What an adventure it has been. It was sometime in late 2016/early 2017 that I found out about Porsche Rennsport Reunion. At that time I had most of the 968 interior pulled out, wiring almost patched up, and the cooling system on its way out. The next Rennsport Reunion was to occur at the end of summer in 2018, which seemed like a long time away. Setting my sights on finishing the 968 by then did not appear unreasonable, maybe even easy. Driving the 968 up to Monterey from San Diego would be a good confirmation of a successful rebuild. An easy trip in a modern car; the 968 I still consider to be a somewhat modern car.

Since setting my goal, a lot has happened in life and with the car. Half marathons, overseas vacations, home search/purchase, and home renovations. All speed bumps or road blocks on the path of reaching Rennsport Reunion VI. Realistically speaking, the progress with the 968 was mostly at a standstill from mid 2017 to early 2018, until the garage was finally finished and ready to be used. I set the car on jack stands in the center of the garage and set to work. As I worked on the car I kept finding new areas I wanted to improve while knocking out other ones. Towards the end of July 2018 I finally got the engine together and was able to start up the car for the first time since I started working on it in November 2016. With 2 months to Rennsport I was feeling confident that I will be able to make it. In good fashion, I ended up taking two vacations before I finished off most of the details necessary to get the car driving on the road.

On September 3rd I took my first lap around the block. The 968 ran a little rough but later on I realized the hall-effect sensor was not plugged in. I figured it would take a couple startups for the DME to re-learn after sitting for so long. I felt confident enough to take the car to work. The next morning I went to start the car up but it struggled. It cranked once but it didn’t want to crank any more, as if the battery was dead. I gave it a couple more tries and it came to life. Now this in reality was the start of my problems. Writing about it now, there were many signs that hinted that I had a big problem on my hands. Back then each issue seemed to be an isolated incident. That same day I drove the car to lunch and it had a similar but much less significant startup issue. At that point I was already researching new starters thinking that might be the problem. That evening, before driving home from work, I noticed a small puddle of water under the car at the back of the engine, dripping from the low point of the header. It seemed like it might have been coming from the heater hoses. Maybe a clamp was loose and let some water out. On my drive home I started to hear sounds of water trickling from the heater core area. I did replace the heater core so I was thinking maybe some air was trapped in the system. A small water leak from the heater hoses and air in the heater core seemed logical. That evening I looked through the heater hoses but didn’t see anything loose or wet. The vacuum lines leading into the cockpit were not attached, a possible cause of my rough idle, so I reconnected the lines. I also noticed the water level was low. When I removed the radiator cap a significant rush of air pressure was released. Maybe the air bubble in the heater core escaped. Sure, why not. I topped off the water and drove to work again the next day. No startup issue occurred and no water was present under the car after its second trip to work. I assumed my starter issue was fixed, but it was still running a little rough. On the third day of driving to work I had one startup problem like before and the idle was significantly rougher. Sitting on the lights coming back from work I felt like I was driving a tractor, bouncing up and down when standing still. I know the 944/968 engines were not perfectly balanced and my motor mounts were shot, but this was a bit much.

When I got home I checked the water level, and it was low again with the familiar rush of air when the cap was removed.  I decided to pull the spark plugs. Cylinder 1,3 and 4 plugs looked normal but the cylinder 2 plug looked wrong. I put them back in with the goal of letting the car idle a couple minutes to see if I could smell or see a change immediately after running it. Maybe the plug was being fouled or no fuel was being delivered. I started the car up and let it idle. That’s when noticed a significant amount of steam coming out of the exhaust. It was a humid day bit this was much more than I would consider normal. I turned the car off and went straight to the cylinder 2 plug. I pulled it out and smelled what would seem like water burning. I looked inside the cylinder and saw water was rushing in. It didn’t stop until I relieved the pressure in the cooling system. My heart sunk. I’m 3 weeks from Rennsport and this happens. Cherry on top, I pulled the dipstick and the oil was a milkshake. The one saving grace was that I was only running water with water wetter. If I was running glycol coolant I would be risking all my bearings. Glycol can oxidize to form glycolic acid and other acids which attack soft metals used for bearings. At this point I had one decision to make. Should I try to make it to Rennsport or give up on my goal and fix this with no schedule rush? I chose not to give up no matter how difficult and time consuming it would be.

