When Disaster and Stupidity Strike

Greetings all, Let me start this conversation by saying that I am in no way shape or form a professional auto mechanic, nor do I pretend to be with anything I do automotive related. What I am is a crazed maniac that thrives on learning new skills and will challenge myself to learn more and do better. Well, with learning comes challenges and mistakes and I�m not impervious to either. Unfortunately someone, whom I mistakenly considered a �friend� on facebook took it upon themselves to share a horror story that I experienced this weekend when working on my Porsche. It wasn�t his story to share and I feel it portrayed me as someone who has more money than sense. Maybe or maybe not, but it wasn�t his story to tell, it was mine. I know I f*d up, I don�t need some stranger to tell me that. I can see my mistake every time I walk into my garage and see my engine block in its condition. So here�s my story that I wish to share with you all in the hopes that no one EVER makes this mistake again and if it means it puts me in a bad light, so be it. I elected to hot tank my 3.6, with 102K miles, in Purple Power over the weekend. Reading the instructions on the bottle and based on my use of it in the past I chose to use it at 100% potency. Yeah, �nuff said. The results would make any mechanic cry a little. I believe I cried more than a little myself. The chemical destroyed the liners, the anodizing and polish on the journals. Not to mention it pitted the whole case and left a white powder all over it. No amount of pressure washing or scrubbing will help. So I essentially took an engine, in relatively good shape, and single-handily destroyed it in less than 2 hours. Yeah, not my brightest moment in life. The crankcase, pistons, rods and oil pump were in the pot. The pistons are rough to the touch and may survive with a good bead blast but will need to be measured. The heads are fine, as is all of the innards (sans the pistons). So I guess it could have been worse, but not by much. So what did I learn here? Well, I learned to never trust a troll. More importantly though I need to research, research and research some more before using ANY chemical on Aluminum or any other critical component. Although the PP bottles don�t state to not use on Aluminum a FAQ on their website does. I think it should have been written in BOLD PRINT on the bottle! After I lick my wounds some more, I intend on dropping a video of this disaster as a lessons learned and hope and pray I can complete this project with what little confidence I have left. Because unlike what some people may believe, I�m not made of money and no one is paying me so more than my ego is hurting right now. Life will go on, Michael �Yogi� Ybarra Hot tanking my aluminum engine in Purple Power was the stupidest thing I've ever done. Purple Power + Aluminum = bad

you are looking at it wrong....how much weight did you save?

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Thanks man, that made me laugh out loud.

OUCH! ...and

Thank you for sharing. That can be tough to do, but hopefully it will help others.

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That's exactly right. There's a lesson(s) here.

Some of this stuff is way more dangerous than you would expect. When I was doing my mufflers, plugs and coils I let the heat shields soak for a bit in some Meguiar's APC and while it worked it def ate into them a bit but they did clean up nice.

Tough lesson but wouldn't call it stupidity. It's easy to be misguided by what's online, just have to be thorough and utilize all resources given the vast amount of both good and bad information floating around.

Hopefully your you tube video generates enough views to make it pay for a newer motor sorry bro I’m definitely in the “can’t touch a tool dept “ so I don’t even try and pay someone else to screw me lol Mike

I remember many moons ago, I took my Triumph TR4 head to a machine shop to have it hot dipped when doing a valve job. What came out of the tank was different from what went in it. All the aluminum push rod tubes had disengaged.

OMG no. My wife says I lack empathy, but I do in this case. Your best bet might be a used engine at this point. At least you have the skills install it yourself, and you can combine the best bits of both engines.

Really sorry to hear your story , sad when good intentions turn to crapple ☹️. Purple Power/Simple Green and many others can be caustic to aluminum and must be used diluted and even then rinsed well . I wish you the best .

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What you're seeing is the reaction of one of Purple Power active ingredients - sodium hydroxide. When Aluminum reacts with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), it will produce Sodium Aluminate and Hydrogen. The telltale sign is the white powdery substance. Lesson learn. Now, you have two options - wallow in the mud in self pity or get back up on the horse and finish the project. I've learned this lesson about degreasers and aluminum a long time ago. I sprayed full strength Purple Power on aluminum wheels and got the same type of reaction. Thankfully I didn't have to learn it on a Porsche engine.

