Mikelly

GT2 Front Bumper and Aero conversion DIY By Mike Kelly March 25,2011 First, I must thank Hawk(Erik) for his help in getting some of the hard parts early on, and my boys atSuncoast (Ryan in particular) for helping me with endless questions, andproviding parts at the right price when I needed them. I couldn't have donethis without their help. Pay very close attentionto the Red Text here and at the bottom of this “story”. The below is a list of theparts I ended up BUYING: The numbers for theseparts were: 996-505-311-30-G2XBumper Cover 996-505-563-30-01CAir Inlet 996-505-564-30-01CAir Inlet 996-505-561-30-01CAir Inlet 996-575-326-30Bumper frame (front diffuser) 996-575-325-30Bumper Air Duct 996-505-741-30-01CBumper HID 996-505-742-30-01CBumper HID The other hardware tosimply turn the radiator upside down and mount everything so it lines up is asfollows: 996-505-773-32Spacer Panel (x2) 996-505-531-30Retaining 996-575-321-30Air Routing 996-575-322-30Air Routing 996-504-195-30Radiator Bracket (Upper) 996-504-679-31Spacer Sleeve (x2) 996-504-413-30Radiator Bracket (Lower) 996-575-141-30Cooling Air Duct 996-504-123-90Inner fender liner 996-504-124-90inner Fender Liner There are about 20 partnumbers related to water lines required in order to do this swap to OEMstandards: 996-106-422-75Hose return 996-106-740-91Hose 996-106-641-75Hose 996-106-136-91Breather Hose 996-106-127-53Vent Line 996-106-615-54Water Tube 996-106-623-53Hose 996-106-627-52Hose 996-106-611-53Hose 996-106-615-54Water Tube 996-106-627-52Hose 996-106-624-53Hose Return 996-106-652-54Water Tube 996-106-651-54Water Tube 996-106-127-53Vent Line 996-106-546-54 YPipe 996-106-126-54Vent Line ® 996-106-225-54Vent Line (L) 996-106-621-75Center Radiator Hose ® 996-106-625-75Center Radiator Hose (L) Here is what the pile of“waterline” parts looked like in the floor of my reading room: So as has been reportedelsewhere, I bought a bumper and associated parts from another member in latesummer 2010. I sat on the project until I could get enough technicalinformation on the project from aerodynamic, cooling, fit and finish, as wellas functionality standpoints. What I wanted to achieve was the best overall OEM“like” install I could. I didn’t want to use worm clamps and spliced waterlines if I could help it, didn’t want to relocate the horns, as others havedone, and I didn’t want to have mis-matched parts that would look “wrong”. I thinkI got it right… Read on. The biggest problem fromthe outset was finding a water line schematic for routing the $600 worth ofwater lines I bought from Suncoast Porsche. Upon further inspection, it became reallyclear that to do it “right”, you’ll have to remove the differential and open upthat whole “valley” that exists under it. This routing runs up to the bonnetand then snakes around each side, fishing between the fuel tank, storagecompartment and fender wells. I’d been warned that this was no easy task andthat I should reconsider what I was thinking of doing. So I wanted to start witha clean shop, all bits laid out on the floor so I could look at them, and thecar opened up without plastic panels in the way. So Friday afternoon I spent anhour doing just that… Once done, I was ready to start the removal of the frontbumper. To do this, you actually start in the bonnet. This plastic trim panelis held on with four small plastic screws. Turn them counter clockwise ¼ turnto release the panel. Careful when removing it as the trim runs up the side ofthe fender between the bonnet framework and the headlights. Be gentle removingit or you’re likely to break it. I also remove the light inside the luggage compartment,so you don’t drain the battery. Tools needed: TORXbits and driver Phiilips#2 screw driver Smallhead flat screw driver (mainly used to pry lightly) 16MMsocket and/or wrench (Bumper structure) 13mmsocket/ratchet and wrenches (radiator bracketry) 10MMsocket/ratchet and wrenches (replacement bolts for bumper structure mounts) 8mmsocket (removing the rear panel bolt under the car) Longneedle nose pliers Vicegrip pliers Somethingto cut rubber water hoses with (Razor blade or hose cutter) Drilland bit to drill out rivets in radiator air duct Poprivet gun and rivets to re-attach new duct to old radiator Flashlight The following steps can befound in detail in the factory service manual. Next I removed to thefender liners… Removing them is easy, and doesn’t require removing the wheels,but certainly is easier if you do so. I just turned the steering wheel side toside as needed to get to the 4 TORX screws and plastic “push pin” fastener atthe marker light within the wheel well. Once you have the innerfender liner portion unbolted, you can remove the side marker light and unplugit so it doesn’t get in the way or scratch the finish. Now move to theunderside of the car and finish removing the rest of the torx screws and “pushpin” fastener in the brake air guide. There are a total of 21 screws(15 torx and 6 Phillips) and four nylon push pin type fasteners that hold theinner fender liners, spoiler lip and bumper cover in place. Now we can focus on thebumper cover itself. You’ve removed most of the fasteners on the underside byunbolting the fender liners. However, there are still several in each corner ofthe bumper cover, at both the bottom, and one on the underside of the markerlight bracket. That particular bolt is a Phillips head screw. It is veryimportant to remember securing this point, as it holds the bumper cover inplace properly oriented the cover and keeping proper alignment of the cover toheadlight/side marker. It’s very easy to miss this screw until you’recompletely done installing the fender liners and you have these two screws (oneon each side) left over…Trust me, been there, done that… Don’t make thismistake. Once you have the covercompletely unbolted from the upper brackets leading the hood opening and allother areas around the bumper brackets, you can remove the bumper and exposethe radiator air ducts and bumper structure. To give you an idea of the timespent to this point, it took less than an hour to remove everything mentionedabove along with the two corner radiator air ducts. Removing the air