I wasted a lot of time working on the cooling system (heater loop). The metal tubes from the engine to the heater core both had some ugly welds on them that I thought were leaking.

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I have some good tubes on hand and though it would be simple to swap them. It all went well until I had what I thought was everything disconnected and found that it was jammed between the gas tank and body. The gas tank has to be lowered at least partially to get the tubes out. Some day I'll do that, but this was not the time. I cut the 'bad' sections out of the tubes and joined them back together with some rubber heater hose.

I ran the engine for a while to warm it up and check for leaks. I found the leak. Not the tubes to the heater core, but the heater core itself. Coolant was flowing from the HVAC drain located near the front end of the heater tubing. I bought a new heater core that should arrive Monday. In the mean time I'm going to loop the heater system back to itself, bypassing the core.

Other things done:

• Put on some barely used Continental ECS tires JustanOkie gave to me along with some other smaller parts and a few tools. The tires are about five years old and I'll do my best to put some wear on them before the age out.
• Installed a headlight tray on the driver's side along with the plastic support trim behind the bumper and right fender.
• Fixed the cables for the frunk release and found that the cable for the trunk release was missing. I rigged some wire to the rear fender well to have a functional release.
• Bolted a seat in.
• Got the insurance, title and registration done.
• Installed the driver's door from an '04 on to replace the door which has bad paint and no door handles. It's a different black, but works for now. The car is metallic black and the door is plain black. I may have my son in law do some repainting for me because I really like the Basalt Black Metallic and most of the paint on the car is good.

Tomorrow or Friday, I'll drive it to the glass shop and have them fix the rear window.

Omg, I thought those were carvings at first sight. :rolleyes:

I got that black 2000 model running and not leaking coolant, then lost interest in working on the many other things wrong with it.

I started getting the Frog ready for Rallycross in July. The 'mufflers' needed to be attached better, then I drove it around the neighborhood to give it a good check. Police didn't drive by until after it was parked for about 15 minutes. I'll do some alignment work and mount some newer rear tires before the next race.

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I decided to have the fender, bumper, and aerokit side skirts painted for the arena red '99. I've been wanting to work on that car, but never find time enough to commit to make serious progress. Having the parts painted will cost over $1,500, but a good professional job is worth it. The engine is still in my garage needing a full refresh.

I got the windows working on the Xbox. I had hacked into the wire harness too casually over the years - deleting HVAC, installing and removing the nitrous system, off-road lighting, CB radio, manual fan switch, etc. I pulled out the ugly mess of tangled wires and ran the accessories to a switch & fuse from the battery and reconnected the broken 12V wire to the window switches. All good now.
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I'll probably install a modified passenger seat for my new co-driver, Brad (Pit).
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The black tractor is looking wild :) Must be a blast to drive it. How's the acceleration with the much larger tires?

The acceleration is still good. With a Tiptronic transmission first gear is very low. For casual street driving these transmissions often start in second gear rather than first. As a tractor it's a great tool for moving things around in the yard.

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In Other news, the '04 Special Edition had a low coolant indication while driving home from work. The drips looked like they were coming from the left front, but when I removed the front belly panel, I saw that the coolant was coming from the HVAC drain. I replaced the heater core a while ago with one that I had from a parts car. Since then I've learned that it's best to buy a New one. It's a lot of labor to replace - removing the front cowl, windshield wiper assembly, and battery.

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I took Sunday off work and went to Cars and Canines Rallycross in North Texas. It was the first Rallycross I've been to this year and I had a good time. My 13 year old grandson decided to come with me last minute. I didn't have time to install a passenger seat belt and window net, so he only rode with me for the parade laps, but he got to ride along in some of the other cars and had a great time.
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I really enjoy the group of people that participate there, but it was a four hour drive. They are going to change the venue to Paris TX in the future and that will be almost an hour closer. Meanwhile I might make it to a couple SCCA events which are less than three hours away.