Time to try a short acid wash with a fine steel wool

Wow, that really sucks . I will absolutely be watching how you will get yourself out of this mess. Maybe get a complete 3.2 from a Boxster S and run the car until an affordable 3.6 comes your way? I'd love you see someone actually do it and get the running impressions after. And I watch your channel religiously...love it

Oh man. I'm very sorry to see and hear this. However, what I just learned is don't clean any of the aluminum parts on our cars with purple power, or similar, cleaner. I could have easily attempted this and not thought twice about it. I appreciate your bravery for owning it and sharing it. I wish you and your 911 the very best,

Thanks guys for your responses. I think I may have a way forward. I've been speaking with Lee Jenkins at Hartech and he advised me to try to scrape the bore using a piston and rings. That may wear down the rough areas caused by the chemical reaction. So there may still be hope for this girl. Otherwise my choices are pretty clear, new crank case or re-sleeve the existing one. Fingers crossed

Not sure if this is a feasible option but Brush Research makes a tool called "flex hones" that's used for various honing applications, they have an aluminum oxide (20 grit up to 800 grit) and levigated alumina (this is around 1,000 grit) version. I've never used one outside of trying achieving a specific surface finish on an already clean surface, but one of the higher grit options may work without affecting the bore diameter too much. Worse case it doesn't work and you go with sleeves. http://www.brushresearch.com/brushes...2#helpabrasive

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Thanks for the tip. I actually have a honing brush but it's not for Aluminum blocks. Just iron. I'm sure I could use it if my sleeves were iron as well.

this is awful, sorry to hear that. Where did you read that this was a good idea?

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There are a few youtube videos out there but nothing specific to an Aluminum block. PP doesn't state anywhere on their bottles to not use on aluminum. However, on their website FAQ it does. Not really helpful if some dude, such as myself, drives to Walmart and reads that this can be used at 100% on engines w/o any warning about aluminum. The lesson learned here that when dealing with aluminum, unless it says so, NOTHING is safe. I'm holding out hope that I can repair the cylinders with some piston action. The mating surfaces and journals will need attention. As well as bead-blasting/vapor-honing the entire thing.

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Time for a 3.8 nickie?

Imho, i think u did yourself a favor. It makes no sence to fully dissassemble one of these motors and not fix the 2 major issues with the block, the bore coating and bore ovaling. There is a very good chance that when u put it back together it would have failed prematurely.

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I would whole heartedly agree with you if I wasn't all-in on a complete restore. The cost of a re-sleeve to 3.8 would exceed the value of the car. I believe I've already done that with the interior/exterior work I've already done. Although the engine work might bring a bigger price tag if I do it. I wouldn't hesitate if it wasn't a base Carrera with over 102k on her. It makes sense so, I'll have to think about it.

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Preaching to the choir. I dumped way too much money into my car with the gt3 conversion. U may have to keep it and just enjoy driving it.

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Sorry to see what you are going thru. I too was questioning why you would take it apart and not address anything. Are you keeping it or flipping it? IMHO, you put so much time and effort into it so far that quite frankly, you should do it right, spend what you need to and build it right. Good news is that it will be cheaper for you than a guy like me who doesn't have wrenching skills.

Exactly. The plan is to sell up. Just gotta stop keeping myself work to do first.

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Oh I took it apart to address all the wear items. All the way to the crank. What I wasn't planning on is bore scoring, because there isn't any, and IMS since that's done as well.

Gotta make lemonade out of lemons. The question is how. Don't know what you paid for it and don't know what you put into it, but at this stage, it's going to be tough to sell it for anything in present condition. Before the purple, you had at least an engine that could be sold. Now you have an engine that needs to be bored and rebuilt, plus a used and battered car that still needs a lot more work. At worst case it's either a complete write-off that you give away or you finish your work on the chassis and rebuild the engine properly so it's attractive to a buyer. The question is at what price. Or you keep it and enjoy for a decade or two. Time will work in your favor as 996 prices rise over the next decade or two. What makes it real tough is that if it was a coupe, someone may look at it as a basis for building a full time track car. They would gut it anyways, weld what they had too, and rebuild the engine. In this case, you may get a couple of thousand dollars for it. But because it's a convertible, track guys won't want it. I feel for you man. I have appreciated your videos and willingness to take on the most difficult projects with the car. This really sucks. But you have a great storyline for more videos.

All good points. It will definately be rebuilt properly. There's still a glimmer of hope that the bores are round and the liners can be salvaged. I'll be working on the liners tonight and will then measure for round and tolerance. If it checks out then I dodged a major bullet, Neo style. If not, then I've got a lead on a case to swap it with.

