nle

OP - I too am curious about local shops and prices they are charging to pin the coolant pipes here in Seattle. Let us know know your discoveries.

Deepstage

I have had experience with MaxRPM and Dundon. I can't recommend Dundon enough. Whenever I get burnt out working on 996/997 Mezgers, I take the car there and they exceed my expectations every time. As far as pinning, most places here will push to weld. Both Cantrell and MaxRPM did.

Ruskiy

Interested to why others push pinning vs weld where welding makes more sense to me.

Also, sounds like some of these prone to failure areas could be checked and fixed without an engine drop as long as you have a borescope? Or checked at least. No?

Timeo

It is at Gerber now. The leak is coming from a pipe that doesn't require a complete engine out service (just an engine drop) and Gerber estimated about $2500 to fix it. I will probably bite the bullet and replace all of them since the odds are another one is just going to fail. I sent over a parts list to Gerber of almost 100 parts to replace, (every hose, o-ring, pipe, water pump, t-stat, Sharkwerks, clutch slave, etc. along with a new clutch from Kevin - dual mass w/ GT2 disc). I priced the parts at Sonnen and total parts cost was $2800 plus another $2000 for the clutch and slave. Gerber should have a labor quote back to me on Monday. After talking with Kevin, I will be pinning them. Gerber would weld or pin, my choice.

MexicoBlueTurboS

I think Hoovie's garage is doing the same on youtube -

There's an important tip around 14:30 for a welding firm that fixes these. I've seen videos where others are simply epoxing them.