.com/products.php?pid=386

Location of oil cooler pipes: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-gt2-...gt3-gt3rs.html

Example billet pipes, not bbi but similar concept:
http://nyppd.com/all-parts/nyppd-all...e-911-996-997/

This video shows another method but is good to show in detail what the fittings look like and measurements of hole size and clearances to Oem fittings (there is a big gap):

996FLT6

Welcome to the gt3 glued coolant fan club. What bs. Steam my a$$!!! Mike

sharkster

Hey guys-
Without starting a debate we originally brought our fix to the attention of people to offer some insight into the problem that was a bit of a mystery for a lot of people. Whichever method is chosen, the most important part is that the technician does not rush things and does a good job.

We've done around 60 of these now since 2004-05 or so, many of the cars now have 70k-100k miles even. 18x 3.9L engines, 1x 4.1L engine, 6x 3.8L builds (996TT, 997 GT3) and a couple dozen stock 3.6L and 3.8L GT3s, some 996/997 TT. I am pretty sure no other tuner has done as many coolant fixes as we have.

We have not heard of a single leak out of the adhesive around the tubes to the cars we fixed.
We have not had a customer complain of any metal in the cooling system or heard of failed thermostats from shavings -- but I can't speak for DIY / other shops. I know James here is very careful with this when drilling.

Either solution will work and either is better than nothing (at worst you'd likely see a pin hole leak from a bad weld etc.) Just after seeing failed welds a few times and never seen a failed pin, we still consider it our preferred method. It's also less invasive, risky or time consuming.

We are not trying to make money from our solution here or tell anyone how to fix their car, but saying the coolant pinning is "temporary" or ineffective is simply not true. We have found it to be 100% effective and permanent. Whatever solution you find, the important thing is that the person doing the repair has accountability and experience with the fix. And if you do have the lines welded, just make sure to check them a while later and be sure there's no pink residue or cracks:





Just be safe and if you're thinking of tracking just get the gt1 block addressed so you don't have issues on track which could lead to seriously injury etc.... Before you do any mods think of fixing this.

sharkster

Yep I don't want people to confuse those.... Those other pipes are different and also fail over time- usually on cars with 50k or over it seems so if you have a low mile car it's unlikely you'd need em I guess



Failed:

F1CrazyDriver

Alex, those above don't get pin/welded just bolted down like oem ?
Cost ?
In stock ?

sharkster

Aye just goes in a la factory style. We use new gaskets obviously. Those are a difference "issue" we found some way into the whole coolant thing. We'd seen this before on the turbo cars which have 3 of these. On a GT3 it reared its head on a car that we'd fixed (had about 60k on it and was a race car) it would still use up half a gallon of coolant per event. Sure enough we found this
http://www.sharkwerks.com/products.php?pid=386

I have 'em sure thing swing by if you want for a family discount:P Well anyone that's into bikes....

Serge944

I don't know what kind of clown performed this weld. The weld bead is outside the joint. I don't think this is a good example of what to expect from welded joints...

The pinned equivalent to this would be installing the pin outside the limits of the fitting.

sharkster

Yep not the best is it? We have taken out engines a good few engines and seen stuff like this that just needs fixing again. I've got plenty more photos but even though it's a well-known place I'd rather not say. Maybe they were having a bad day or something but I'm not telling people to stay away from welding as a technique. I'm just saying get the problem fixed. That's why we brought it to the forefront and online. And when people are unsure of their shops skills/wishes I'm saying it's much easier to do it right and pin it than weld it poorly and well.. not fix it. Weld it sure but weld it right. There are three different metals being welded together and thermal expansion (200 degree F) so get a good welder if that's the route you're going.

Thork'sGT3

For me I went with pinning the fittings using the items from Sharwerks. Did the job myself when the engine was out at the local P dealership. Also installed the Sharkwerks oil fittings. Everything went in as instructed. Not an issue at all. Great product. Very inexpensive piece of mind.
The GT3 now has 70,000 km and still perfect.

Brent

aircavscout

That has to be the WORST welding I have seen. My lawnmower Deck has better welds than that. If you can not get a certified AWS welder to properly complete / then pressure test via non-destructive testing of the welds / than you would probably be better off with PINNING .

If you have them welded have them done right. Any engineer will tell you PROPER WELDING over a pin is superior WRT matting two surfaces together. However, these are not Nuclear Reactor Vessels were welding or pinning here. Both procedures, if done correctly; are viable solutions.

There is no way in hell the welder of these items met any industry standard. You get what you pay for.