Porsche Talk - Oil and Water dont mix....

Get it, everyone? Welcome back to Porsche Talk Radio Show. Again, it's been a minute, and

it's been a long time since Arzmal and I have had a catch-up. A lot's been happening in the

car world, a lot's been happening in the Porsche world, but even more has been happening in

Arzmal's world. So let's hear all about it, Arzmal. How are you going?

I was going to say I'm good, but I'm not good.

Are we going to talk about our own cars up front because of the

bun fight that yours is turning into? Would you want me to just tell you about?

Yeah, let's go, come on. Yeah, let's hear all about it.

Have I spoken to you since I've been on holiday? I haven't, have I? It's been a long time.

Yeah, so it went to France for two weeks, which was a thing in itself, had an amazing time.

Did you drive or did you fly or train? No, no. Sorry, I took the Eurostar for the first time

ever into Paris and then stayed there for a few days and then hired a car to go from there to

Normandy, which is a couple hundred kilometers. Sure. And its first time ever, the higher car

was electric. Oh, really? Okay. Well, let's talk about that after. Right, we'll come back

to the electric talk. Okay, so who are we trying to talk about?

Should we talk about the 996? That's the big one, right? Yeah, bigger than, yeah, okay, go.

Yeah, so I think I told you before I went away, I drove to Liverpool, which is a couple hundred

miles, drove there and back and on the way there, it heated up because I was stuck in

traffic. I felt like something had broken. Didn't you hit something? Yeah, that's right.

We talked about it in the last episode. I think it was the last time we got out. Yeah, and then

I got stuck in a lot of traffic and I've never let it overheat that much. Sure. It got quite hot,

but on the way home, 200 miles, it didn't miss a beat. Yeah, I've been using it

in and around everywhere. It was absolutely fine. In traffic, it did heat up a little bit,

but no problem with the oil, no problem with the coolant or anything like that. Then

I drove for a work meeting last week and it was maybe 150 miles there and back. I did that in

a day. Absolutely fine. The next day I got in and I thought, oh, the oil level is just a

little bit low, but I'd run out of oil. I went to the local shop, which is probably about two

miles away. They didn't have any, but on the way back, I gave it the beans. Just because the road

was clear, it'd been a while since I'd driven it properly and I got home. You know when you've

turned it off and you just look at your phone or whatever, and I just glance in the mirror

and I can see a bit of steam or smoke, I guess I thought. I got out. Vapor.

Some vapor product. Yeah, exactly. I opened the engine lid and initially you don't see anything

really. It was more, I think it was because it was dripping straight onto the hot exhaust

that it's coming from underneath. I could smell a little bit of coolant and then I just saw the

drivel near the coolant cap and I thought, oh, it's part of my French. I took my finger in it and

you've seen the Instagram post. It was Mayor Nazy Creamy. You know, you could cry about the

heart broken and I thought that's it. That's it. It's all over. It's going to the scrap heap.

Hold Jack straight away. He went, don't panic. Stop panicking. I wasn't a panic.

Calm down. He went, bring it over. I took it over to him, which was a half hour drive away.

Oh, okay. Yeah, sure. Nervous half an hour. I went for it. Yeah, so I went for it down the motorway.

I had the heater on hot just in case, even though it's like 25 degrees outside.

I had got there and he had a look and obviously he just had a visual inspection, right? So,

and he went, it looks like the oil's going into the coolant rather than both swapping,

mixing both sides. Yeah, okay. I saw he checked the oil and it doesn't look like this coolant in

there. It's sort of the other way around. Yeah. Yeah, okay. It's the other way around

and he's gone, that could be the oil coolers cracked. So, the engine doesn't need to come

apart, but I think for the oil cooler to come out, the engine does need to come out.

Sure. Sure. And so, he's still going to look at that. That's as far as I know,

because this has only happened the other day. It's the car with him right in night.

Cars with him now, yeah. So, what day is it? It's Monday today? Yeah, it's Monday.

And I dropped it off with him on Friday night. Yeah. So,

you want to have a chance to look at it? Yeah, sure. Sure. But it's the, so,

but then when you think about, okay, so it's what, yes, maybe six hours of labor,

if you take the engine out and put it back in. Sounds like a lot of speculation to me right now.

No, I know. But if you did that and then he said, look, it's most likely the oil cooler

will change it and put the engine back in. You're like, oh, well, what if it's not,

then it's got to come back out and go back in. So, and also,

you know, you're into that downward spiral, if the engine comes out, but while it's out.

Yeah, the wall you're in there. Yeah, the RMS, the clutch, the pasturing thing,

the timing chain guides, there's a ton of stuff. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah.

And the thing is, Jack, I mean, Jack's always really honest with me, and I really admire that

about him. And he said, but if you do all of those things, it will drive like a brand new car.

And it's been a bit shit recently. It's been a bit rubbish recently. It's just

not got that zip. And if the engine will have to come out, then all of those things

have to be done anyway. But I'm just worried about, because there's a test. There's a tester

thing that you can buy. I just looked at it on design 911, where you bolt the oil cooler down,

it pressure tests it. Okay. To make sure that it's not cracked. So that would,

you know, I'd like to think that'd be fairly definitive, but I don't know.

