Kirill

if you go back and take the pads off - replace them with a different brand - 200$ will give you a piece of mind. My prefered pads are Porterfield 4s

daylorb

I am going through all the electrical as well. May just have to replace the pads, although I've got 8 new textar pads between this and my Spyder and none of them have an issue. Aren't Textar the OEM?

Kirill

If you have a compressor - try blowing air into the pads\caliper. Maybe you have some "new pads" dust accumulated between two pads - and that's whats burning when it gets hot.

daylorb

Trying that today. Other findings...

Started engine and idled for half hour at home this morning - no smell at all. Drove for 10 minutes - smell comes back.

Drove normally for about 30 min commute then measured temps. Rotors still under 90 degrees immediately upon stopping. Pads were 145-150, calipers were only 70. Sure doesn't seem like a heat problem/piston issue. Going to pop the pads and inspect them as well.

nodoors

I would recommend finding a woman with a much keener sense of smell than most of us with simple male brains to see if she can discern which corner of the car it is coming from when parked in a garage with no wind or air current.

Kirill

Try compressed air into pads, washing all around the wheels with a hose(when it's cold) and if it still smells - I'd say you got smelly pads.

daylorb

I think it is actually the valve cover gasket. Running fingers along the lip I am getting a little bit of oil. At this point I'm going to take it in - trying a new mechanic in Austin. The front CV's were done over 40k miles ago, having some GKN's put in, one of my SAI's has the imploded impeller, having that redone, and will have them do a valve cover gasket as well. With 100k miles probably time and it has been pretty bomb-proof. Hopefully get another couple years out of it!

daylorb

The smell was slight drip coming from the valve cover - replaced gasket and smell is gone. Was dripping slightly onto the manifold. Got everything else done while I was there and it drives like new! The new CV's definitely inspire a lot more confidence - sharp turn clunk was getting a little on the annoying side.

Kirill

great that you found it and fixed it!
How long the valve cover gasket job took you?

daylorb

I wound up taking it into a local shop here in Austin. There were several projects I wanted to get done and they were piling up so I tried a new place out that I heard had a great Porsche guy and had them knock them all out. Very interesting place - Silent Automotive. https://www.facebook.com/pg/SilentAuto/reviews/. I'll be taking it back there should the need arise, they were great and Danny there has some really cool projects going on. Right next to me he was doing a 3.8 swap on an older carrera track car.

I had them do GKN CV's in front, replace one SAI, do the plugs, oil, filter, and gasket - $1600 total including parts... tough to beat and it just saved me at least a couple days worth of projects!

That left me time to get my Spyder ready for COTA yesterday!