A proper introduction and some progress

Hi everyone. I've been hanging around in here for a couple months now, so I figured it was about time I formally introduce myself. My move to the Porsche world is a result of long-time love affair with Volkswagens and Audis, so making the leap to Porsche was only a matter of time. My last car was an '01.5 Audi S4 Avant. Long story short, there was A LOT of work I planned to do to that car (body work, paint, shaved engine bay, built engine, etc.), I bought it to be a long term project. But, when I was about to really dive into the car, I realized I just don't have the time or place to have that involved of a project at this point in my life. On top of that, I'm not the kind of person who can just say "well, I guess I'll just enjoy the car the way it is for now." I would never be happy with it unless it was the way I had envisioned it and would hate it if I just drove it as-is. So, I did what had to be done and sold it to someone else who will give it the love and time it deserves. Goodbye Avant. I decided shortly thereafter it was time for my first Porsche. I love 964s and decided that was the car for me and began my search. I soon realized that finding a clean 964 requires a serious search. While doing said search, I realized that the money I'd be shelling out for a clean 964 put me in the 996 price range. Also, the more I thought about it, the 996 was a better choice for what I intended to use the car for (daily driving year round, long trips, wife driving it, extensive aftermarket support, AC and heat that works, creature comforts, etc.) Personally, I'm not a big fan of the narrowbody 996s, so I decided that if I was going to get a 996 it had to be a C4S. Expecting to spend months trying to find the right car, an Arctic Silver with black leather 2002 C4S popped up about a week later... and it was only 10 minutes away! It was exactly what I wanted and had a few nice mods done to it as well. - JIC Cross coilovers - Monoball upper mounts - Adjustable sway bar drop links - B&M short shifter - EVOMS billet shifter linkage - PSE hacked mufflers - Smoked bumper lights Mileage is a little "high" for a Porsche (93k miles), but the car came with full maintenance records from day one and all the normal 996 issues had been addressed: - New IMS - New RMS - Coolant tank - Newer clutch - New catalytic converters - Front bumper resprayed to get rid of rock chips - New starter - A bunch of other little stuff Also, I think the "magical" 100k mile stigma for cars is a load of bull**** (especially for modern cars). I've had many cars over the years with 100k+ miles on them (hell, a couple were pushing 200k by the time I sold them) and none of them have been any less reliable than cars I've owned with 50k miles. If you take care of your car, it will take care of you. Anywho, onto the pics:

The first thing I did to the car was adjust the coilovers lower (I'm in the "lower is better" club, I'll sacrifice a little handling/function for increased visual appeal, because let's face it: at the end of the day it does spend 99% of its time on the street, not the track). Then I got it aligned since Porsches like to eat rear tires. Next, I ordered GT3 muffler bypass pipes from Fabspeed. Those lasted about a week (too much drone!) before I bought a set of Maxflos for it. I really like the sound of the Fabspeed mufflers, they're loud without being obnoxious (or too droney) and they give the car a really nice warble and growl. Then I added a 997 shift **** because I didn't like the shape/feel of the original ****. And then I installed a rear strut brace. Whoever said you can't use one of these in a Bose car isn't very creative. All it took was a bit of trimming to the foam padding under the carpet and a little nip/tuck to the brackets for the Bose subs. I was surprised that it actually made a discernable difference in how stiff the car felt. I'll have to get one for the front now as well. Since then, I've been collecting a few parts getting ready to go to town on the car. My main focus with the car right now is aesthetic mods. Being a naturally aspirated car, we all know there isn't really whole lot of power/performance stuff you can do to these cars without breaking the bank, so the exhaust will be the sole "performance" mod for now. Once I have the car looking the way I want, I plan to get high flow cats and maybe some X51 headers if I can find a set for a decent price. The first order of business was wheels. I'm a major wheel nerd and the right set of wheels will make or break your car. As usual, I entrusted this task to my friends Brian and Jason at Rotiform wheels ( www.rotiform.com ). After tossing around ideas for a few weeks and changing my mind half a million times on styles/sizes/finishes, I decided on a set of forged three-piece TMBs with a convex face profile. Sizes are 19x9.5 front and 19x12 rear. I'll be running 235/35 Hankook V12s in the front and 295/30s in the rear. For the finish, I went with mirror polished lips, brushed faces with mirror polished pockets, gold bolts and satin black barrels. I also picked up an Agency Power roll cage for the car. The white obviously doesn't match the car, so it's getting stripped down to bare metal and will be refinished to match the car (still not sure if I want to polish it, color match it silver, or just go with good ol' fashioned black). And finally, rounding out this first round of mods to the car is an upgrade to the craptastic factory stereo deck. I'm no audiophile, but the CDR 220 is a joke and I need to have my iPod in the car. A friend gave me a killer deal on a Pioneer AVIC D3 with Bluetooth, nav and iPod integration, so I'll be adding that to the car to modernize the dash a bit. I hear upgrading the headunit usually helps improve the sound of the Bose system quite a bit, so hopefully that's the case. If not, I guess new amps and speakers will be phase 2 of the stereo. Welp, that's it for now. Will update this thread as I start actually putting stuff on the car! I also promise I'll be less wordy from now on...

