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Well, here's a small update, a chance for me to vent, and maybe some humor.
First let it be known that I am not a Certified Porsche Technician and probably never will be. I say that because whenever I speak with any indy or Porsche dealer about my car, usually just in regards to getting parts like a oil drain plug crush washer or the tow eye, I am told repeatedly that I am not a Certified Porsche Technician and that I should just drag my car into them for repair. Ok, enough.
I was able to finally get some help pushing the car into the garage. Got the rear up on jack stands. As I quickly found out, my floor jack which I had used for years, was not low profile enough to get under the car. Harbor Freight is my friend. Got the 2 ton low profile jack. Started on the passenger side checking the plugs, coil packs, and spark plug tubes. The passenger side of the engine was covered in oil. I changed out the tubes (that was fun) and found just a little compression of the seals. I changed the plugs and ohmed out the coil packs. All checked out fine. I found that during my inspection, I did not notice the passenger rear wheel liner was missing. Not that big a deal. But the oil leak still remains. Just kind of weeping between the two rear most spark plugs, not from their seals. Not a gusher, just weeping.
On to the driver side. Again all coil packs checked out ok. Changed the tubes and the plugs. As to the old plugs, the PO told me a "friend" had changed the plugs out and supplied me with boxes of old plugs in a ziplock. The 6 plugs in the ziplock just looked old. So when I went to remove the plugs from the engine, I found three really old plugs on the passenger side heavily covered in carbon, and three new plugs on the driver side. WTF? Ok, moving on.
What are the codes on the durametric? Well, still waiting on the cable and software. Limping through with an icarsoft POR II. The only codes this thing throws is a low battery DTC when I have the battery disconnected an reconnect it. And since this thing only idles for about 30 seconds before dying, the software keeps needing to be reconnected with each power cycle to get some live date, resulting in no data being logged at all.
I also found one ignition coil wire had been disconnected and was hanging free. Reconnecting it helped smooth out the idle a bit, but not much (I love the Case tractor comparison). I also ohmed out the crankshaft position sensor, and it checked out fine (God I do not want to have to get to that screw attaching it to the engine!). So the car will start every time, but it will not idle above 300 rpm (I guess the first tick on the tach), and it will die after a short time idling. Giving it any gas pedal will cause a little bit of rev (very little) and then stalling and dying.
So my next area to investigate is fuel. When the car runs, I do not smell fuel, just exhaust. So I will start looking at the fuel pump and fuel filter. Got to get the front off the ground tonight so I can get fully under the vehicle to replace the fuel filter. I will jumper the relay and listen for the fuel pump, and if necessary again visit my favorite auto part store or Harbor Freight for a fuel pressure gauge. But that will entail me getting a new end cap for the fuel rail which will force me to go the Porsche dealer only to be told by the parts guy that I am not a Certified Porsche Technician and that all my efforts are in vain!
So I hope I am on the right track. Please don't get me wrong, I can afford to have the Porsche repaired by a dealer or a shop, but I like working on cars. I take my time and am pretty patient about it. It's a hobby. I'm not trying to do it for a living or to flip cars or anything else. It was a chance to own a Porsche (something I wanted) and a chance to learn everything about these vehicles. Thanks for reading!
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