So I'm completely going with whatever he says, because so many people,

since I posted it on Instagram, have messaged me and said, oh, it's probably the

air oil separator. Sure. But I don't understand how it's so cool. Yeah, it's got nothing to do with

the coolant. So as much as everyone's saying that, I'm totally dismissing that it's not going to be

that straightforward. It didn't smoke either. It wasn't smoking. So and your level's gone

right down. And I think because the coolant is escaping up from the cap, and it's got like a

pressure relief release in it in the cap. So I'm suspecting that all of the oil's gone into the

coolant. So right now, you're using the oil to cool the 996 the same way you do in the 912?

Uh, no. No, because I'm not using any oil to lubricate the engine I'm using.

I said to cool it. I said to cool the engine. Exactly. So I'm at that stage where

my first thought was just shove it in the garage and leave it there. And then I thought,

oh my God, no, it will stay there forever. Yeah, that's right. I've never come out.

Yeah. Look, I think one of your obvious concerns is going to be am I overcapitalizing?

If I've got to do this problem right? But then you can end up with something's

worth nothing if you don't fix this problem, right? Well, the thing is, so as most of the

listeners, all of the listeners will know, I bought that car six years ago for

£6,500. £6,550. And it's a broken car. I could put it on eBay and I know I'd get that much money for it.

Sure. But did you see all the metalwork to it though? Yeah, metalwork. It's got all new suspension,

all new brakes. And so it's not worth anything to anybody else apart from its parts, but it's also

the crustiest 996 you'll ever see from the outside. Sure. But for me, it's let's go like worst case

scenario, it's an engine rebuild for £6,000. Is that all the cost you think to rebuild the

engine? I think Jack could do it for £6,000. I don't know. I'd be okay. I'm hoping.

This is cheap to me. But I don't know if it'll be a full rebuild. I don't think it'll be a full

engine rebuild because of the compression and everything's all right on the engine. It just

depends whether it's dropped to a bore or something. If it hasn't, then you would go,

well, it's the heads. There might be a cracked head. Sure. In which case, I'd have to come off,

set off somewhere, fixed, whatever it might be tested, and then back in the car. So if the

whole engine, the block doesn't need rebuilding, and it's the heads, then maybe, I might have

been optimistic, but maybe £6,000 could do it. And then you go, well, I can't get another

car for £6,000, which is what I'm getting. I can't imagine if this thing, if this thing's

at cost and you're 10, right? Yeah. But it sends too much. But if it costs you 10,

in the scheme of your car's ownership and the time that you've had it, if you break it down

to an annual cost of ownership, you've probably done okay because you're reluctant to ever service

the thing, which lets faces. Until recently, I'm talking about. Well, yeah, because of all the

stuff that I've done with the metalwork, the brakes, suspension, all of that stuff.

Yeah. Last year was quite expensive, probably £6,000. I think this year is going to be as

well, Ojmal. This year is going to be as well. And then you go, well, actually...

There's nothing left to go wrong with it after that, though.

Well, yeah, there's nothing. There isn't. And it would mean that I'm never selling it. If I get

this done, it means it's never being sold. It's never been got rid of. It's my car forever.

Or for a while. Until you financially feel like you've forgotten how much it costs to fix it

last time. Yes, exactly. Which is probably going to be what, the year?

Yeah, 12 months, yeah. So I'm at that stage and I never even got to post the pictures of

I clean the inside of it. But the... Yeah, so I'm... Well, we'll give you some time to hear.

Yeah, we're looking forward to hearing. Yes.

Hope, look, hope fingers crossed a little bit. Look, in the worst case scenario is you're going to have

to start researching records to find a 996 GT3 motor that's second hand somewhere in Europe to drop in.

Yeah, I don't know. I just... I think I'm not going to... I'm trying not to think about it until

I hear from Jack. I'm not going to need Googling or anything like that because

I'm not going to go to... Well, no, I'm not going to... You know, in terms of what might be wrong

with it, it's the moment I don't need to do that because it's with Jack, right? He's going to

give me a better response than any forum is going to give me. Of course he is, yeah, yeah.

So I'm not going to go there and say, oh, what about this? What about that? I'm just going

to go with whatever he says. Yeah, yeah. And then it's up to me just to make a decision.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so it's been a bit of a devastating, I guess, a few days.

Yes, it sounds like it. Let's talk about the 912 being in 1,000 paces.

Well, it's not the moment. So with that, and I know we've exchanged a few messages

over the last few weeks about adding extra cooling and stuff like that that I've talked to you about.

Because in a similar way that every time I've used the 912, I've used it recently in really hot weather,

so it's ended up heating up. And then obviously your oil pressure drops because the oil gets thinner

and then it starts hardling badly. I don't have those problems here.

Look, your idea of hot and my idea of hot are two different things, right?

So I'm telling you, we've got the same motors in our car. This whole, I reckon your oil cooler

is just all packed up full of shit. Or there could even be an oil leak in there and the fans just

completely plastered it with oil because the way that oil bolts into the case on that side,

that fan shroud, it could be a number. Yeah, there's all. But there's some of the issue,

I know what that is. It's because the tinware isn't all there and what is there isn't.

So I, you know. Yeah, I still can be. So I reckon there's something else going on here.

Well, I stepped the jack under it to try and fix the gap from the main tray

at the bottom of the engine and against the chassis and where the rubber seal is.

So I got that gap smaller. I just need to fettle it a bit more.

And I took it out for a drive for the first time with seat belts.

So I put the lap belts in. Yeah, yeah. I've got the 3.1s, but I just put the lap belts in.

