Porsche 911 997.1 Daily Driver

[adean22]

AyBee said:

Would be great to see a photo of the splitter from further back with the whole body in view, but agreed that satin black or body colour might look better on initial glance.

Here you go:

[adean22]

8 Month Update with the car

So today marks 10 months of ownership. Its crazy how quick the time has gone, it only feels like a few weeks ago when I went to collect the car. Granted, I think collecting the car will be a memory I will keep with me for the rest of my life. Collecting the car circa 250 miles away from home threw me in at the deep end but the drive home had me with the biggest grin I had ever had. It sounds very cliché but my dream had now come true and I still struggled to believe it was real.

8 months later I'm still living my dream with driving the car. Despite current crazy fuel prices and running costs the car makes me happy every time I drive it and iv made lots of memories with the car.
I think that's the great thing about being a petrol head, you make memory's from the experiences you have in certain cars and they stick with you forever. Granted, them memory's come with a cost but money can be earnt back, where as time cant.

There's no plans of the car going anywhere anytime soon, there's nothing I want to replace it with and there is no reason for me to move the car on. As long as my finances agree I do believe this car will be a keeper.

I know some people find it interesting to see running costs of cars like this (well I do) so here is 10 months of costs excluding fuel, insurance and tax:




So maintenance has been £1220.69
Mods have been £323.28

Mods cant really be factored into maintenance costs as they weren't needed for the car to run.

I think £1220 to run a 911 for 8 months is rather good. Bearing in mind tyres make up a huge majority of that. My current prediction(as long as nothing major goes wrong) is that its going to be about 2k to maintain for a year, me doing a lot of work myself has offset a lot of the cost. If labor was added in I would expect it to be circa 3.5k a year.

The next cost will be a service. As much as I like doing stuff myself I do want to retain the service history of the car so I'm currently looking at options of place to fetch it for a service in the north west (any recommendations are very welcome)

Iv not covered as many miles as I intended to due to working from home earlier in the year and making use of a company pool car for work related journeys (mileage allowance wont even touch the sides of fuel, nvm wear and tear). However iv still covered about 7k miles (very very close to 100k miles now) which I still believe is good going. Iv got a trip to Cornwall with the car in a month or two so that will be a good test for the car (around 750 mile round trip) .

Edited by adean22 on Thursday 16th June 16:16

[adean22]

Gorilla Boy said:

I'd recommend Porsche Unique in Westhoughton, the best bar none in the north west.

They've just done the big service on mine, brilliant attention to detail and they are more than happy to answer any questions (especially intricate/fiddly ones from a mechanical reliability engineer such as myself!)

They also do a discount on labour if you're a TIPEC member.

They are only a few miles away from my house and everyone iv asked only has great things to say about them. Ill give them a ring and probably go with them. I'm also about to join TIPEC so that works out decent aswell

Thanks for the recommendation

[adean22]

Over the weekend iv purchased some brake caliper spacers and bolts.

These allow me to use the standard calipers but pair them with the 350mm Disc from the 997 turbo. One gripe I have with the car is the brake pedal feel isn't as good as I want it and this mod is meant to improve pedal feel, aswell as improve braking performance.
I also like how its adapting something to use OEM parts still. It will be a bigger disc but still a Porsche disc.

The standard discs are 330mm so I'm not sure ill notice a 20mm increase, but it should also look a bit better with bigger brakes. I did a similar thing on my mg by going from 240mm brakes to 280mm brakes at the rear and it did make a difference.

I'm currently only doing this for the front but will probably do the rears aswell. Iv been looking into braided brake hoses today to see if they are an improvement over stock lines or if they are just a gimmick. Any thoughts on the matter would be very welcome.

Im going on holiday to Thailand for the next few weeks so there wont be any miles or mods being done to the car for the next month, annoying as I'm so close to 100k on both the 911 and the MG.

Edited by adean22 on Monday 20th June 12:09

Edited by adean22 on Monday 20th June 12:10

[adean22]

Iv gone ahead and ordered some Goodridge braided stainless steel brake lines and some brake fluid.