Avant was bad ***. I'm following your thread on S/W too. Welcome to Rennlist Andy

Thanks! I kinda miss it, but I don't miss working on it. The 2.7T made me hate cars. LOL Also, I forgot that when I bought the car, it had cloudy headlights. I used that as one of the nit-picks to get the price down to where I wanted it. I bought the $25 restoration kit made by 3M at my local parts store and then went to town. It took about an hour per headlight, but they looked like new when I was done.

Great thread! Please keep us updated on what you plan to do with the roll bar!! I also have a silver C4S and have a RSS 930 bar sitting in the garage ready to go in the car. It is black right now but I've contemplated color matching it silver or even going a little crazy with Red Hopefully you install yours first so I can see how it looks whatever color you choose.

Glad im not the only one with mod issues. Welcome aboard Captain... The 4S is a great machine. So youre a wheel nerd huh? Seems that you spent a lot of time designing the right wheel... I like the gold studs and black barrells. You sure the 9.5" fronts are going to clear fenders with the lowered suspension? My wheel budget was restricted to hollow spokes with a krylon finish..

My friend owns a powder coating business and he's taking care of the cage for me. He has a "chrome" powdercoat that he thinks I'll like a lot. I'm not convinced yet; most "chrome" powdercoat I've seen looks more like a really shiny silver. He's doing a test section of the cage to show me what it looks like. Here is the cross bar getting stripped in "the goo".

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Positive. I probably could have gotten away with a 10 in the front if I really wanted, but it would have taken some extra work.

Good to know... The chrome illusion paint might look really good. I had the tequip bar which was polished stainless and it looked awesome. Only issue was the seat no longer reclined enough for me to drive with a helmet. Your bar looks like it would allow a decent amount of recline. Interested to hear your opinion once the bar is installed. Im leaning towards the GMG bar as it was designed for taller people who need to be able to push the seat back to its stop.

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Looking good. I'm running 10 on the front with no problems. C2 lowered. 255/35/18 41mm offset and -.8 camber.

Well, I guess I had good timing making this thread today. My wheels were delivered this afternoon. Hoping to have them on this weekend.

can't wait to see the wheels on the car! I bet not 1/2 as much as you.

I second that Bruce... One of the reasons he will be able to fit the 9.5s in the front is because he is stretching the tires decently. Same for the rears P-car guys are not really into the whole stretch and slam game as much as vw, Audi, import guys are. Most guys here will use a 235 - 245 on a 8 in wheel for example. 9.5 wheel would be a 265 - 275 and a 12 inch wheel 325. If they do run big sizes it's typically on DE cars and with lots of negative camber. Not functional unless on a track. Plus tires are $$$$ when you eat them up every 15-20k miles. If you were to run no stretch it wouldn't fit as flush, you would have serious rubbing on suspension and fenders etc... If you do come into rubbing, pick up cup car fender liners. They are higher since the cup cars sat lower. Please post pictures after there mounted, I bet it's going to be very nice. Might take sometime getting us use to seeing stretch and poke but I always welcome new an different. Congrats on the purchase!

wow i love the wheels!!! tell me, did you put a 997 gt3 shifter or the 997 short shifter option or the 997 **** only? good memory when i was modding my 4s

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Very true. I'm sure the car will be a bit polarizing for some people, which I'm okay with. If people don't like how the car looks, they're welcome to PayPal me the money necessary to bring the car up to their standards. Stretch [that is within reason] isn't as bad as a lot of people seem to think it is. For example, it can often help improve handling in some instances because stretching the sidewalls stiffens them. I'll avoid that whole discussion in this thread though. If someone who has never actually run stretched tires on their car wants to pontificate about how dangerous/dumb/ugly it is, we can make another thread discussing how many nuns and disabled children are going to die in the fire when I hit a schoolbus due to my stretched tires. Just the ****. It looks like this: The car has the B&M SSK in it, which is essentially the 997 SSK option (I think it's actually made by B&M for Porsche?). I had to sacrifice my original **** and boot to make it work since the 997 shift boot is quite a bit different than the one in the 996.

Great post Captain. Your Avant was sweet looking. Can't imagine your Porsche will have any problems convincing you that you made the right move.

nice looking 3 pce wheels - anxious to see them on congrats!

I have never seen those wheels on a 996. Looking forward to pics.

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I occasionally kinda miss the Audi, but not enough to give up the 911. Maybe I'll pick up another one some day as a toy. My set is the first set they've ever made for a 996.

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Incredible job on the headlights ( I like the b4 and after look ). I think I will look into purchasing that 3M kit And like the others, I am dying to see those gorgeous wheels on your P-car

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That's a bit of a cheater before and after photo. It's actually a "during" and "after" picture. I'd just sanded the left headlight down with 400-grit sandpaper when I took that pic. The wheels are getting mounted today. I'm hoping to have them on the car this weekend. I need to roll the rear fenders, so hopefully I have time to finish that in between completing my "honey do" list from the wife.

Getting closer...

I spent some quality time with my fender roller and heat gun today and got the rear fenders rolled flat to make some room for my wheels and their aggressive offsets. Once I was done with that, I was finally able to mount the wheels on the car and dial in the suspension. It's a good thing I'm getting the new wheels and tires on the car now, because I was way overdue for new tires: I need to get some proper pics of the car, but a driveway photoshoot will have to do for now.

WOW! Pure Sexy

good drop... I'm not big on the hellaflush stuff myself but I definitely want to bring my car a bit lower. I think you found a good height. I myself am still about an half an inch higher. get some skirts!

Philip is right, paint the rockers/splitter/rear lower vents while your at it... It will define the cars shape and add some width at the front of the rear fender. I dont like the unfinshed dark lowers. That was one of my first mods.

To be honest, I like the black lowers. My car is too low to bother painting the the front lip and having the rest of the lowers painted silver with the front lip left black would look dorky. Snapped a couple more quick pics this morning in the parking lot at work. Since I can't get the front any lower, I guess I'll need to raise the rear a little bit to even out the stance. (the exhaust tips are off for polishing)

Captain, your car is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing the eye candy. Bruce

Those wheels are mean. Love it.

Those wheels are very nice indeed. Are you the only employee at this place of work? I sure wish I had that much space between me and the next car at work.

Is it just me I prefer the stock wheels though I do like the GT3 wheels.

@ Jumper..I like the stock wheels as well!!! what percentage tints do you have?! looks great!

My god, Jumper!!!!! Stunning! That is EXACTLY what I'd like my car to look like!!!!! What have you done to the stance?

I am not sure on the tints. It legal here. Cops have to be able to see the driver and the photo may have more contrast which makes it look a bit darker. This photo may be closer to the real look

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I just lowered it with H&R lowering springs.

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Ha, far from the only employee. I actually work at Microsoft, but I'm more a morning person so I'm usually one of the first people to show up to my building in the morning. This lot is usually close to full by 9-9:30. I'm actually a big fan of the stock hollow spokes too, which is why I still have them. However, I REALLY love the "Lobster Claws" from the 997s and I want to find a set of those to run for my "winter" wheels. Anyone in the Seattle area want to trade? Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. To be honest, I was expecting a significantly less positive response since the style direction I'm going with the car is a bit different than the norm for the Porsche world (slammed suspension, big wheels, tire stretch, etc.).

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Being it's a silver car I think many rims and different colors don't really work on it. I've often thought of which wheels I could put on and if I had any other color other then silver my choice would open up. Right now I am using hollow spokes for track wheels and the solid spokes for the street. This rim here is something I was thinking of for a track wheel it's also much lighter. Not sure how it would look though on a Silver C4S.

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FYI, there is a set of those OZ's in the classifieds!! great deal at $1000 shipped ( in the US), but you could pry swing a deal to Canada or near the border.

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Yeah, being silver really limits wheel finish options. My old car was yellow, and that color is REALLY difficult to do much with. Those OZs are super light and make great track wheels, but I find them boring personally. Definitely a function over form type of wheel, which is fine if that's what you're are going for.

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Yellow and black are the best combo. Silver and black not so much.

Cars looking good, I'm not a fan of the wheels, personally I prefer something a little more understated. interested to see the finished product when you done, looks like your doing a ton of work on it, good luck.

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Straight up swap? No rubbing?