So if you do hit someone from the front of the car, you won't get launched out of the wind

screen. You just smack your head on the steering wheel. Yeah, got it. Yeah, okay.

Exactly. Exactly. I mean, the alternative was what the 3.1 and if I had an accident,

I would be crippled. Yes, that's correct. Yes, yes. Yeah. So when I went out,

the weather was about 1920 degrees. Perfect weather for an air-cooled car.

Oh, thank you. And it drove. I drove pretty well. I went out for about 35 to 40 minutes

as a constant driving. It drove brilliantly. I got back, got out, left it idling. It was

sat there idling perfectly. So it is a cooling thing. But since that day, which was probably about

seven days ago, it's been raining every day. So we've gone from two months of zero rain and

all the vegetation has died. So it's just non-slop rain.

It's not bad. It's like, we're a good 10 or 12 minutes in before we started on Porsche Weather Channel.

No, I know. Well, so much other stuff's happened. So I have done a couple of other things. Obviously,

I've done the seat belts. Why did you have your door cards off?

Well, I took one of them, the passenger side one off because I wanted to fit a door mirror

on the passenger side. So I got those Durant mirrors, is it? Yeah, I know the ones.

So I fitted one on the driver's side, which was that holes are already there and I fitted it. It's

in the wrong spot. It's by the quarter light. So I can still see. Yes. But then on the passenger

side, obviously you fit it again by the quarter light. Because that's the position where you

could see the mirror. But the problem is the Durant mirror, I can't angle it so I can see

anything. But when you install it, you've actually got a space to change the angle of it.

No, you can't, but I can't change the angle enough to see anything. When you drill the holes

in the body to install the mirror or into the door, you suppose it's not symmetrical to the other

side. If you actually have a look at, if you look at G-body cars, the mirrors aren't,

they're like. No, no, they're not. Because there's so much further down the door on the driver's side

towards the front edge. But mine isn't on the driver's side, but on the passenger side where it

sits. So I taped it up there to hold it so I could see if I could, because it didn't look

like it was very flexible that it angled very far. And I couldn't angle it where I could see

anything out of it. So I did look up and there is something, I think, you know the

rose passion or something like that. I can't remember what it's called. I thought that was a

German cell. I don't know. I think I don't. I can't remember. I can't remember which

one I looked at, but they have a little modified little heart, that mirror that you can buy.

That makes it so you can adjust it. The problem with that is it's about 60 or 70

pounds for that tiny little part. The actual mirror, it costs 50 pounds for two.

So they're obviously not genuine Durant mirrors then. They're obviously three knockoff Durant

mirrors. No. Well, I bought them off eBay. They're in the Durant. Oh, okay. They were

new old stuff. Yeah, I know. So, but the fact that they don't, I can't get its angle means

they probably are knockoff. It just happens to be the genuine box. No, look, my car came with

a one Durant mirror, my 356 when I bought it. And it was too modern. That suits, mine's a B,

mine's a 356B. They tended to be fitted on Cs and 912s that Durants did. So

I've fitted, I replaced it with the Aero style mirror, which is on the 356A's and B's pretty much,

right? So when I did that, I thought I'd put one on the passenger side as well. Yeah,

that was a mistake. I didn't put that in the right place. I've got the exact same

problem as you do. So mine is just, mine is a, an aesthetic tool rather, rather,

sorry, an aesthetic art piece rather than a functional tool. And I've got to get that

rust fixed in that door. And when I do, I'm going to get its holes welded up and I'll get the

mirror completely re-done at the same time, you know? Okay. So that's why I had the door

card off, but also I wanted to fit better door speakers because the ones before,

I kind of mangled them. They had these really old speakers that didn't really work.

And I just stuck like a Pioneer speaker inside it or a Kenwood speaker inside it.

And it looked awful, but they sounded okay. So I got some more speakers and I thought,

am I going to have to cut the door to make these fit? But when I took the door panel off, the hole in

the door, the factory hole in the door is a really good size for that speaker. Oh, perfect.

I just had to adjust the door card and stuff like that. So that, those are in and it's really

neamed it up and there were bits of trim coming off. So I looked that out, put the seatbelts

on, it drove really well. I feel like you're, you've just gone straight past one of the

most important discoveries of your car when you took the door card off.

Oh, what, the color? Yes.

Sand beige or sandy beige or whatever it's called, the color. I always knew it was that color.

Oh, okay.

I got the, the certificate. Yeah. Great.

But when you look at that color, it is a great color, but I want it to be that color. I

don't know. It's just, it's so North African. It's so like cruising the streets of Morocco

when you're nine, 12, isn't it? It is. It is. And that's all I think of in a white,

kind of, you know, linen suit. No, yeah. They're so you with Panama.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm telling you, it was perfect.

So I did, I did look at it and think, Oh, I wonder what it looked like. I mean,

it would look better with steel wheels then and hookups and that color.

Absolutely. So the reason that I've kind of started doing this stuff obviously is

next week is Goodwood revival. Oh, nice one.

Well, more importantly, you decided what to wear.

No, I haven't. Cause I was talking to PJ. So PJ, yeah, yeah.

Classics of the clubhouse. And he said it's kind of a more of a,

cause I was thinking I'll go in a Shantai and a double breasted ring velvet jacket.

Lovely. Yeah.

And then he said, no, it's, it's more of a hippie vibe.

Oh, okay. This year. So I don't know.

And I'm a little bit terrified of the drive down there. It's 90 minutes.

And it's, there's going to be queues to get in.