The brake fluid is due a change and since ill be changing the discs and pads and fluid, some new brake lines is good routine maintenance at 100k miles.
All that's left to source for my brake upgrade is the 350mm turbo discs and some brake pads.

[adean22]

All my parts arrived in for the brake upgrade. I went for Sebro discs as I believe they make the Porsche OEM discs and they are coated which will prevent rust at the hubs or edges on the discs. I chose Textar pads as they are recommended on Porsche forums.


I set about removing the old calipers and flexi brake lines. The nearside brake line looked original and the offside had been replaced in the last few years, personally I would always replace these in pairs so that was another reason for me changing all the brake lines to new upgraded ones, the new brake lines should be fine now to fetch the car another 100k miles.

(new vs old lines)



Here's a picture showing the old disc vs the new disc. The new one is only 20mm larger so may not look that much bigger. The old discs had a fairly large lip on them and the pads didn't have much meat left on them so I'm viewing this more as maintenance as oppose to an upgrade. And what's the point of replacing standard discs with standard discs when there is an easy upgrade, even if it doesn't improve braking, they needed doing soon anyway




I got the new discs on easily - good thing about upgrading with parts from the same car but a better model is that things piece together well without any niggles/ modification. If i have some money burning a hole in my pocket in the future I may buy some 6 pot calipers but that wont be any time soon.

And I got the calipers on with the new bolts and spacers. The pads went in easy enough and I could reuse the brake wear sensors which easily clipped in.









The cars now back together but I ran out of time to bleed all the brakes and change the fluid so that's a job for tonight.

If all goes well this weekend I should be at tuner fest at Oulton park and possibly going out on track so we will se how the brake and car hold up. When the rear brakes need changing I will probably opt for the 350mm route aswell.

Edited by adean22 on Thursday 14th July 08:59

[adean22]

I changed the brake fluid and got all the brakes bled and managed to get out and put some miles on the car yesterday.

Initial impressions are as follows:

. pedal feel is improved and the brakes bite sooner on in the pedal travel
. the pedal needs to be pressed less than before for the same braking force
. when braking heavily the brakes feel like a huge improvement.


Now I don't know if this is caused by the bigger discs, new fluid and new brake lines. However it there is an improvement and for a low cost upgrade im happy with it.

Iv just got the rear brake lines to change now so hopefully I'll get chance this weekend to do it.

[adean22]

The car was brought to Tuner Fest at Oulton park this weekend, it was said that id get to do a few parade laps if the racing schedule was stuck to so that was meant to be the highlight of the weekend for me.

However due to a bad crash on track I wasn't able to go on track. One of the cars in the civic cup had a brake failure and ploughed into the wall at over 100mph. Luckily the driver walked away from the accident and had no major injury's.

Even though I didn't get on track it was still a great event and the car was parked in good company.



Here's a picture of one of my favourite cars from the show. Iv always been a fan of MX5s and this one with the martini stickers looks great - I'm biased as I love modded MK1 MX5's

[adean22]

Iv been craving making the car a slight bit louder for a while. Not louder as such, just more of a deeper throatier sound. Iv finally decided that the gundo hack is the way to go.

We have a fleet maintenance / fabrication shop where I work which comes in handy more times than id like to admit. So I'm removing the backboxes over the next night or two and having a 2" pipe welded between the input and output of the backboxes - known as the gundo hack.

Hopefully this will get the car sounded a little throatier - but it will not drone or be too loud.

[adean22]

Gorilla Boy said:

I've got the Gundo, you wont regret it

I know you're fairly handy so it wont be an issue but my 911's previous owner chose someone who was a poor welder and here's some before/after pictures. (after id repaired it with 2x 38mm ID stainless pipes)

That looks crusty smile

The pipes will be stainless so they shouldn't rust

I don't trust anyone with my car but I know the lads at work work to very high standards and I have no doubt it will be spot on. They are gonna use a plasma cutter to cut the holes and iv never seen one of them in action so I'll be watching with a keen eye.

[adean22]

Well last night was a world of pain removing the mufflers.