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yah straight up swap and no rubbing until I drove into a pot hole that was submerged. It was so deep the pavement hit my bumper and wheel arch cover enough to bend it out of shape. No now I get slight rubbing on the plastic wheel arch cover on driver side when parking and turning hard. Other then that there is no problems and I track it a few times a month and have over 100k km on this setup.

Captain - the car looks great but I agree with you, the back has to be raised slightly to get the stance just so.

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Awesome!! Thanks. Sucks about the pot hole

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Yah it does, now where it happened has spider cracks in the paint, slight bend in the bumper and it looks off. It would need it fixed, paint fixed and the front bumper redone with clear bra. I just had it all re-sprayed and clear-bra'd prior to it happening so I am going to leave it for now.

@ jumper..exactly what i would like to do..not too dark tints..i have a C4S Artic Silver w/ Boxster red interior ..looking at your tints just made my decision and now i'm thinking of the lowering springs (just worried about clearance, i already bottom out a lot of places). Thanks for the info! and awesome looking C4S!!

Ronnnnn Burgandy.

There was a big European (mostly VW though) car cruise this weekend called the Port Townsend Cruise. Came across a couple pics of my car from it:

Quick question. I was looking at eastwood fender rollers and I noticed it said it wont Work on Porsche cars bc it only goes up to 120mm and not to the 130mm. How did you get yours to fit?

You have two options: One is to buy the "truck" version of the fender roller from Eastwood, which is the same tool, but the part that bolts to the hub supports larger bolt diameters, but won't work on cars with bolt circle diameters below 125ish mm. The other option is to modify the fender roller, which is what I did. I just enlarged the holes until they were big enough to bolt to the car.

paint and/or install the bar yet? Got mine painted metallic silver but my install was delayed due to realizing i need seat belt receptacle extensions to properly accommodate my seats.

No, haven't installed it yet. My friend does powdercoating on the side and he has a "chrome" powdercoat he really wanted me to see, so he did a test section of one of the cross bars for me. I haven't had a chance to swing by and see it yet. If it doesn't look how I want it to (most of the "chrome" powercoats I've seen just look like a bright silver, so I'm skeptical), I'm gonna strip it back down and get it painted Arctic Silver.

I figured that's what you had done. Just wanted to verify it. I was about to buy one to roll my fenders out for my 18x11 ET53 wheels on my narrow body.

The roll cage finally went in this last weekend. Holy crap, what a pain in the ***! I had to remove both seats and the center console to get that son of a bastard in there, and the cage I have (Agency Power) is supposedly one of the easier cages to install. My friend Dave runs a powerdercoating business, so he stripped the cage for me and powdercoated a test section with a "chrome" powdercoat he has. It actually turned out really good, but it wasn't quite convincing enough for me. If my car didn't have anything else chrome/polished on it, it would have worked though, but it just didn't look right next to actual polished metal. At this point, I just wanted to get the cage in the car so it can be "finished" for now and I can just drive and enjoy it for the rest of the year. So, I painted the cage with some satin black paint on Saturday and went to install it Sunday morning. Round 1 : "Hmm, looks like if I put the seats all the way forward I can Tetris this sucker in here." Nope. Round 2 : "Rookie mistake, it needs to go in THIS way." Nope. Round 3 : "Guess I have to yank to seats. Damnit, I don't have the special inverted Torx bit needed to remove the bolts." Off to O'Reilly's. Round 4 : Seats out, center console out as a precaution, cage wrangled into the car. The front mounts line up just about perfect. The rear mounts are about 4" away from where they are supposed to be. The cage needs to come back out, again. Round 5 : After some sweet-*** backyard engineering involving a floor jack, a pressure-treated 2x6 and a 5 feet long 4/5" diameter solid steal rod I happened to have laying around (thank Dog) I was able to coax the cage back to its intended shape (I'm assuming it got damaged during shipping or something). Unfortunately, the fresh paint is now a bit screwed up, but I need to at least do one last test fit to make sure it fits now before I repaint it. After some more Matrix-like **** I finally get that mother****** in place and it fits perfect now. At this point, I don't care about the paint anymore so I say "screw it" and bolt it in. It looks really good in the car and definitely gives it that "this car means business" look. The places where the paint got screwed up aren't really noticeable unless you're really examining the car, so I'll live with it for now. I want to get a few small things repainted over the winter, so I'll pull the cage again when that happens and get it painted Arctic Silver like I originally intended. I'm just glad I didn't spend the money right away to get it professionally painted, or that would have been a couple hundred dollars down the drain. Lesson learned: Always test-fit aftermarket parts, even the stuff for Porsches can fit like poo.

Late to the party, but congrats. And a great thread.

Welp, time for my first bit of unscheduled maintenance on the car. Went out to my car to go get lunch yesterday and noticed a puddle of water under the car. This was the second or third time it's happened in the last couple weeks, but I'd chalked it up to AC condenser drips. This time, it dawned on me it was coming from the back of the car, not from the AC. Sure enough, I kneel under the car and look at the water pump and there's a few drops of coolant coming from behind the pulley. The good news: It isn't making any noise and the temp wasn't high, so I'm pretty sure it's a seal failure rather than the traditional "impeller broke apart" failure so I'm not worried about having to fish chunks of plastic out of the block. The bad news: The good spring/summer weather FINALLY got here and I was so damn excited to finally be able to enjoy the car in the sun and now it has to sit in the driveway until my parts get here and I have time to work on it. Time to order a new water pump. Anyone find any good deals on OEM replacements lately? Pelican Parts is the cheapest I've found so far. Oh, and a picture from a get together I went to last week for good measure: (don't mind the droopy exhaust tip, I've been wrestling with those stupid clamps for weeks now, I guess it's time I dropped the money on some new ones...)

mmmm....deep dish. -Eric P.S. I'm sure you've heard that Anchorman 2 is coming out soon.

What brand is the bar? Car looks Great!

That's the Agency Power cage.

suncoastparts is the least expensive on east coast... but in your area try sunsetparts

Man, just did some searching to see what the general consensus is about low temp thermostats since now would be a good time to do one since I'll have the coolant drained. And I thought the IMS debate went in circles... I'm more confused now than when I started looking into it.

Really? I haven't done any real research because I thought that would be a know brainier. VW / Audi world it's a great little mod. LN makes one. They pretty much have the 996 motors down to a science, I can't logicaly come up with any cons. Fire suit on

General arguments I've seen are "well, if the Porsche engineers thought the car needed a 160-deg thermostat, they would have put one in from the factory." That argument is usually met with "no, bean counters and emissions requirements required the 180-deg stat blah blah blah". I actually agree with the latter more, I'll probably go with the low-temp stat since these cars do run pretty hot.

You can buy the low temp stat spacer from LN if the stat is in good shape. My car by about 10 degrees cooler now. I am also running water wetter/distilled.

Ordered a pump, gaskets and low-temp thermostat. Now I just need some free time to install the damn things...

Hey Captain - Nice car! We should meet up some and talk Pcars. I live in Kennydale and I think I have see you around my area. Word -Jonathan

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I also live in Kennydale, small world. I'm just off Lake Washington Blvd between Coulon and the Seahawks training facility.

Very nice looking ride Captain! ...and a world class introduction. No go get those ugly bumperettes painted body-colour...

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Strangely enough, I actually kinda like them! They add a little contrast to the car. Also, they came in handy about three weeks ago. My friend was letting his girlfriend drive his C4S and she was behind me and didn't notice I'd slowed down to go over a speed bump and rear-ended me at about 5mph. My car was unscathed, by my bumperette went right through his front bumper.

I like what you have done so far. Looks good!

There was a big European car cruise this weekend that I took part in, about 1000+ cars showed up this year. Found a few pictures of my car on assorted websites.

wow, that looks sweet.... Low temp t-stat debate goes something like this.... the t-stat open earlier on lower temp keeping the engine cooler, so the radiator/t-stat circulates the coolant faster cycles.... but the other says that the only way to keep that engine cooler is more volume of coolant, so bigger radiator and more air flow. My answer to this is the fan mod... a manual switch to turn on the front rear/fans. I love mine and I assure you it works!

I ended up doing the low temp thermostat. So far, the temp needle only creeps past the 180 mark when idling in traffic for extended periods of time.

Ferd,do you ever use the water temp readout to get the numerical temp. as opposed to the gauge on the dash? Mine was at 90 degrees C today at highway speeds(+) with an ambient temp. of 71 F, and my gauge was just to the left of the zero in 180. Don't mean to hijack Cap't Obvious, sharp looking Porsche...and clean.

Steve, I never used the OBD2 readout, its a bit to technical for me ... I like my gauges. Its a nice tool for troubleshooting though.

I don't really get the cage and somewhat gaudy chrome wheels combo... You'll pop the bead off on the track for sure, not to mention eat up the chrome lip.

I would stop there, your ignorance is showing. The wheels are brushed and polished, not chrome, and you wouldn't pop a bead any sooner than you would with any other size tire on under any driving condition.