Yeah. So you're going to be at idle for a long time, right?

Yeah. Which is why I was thinking, well, why is there some other?

If it'll come back to idle, you'll be at idle for a long time.

And then I was like, well, there's, why is there some way of cooling it?

And there isn't, is there, apart from an external oil cooler,

like a supplementary oil cooler?

Because there isn't none of the fan that you could put on.

You couldn't put a fan on the deck lid to pump the air out, could you?

That wouldn't work anyway. Cause the heat's below the mid tinware.

The heat is in the engine kebab and the heat's below the engine kebab.

And there's also the, you know, the vents that are under the car.

There's flaps against the fins.

They're just meant to be open, right?

Well that dictates whether the air's going into your cabin or out the back, the heat, you know?

Yeah. So if you close those, it goes into the cabin, right?

Yeah, that's right. But don't confuse this with what you think you need to do with

a water-cooled car, okay? It will make zero difference.

No. And now I'm thinking, so you know the link I sent you to, and I should share it for the listeners,

of the secondary oil cooler that someone had fitted?

That was, that was a horrible looking setup.

That was horrible, it was horrible, didn't it?

Yeah, it was terrible.

Yeah, it was basically all that space that tinware takes up. It looked terrible.

I think I've seen you throw a link on the, where you can fit the oil pump.

I pass, just get one of those, get next to it. Honestly, it's cheap. It's cheap to do this whole thing.

Is that where you can fit a remote oil filter as well?

Yeah, 100%. So get an oil filter, and the oil filter will be a spin-on style,

you know, like the one you should know, which you can also get with an integrated thermostat

and then also run your cooler. So once it gets to temp, it will start diverting the oil through the cooler.

Right, so it doesn't instantly run it through the cooler. It's only diverted through the cooler

when it gets to temperature.

Yeah, once it gets to temperature, that's what you want, right?

Because you need, if you oil's too cold, that's a problem too.

Yeah, it'll always run cold, won't it? Yeah.

And then, and then if I wanted to drive it in mega-hot, then I could put a fan on that cooler.

What? I've never needed one, and you are never going anywhere in your car where it's hotter than

where I drive.

Where's your, so you've got, so you've got extra cooler?

I don't, I don't need it, because you don't need it either. You're obsessed with this idea,

right?

So how far do you drive in the summer, you know, when it's hotter than the sun in Perth?

Okay, when I drove down to Lake Grace, which is 400km each way, right? So that was an 800,

910km day or whatever it was, right?

Stop, start with just a highway.

No, highway, right? So I stopped for lunch and stuff like that, or a snack on the way.

When I was coming on the way home, the last two and a half hours were between 35 and 38 degrees

Celsius, right? And I'm running at 3,500 rpm, you know, say 70 miles an hour, 75 miles an hour type

thing. So, but I'm telling you, I reckon you had a problem with your oil cooler. I bet your oil

cooler is still the original steel one that's in there. Whenever people rebuild these motors,

they put the aluminium one on, one because it's lighter, so it's less stress on the motor,

and two, it's actually more efficient because it's larger, it cools more oil, right? And it sits

inside the fan shroud, so you've got to take the fan shroud off too. I bet, I guarantee, you know,

it's probably got some Mars Bar wrapped half around a niche problem. It's been sucked in,

you know what I mean?

Isn't it a real pain to take the shroud off?

It's brutal with the engine in.

Brutal, even more brutal.

But you can't do that now. It's like a week to go.

I just want four bolts to hold the engine on.

Oh, you're saying I should drop the engine?

You're going to stay in here to jack.

I know, but if I drop the engine and the driveshaft has to come off,

the, and my exhaust is a mess.

That comes with it.

I need to change that.

That comes with it.

I know, but I need to change the exhaust because if I drop the, if I drop the engine,

I don't think I'll be able to do it. I'd have to take a couple of days off.

I don't think I'll be able to do it.

Firstly, if you haven't dropped it out, it's the easiest engine you're ever going to drop out.

That's the first thing.

True, true.

Okay.

Because it can come out from underneath the car.

That's the first thing, right?

That's, you know, that in itself makes things a lot easier.

Once you've got it down on the ground or on the jack,

you just put it on a pallet and you work on it down there sitting on a stool.

You know, it's this, or even a furniture dolly, you know, the timber furniture dolly

you get from the hardware store, the four wheel things.

You can just drop things straight onto that and just wheel it around your garage top.

Anyway, look, all I'm saying is I reckon you've got a problem with the overcooler.

I can't just take the,

throw it off.

Alternate something off and just vacuum it out in there.

You know what?

That would probably help.

What would be worth doing is taking off the alternator and taking the fan out with it

and getting your phone in there and having a look through the camera.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a whole job that I know, don't I?

And that's what's causing it.

We know where that air goes from that shroud.

It goes down over the heads, right?

Right, just leave it in there and just get the jet wash and just give it a hammer.

Ball is still in there.

That is true.

I could probably do that.

The high-pressure hose.

Anyway.

I'm loath to take it apart before I go somewhere.

When it works, but it's just the fact that it runs hot.

It's probably going to be raining on the day anyway and I'll be able to take it anyway.

Okay.

Is that the end of the Azmar Khan news?

He thinks so.

Because I said to Jack, when I was about to leave and I went, well, if it's dead,

I don't get it fixed.

What should I buy next?

At least a bit of golf.

Just so you take it somewhere else to get fixed, not him.

