DIY service and another engine tin (Jun 09)

This was a full weekend of graft with a couple of hours off to watch the British GP. The aim was to change the plugs, upper and lower valve cover gaskets, air filter and oil. I had also bought a new rear heat shield to replace the rusting old one. On a 964 this means removing most of the exhaust system and lots of engine covers. Here's the pile of stuff that I had to take off:

Also, when doing these jobs on the car I regularly find missing or corroded nuts and bolts. Until now I've purchased what I needed from the Porsche centre but when I was recently quoted £6 each for captive nuts to go on the cat heat shields, I decided enough was enough. A quick search on the web and ebay revealed lots of alternative, good quality nuts, bolts and clips from automotive suppliers. For the price of half a dozen Porsche captive nuts, I've now got this little lot:

When I fitted the new lower valve covers a few weeks ago, I found that a few of the studs came out of the heads because the nuts had siezed on them so replaced those as necessary this time:

Once the plugs and gaskets had been changed it was time to wrestle out the rear shield. Here's a pic of the old one once it was out:

Here's the new one ready to go in:

And after a few hours of persuasion, the new one finally secured in place: