Ownership Verified: So, I bought a Porsche.

Wheres Porch now?

Last I saw it, sitting out in the open next to the track at H2R, which is in San Marcos, so about 45 minutes south.

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Huh, I don't update my parsh thread much. Whoops.

In that time, it:
Became an emoji: https://jalopnik.com/these-porsche-stickers-are-the-only-reason-to-download-1786630404
Drove home, where we figured out that the cooling issues were from the water pump going out. That got fixed later: https://jalopnik.com/forcing-yourself-to-drive-your-project-car-will-make-yo-1794369377
Got a cupholder, because I could: https://jalopnik.com/putting-a-cupholder-in-my-race-car-is-the-best-decision-1823406273
Snuck into the Porsche Club of America's magazine, where I wrote about its race at Nola Motorsports Park: https://oppositelock.kinja.com/i-have-achieved-maximum-parsh-in-print-1829984945
Survived a full-24-hour race!!!!
Which gave me a wish list to pitch the commerce team (in case we do another full-24, which we should): https://theinventory.com/the-essent...u-need-for-long-night-ra-1830471624?ks=author
Went to Radwood: https://www.thedrive.com/news/26634...llery-of-the-totally-dope-radwood-austin-show
Most recently, we had some weird alternator tensioner issues that just wouldn't keep the stupid thing in place: https://drivetribe.com/p/my-quick-a...2XNQRSatl9WdcIkWrw?iid=WUiVSq7oQOWHyDKhFuTuTw

I also started a parshletter (via my parshtreon) with more frequent stories about what I'm doing lately, in case anyone's interested.

As for the "where it lives" problem, Charles sort of adopted the parsh, although it's been at home lately because it needs a new cover. Also, I finally moved into a bigger place with a shed! I love the shed. It's significantly reduced the number of car parts in my living room to have a nice, separate shed, and it's much more convenient than the storage unit I had in the meantime.
 
Okay, so it's settled: I couldn't decide as to running the 411 vs. running the 944 in November, so I was like "whichever marque has the overall Nürburgring record, sure, let's go with that." Porsche's record is safe, so let's get crackin'.

The goal is to do the race and then do the Lemons Rally in it, so I'll be slowly but surely scrounging up everything to title, register and run this stinker. But of course, now that I've declared that It's 944 Time, Suckas, the car has a loud whine from the fuel pump area. The line running out of the top of the fuel pump to the fuel filter vibrates kinda weird, and it makes this hummmmmm:

It also seems to be clunkier sounding up front as well? IDK, ugh.
 
Aw man, I was rooting for 411. 944 is probably the same bet as it’s been running for much longer and has seats that are bolted down.
 
I'd like to have the 411 as a back-up in case anything happens to the 944, but I don't know if that's realistic. I still can't find the dang titles for either. They're somewhere in the house. :(
 
I really, really don't update this enough. The Porschelump's last race was in 2019, and it blew its head gasket AND its clutch that weekend. I wasn't in a great place: unemployed, depressed, and great, now my favorite frickin' fun car broke. My team decided the best way to send off my overheating, too-freely-revving car was to send me out for some Full Viking Funeral laps. It's already broken! There's a spare engine! SEND IT!

I came in ONE lap before the checkered flag because there was so much steam I wondered if I was on fire. I was not, but I felt dumb. Needless to say, I didn't make the Lemons Rally with it.

But THIS is the year of the 944. Things are going well again, for the most part.

Last year, I got the 411 resurrected after years of sitting. It runs pretty well for the first time in years! I still have a few things to tweak before I attempt to Lemons Rally it again, but it's a short list. This year, I need to get the 944 back in action.


I was skeptical about tearing into the spare engine from Porschelump 1.0 since it'd sat in Brianne's yard for a few years under a series of tarps. (The tarp occasionally wore out.) But!!! It's in fantastic shape inside so far. I am SHOCKED. We knocked a bunch of dirt off the outside and started to dig into it, and welp!

Also, we made farty sounds when we poured some oil into the cylinders to re-wet things and see if anything leaks through. The cylinders look like they're clean and intact, but just in case..........


The only downside is that one of the threaded holes for the bell housing (that also attaches it to the engine stand) snapped apart. It's at the bottom of the aluminum block, ouch. It'll hold just fine with the other three bolts, but maybe there's a way to have someone weld a new bolt-hole on somehow? :(


Oh, and one of the bolts we had with the bell housing was.......bent. This may have contributed to that borked threaded hole issue.
 
DAAAAADGUMMIT

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ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO MAKE ME THRASH TOGETHER A SIXTEEN CANDLES PARSH WITH A DEAD HEAD GASKET, DEAD CLUTCH, OUTDATED SAFETY GEAR AND OTHER ASSORTED IMPENDING MECHANICAL PAIN?!

(maybe)
 
Welp, balls. Just asked for a loaner towpig on MSR-H weekend. I should probably put a car together.
 
Looks like we're going to try replacing the head gasket on the engine in the car instead of rebuilding the ran-when-pulled one, just to get around this broken bell housing bolt. Wish us luck, haha.

I miss my parsh! I want my parsh back!!!
 
The bigger teardown of Porschelump 1.0's engine begins! We're gonna clean them both up and use the best parts available, I think. Plus, the 928 in the lift-hole at my friend's place still needs to be picked up, and we wanted to practice disassembly on the engine that's already out first.


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch3fHSUMFmb/

The old one looks great inside! Smooth cylinder walls and just a little bit of a head gasket leak. The oil that came out was a little waterier than expected accordingly, but not too much so.

Worst case, WE CAN REBUILD IT. (I think.)
 
Happy 9/17 from my parsh!


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cin4ghfpM5a/

We're slowly taking the head off the engine in the car to see if it's in better shape than the slightly pitted head on the spare engine. A couple frickin' captive nuts in the belt cover came loose and are just spinning in place instead of , which has thwarted us this week, but maybe we can yoink those out and epoxy some new ones in? We'll see.

Any tips on getting nuts out of a no-longer-available plastic cover, please lemme know.
 
Any tips on getting nuts out of a no-longer-available plastic cover, please lemme know.
I've "reseated" nuts in plastic parts in the past by heating the nut and pushing the hot nut in the plastic part, that way melting the plastic to house the nut. It will also depend on the type of plastic (,how thick is it) and how well you can reach it, but if the bolt is still in it you could try gently heating and pulling the bolt? With a bit of luck the nut should stay in place after cooling down.
Might be completely useless advice, but I'm just typing what I'm thinking 😅 .
 
Aw man, it's so close. Got most of the inside of the combustion chamber on the head cleaned up as best we could. It doesn't seem to have any leaks from above, so I think what's left is to deck it. We've got a dead-flat surface to deck it, so I think what's left is to try and clean out the water jacket as much as we can and then flatten 'er out.
 
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