The engine fired for the first time yesterday… whoohoo!
Unfortunately, while it runs very well, it also is good at spitting coolant out the exhaust, which is less than good. Big sad face.
The likely issue is that the engine overheated in the car it came from and damaged the head gaskets which will cause coolant to leak into the cylinders. This unfortunately means pulling the engine and taking the heads off. On a GT3 motor, only the heads are cooled, so hopefully I don’t need to tare it apart further than that, but I plan to do any sensible maintenance that I can while the motor is apart.
Although this is a big setback, I’m still pretty happy that I was able to get it running. All the wiring and setup was very complex and time consuming, so I’m pretty proud to have been able to accomplish it with zero prior experience. Now it’s on to the next learning-by-doing: rebuilding a GT3 motor.
Anyone wanna learn how to rebuild a Porsche GT3/Turbo engine with me?
Tim Trampedach's Blog 
Hi
Check your lube oil first. If no signs of water I have serious doubts.
Could be condensate and water from catalyser?
Good luck!
Hi Konrad,
Unfortunately, the color of the water that was spit out the exhaust is the color of my coolant. I’d seem some of it in at least one cylinder when I pulled the spark plugs and so I was fearing this would happen. I’m going to try to start it again today/tomorrow to see if it stops smoking at any point, but I doubt it.
I’m gonna need luck 🙂
Tim
Sorry to hear that…
If you’ ve seen the coolant on the plugs the all is clear.
Once you have to take the engine out you could consider a compressor kit. I recall having seen one with radial compressor that would leave the engine’s characteristics untouched besides the added power.
I don’t think it was Ruf but a similarly renowned tuner.
All the best from good old Europe!
Sorry for your bad luck!! Is the engine easy to remove from the Kit Car?
I do have a technical question in regards to the wiring you’ve done, if you can help me.
Thanks in advance!
Thanks, such is life. It’ll be a cool experience to learn how to rebuild most of a 996 GT3 engine though. It’s ok.
Regarding the wiring, let me know what you’re looking for. I’m no expert, but maybe I can help. Post here so that everyone can reference it in the future or shoot me an email to tim@timtt.com.