That's why I said that, wasn't it?

If that engine has to come out, he will curse me forever

because every nut and bolt is going to break.

Yeah, of course it will.

Every nut and bolt is going to break because it was by the sea, that car, before I got it.

He's used to that.

That is my news.

Yeah, okay.

He's used to that.

What about you?

What have you been up to?

Okay.

I've got Khan news.

I'm going to save the biggest for the last bit.

Okay.

Firstly, I sent you a photo.

I fitted the third brake light inside the grille.

Did you see that?

On the...

Oh!

So it's quite subtle.

You can't see it unless it's on.

Yeah, yeah.

So they fit in there quite nicely.

I made a couple of brackets that use the factory luggage mount points on the rear thing.

They're inside the grille there.

Yep.

So that'll work out pretty well.

Because I had to modify the brake light circuit in that car when I first got it,

because it was a California car.

So it just turns on and had red tail light, brake light indicator, all of my thing, right?

So I had to switch it all around to be orange indicator, red tail light, secondary brake light.

Okay.

So I've had to fix all that in the past anyway.

So I was relatively in a phase to where I was going with it all.

And look, it's a relatively subtle install.

If you look hard, you'll see it, but you'd have to really look hard to see it.

So yeah, I'm pretty pleased with how that's turned out.

The new starter motor, the high torque twin step starter motor I installed in the car.

Game changer.

It is unbelievable.

Right.

Oh!

How it has transformed the car.

Every time you start before, it was like, is it going to do it?

You know, that moment of, is my car actually going to start?

Yeah.

Because you know, it's drawing about a zillion amps because of how hard it is to crank over that old

starter motor.

And this thing just goes, and off it goes, you know what I mean?

And it draws like about a third of the current of the old one.

Because mine still works.

Okay.

The start starts up.

Okay.

The engine spins around quite well.

I still have like a fueling problem.

The fuel doesn't get through quick enough.

Yeah.

So that's good news.

It looks does that.

So it's super reliable.

Unbelievable.

Now I want to talk spark plugs.

Now to get to this conversation, I've got to go back to the Porsche Weather Channel.

Okay.

We've had the, we've had the wettest winter in over 50 years officially here in Perth.

Right.

If I use the term, it has pissed down, I am underselling it, right?

It has been torrential, our weather.

But you'll, look, don't get me wrong.

Grape for the water supply comes summer, right?

That side of things will be good.

And everything's very green, which means all the weeds are growing around the place.

So I'm having to spend a lot of time on the lawns at the moment,

trying to stay on top of that.

But what it has meant is my car has been in storage quite some time now.

And every time, oh, actually I say every time for the last,

since I last changed my spark plugs.

Yep.

I'm getting plug fouling.

The car's been sitting for more than about two weeks.

Right.

So running rich, running rich.

No, it's a plug.

So it doesn't activate.

So I'm running on three cylinders.

I've run on two cylinders until the plug clears itself, basically, right?

And it just shits me because it's also partly because I don't believe the,

whilst the storage people say they are starting and running my car at temperature,

I've had specifically asked them to drive around the block to make sure it all clears

out at once a week.

Yeah, because if it's, they're just idling it, then it will, it will.

The car doesn't run that rich.

So that side of things should be fine, right?

The carbs are well, I've spent a lot of energy in those carbs and they're pretty good at the moment,

right?

But yeah, those plugs that are in there just shit me.

So I thought back, when do I, when did I, why didn't I have problems with this in the past?

And it's because I had iridium plugs, which are six times the price of a normal

copper spark plug or Yittrium or whatever it is at Bosch call their spark plug course.

And the iridium's got a really fine electrode compared to the conventional ones.

Anyway, when I had the iridiums in the past, I had Bosch iridiums in the past,

but they've stopped manufacturing in that, in the size for our cars.

So that's why I put normal ones in because I couldn't source any, but

I went sniffing pretty hard because I thought I want iridium plugs again.

And today I had a set of NGK iridium plugs turn up.

So hopefully that's going to solve that problem.

I didn't have time to start this evening to fit the plugs.

I'll do that probably this weekend because I need to install another join in my wrist.

I need to sort of to be able to get into that number one spark plug behind the manifold for the

carburetors. If you think it's hard in your car, you should try it to 356 where it's,

you know, your engine being put in a space where there's room for another two cylinders, not mine.

Yeah, it's just, I mean, I've never experienced it.

It's brutal.

It plugs so difficult, whereas I've only ever had front engine cars.

Yeah, yeah. Like an S-Sport, it takes five minutes.

Yeah, or, you know, I've had Golfs, I've had a Schrocco, I've had an MGB.

They just, you know, I mean, the MGB is like you could climb into the engine bay and stand next to

the engine a little bit.

Yeah, so it's a space.

Yeah, but so it's a, yeah, it's a challenge of a job, especially

when you're installing the plug because you don't want to cross thread it obviously.

So you're trying to feed it through the tinware, which is coincidentally almost a spark plug width

away from the head. So that if you drop it, it's jammed in there, the spark plug, and you've got

to sort of go fish it in there and you can't get it on top of it because it's not big enough to

get your hand in if you do drop the plug in there. Right. So the, I do have.

So how many job becomes a three day job?

I do have the, there's like a rubber hose, I think NGK make it that you sort of,

you push onto the end and it's like a piece of rubber tube that you can sort of use that to bend

and turn it and it sort of, but it just doesn't fit on that well. Right. So anyway, that job's

just, I mean, no, hang on. Have you, it's your, it's your plug socket? Got the rubber ring?