In 2 days’ time I had the cylinder head removed and all the milkshake out of the engine (took 15 quarts of oil, 2 cans of seafoam, and 5 gallons of diesel to accomplish). I plan on posting a detailed write up of this, but I have two primary takeaways. First, diesel does work to safely clean out the crankcase and oil does not. Second, it is much quicker and enjoyable to redo your own work than trying to decipher what someone else did.

So to the more exciting bit, what caused the water leak into the cylinder? There are really three main options in the 968: cracked head, cracked cylinder wall, or head gasket failure. Lucky for me, it was only the head gasket. But man what a head gasket it was. Complete swiss cheese. If only I knew this when I was replacing the cam chain I would have gone and replaced the head gasket before it failed and saved myself a lot of time.

Fast forward 2 weeks and 72 hours of work later, the engine was back together. It would have been easier if I didn’t have a full time job, but that just adds to the feeling of success in the end. Since I already had the cylinder head off I ended up performing considerably more work than I planned. I replaced the balance shaft seals, crank seal, engine mounts, fuel injectors, throttle body seals (a beast to remove when corroded in place like mine). I also cleaned most of the gunk off the engine block and almost every part I removed took a trip through the ultrasonic cleaner.

At this point I only had 3 full days until I had to leave for Rennsport. Not much time to do a good shakedown and get some miles on the car. Ideally I would do at least one long run to ensure I won’t get stranded on the way to Monterrey. The best I could do is three trips to work 10 miles each way, one of which I intentionally drove the wrong way to get a 60 mile drive in. On Wednesday night I should have only been packing and heading to sleep early, but instead I was finishing off installing the interior trim, radio, spoiler, and doing a final wash and wax. I just couldn’t turn myself off.

Thursday morning, after two hours of sleep, I woke up at 2 am as the plan was to meet at 3 am in Vista to caravan up the 1 to Rennsport. I got into the car and started it up. All seemed well as I back out of the garage. I turned my lights on and noticed my gauge cluster lights were not working. This is an issue I had when I purchased the car but since then I got them working without any trouble. Then I noticed smoke coming from the top of the gauge cluster. Great! I didn’t even make it out of the driveway and my trip seemed over. In a bit of a panic I pull the car into the garage to see if there was something I could do. As I was calling my friend to let him know I would be late if I came at all, I remembered the gauge cluster lights had their own fuse and maybe if I pulled it, I could at least drive without the need of a fire extinguisher in my other hand. The fuse was already blown. I touched the dimmer switch, which that fuse controls, and the switch was burning hot. The switch must have shorted out which was the cause of the smoke that traveled behind the dash and escaped out the gap between the gauge cluster and the dash. A feeling of relief went through my body. I could drive with the dome light on as it provided enough light to see the gauges.

To my surprise, the rest of my drive to Laguna Seca Raceway was uneventful. Since we left San Diego County at 3:30am, we missed the LA traffic, hitting some slight congestion in Santa Barbara. In good fashion, we broke away from the 101 and took the 1 in San Luis Obispo. Sadly, most of the 1 was blanketed with dense fog which obstructed the picturesque views. But still, no matter how I pushed on the twisties the car never showed any weakness, besides the 11 year old rubber of my tires not cooperating on the higher speed corners. The other distinct memory I have is the right side of my seat getting very warm from the center tunnel. Luckily the day was chilly and the warmth was not entirely unwelcome.

Arriving at Laguna Seca was a mixed bag of feelings. Happiness was fighting the sheer exhaustion of the trip, and yet I had the desire to keep driving. I had met my goal of driving the car up to Rennsport, and my mind was telling me “Now let’s go home.”.  I was at the mecca of Porsche Motorsports and yet I wanted to leave?!? I had no idea exhaustion could have such an effect on me. It was not until the next morning, after sleeping 11 hours, that the awesomeness of the event hit me. Walking up to the Corkscrew and through the pits I felt excited again, unlike the dazed feeling from the day before. Like seeing a Porsche at the LA Auto Show for the first time when I was 10, a big grin on my face and excitement in my heart.

Rennsport Reunion VI was an amazing event. The fantastic Laguna Seca track and amazing Porsche race cars that shaped racing history. The sounds and the smells are engraved in my mind. What journey it has been, and it’s only the start of the fun with Project 968.