Decimal Tenths

05/06/2026

04/06/2026

First world problems...

Its no real surprise but we are smashing through the aircon services at the minute.

There is something strangely satisfying about ice cold air coming from the vents of your hot hatch 😂

Trips to the shops, work or even Mexico 😉 are much nicer with dry cold air wafting over you.

Get yours booked in now

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03/06/2026

Wind chill!!

The temperatures may be on the mild side at the minute, but sat behind that big fan at the helm of Craig's Mev Rocket and it soon starts to get a bit chilly!

There's no where to hide in this super simple and very exposed kit car. We know the motor well and also Craig, as he has had his little pocket rocket down here before for a good check up and tune.

The car comes from factory with a Zetec motor running on an Omex 600 ECU so is right up our street. We previously found that the ECU was very well calibrated so advised Craig to just enjoy it for what it is.

He took that as the green light to further modify so has had the head down to Andrew at ALD Automotive for a serious overhaul including some spicy Stg3 cams, solid lifters, and all of the machining and polishing needed to get to that magic 200bhp.

The car has come back to us to dial the setup in and see what we can do. Sadly on the first session there were fuel pump problems. No surprise when Craig pulled the pump it was a basic mk1 focus setup, so he got the tried and tested Sytec in there and full fuel pressure was restored.

We went through the full setup with the cams at 0 deg to get the bigger injectors sorted and the car optimised before then moving on to the cams. This was then a case of repeating the runs over and over whilst adjusting the verniers and chasing the torque before settling on the best configuration which gave the best spread of torque. It is worth every bit of effort getting the cams dialled in as the is plenty of hidden cylinder charge on offer.

We could then fully optimise that setup and get it all confirmed with lots of logging. They arent huge numbers, but christ on a bike they really dont need to be in this motor. This thing is ballistic!!

Before the upgrades the car felt like you needed to fire it up to get it going. Now that linear torque just builds and builds which means that it is unbelievably quick... and fully controllable. Around the twisties it is seriously good fun.

I cant wait to hear how it goes on track!!

Enjoy pal

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02/06/2026

Right let's go for it 💪

01/06/2026

Unbelievable 😲

The last time Millie's Mk5 GTI left DT it was on the back of a trailer, which is a shame as it drove 3 hours to get here.

She had done a load of work to her car with the bulk of it being the K04 conversion. It came to us for Carbon cleaning / injector servicing and then tuning.

Prior to any carbon clean we like to do some diagnosis for the thermostat as its the perfect time to swap it out if it has failed open. This consists of a steady drive on a nearby bypass with logging on. During this drive the car suffered a sudden loss of power and came to a halt.

It wasnt dramatic and initially wasnt even entirely obvious as to what was up. The pool of oil underneath the car confirmed the worst though. It had just thrown a rod out the front of the block!

I mean... how do you explain that to the customer? Luckily again for us we log this drive, which not only showed what had happened, but also how it happened. Its pretty unbelievable, but this happened with no load, no excessive boost spike, no real reason.

Whilst Millie was at first a bit upset, she took the bad news like a champ. She had her own apprehension about the engine work as she did it herself, but I honestly dont think there was a problem there considering the car had just drove for hours to get here.

It is just one of those things that is sadly clouded by the timing of when it happened. And if it didnt happen on the road, it would have absolutely spat its dummy out on the dyno.

Undeterred by the failure, Millie took the car back home and before pulling up had secured a replacement CDL engine. The new engine was installed and running before we even had time to get over it. Believe it or not these failures lie heavy with us too.

The car then returned back to us, and we carried out the carbon clean on this engine. She had a less than perfect injector (not connected to the previous failure) so we supplied a new injector direct from TPS.

Unbelievable happening no.2 was that when tuning the car we had a terrible misfire condition which was traced back to the new injector that we supplied and fitted! So off came the manifold, and the injector was swapped out again!

This time the tuning went great with no misfires and the car responded perfect! The DSG got the TVS Stage 3 attention before being pushed with Nick dialling in the ECU calibration. The plan was always going to be to take the car on track so a nice linear throttle response, with full control of the boost and load. It ended up a bit of an animal and gobbled up the road great, just like a Mk5 K04 conversion should!

This job was challenging!

Not only for the way that the car fought us. Or how it took way more time due to the failures. Or even how in times like this its important to double check and have due diligence in your work and procedures. Or that it involved having the difficult conversation with the customer.

Luckily I have no hair to lose though, so you just have to crack on, have confidence in your approach to the work, tried and tested solutions and above all else have some humility. Yes you're dealing with someone's car, but its also their hopes and dreams. And when it goes wrong, its how you deal with it thats important.

And in the end Millie appreciated the effort on our end, as she boosted all the way home! Cheers for remaining positive and keeping rhe faith!

Now... have you known of anything as crazy as this...? We'd love to know.

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31/05/2026

What the..?

This is another first for us at DT, so is worth sharing with you. This from the outside looking Mint Mk5 came to us from the very top of Scotland. You know where the sign is?

The trip was planned for us to do a timing belt and chain. All bread and butter stuff for us - not a problem.

However on the test drive after the work a funny light came on the dash. It said "Low Oil Pressure".

Not a light to shrug off thats for sure. In the first instance we turned it off and got it recovered back to the workshop, where we jumped straight in to stripping off the cam chain cover, just to make sure all that was good. No surprise it was, so after a quick call to the owner, we hooked up the oil pressure tester. 0.5 bar at idle 🙈

With the confidence that our work had not caused this we got permission from the owner to drop the sump. What we found was carnage! The sump was full of debris, the pickup was blocked solid and the rear main seal was fractured.