The Frog ran well, but the clamps for the mufflers worked loose again. I'm going to get rid of the clamps and go with plain tubing that is bolted or welded. *This car has an intake and exhaust manifolds from a 3.4L 996.

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To me it doesn't look like that clamp gave up. Looks more like the tube completely cracked. Maybe you need more flex tubes, so the exhaust system is overall more flexible.

Is the 3.4 intake on the 3.2 motor? I can read back further if you have the info already shared. Thanks.

It's a 2.7L. Here's the original build: https://986forum.com/forums/show-tell-gallery/73877-6-months-live-build-thread.html
I bought it from Woody with a worn out 2.7L and swapped another 2.7L in with the same configuration.
996 ROW tune in the DME.
Holes drilled and tapped in the 2.7L head to mount the 3.4L intake.
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Engine cover was cut and built higher with fiberglass to make space for the intake.
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The exhaust manifold bolted on directly with the pipes to the muffler cut and welded. The ports on the head are noticeably smaller than the manifold.
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I have a cone type air filter mounted behind the driver's seat. That location seems best to minimize dust when on a rallycross course.
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It runs and revs well, but idle is a little rough when it first starts up.

Thank you!

What's the story of the VW you are towing? (Not that the rest is less interesting :))

1981 Scirocco. I just brought it to my son in law's place for him to clean the minor surface rust and prime it. He is starting up a collision repair/paint business.

Yesterday I picked up a 1971 411. I'm most likely going to keep the engine and part out the rest. The body isn't terrible, but from what I've seen from the interior floor and channels it's not worth rebuilding.
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Seen better days but looks salvageable. What about the log? Let me guess: a tree had grown through the chassis behind the bumber and then at some point the rest was cut out?

Exactly. The car was last driven on the street in 1986. It sat in a field for most of the time since then. The tree grew, then was cut and left in place. I love it that way and may preserve it.
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I'd like to get it running again just for fun, but there are a few cars ahead of it in line. At $200 I wanted to scoop it up before it was scrapped.

*VW 411,: basically the same thing as a Porsche 911, but with 4 doors. ...right?
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Absolutely. Early Porsches had a lot in common with VW-s. Please post pictures of the disassembly, we don't get to see these cars too often.

Yes, and keep up the great write-ups and pics with the Meridian Boxster rebuild.

Yep, I'll keep them coming :)

Work has been keeping me busy and when I've done car stuff it's been with a Prius so that Brad Pit and I could camp in back (a 2nd Generation Prius makes a great stealth camper).
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I got back to working on 986s when the '04 Special Edition had a check engine light for Major Vacuum leak in the evap system and the registration and insurance renewal came due for the black 2000.

The evap leak turned out to be a brand new fuel cap that wasn't sealing. Another case of why I should have bought a good brand part instead of the cheapest on Amazon or RockAuto.

The Black 2000 has a very long list of issues. I got it running back in April, then let it sit un-driven all summer. When the renewal came due I decided that if I'm paying for insurance, I might as well drive it. With a new battery, it cranked, but wouldn't start. It turned out that the fuel pump was bad. Replacing it was a little messy, but not too hard. The windows didn't work and fuse C3 was blown. That turned out to be a pinched wire at the roof latch shorting out.
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The passenger headlight didn't work and that turned out to be a broken fastener that holds the headlight wire connector firmly in the tray - the headlight would slide into place, but not connect to the wire harness. Next on the list is figuring out why the parking brake doesn't work. The cable looks good, so I'll have to pull the brakes off and see what's happening. In the dark, the car doesn't look terrible.
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No work done on the 411 yet other than finding that the entire wire harness has been chewed. I'm seriously considering putting the body on an '02 Suzuki Vitara that I picked up. Here's a Type 3 on a Miata chassis: https://dannix.net/index.php/lib/frankenwagon/finished How hard could it be..? :cheers:

I see you also had issues with that thread that holds the bolt for that latch thing and is able to withstand a singe tightening on the assembly line. Such an annoying design.