Chris_chch

Also had a successful week in the garage! Ever since I've had the 6TT, its only ever been able to get half boost. No CEL and only 1 minor error code (P1249) Low boost.

Pulled the wheel liners out yesterday in order to run a pressure test on the intake, only to find the intercooler pipes on both sides of the engine half disconnected! Cleaned them up, and clicked them back together properly, and all done! I must of been down a fair bit of power, because its mental fast now...
Free fixes are the best. Looks like they had been in that state for a while as well... The road grime around the fittings would suggest a very long time! The guy I bought it from thought that 0.4bar was just how much it was meant to run....

Pel

Love 964s lowered on d90s, must be a buzz, literally being able to pass anything in the turbo compared to picking your spots in the SC

Macca

Love the little Alfa GT1750 tucked away in there. Looks good in that colour. Great to see so many cars out over the weekend. targa, northland, CHch

John McM

An interesting road trip weekend in my C4 with a Boxster and three generations of Turbos to run with.

Having had a Turbo 3.6 and 996TT I know what torque weapons they are and that showed up on the trip. There was no way to keep up on the straights. The twisties were a bit more even but I'm not sure how hard the other drivers were working.

I didn't come away yearning after another one, but I continue to appreciate them. What I'd really like to revisit is the liveliness of the Cayman R, but in an older platform. Maybe a hugely lightened 964, even a Tipo with that paddle system that Nate fitted to his.

John McM

Chris, CCS would have been in there when two coolant pipes were fixed. I didn't drive it much after that and certainly not on full noise. A good win for you. As I said to Pel this weekend it was more the nickel and diming on electrical issues that got to me on the car, that led to its sale, rather than any inherent problems with the drive train. They are solid cars.

Macca

The lightest I got the 993 to was 1295kg (just before the half cage went in). I drove a 993 ex Cup car briefly whilst overseas. It was 1180kg and felt so much lighter. I think the sweet spot for the 964 would need to be under 1200kg.

nzskater

Chris - if it has been exposed to the elements in an unsealed state you may want to pull off the pressure hoses, Y pipe and intercoolers, and give them a flush with something like Autoglym Engine Degreaser (just rinse thoroughly with water and dry afterwards).

Is a good chance to check for oil in the pressure hoses as well, as this can be an indicator for failing seals in the turbos, can also be a sign that the car has been overfilled with oil at some point...

There's a risk with a pressure leak in that it can result in the turbos spinning faster than spec which can damage them, but you'd likely know by now if this was an issue.

Sounds like this was a great buy regardless, given the marked increase in asking price for 996 Turbos over the last 12 months. The car is ridiculously fast motoring for the money. You've potentially ruined yourself for future purchases however, as the boost is addictive - going back to an NA car is difficult for some (myself included).

Fantastic B road weekend with Doug et al. A great start to the summer months. The more I find myself road driving in small groups the more I realise how much I prefer it over track days. I'll be honest in saying that I hadn't explored much of rural NZ before buying the 911, and owning it has been a catalyst for doing so. The driving is fantastic as is the company. I would never have thought that I'd be witness to a bunch of grown men making penguin noises in a bach or sitting in a Northland cafe listening to locals talk about how gangster John M's 964 is. I'll still need the track fix every now and then but I'm not overly disappointed with HD access dwindling and am happy to go to Taupo irregularly to satisfy the need (note that I post this off the back of a driving weekend, it's highly likely that I'll be trying to find a spot in the NITT in a couple of days!).

Chris_chch

Thankfully the pipes weren't completely off. They were just not seated on both sides, so only 1 clip was holding them in instead of both clips. Was odd that it was this way on both sides! I removed them and gave them a good clean so that they would seat correctly.

Last week I had the Y pipe and upper intercooler pipes off while I was looking for the leak, and also to replace the diverters (1 was leaking)
The pipes where all clean then so pretty confident that there was no debris making it into the engine.

Not a whole lot I could do about it know anyway. If the pipes were letting in unmetered air I think it would of thrown a few more codes, and probably run like ****... Car ran fine. Just low pressure. Now it runs fine, and goes faster

John McM

Interesting range of responses over the weekend. Mangonui kids wanting to spit on the cars and faking a kick to yours was the low point. I gather 'gangster' is good in those parts so I'll take that as a compliment. Evidently they like my car in Kaitaia as the last ducktail comment came from there. Driving in formation down the motorway there were lots of people pointing at the turbos that I saw. Same at Cape Reinga. We are very lucky to drive them as opposed to being the ones pointing.

