the Walnut Diary

8:00 a.m. Fired up Ruby for what may be her last drive for a while. It might as well be an enjoyable road, the trail to Landsdowne, the International Bridge, and Wellesley Island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River where the local Kinek parcel depot flourishes in the back of the Wellesley Island Building Supply.

8:35 a.m. U.S. customs agent took my passport and asked: “Where are you headed today, Wellesley Building Supply or Watertown? You don’t look as though you’re going far.” He was right. I was back through Canadian Customs inside 15 minutes.

8:40 a.m. The parcel with the aluminum coolant pies kit was in, as promised. It felt so light that I opened the box on the spot to make sure it wasn’t empty. All there: aluminum is light, I guess.

10:30 a.m. Home. Removed Ruby’s engine beauty panels and a motor mount. At that point I ran out of the things I’d had practise at doing. Then I realized I wasn’t sure about how to disable the fuel pumps. Read for a while, becoming more confused by the manual.

1:00 p.m. Decided upon the two-fuse method explained by Harkness on RennTech.org. Pulled 13 and 14 and Ruby (Harkness identifies 14 and 15 as the pump fuses but his is a newer model) obligingly refused to start. Released a small bit of fuel from the end of the fuel rails.

Removed the spark plug covers. Then the air handling stuff at the front of the engine. The car is well built, though Porsche plastics are a chore.

3:00 p.m. So far, so good. Ruby’s apart. I’m stuck at the removal of the fuel rail. Don’t know how injectors detach or come out. Must read. Going pretty well. One screw lost from rear right fuel rail. As predicted by Harkness. Apparently those screws are never seen again. I also broke the predicted pvc hose made of desicated fortune cookie dough, also predicted by Harkness. Electrical tape works well on it. The rest is pretty sensible, so far.

4:00 p.m. Back at it after sandwich. Decided to fasten rails back onto the manifold. Lost a second screw in a careless attempt at left rear corner.
Backed out the manifold screws without difficulty. Compared to changing 7 A/C servos from the floor in front of the driver’s seat, this stuff is a cinch!

4:45 p.m. Shifted the manifold forward and up. Peeked underneath… Nothing but gleaming ALUMINUM under there! Hooked up the scope, probed carefully below. Starter and solenoid connections show no evidence of corrosion. A small amount of grass seems to have blown in recently as if it has had one summer only in a leafy area. No evidence of nests and the gleaming aluminum coolant pipes suggest Ruby has had a pampered life in garages in downtown Vancouver before taking over Charlie’s shop at the farm.

5:00. Notify family and associates of bathetic end to the coolant pipes project. General bemusement.

Shall enlist son Charlie on the cleaning and re-assembly. A few years ago he spent a winter’s weekends resealing a 968 engine, and he did a great job on it. He’ll definitely want to have input tomorrow, as the engine in his ’04 Cayenne S is next in line, and the parts are already in stock.