The exhaust clamp is just held on by two 17mm bolts

Then the rear bumper had to come off to access the heatshields, this was easy enough.


Then the pain began when removing the mufflers off their brackets, all the bolts were corroded and lots had already been snapped previously - it's annoying that someone had snapped them and then just left them but oh well.

I got the offside muffler off in the end by cutting through one of the bolts and bending the bracket to pull the muffler off. I have ordered all new bolts from Porsche and will bend the bracket back into its correct shape.

Ill also change the spark plugs whilst I'm in here as access is easy without the mufflers. Aswell as changing my rear brake lines for good practice.


Next task is to remove the nearside muffler but that's proving more difficult than the offside.

[adean22]

Gorilla Boy said:

I had exactly the same fun with removing mine, got a set of clamps in my garage if you want a fresh free set to put on? Only had them on for a bit as I found out they are 996 variants rather than 997. (however they work exactly the same)

Thanks for the offer, I might take you up on that - i'll swap you for some beer . I know you recommended unique as a specialist - I live within a few miles of them so you must be fairly close to me?

Ill see if I can work the piston heads private message thing and drop you a message. Would be good to know a fellow Porsche enthusiast who is local.

[adean22]

So that was a weekend of hell.

The rear nearside muffler was a pain to remove. I ended up angle grinding and using a reciprocated saw to remove the rusted and seized/snapped bolts, my neighbors found it very funny watching a 23 year old approach his Porsche with a big reciprocated saw. Dealing with some of the bolts i was tempted just to chop the entire car up and bin it.

However, persistence payed off and i got the backbox removed. Only casualty is the bolts which iv got new ones coming, and the brackets have some minor damage on them.


The damage on the brackets is minor, iv heated up the brackets and bent them back into the correct shape. I now need to get some bolts welded onto them so they work the same as the standard captive nuts.

Originally the plan was to buy new brackets, they came in at over £400 each so that's not an option. 800 quid for two small metal brackets is absolutely ridiculous.

You can see some slight surface rust in the picture above the bracket, I sanded all this down and cleaned it up then painted it with a zinc rust inhibiting primer and then paint over it. That should keep it rust free now for another 15 years.

Things like this highlighted why I like working on my own cars myself, I noticed a small patch of surface rust and I then spent time sorting the issue and cleaning it all up. Whereas I feel a dealer may just ignore it and whack the exhaust back on,

Once both my brackets were off I decided to change the spark plugs whilst I was in there, seemed silly not to when most of the work to change spark plugs had already been done



The old sparkplugs had nothing concerning looking about them, they were all dark in colour and just look like they are old. Id of been concerned if they were any other colour than what they were. All were consistently the same across each plug and each bank.

Fitting the new plugs was easy enough - hardest bit was finding my spark plug socket in the garage. Whilst iv changed the spark plugs I might aswell give the car an oil and filter change aswell as its been about 7k miles since it was last done.

So as it stands the car is ready to go back together once the backboxes have had the gundo hack done - one of the mufflers has a slight rattle so we are opening it up and work and seeing if its fixable or if it needs to be replaced. Then we can crack on with the gundo hack. Work is very busy at the moment but I'm hoping it can be done this week so I cant take the car out at the weekend and hit 100k miles.

Next update should be my opinions on the gundo hack

[adean22]

Still waiting on the gundo hack to be done.

Thought whilst the car was in bits and I did the spark plugs I might as well service the car. Its only done about 7k miles since its last service but i dont liek changing the oil past this interval.

Iv ordered some Miller NT+ 10w50 and air, oil and pollen filter. As well as a new sump plug and sump plug washer. Millers 10w50 seems to be highly recommended for these engines so ill give it a go. Also thinking to send off the old oil off to one of these oil labs that can analyze the oil that's in the car.

Ill take pics and keep all the receipts but not sure if I should record this in the Porsche service book?

[adean22]

Exhausts have been welded with the gundo hack - pics to follow.

Many many thanks to Gorilla Boy for dropping me off some exhaust clamps which are practically new - a very kind gesture. Forgot to mention to you - if you are a tipec member you should come along to the bowling green at 7pm on monday - I only started going last month but they were a great bunch of people and would be nice to discuss all things cars and porsches with you again .