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I think you missed the point - a slammed car with blingy wheels and a roll cage makes very little sense. Just feels a bit too vwvortex to me. As far as the tires go, you've added some 4cm to the front barrel, but only 1cm of tire. I've had 225 come off the bead on 9in wheels before.

TMBs look great.

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It's not really that slammed. I still have plenty of suspension travel, it doesn't bottom out, the tires don't rub, etc. Many of the track junkies around here have their cars at about the same ride height. And "blingy" or not, my wheels are stronger, wider and lighter than the factory wheels, so I'm not sure how that relates to anything. You're free to not like it though, I'm out to please no one by myself with my car.

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Picture and spec. of your car?

Sorry. halik??

Capt. Your car IS sooooooooooo sooooooooo cooooooooool!!!!! Love it!!

Great looking ride, Capt. I hope to see it in person one of these days - I'm sure you'll be racing past my Targa. BTW: all the pics in this thread has inspired me to lower my ride. just ordered my H&R springs.

I had my car at a local VW show called WaterWerks a couple weeks ago and I was asked if I wanted to hang out afterward and do a photoshoot for a car blog. http://camautomag.com/grown-up-project-porsche-911-c4s/ They also made a video as well that's pretty cool. Vimeo

cool vid cap.... that took time to shoot and edit.

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Guess 997 temp gauges run cooler with the 180 deg T stat... or maybe the Porsche engineers found running the engine cooler was better?

I like it - looks great. I am jealous of the wide hips - I wish my 40th AE wasn't narrow body, but you can't have everything. I like it when people do visual mods - it's like a blank canvas when you get it stock, and you can do to it as you please to make yourself happy (I don't care what others think, they don't make the payments and they don't get a vote!) I have kept my 40th AE stock, but have done mods on previous cars.

Well, this should be fun: My throwout bearing died while sitting in traffic on the way home from work yesterday. It sounds like a supercharger spooling up every time I push in the clutch. Good times. I have access to a two-post lift and from the reading I've done about it so far, it looks like dropping the entire engine/tranny assembly is easier than trying to drop just the transmission and the operation isn't really all that bad if you're the DIY type. So, since I'll have the engine out I figure I might as well give it a solid going-over and do as much inspection/replacement of wear items as I can. Besides the obvious (throwout bearing and the rest of the clutch assembly), what else should I take a look at while it's down? The car has 98k miles and it has had the following in the last 10k miles: - Cam chain tensioners (and guides as well I believe, need to check my records) - RMS - IMS seal - Starter I hear a lot of the 98-01 owners talk about the AOS, but I don't recall hearing about it much from the 02+ guys, is this something I should inspect/replace while I have the engine out? Anything else I might want to consider replacing just to be on the safe side? If someone mentions the IMS bearing I will internet slap you!

Have you considered replacing the IMSB?

I've always just dropped the tranny by itself. After doing a few, you can have it out and back in in about 3 hours.

I would do the AOS .. only $125 and waaay easier with the engine out. Waterpump?

Id replace the AOS, 997 water pump and coolant tank while your doing maintenance.

Water pump was just done a month ago. Coolant tank is newer as well. I have small amount of seepage from the RMS, so I'll probably do another one of those while I'm in there. I read somewhere about the oil cooler seals being a good idea. Guess I'll do the AOS while I'm in there just to be on the safe side. Spark plug tubes are good, but I'm not sure when the plugs were last done so I guess I'll do those too.

I don't think your MY has plug tubes.

So, after my throwout bearing supposedly died in July, I let the car sit for a bit while I figured out what to do. Well, about a week and a half later I had to move the car, so I get in, start it up and... the noise is gone. Go figure. I drove it 1000+ miles over the next couple months without so much as a peep from the bearing. Until about three weeks ago it finally decided to REALLY die on me. Luckily, I was close to home when it happened and I was able to baby the car home without incident. Like I've mentioned before, I prefer to do most of the work on my cars myself. However, my work schedule has been crazy lately and I just have a ton of other things going on in my life that really don't leave much free time to start a project like this right now (also, I already have my motorcycle completely stripped down in the basement for a winter rebuild and I think my wife would murder me if a dismantled Porsche was added to the mix...). So, onto the trailer she went and off to my favorite local shop, Redmond European (for you Seattle-area people: great shop, great work, great prices, honest; I can't speak highly enough about these guys). I dropped her off at 9am yesterday, and by noon they already had everything apart. Turns out the throwout bearing wasn't the original source of the issue. When they got the tranny out, they found that the output shaft seal was weaping a bit, which caused some tranny fluid to end up on the pivot for the clutch fork. This is turn destroyed the plastic bushing on the pivot, which caused the fork to have a bunch of slop, putting the force on the throwout bearing at an odd angle, killing the throwout bearing. The fork also rubbed on the pressure plate, and put some gouges in the "fingers" on it. SOOOO, the car is getting the following done to it while it's apart: - New clutch kit (minus flywheel, it was nearly perfect as it only had 35k miles on it) - New RMS - New transmission output shaft seal - Transmission flush and refill with Amsoil fluid - LNE IMS bearing retrofit I've said a million times that I'm highly skeptical about the actual occurance rate of IMS failures on these cars. However, should I ever want to sell this car (especially since it has 100k miles on it now), the first thing any buyer is going to ask about is the IMS bearing. So, I figured since everything is apart and the IMS flange seal was leaking anyway, I might as well just go for the LNE bearing for a little extra peace of mind and possible resale value. It's just too bad this isn't all happening a few months from now, since I'd be interested in the "IMS Solution" Jake keeps eluding to.