Hear you on the track driving. Although I get nervous on the road when the speed rises. Jason only got pinged $80. It could have been far worse if Mr Plod was in force over the other roads. Only change I would suggest to the road trips is to find a buddy car and keep to two car convoys. NZ roads don't allow four or five cars to stay in touch easily and I think one of more of you turbo owners might have been a bit tempted with the warp speed function to keep up at times.

floatingkiwi

We've been using PRS radios a lot when driving round here at the moment. Baofeng fully programmable radios are the go and oh so cheap. I have 2 now for driving and 4wd driving. Means we can tell each other what's coming and if someones lagging behind or getting too far in front we can all keep in contact.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015...8-2346190a1960

John McM

Good idea. I gather these are more effective than the Jaycar efforts that are nigh on useless.

Macca

I see SAMs on the move with his 964 for sale on trade me. Hopefully not leaving the fold for good. Might be good if someone on Facebook can contact him to get the details to enable us to get another Rennsport Gruppe T shirt order underway. I'm pretty sure there will be done strong pent up demand for another run?

Good work on the PRS handsets Matt. I bought some Motorola ones in the US when heading back to tend to the cyclone. Have used them in the cars in NZ and work well for a few km...

996tnz

Chris, under vacuum (no boost at lower revs) the boost hoses would have sucked themselves shut on the pipes so no symptoms. Under boost, they would have been pushing air out, so the car would have run protectively rich if anything. But it pushes the turbos to achieve a target boost thats matched to load, rpm gear etc, so they would have been spinning faster to (partly) compensate. Until they hit that boost target they keep trying harder, and this automatic adaptation is what helps turbos lose less performance than NA cars at altitude. Not sure about the 996T but some cars monitor that situation and cap the overspeeding to a safe value.

Even wounded, the Turbo is quite a car but she will have woken up now.

Macca

I often feel the same way Jake after a weekend of fast driving or a Targa Tour, especially if the weather is dry and the pace is quick...

...and this a the valid point. I love fast road work, particularly in a less powerful car, but the track is the safest way to explore the limits of more powerful machinery IMO. With the 993 I can keep up with anything on the road, but its hard work and requires taking some risk. With the GT3 the effort is less for the same speed but to get the same high you have to drive it closer to its limits which increases the risk substantially. Although luckily it hasn't happened to any of us yet (apart from on Targa Tour - Chris T x2, Targa Comp GraemeW x2 and MarkH x 1 etc), having an "off" on the road will invariably lead to considerable more damage to car and potentially body....

I brought two Motorola PRS handsets back from USA for teh Cyclone and tried them on a Rons run last year. Worked pretty well even inside the car for a range of 2-4km.

Ive started to think about how to make small group road driving safer, and started talking about this with Doug last year. I think the Targa rules are good with tow rope, extinguisher and first aid kit in each car. I am also a big fan of Sat phones (we use them here) as from my experience many of the places we drive quickly in NZ have ZERO cellular coverage. When you need an airlift for a medivac, walking to the closest farm house wont cut it. The problem with Sat Ohones is they are not cheap to buy and even the cheapest annual plan is around $300 USD pa regardless if you make a call or not.

I would however like to float the idea amongst the regular drive weekend participants that we all go in on a Sat Phone and annual subscription. The phone can be passed around much the same way as the Durametric which has been a successful ownership model I believe. This would mean on the 6-7 separate driving events that take place each year there would be an emergency line available incase of an issue. This may be as simple as a tow truck or as critical as a medivac. Not sure how the "massive" feel about this but would suggest maybe 4-5 people chip in to make this happen (myself, Doug, John, Jake, Chris and/or others).

Let me know if there is interest - if so Id be prepared to take this on as a project to acquire a handset ex USA (best prices) with a sub plan etc. I think the initial outlay across 5 heads would be $250 NZD each for a Inmarsat handheld with a 12 month prepaid card by way of example;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301957134723?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Yes, but Im unsure PRS channels are legal in NZ?

John McM

We discussed PLBs for the first SITT and it was argued that travelling in groups is just as effective for risk mitigation as the other driver can go get aid just as quickly, unless you are unlucky enough to take each other out or are in a life threatening situation. In the latter case I would hope to be paired up with someone who has the basics nailed.

I agree, an extinguisher and first aid kit are a necessity. A tow rope not so much as I can't see us towing each other and a tow truck with have the necessary items.