Well, yesterday, finished my brake job. Accessing the bolts on the rear calipers was fun. Below is a pic of the combination of extensions, adapters and the breaker bar needed to break free the bolts; not a lot of room to work with in there.

 

Stopped by AutoZone to grab some oil for the P!G and they have 5 qts. of Mobile 1 full synthetic on sale for $35.99 and you get a free oil filter with purchase.
I grabbed 15 quarts of 0W-40 (all they had left) ad got 3 filters for my wife's Lexus.

 

Filled the tank and drove to work in a fairly spirited fashion. Best part was following a nice little WRX STI (I love those cars!) onto the on ramp and watching him try to open a gap on me. I just kept pace at a steady gap, and at 92 mph he let off and waved me by.

 

Ordered 20l of motul 300v 20w60.
Fooled around w/ an E92 M3, quite a fast ride. But not fast enough

 

Trouble-shot the lack of reverse camera, then re-soldered the broken wiresI found at the rear of the camera. Success!

 

200 miles and discovered the joy of the wet performance from the ContiCrossContact UHP. Givin the three approved spec tires, i may just stay with this tire

 

Over the weekend spent some money on maintenance items. Ordered - New Plugs, New Coils, Air Filters, Oil Filters, Magnetic Drain Plug, New Blow By "O" Ring.

Also spent the day on Saturday changing out my Cat Bypass Pipes and Love the difference in throttle response.

 

Changed the oil and filter yesterday. Runs really quiet with new oil. Wallmart had Mobil 1 0-40 for $25. So with the filter from Porsche the change cost me $80. No bad really. Only have the cooling pipes to go now.

 

Actually had the time to Change my air filters, coils and plugs. Plugs looked horrible. Coils didn't look so bad. The whole job wasn't too bad, 7 were done and changed pretty quick but the one under the top engine mount was a suck fest to take everything off just to get to it.

Now to find time to replace my "O" Ring that separates that intercooler and the turbo and try to reduce some of the oil blow by.

 

after noticing rough idle and checking out the coils:





was time to get the new ones installed:


from rock auto (SMP / beru) part number updated and bosch plugs for $280





runs and idles like a champ now!!! i am even more in love now!!!

 

This weekend was the cooling pipes. The job has fought me all the way, especially the plastic lower pipe. Getting the remains of the steel ring from under the thermostat housing took for ever. Especially when you are viewing from a well placed mirror. So next weekend is the rebuild.

 

Hate to tell you now but there's a very easy way to remove the coolant pipe ends, posted about it some time ago in the coolant pipe replacement thread.

Cut the plastic pipe leaving about 3 in of the pipe exposed, drill hole through both ends of remaining pipe to allow a long handle phillips screwdriver through both holes. Run the screwdriver through one hole then through a loop of chain/rope/ whatever then through the hole on other end. Use a prybar through the other end of the chain/rope/whatever and brace it on one of the ribs of the block/heads in the V of the engine (don't touch the starter contacts or the knock sensors). Rotate the screwdriver 20-30 deg while applying pressure on the prybar in the direction you want the pipe to go. Remaining bit of coolant pipe will "walk out". Took me about 30 sec. to get it out..... this was after I spent about 2 hrs trying to get the inner sleeve out of the other end (the book way).

 

Thanks for the information. I was surprised how easy the top 3 pipes came out of their housing. I was really careful not to damage the bores of the lower pipe. The back steel sleeve and plastic ring came right out with a little persuasion. It was the steel sleeve under the thermostat housing mentioned earlier that was tight. The actual pipe came right out no problem. I felt it was really important NOT to damage the aluminum bores that the replacement parts fitted into.