[adean22]

Welding done and backboxes loaded up in the trusty old MG, I have enjoyed using the MG as a daily whilst the 911 has been off the road but it will be nice to be in the 911 again.

I'm gonna try and fit them tonight. If I'm happy with the sound etc. then in the near future I will clean up and paint all the backboxes to prolong their life

Edited by adean22 on Thursday 4th August 12:57

[adean22]

As you can probably see from the photos of the backboxes, they didn't come off in the best condition. The exhaust had a few holes in it and we tried to weld them up hoping it would sort the issue. However after they were back on the car it was evident that they were still blowing.

The car deserves better than 15 year old exhausts that are patched up to get by - its not some budget econobox .

The hunt for a new exhaust system has begun. I'm currently swaying for a spyder performance valved exhaust (seems like good value and good quality) - would let me have the car loud but then quiet for road trips at the touch of a button.

I'm gonna decide which exhaust I want over the next few days and the replacement should arrive by the end of this week.

If anyones got any recommendations for a nice 997 exhaust then your input is much apreciated.

UPDATE:

opted for and bought the sypder performance valved exhaust. At around £800 it seems like a good price compared to many others and there is only good things said about them online.

The exhaust should arrive tomorrow and weather permitting should be fitted in time for the weekend.

Edited by adean22 on Monday 8th August 11:26

[adean22]

Exhaust was fitted and then after my battery decided to give up the ghost - seems to off dropped a cell.

Purchased a new varta one which now works fine. I wanted a Bosch S5 but I could only get one online and i needed the car for this weekend so opted for the varta (apparently its made in the same factory anyway) .



The exhaust seems really good quality and looks great too. It has a little remote to open and close the valves. This is plumbed into the vacuum lines of the car with a little vacuum solenoid thing (technical term)

The exhaust sounds great. With the valves closed its slightly louder than OEM but not too loud. And with the valves open its a lovely deep tone which is rather loud, but not stupidly loud. Swapping the exhaust also allowed me to sort out the tips and they are now perfectly level - summat which has annoyed me for months.

I also achieved a milestone on the initial drive after installing the exhaust - here's to another 100k miles.

Edited by adean22 on Friday 12th August 08:30

[adean22]

Gallons Per Mile said:

I've just read through your thread and thoroughly enjoyed it! Looks like you've got a really nice example there. A 997 is definitely on my list of cars to own. I don't want to part with my E90 M3 just yet but one day I might be tempted to go for a 997 instead

Glad you enjoyed it. I'm slowly getting the car to a place where I'm happy with it

An E90 M3 is what I plan on replacing this 997 with when I'm older if I have kids etc. Granted I do think big engine cars are on limited time with all these new silly emission zones coming in.

[adean22]

CrouchingWayne said:

Looks great - thanks for sharing. Do you have any videos of the exhaust? I’m craving a bit more noise over non-PSE OEM set up but not sure what to go for. Was thinking the TopGear valved exhaust but still researching options. Quite like a loud exhaust but the option to tone it down would be handy with the switch.

I have tried to take videos but it sounds nothing like the real thing so it makes the video pointless.

What I would say is the quiet mode is pretty much stock sound - maybe a tiny little bit louder - not a bad thing as stock is really quiet.

Loud mode is loud but not too loud. Iv dailyed the car since iv had the exhaust fitted and iv had no need to switch it to quiet mode. It doesn't drone on the motorway either which is good. Its got a deep growl at low revs which sounds fantastic when setting off but then at about 3.5k it turns into a slightly raspy noise and then it sings to redline. It keeps making me smile when I drive the car and that's what it is all about.

Cold starts in the mornings also sounds glorious and iv left my door open each day so i can hear it - iv even had a few comments at work about how it sounds nice when i start it up to set off home.

Don't hold me too this but from what I could see and a few others mentioned - the spyder performance appears to be extremely similar to the top gear one. It also sounds very similar to the topgear one. Maybe it is the same exhaust, maybe its not but I wouldn't be surprised if they were identical.