Earned a beer

I'm no great drinker, but somedays you really feel like you've earned a cool tinny. Fitting the oil pipes and cooler to the 911 turned out not to be the work of a moment. More accurately, it was the work of a fortnight.

I faced a number of 'challenges' (as us rank amateur car restorers like to call major SNAFUs) to do with attaching 30 year old used parts to a car that didn't have them fitted in the first place. Firstly I had to enlist help to get the remains of the flexible oil hoses off the solid hoses, and galvanic corrosion between the steel pipe fixings and the aluminium diverter valve meant another £300- into Porsche's coffers for a new one. It also took me ages to find the correct adaptor for the oil cooler to replace the one I'd butchered freeing it from the old pipes.

Fresh aluminium gently reacting with steel

Attaching the pipes and cooler without the benefit of the brackets, fittings and holes Porsche thoughtfully provided on the 911S and RS models (the ones with front oil coolers from new) took a number of goes and (oh the shame) a visit to B&Q for the necessary hardware. 

B&Q's contribution; coach bolts

I used 50mm coach-bolts to fit the three shaped clamps under the sill, taking the positions from a photo of a un-messed with 2.7RS. I used a modified galvanised heavy duty shelf bracket to support the bottom of the oil cooler, and made a mild steel bracket (well, several, actually) to support the cooler at the top. There are metal/rubber bobbins at both points to protect the cooler from vibration.

The Mk7 oil cooler mounting bracket

The one fixing that was on the car. Thanks Ferdinand.

Oddly, the captive bolt needed to support the pipes as they run under the rear wheel arch had been fitted when the car was built, and had spent 40 years sitting quietly waiting to fulfil its reason for existence.  Oversight? Standardised assembly? In any case, it's now reached the top of Maslow's triangle, fulfilled and holding up the two pipes it was born for.

One week in, all flattering to deceive.

Early 911s have two batteries, each held in boxes let into the front inner wing. The right hand one sits about where the oil cooler should go, so as I didn't want to make any changes that couldn't be reversed at some point, I had to fit the cooler in front of it. 

It took many goes at getting the oil pipes in the right place without interfering with the wing, and at the same time placing it as close to the battery box as I could to stop any fouling on the tyres. 

Sufficient clearance around the tyre

That box does stop a clear airflow to the cooler from the horn grills under the headlight, but I reckon its going to be much more effective at keeping the expensive engine happy than not using one. Airflow from the front of the car into the wheel arch is turbulent in any case - spinning road wheels cause a build up of high pressure under the arch in all closed wheel cars.

Finally, after many, many test fittings the assembly was fitted.  As an afterthought I fitted the front wing. 

Its all looking a bit more car-shaped. 

The beer was good. 

SS7