ducts issimple, but you will need that flashlight listed above to see the TORX screwsin the front upper and lower corners of the air duct. Once you find them, it’ssimple to remove them and extract the ducts from the radiators. Then remove theupper bracket and lower bracket from around the center radiator. The radiatorshould remain supported by the hoses. You should have a clean bucket or catchpan handy to drain the coolant into. Pull the safety clip on the radiator drainand drain the radiator into the pan. Then remove both radiator hose clips atthe neck of the radiator hoses, and prepare to drain each side, one at a time.Once you have one side disconnected and drained, move to the other. I drained atotal of about a half a gallon of coolant, so don’t buy more than a gallon. *I did not take anypictures of the removal process, because it is covered both in the factoryservice manual link and online elsewhere. This is how it will lookwhen you have removed all the components above: Now, mounting all the new“stuff” isn’t really that hard… You need to swap in the new side radiator airducts, which isn’t hard. They bolt in exactly as the turbo units did… Nosurprises there. You’ll need to drill out the rivets in the center radiator airduct to replace the turbo version with the GT2 Version. Make sure to orient itproperly. Properly Oriented CenterAir duct: You will need to cut thenew GT2 Water line part numbers 996-106-625-75 and 996-106-621-75 to9 inches in length, measured from the end of the “collar” where the rubberstarts (at the radiator) to the end of the hose that connects to the hard waterpipe mounted on the car. The stock 996TT waterlines are much shorter than the required GT2 water lines: GT2 Waterline Partnumbers: Picture of the GT2Waterlines installed on the radiator: Slide the OEM stockSqueeze clamps on the lines about 3 inches up the length of the line to allowfor the hose to slide onto the pipe and then the clamp to slide up over the“flare” on the pipe (First pic is of driver side and second is passenger side): One of the things I’veread when researching some shop installs is that most shops had to relocate thehorns to a different location. I didn’t want that. Iwanted the horns to be where Porsche put them from the factory, and I didn’twant this conversion to look cobbled. Below is the horn bracket. Youwill have to remove it to get access to the passenger hose, but then can easilyre-install it in its rightful location: Before that I spent sometime with the grill vent making sure the duct and grill vent lined up: Parts that are required toorient the radiator properly. Notice the larger bolt andfastener. They are the GT2 units: In mounting the air guidenotice that the clip on the aluminum spacer sits with most of the spacer goingthrough the air duct. This clip keeps the proper distance betweenthe duct and the storage compartment: When installing the bumpercover, bolt the center grill in place on the bumper cover first, and installthe whole unit. Along with all headlight trim, and grill trim in place. I usedthe upper bolts on the vent to the retaining strip and then fit the bumperaround the air ducts and fit it to the mount holes at the side marker lights. Also, the GT2 Bumperstructure is the same part number as the Turbo. However, you needthe following parts in order to make the bumper structure clear the top of theradiator: More Pics of the instal: Here is where I mademistakes others shouldn’t make. Don’t buy all those water lines, like I did(God I hope Ryan can help me out with taking them back) but DO spend the moneyon the lower radiator mounts that bolt to the corner radiators. These mountswill make it so much easier for you to just bolt the stuff in. I spent about 6hours test fitting “stuff” because I didn’t buy the brackets. This could easilyhave been an 8-10 hour job. Instead it turned into 16 hours because I was busymessing with test fitting so much stuff. Part Numbers that you will need that Ididn't buy: 996-504-523-30 & 996-504-524-30. Notice the angle is off inthis pic: Also, because I bought mybumper cover from someone else who had decided to modify it by filling thebumper license plate holes in, I didn’t notice that the body shop made the areaa little too thick, causing interference with the bumper frame structure, causingme to inadvertently CRACK the paint/ bodywork around the license plate areawhen I was trying to fit the unit into place. My car is going to be re-paintedand wrapped within the next 6 to 12 months, so although it’s something thatkind of pisses me off, it isn’t the end of the world, and not very noticeableto anyone but me, so far. Thecoolant system was burped and all areas were checked for leaks BEFORE I boltedeverything back up cosmetically. Do not install the bumper cover until you’veconfirmed this. Procedures can be found in the Factory ServiceManual: Here is a pic of the left over water lines I didnot use. There are two LARGE water hardlines not in the picture: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/Mikelly_2006/GT2%20conversion/IMG_1558.jpg' alt='IMG_1558.jpg'> Here are shots of the final product: Of the parts I bought, and the parts I used, Ithink there is a difference of about $500 worth of water lines there. I have $3200 in the first 8 parts on thatlist, and they were shipped to me already painted Basalt Black. Of the other parts on that list, the airguides and fender liners each cost about $175 at the time of purchase. The rest of the bits and pieces cost roughly$1200. I did not price the radiatorbrackets that sit at the lower corners (mentioned above in discussing angleissues) but suspect they will be $400 each, per another members quote. And to add a little more insult to injury, I re-injuredmy formerly broken ankle yesterday stepping off my lift. The injured leg hadhit the edge of the lift, causing my ankle to roll, and forced me to put all myweight onto it… The audible “POP” and resulting pain made me fall to theground. I sat there trying to decide if I was going to cry like a little girl,or throw up like a big girl, but was so undecided that I just did nothing butsit and hold my ankle for a good 15 minutes… Ugh… Mike