Final tally of parts repaired/replaced: - Full clutch kit including a new flywheel (I didn't need a new flywheel, but they charged me wholesale pricing for it and it's cheap insurance in the long run) - LN Engineering IMS bearing retrofit - Rear main seal - Transmission output shaft seal - Driveshaft flex coupling (it was cracked to hell and probably on the verge of failing) - Oil and filter change - Transmission fluid flush - A few bolts on the transmission subframe were missing/sheared off/crossthreaded for some reason (I'm guessing from the previous clutch replacement), so they drilled those out, retapped them and put new bolts in - Firmly affixed the shift cables to the transmission where they belong so they won't pop out of the brackets anymore It was a lot of money, but the car drives and feels a million times better now! It shifts SO much smoother and the clutch feels a lot better as well. I'm still not sure how I feel about doing the LNE IMS bearing retrofit. All told, it was about $1100 extra to have it done, but the original bearing looks and feels like it's brand new still. I suppose when it comes time to sell the car, it will be a worthwhile "investment"...

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i had pretty much the same done back in september....ya its spendy but i concur with the feel...drives real nice now! clutch action is a lot easier and the lwfw is pretty nice too. not afraid to really drive it now. and really that ims bearing is the back of everyones mind no matter what they say! so its nice to get that done my original ims bearing looked and felt solid too. i now keep it as a souvenir and have little contests with people to see who can guess how much that little fugger cost to replace!

I had the front end torn apart on the car this weekend to rebuild the CV joints due to a couple torn boots. Well, after removing the axles I decided that since I'd already done the hard part, I might as well go all-out and remove the AWD from the car and make it a "proper" 911. The whole setup comes out really easily (90 minutes) and is totally reversible (it'd take maybe 3 hours to reinstall if I change my mind). I haven't gotten to drive the car yet because I still need to disassemble the outer CVs and reinstall the axle stubs (they hold the hub together and contain the wheel speed sensor pickups).

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Nice work. Im doing the same to my car in a couple weeks. How much weight did u drop?

Ive always wondered how it would feel once the PSM came on for any reason as it's programmed to work within a awd configuration. Have you weighed the parts you took out by chance?

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Nice project. Would like to hear if your new C2 drives differently from your C4.

Before I yanked everything out, I did a bit of research on it in the Turbo forums since this modification is fairly common with the high power guys since the AWD becomes useless once you get into the 600hp range (personally, I find it to be fairly useless 99% of the time...). From my understanding, the PSM cares only about wheel speed and it doesn't matter whether you have an axle sending power to that wheel or not. The AWD system is completely mechanical on these cars, there is not a single sensor of any sort associated with it. The viscous coupling simply transfers power to the front wheels if it is able to. If it is removed, all the power goes to the rear wheels all the time since the front driveshaft is not there to "steal" power from the rear wheels. I haven't put all the parts on the scale, but I'm guessing everything that's left over weighs around 80 pounds or so.

Sorry, forgot the S.

I've fallen in love with this car again. We had some unseasonably gorgeous weather here in Seattle this weekend (almost 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky), so I gave the 911 a good cleaning on Saturday, and finished it off with some of my Griot's spray-on wax to give the paint a little pop (fantastic product, BTW) and then put some miles on the car while enjoying the sun. I'm really glad I raised the suspension a bit and re-dialed everything in, it drives/handles even better than before. I'm also loving the RWD conversion. Getting that rear end out around corners is a lot of fun. A little bit of alignment rack fun the other weekend:

Nice but ouch on those older style Hunter "clamp" on alignment sensors. The alignment place I found recently has the newer Hunter design that attaches to the tires instead. Much less stress on worrying about having marks on your wheels.