Yeah, but like all plug sockets, it's never quite, like it's

four out of eight or the ring comes out.

Yeah, yeah. And so the ring's still down on the spark plugs, they're going to pull the plug out of you.

The, I have, I reckon I've super glued it in there about four times that rubber ring, but yeah,

anyway, the, yeah, so that's the 356 status at the moment.

We are in a break of the weather, which is quite nice for the last couple of days.

This, this, this thunder and lightning right now.

Is that right? Yeah.

Big news since we last spoke, I sold the GA Eris.

Oh, wow. I didn't even know you were selling it.

Oh, look, it was a, I needed a more practical vehicle for my day to day than what the

Eris was like, and I was putting junk K's on it and the market softening on the car as well.

So I thought, you know, if I'm going to do it, if I keep another 12 months,

I'm probably going to rip 10 grand to in its value in those 12 months.

Just putting miles on, yeah.

And that's all I'm doing on it because I, with my work situation and weekend situation

and home life, I'm just not getting to the track like I'd hoped.

So the, I figured I'm better off getting out of it whilst I've, I've still got

some good capital to get out of it, if you know what I mean.

The, and to be more practical, you've got yourself a Boxler instead.

No, no, you'd love this. In the past, I've owned a lot of Volkswagen Vans,

so I've bought another one because I've missed them.

A van? What a transporter.

No, I have had transporters in the past. I've gone luxury this time. I don't have a multi-van.

What? So it's got, you know, it's got the, you know, the seats in the back that you

can put in and take out and that sort of stuff. So I'm going to just sit up as a four-seater

and I'll put a rubber floor in the back so I can chuck bikes and parts and building supplies

and tools and stuff in the back without, which I was trying to do in the Yaris to be perfectly

honest based on, you know, so, and it's easy with a dog in there down the beach compared to

the Yaris's interior with all that, you know, faux leather and Alcantara right sort of stuff.

It was just, yeah, this is a much more practical solution for my day-to-day car.

Oh, okay. So that's fairly significant news.

Yeah, yeah, I thought you'd like it.

Well, I mean, I'm not, I'm not sure I like it. I like it's a bit strong getting a van.

I did pretty well out of selling the Yaris. So I had it for that, that second Yaris I had for

14 months and just buy in versus sell out, not running costs or mods or anything on the way

through. It cost me just over $2,000 Australian. That's not bad. Yeah, I thought so too.

It's not bad, isn't it? Yeah, especially like you say with the market changing.

Yeah, and it was a local mature enthusiast that bought the car. So I gave him all the stock stuff

as well that I had because of what I'm going to leave in the garage for 10 years and

Oh, yeah, yeah, you could put it on the verge for later.

I bought the van from a reputable car dealership.

And that process dealt with a very senior car salesman. Only job he's ever had in his 60s,

right? And look, he was quite good to deal with.

Look, there's problems on the van they don't want to fix, and they're all pain in the ass things.

Like two days after I pick it up, the screen has a reverse camera in the infotainment, black.

Oh, yeah, so it's disappointing, right? But it's still the car place it works because

all the phones still connects in here and I can listen to the radio, I just don't

have a screen to look at it to do anything on, you know what I mean? So there's that.

There's a couple like the driving daylight daytime running light, which sounds very minimal,

right? One of the globes is blown. However, on that van to get to it, it's on the right

hand side, the driver side in Australia, you need to remove the air box.

Right, so for a dealer to do it, it's two hours labor to replace a bulb.

And to make things worse, because it's a VW and you remember this, if you've got a blown globe,

you've got the blown globe icon on your dash the whole time looking at your driver.

I don't even care if the daytime running lights are working. It's the fact I can see it on a dash

that's absolutely shitting me to tears, right? So that's another job for this weekend. I'm going to

pull a thing apart and replace that bulb. Oh, God, that's a real thing. I do have a new head unit

coming from our friends that I are doing who supplied me the head unit for the GA RS. Oh,

nice. Yeah, so they're sending something through to me. So that'll fix that problem,

at least so. And it'll have a modern head unit because it's still got plug-in

carplay because it's a 2017 model car, you know. But look, dealing with a guy I dealt with was quite

good. Let's talk other cars. Yeah. Since we last spoke, possibly the biggest week of cars in the

world was on the one in Ray Peninsula for Car Week with the Quayle, Pebble Quayle, and that's

where all new cars are now launched for exotics and premium brands, right? That's the new Geneva

Motor Show pretty much. They all seem to go there. Do you know what? I haven't seen too much of it.

I've only heard, obviously, everyone's going on about the ST and stuff like that.

That new S1 McLaren thing, you know, the F1 made by modernisation thing,

and there's just a lot of stupid money cars there, which aren't really in the world that you

and I live in. A lot of them, yeah. So I've not really been that interested in a lot of the

stuff that's come out. I've won two cars that actually tickled my fancy. One is the

Gunther Works slant nose. I don't know if you've saw that thing.

I've seen it, but I haven't read too much about anything other than the way it looks.

They've got an air-cooled turbocharged engine in it that puts out a thousand horsepower at the

wheels. A thousand horsepower. Out of an air-cooled turbocharged engine. That's like

Le Mans car from the 70s. No, Le Mans, what was the other category? The Cayenne M cars from the

70s and 80s? Yeah. See, you know, when you go, that is one of the really expensive,

crazy money cars. Yeah. I mean, you just think, who's going to buy that?