I have a flex hone from Brush Research of the standard 3.4 bore (95mm, 320 grit aluminum oxide) that I bought when I was starting the rebuild of my engine. Brush research states that it is compatible with Nikasil cylinders but in talking with Lee Jenkins and others they said you cannot use this to hone the Porsche cylinders as it will not leave the proper finish. I did try it one the one cylinder that had started to have some bore scoring and one other cylinder that was not scored. the scoring on the one cylinder was still visible. One the other cylinder the was a nice cross hatched finish but based on what the experts said I decided not to go with it. I ended up getting another set of cases that were not scored. I did not have the budget to go with Nickies. If anyone is looking for a good set of 3..4 cases for re-sleeving Mine are available. LN has offered me $500 for them and I may take them down there as I only live about 2 hours away..

I am not a chemical nor composite engineer. But what effect does purple have on the cylinder liners?

Sorry to see this thread. I hope you're able to continue with this case!

Tougher to spend money you didn't intend to when it's a cab. I struggled with that as well. All the work you can to yourself is easy to justify. You get the enjoyment and satisfaction, you get the experience. In your case it certainly helps to get the content too. It still may be worth it if you don't get the other case to just send the halves out for cylinders, provided you do the rest yourself. Of course I'd recommend Hartech because of my own experience, notwithstanding the great work of LNE.

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Would the potential bullets be coming from the wife?

Maybe some 800 grit sandpaper, or gray scuff pads. I have removed it with maroon pads and fine steel wool.

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You made a mistake, but don't beat yourself up too much over it.

So sorry to hear this. I've been supporting your YT channel as much as I can. I might have an option for you. Maybe we can talk this weekend. I have your cell number.

Sorry, Yogi, to read of your situation. Hopefully things will work out in the end. Keep the faith! Love your vids!

Sorry, this happened to you! I have enjoyed your channel and work. I have in my time done some pretty stupid things and this will make a great cautionary story to scare the automotive crowd. One of mine that comes to mind immediately is years ago I was racing a Swift Sports 2000. One weekend, I really should have gotten new tires for the race on Sunday, but was a bit short on cash and said to myself, "these 8 cycle tires don't look too bad", so went out on them. Dang if I was not leading my class and having a great time when I pushed too hard into a carousel kind of turn and BANG, blew a tire, and spun into the tire barriers. Cords were showing on all four tires. Stupid. Racing gods wanted me to spend $800 that weekend, instead of spending on tires and winning the race, I ended up spending it on repairing my broken tail. It would have been worse, at least I hit the tire walls. This was on the road course at St. Louis, and there are lots of hard things to hit if it has been anywhere else. Good luck and I hope you find a "reasonable" way forward.

Wow. Lesson learned indeed! It took courage to share that. Does Porsche still sell short blocks?

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Now that story takes me back. Here's a picture of my old Lola T590 Sports 2000.

Been a mechanic on and off for 20 years. Don't beat yourself up. Often the thing we least think about is what nails us. Keep your head up and you will find a way through.

Thanks Gents, I've been working on repairing the cylinders all weekend. I think the piston in the cylinder is going to work! More info soon.

Wishing you the best, Yogi. It's admirable that you are not letting this defeat you. If you need to take a break we won't forget about you. What's the plan for the white stuff that's not inside of the bore?

I have used an acid wheel cleaner to get rid of the fluff. Sometimes full strength, start with 20% strength. Please don�t let it dry in the block, or leave it in long. After rinsing I blow dry and hose with wd40 or such.

Sorry to read what happened Yogi.

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sorry man, yogi If you need a case there is a guy I believe William pits here a few hours away, selling one. I was thinking about buying it to Have Justin build me a motor but after we spoke a few weeks ago we decided that wasn�t it. The listing is on Facebook, I believe 911 buy and sell or 996 986 buy and sell. Anyway if you want to get that one let me know, we can take my truck and we will just have a good day trip. Men I was looking forward to seen your video putting this engine back together. Hopefully you can fix yours.

Sorry this happened. I don't know what you will do but I have a word of caution. Bead blasting is not recommended for engine interior surfaces. Some of the medium embeds itself in the aluminum and later flushes out into the oil, circulating throughout the engine causing havoc. Good luck with the project and thank you for sharing this.