My friend owns the shop, so I'm okay with the old style because I know the "feet" have fresh rubber boots on them when they go on my wheels.

Nice. That would make me feel more at ease too.

So, even though I'm technically trying to sell my car at the moment, that doesn't mean I can't still have some fun with it. I recently sold the 19" Rotiform wheels that were on the car, so I'm back to the OEM Turbo Twist wheels for now. The tires were pretty much shot on those, so while they're off getting new tires installed, I'm going to spend some quality time cleaning the fender wells and giving the paint on the brakes a refresh.

I need to get some more pictures, but here is how the car is looking at the moment:

why the tow hook?

bcuz racecar. (I was at a show yesterday, that isn't usually there).

I like the new look. I think I might put the center caps back on though.

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Did you get towed to the show? That's a bit on the vwvortex-flat-brimmed-hat-douche side of things... I like the silver on black color combo though.

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It was a vwvortex-flat-brimmed-hat-douche kind of show. Sometimes you gotta cater to your audience.

Man, that got out of hand quickly. IMHO Darrick, I like the "new" look of your C4S. Are you going to track the car now or reinstal the AWD parts?

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I've been to a couple of these...

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The plan with the car all along was to be able to track it. However, this whole "adulthood" and "responsibilities" thing has really gotten in the way of having any free time to do so.

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LOL, at least you're honest. He stated it was a racecar and as such, he needs to keep the caps off for maximum cooling to his wheel bearings to prevent failure. FUHRAZE!!!!

Car looks good man, where did you get the side decal from? Funny reading about the flat-brim-vortex crowd since I'm another VW convert

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The real reason for the missing center caps is I didn't have time to finish painting them. Here's a couple more pics of the car. While I really loved how the car looked with the Rotiform wheels on it, I must say it's quite liberating to have the stock wheels back on now. With the 235/40s and 295/35s on there the car rides a bit smoother and I have way less to worry about if I hit a pothole or expansion joint. My friend owns a sticker making business, so I had him make them for me. If anyone wants a set, I can get them for you for WAY less than the $100+ most places charge (just shoot me a PM).

Darrick, I even like the decals. They really seem to work with the color scheme. I think the car has a more "track look" if there is such a thing. Looks great!

I like the new updated look Capt.

Honestly, if you didn't care what anyone else thought, you wouldn't be attention-whoring your car, right? And you seem to get instantly butt-hurt when anyone raises an eyebrow at your mods. But hey -- it's your car. Pimp it out.

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[Image-only post; no author-written text. Original image references:] https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eLf1OL1zsZU/UDJawYjUnYI/AAAAAAAAEps/tNIHbG4zXLw/s640/Dr-Zoidbergs-butthurt-cream.png

The car looks great (now and before).

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I didn't realize making a thread on a forum dedicated specifically to the car brand to share the work on my car was now considered attention whoring... And I'm certainly not butt-hurt about anything; Halik is just one of those fearless keyboard warrior types that only posts negative things in every thread he posts in. He just likes to run his mouth and talk **** without ever adding anything to the discussion.

Nice thread!!! Loved the rotiforms on her! It's nice to see different takes on the same car. It shows just how versatile the 996 is. As long as the car suits the drivers needs it shouldn't matter to anyone else! My TT (audi) build wasn't for anyone else but me... and now I got a new toy to play with I am excited to see options on where I can take it! Cheers

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You can start by pulling those gt3 style seats out of the TT and into the Porsche. Lol, just messin.

Do you have spacers on the back? Or is it just an optical illusion that they look more flush to the fender?

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7mm H&R spacers in the front and 18mm spacers in the rear.

Capt. your car is one of my favorites in this forum....although I liked it more with the Rotiform wheels. But the new look with the stickers and the black turbo twists compliment the color of the car very well. Did you use regular white spray paint to white out the tire logos?

The tire lettering was done using a special tire paint made by Duplicolor. It sucks, I won't be using it again. It's only been a week and the white has already faded to a light gray color. At least it matches the car, though.

Capt., I read your thread carefully. I would like to now more about your AWD -> 2WD conversion. Did you put the FWD parts back in before selling? How long did it take? Was the front end more reponsive with AWD or 2WD? Cheers, Fabrice

Here's the how-to thread I made about the conversion: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...96-to-rwd.html I did convert the car back to AWD at the new owner's request when he bought it, it took about three hours. The front end wasn't necessarily more responsive with the AWD removed, the car just drove like a RWD car. You could definitely tell the weight was missing from the front of the car.