Who's going to drive it? Yeah, exactly. Is it literally just going to sit somewhere?

I will say this. I'm surprised at how often singer cars get driven and how expensive they are.

Like they are expensive cars, right? Anywhere in the world, no one's buying a new singer for less

than a million dollars US anymore. They don't exist, right? Of course, you're more in the

middle to get into a seat. Yeah. And by the time you add your personalization options on,

it's probably one and a half for all I know. It's a throwaway number, right? By the time you land

that car on-shore, back home, wherever you live in the world, you've got all your taxes and

everything you're going to have to pay on the thing. It's a heavy, heavy-coin car, right?

By any metric. But you don't lose money, though, do you? You don't lose money on that.

No. If you sell exactly that, you're probably more.

No, that's right. You probably do because for people who don't want to wait the three-year waiting

list or whatever, don't forget one of those cars these days. But I think there's like three or

four of them now in Australia. I've physically seen two of them on the street. They just get

used. And on social media, there's always... I wouldn't go two or three days without someone

having a phone shot of it driving down the street or park at the side, get a pizza thing.

I saw one with a dog on the passenger seat at the beach. You know what I mean?

What? You say who drives these cars. These cars are actually getting driven, the ones I've seen.

Yeah, but is it all photo opportunities for Instagram?

Hey, it might be, but the cars aren't getting towed there for it.

Yeah, true. True. So they're doing something with them?

Yeah. I just think, I mean, is it... You've got to have crazy money, right? To buy those. You're

not going to finance yourself to the hilt. It's not your only car.

Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be your... 11th.

11th. Yeah, 11th option car that you take out for five minutes.

Changefully.

And I think... Yeah, because you know me, I've been looking at things that I could

buy that would possibly replace the 996, not anymore.

We're not going to talk, I said, Martin, are we?

Oh, no, you just reminded me now because of the look that I set you. So what was it?

An Aston Martin Vantage, what, 2006 or something? And it was $14,500. It looked east, didn't it?

Hey, they can make me look good in a photo. And that's saying something.

Yeah, it's such a good-looking car and that much money, but obviously anything. Anytime

you go near a garage, I get it. It's like thousands of pounds. The running costs are huge. The

miles per gallon. I know you shouldn't worry about that when you buy a car like that.

It's something like 12 miles per gallon on a good day. And a road tax over here is hundreds

of pounds a year. So that's before it's moved. And the first time you have to have it serviced,

something goes wrong. That's where it's all made up of Ford and Volvo parts back then.

So anything that goes wrong, the good thing is you could probably just put in part number

and instead of going to Aston Martin and spending a thousand pounds on a

pastering pump, you could probably get it for like $150,000. Or off on one day or something like that.

So your logic here is how in my head, I justify one day owning a Bentley GT.

You're Aston Martin, I'm Bentley GT. It's the same thing. It's only going to cost me

$40,000 for one of those things. That's a bargain for that. But I know as soon as you

fart in the thing without the pollen filter, you're in trouble.

Yeah. And the Bentley's works because over here, that Aston Martin is a bit lower than

the general market for that car. Generally, they're about £20,000. But that one was 14.5.

Sure. It might have been a category N. Whereas the Bentley is going at that like £15,000.

That's the general price of it and super luxurious, but it's hand built. And the tiniest thing that goes

wrong with it, you have to dismantle the whole car to get to it. So I've resisted that. So then

you look at the other end and you start going, well actually a 991 manual is still attainable

for under £40,000. And not a terrible one, a good one. They are so expensive here still,

Ashmo. Yeah. When you send me through links occasionally on 991s, I look at it and just

shake my head because I think they'll look the other day, the cheapest, like a 2013 991.1 manual,

base, base, base. In silver. So the least desirable. It's not even a good car.

Yeah, the version of the car. Black interior. And needed a new rubber. All the rubber was

shot on it. It was still like the equivalent of £70,000. I have 991s are so dear still.

Why is that? Because I've been looking at them and I'm thinking, how far are they going to drop?

How far is that car going to drop? Because after they get to a certain price point,

obviously people start neglecting them, right? Which is what happens.

Are they right now? That's where they're at now in the UK, right?

Yeah. So if you go, if I buy it now, because if you buy one with 70 or 80,000 miles on it,

it's been used. So it's been serviced. It's been looked after. It's still in good

condition and you could keep that car. You could put another $70,000, $80,000, $90,000.

So ours have never got that many Ks. They've never driven as long as hard as your cars are

over there, I don't reckon. Like every time I see them, they're always like 40,000 kilometers,

50,000 kilometers, you know? See over here. They're just weekend cars. They're not only

cars. See, for me, the problem also is, when I get into my 996.

When it works. It feels like you're getting into something different. Whereas I've been told,

don't quote me. It might have been Tina that told me this. She said, it doesn't feel special,

because when you're just pootling around the local villages, you might all be driving a golf,

because that's what they like. They're super easy to drive, super comfortable.

It's only when you're driving them aggressively that that's where the fun comes in.

But I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, because then-

I've driven 991s, right? And I know they're easier to drive than 997s. However, they are still an

occasion. You've got the noise, right? And the noise is part of the occasion. You don't

get the noise in the golf unless you've bought one which has got boy racer decals and an

Instagram hashtag on the side. You know what I mean? So that part of it, and you are still in a

premium product, like getting a 2012 Aston and a 2012 991 and you tell me whether or not you can

notice the difference in quality. They'll be chalk and tubes, right? But anyway, we've discussed

Yeah. So when I think about, if it was the end with the 996, and obviously I'm completely broke

at the moment, I wouldn't just be able to go out and buy another car. What would I think about?

And if you go, and you know what? When we talked about, we talked about, he was saying, just

you know what? Keep the 996 and the 912. Because I was thinking of changing the 912 for a 993.

Yeah. And then you get too close together. The experience is too small.

And he was like, you know, I think I've said this before, his view and I did like it. You

kind of cleared it up for me. He said, you'd be buying a car that's not as special as your

912 as an occasion getting in and driving it. But okay, you can go, it's more practical,

but it's just a slightly crappier version of your 996 in every single way of driving it.

And he went, you know, the 996 is better on the motorway, better performance, better reliability,

the air conditioning looks better, it's more comfortable. But it's not different enough

to go, I don't want that as well. So I kind of got that. And then I started looking at 997s

because they're fairly cheap over here. You can get one for under 20 grand.

That's your answer.

But look, I think to me, 997s, especially point twos, right?

They're more special to me than 991s.

Yeah, because unless you're getting into some of the exotic 991s like 911Rs or

GD3RSs and stuff like that. But if you're talking normal run of the build stuff,

the 997 is still small enough because it's big size difference between those two cars.

I mean, I'll notice it bigger than my 996 quite a bit because mine's a narrow body 996,

not 4S or anything. Yeah, but if you got a narrow body 997, it's an identical size car.

I think it's a little bit bigger, isn't it? I don't think so.

Because the 997, there's a lot of dot ones around, but obviously they've got kind of

shock engines, haven't they? So, you know, unless it's been rebuilt by somebody with

the hardened liners and stuff like that, you're looking at, it's going to happen at some point.

There's a few that I've seen for sale. You're paying up front or you're paying later?

Yeah, exactly. So, some of them, I mean, I've thought about, because some of them I've seen with

they've got their knocking that started from the boss scoring. Yeah. So, you're buying it,

knowing you're going to get a rebuild and you go, you know what, could I do something with

that? Knowing there are no jack. But then you have to, the price point is a little bit too high

to even make it. So, you'd have to go, no, I need it to be cheaper, which you probably do, but

I just haven't done anything about it because before I didn't even think I'd be getting rid

of my 996 ever and now I'm thinking, well, if I get it fixed, then I'm never getting rid of it

because it just won't be worth it. Yeah, yeah. I'm just checking the body dimension sizes between the

996 and the 997. What is it? What's the, I reckon they're about the same. So, I've said yeah,

I reckon they're the same. Yeah, it's exactly the same. On, if with narrow body

bike cars, they're exactly the same, to the millimetre.

Yeah. But you're going to a 991 and you're dealing whole kettle of fish, new kettle of fish there.

Is it the, the, the narrow body, is it that big?

In the 991? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're longer. They're 60 millimetres longer, so a couple of inches longer.

Where's the body width? Body width.

Yeah, so, yeah, body width.

This is great, right? Yeah, it's just, you don't, you know, they're kind of, they're kind of

tempting and I've, and also, you know, we, the, the, the narrow body 991,

you know, the early 991s are the same width as the wide body 997s, 996s.

Right. Does that make sense? Yeah.

But anyway, I actually think at the, right now, I think 997 is a good buying car, if you're in the market.

It is, I mean, they are.

Because it was a big step up in interior feel compared to 996.

Oh, yeah, because the 996 is the interiors from the 80s.

No, no, the 993's the interiors from the 80s.

The, actually, I'll take this back. The 993 is an 80s Porsche interior.

The 996 is 80s Volkswagen interior or Audi interior.

I don't know. I mean, when I first got into my 996, I just thought this is pure mid 80s interior,

German interior.

You can never have enough red LEDs, displays, right?

They're orange. Oh, they're orange, sorry.

Oh, red. I think red because of the LEDs.

But you know what, what happened recently? I cleaned it.

I cleaned the interior. I took all of that, you know, all of the perished

sound deadening that was coming through the vents.

Yes, yes.

So I sat there with the vent, the fan on four blasts.

And you can just quarter it all, did you?

To pull out.

It all of it blew out and then I went around vacuumed the car, cleaned everything up.

And I was driving, the first drive I went, I was on the motorway and I came to

Chainslain's and a lorry driver, let me cut in.

So I went to the hazard lights on to say thanks.

Button cracked and three pieces of it fell out.

Oh, come on.

So I need to, I need to, I need to give it some love in terms of it's clean.

It's obviously always serviced and stuff.

So if it does come back and it's had all of those things done

and it drives like a new car, then I'll have to give it

some of the love as well in terms of paint work and whatnot.

But I want every money, every gig.

Yeah, until the next time.

Exactly, exactly.

Well, let's call it.

It's been good to have a catch up.

Let's not leave it as long until the next one.

Yes.

Yes, definitely.

Listeners, we hope you're listening from behind the wheel.

I'm Mark and Kaz, cross-mode social media,

Ajmal is a flat-cap driver.

We love hearing from you.

I know you don't hear from us often enough.

So please send us any ideas, any comments, anything at all you want to send to us.

And Ajmal, see you in the next one.

See you in the next one.

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Porsche 911

MG MGB

Porsche 356

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Porsche Cayenne

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