Bad news? I suppose so for the customer as there is something going on in there that needs investigation. The debris wasnt fresh. It also strangley wasnt metallic.

Good news? Well yes also that, as first of all it confirms that this wasnt because of us. Plus it couldnt have happened in a better place.

A plan was hatched and it looked like this:

- Clean the sump out, replace the pickup
- Inspect the filter (it was full also)
- Drop the box off and replace the rear main seal
- Build it back up and test the oil pressure

We bashed on with that lot whilst another night's hotel stay was arranged, and with it all back together the engine purred and the oil pressure was perfect! 4.5 bar cold dropping to 1.2 bar when hot.

Whats a bit mental from this job is that the issue that existed was not caused by us, but for some reason showed its ugly head whilst we had the car.

We were lucky that the customer was a very understanding guy and trusted our report of the problem, and how to remedy it.

He was lucky that it happened here, and not halfway up the road to the sign which the car managed no problem.

And if you think this was a crazy situation, we've got another that is almost unbelievable. But that can keep until tomorrow!

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28/05/2026

Fear not!

OK fair one, theres been a few posts about Porsche's around here of late...

There's even been a good amount of people commenting that my DAZA Golf (which is still the daily hack) hasnt been present when they've visited.

Just to confirm though that she is alive, very well and very much still mine. Although I may be open to a bid on it in the coming months.

😁

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25/05/2026

A weekend's work

Well im sure we've all seen Colin swanning around in his new to him 968. And what a car it is 👍

He's got the time to do that as we dont work on a weekend now. We always did but after years of most probably over working, we knocked it on the head last year in an effort to give all staff a well deserved break.

Its still not uncommon to see some life down at work on a Saturday though, as we all have project cars and bikes and I suppose it makes sense to do your tinkering where all of your tools live.

This weekend was the one I had planned for quite possibly the biggest job ive done on my Porsche 911 - a full suspension and control arm refresh. On most cars this wouldn't seem such a big job, but on the Porsche...? I mean just look at the amount of arms the car has.

Im replacing every control arm, steering rods, bushes and also upgrading the suspension to Bilstein UK B16 Coilovers along with Powerflex Bushes in some positions. I opted for the Bilsteins as first of all they offer phenomenal handling and quality, but also so that I can keep the car's Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM). At the flick of a button I can stiffen the dampers up for them spirited drives.

Its a big ol job and I suspected it would take me all of this bank holiday weekend. However, what wasnt expected was that the lads decided to pop down and give me a hand. Maybes the thought of working on Zuffenhausen's finest was an all too exciting prospect? One things for sure though it was much appreciated, and with our pal Dan down too, it was a case of grab a corner each and set to it!

It is well documented that this can be a challenging job on the 997, and this one certainly didnt want to come apart. The reciprocating saw was needed for the coffin arm (lower control) bolts, as 20 years of metalurgical marriage meant that they werent open for a simple divorce. The shocker pinch bolts were particularly stubborn too but Jake got them out after a little bit of swearing and heat. Beyond that the strip down was fairly simple and completed in no time. Check out the rather bent front tuning fork that we found when removed. And yet the car drove straight and true. I suppose we've all had a life.

The build up was dreamy, and youd expect that with the amount of new parts fitted. I also took some time to give the underside some prep and stone chip in areas such as the suspension turrets that hopefully wont be accessible for a long time. The front Bilsteins bolted up on new top mounts, but for the rears I opted for Powerflex inserts as thats where all of the load of the engine is. Whilst under there the gearbox front mount got a Powerflex upgraded push in bushes too.

The car really did drive good before all of this work. However there were a few signs of the refresh being needed when pushing on. I cant wait to get out in it again now though with all of this being completed.

Whats quite awesome about this job for me though, is that I was only able to do it in the workshop on a weekend because we dont work them. It wasnt planned that the lads would come in and give a hand, but in doing so they have given me the rest of this weekend off too.

Legends!

Enjoy the Bank Holiday everyone 👍

📧[email protected]

24/05/2026

My new to me Porsche 968 ❤️🤍

Its a bit of a dream come true this one, and it goes way back to comprehensive school times.

Back then i had a teacher at Ryton Comp called Mr (Bill) Dawson.

You never realise the impact some people have on you at an early age, but for me he most certainly did, not just in what i drive but it also helped shape my career too.

You see Mr Dawson had a Gaurds red Porsche 944, a car i walked past to go to class every day and would often see it driving around my local area.

I was already reading Max power by then and would often have the mag in my bag and stickers on my school books. Mr Dawson would give me his old copies of 911 and Porsche World obviously trying to to get into my head and steer me away from b***s, body kits and subwoofers. Although it didnt work over the next few years something must have stuck in there.

As i looked toward working and the end of school life was on the horizon i landed an apprenticeship with a local sports car specialist and guess what ?? I was surrounded with Porsche 944 and 944 Turbos 😂

Although i have a massive respect for the big 911’s my poster car was a Porsche 928 Strosek and i was involved daily with 944’s so a transaxle era car was always on the cards for me.

As i rattle on in years and have kids in and around the age i was at school becoming a little petrol head, it gives me great pleasure sharing this with them.

So what have i got ??

A Porsche 968 Sport (clubsport rep) mine is a 1994 model, the year they shared the production line and chassis numbers with the clubsport, its just been spec’d up a bit and badged as a sport.

I think for this as you will have seen with DT cars in the past nothing stays standard so i have a little plan/journey this 968 will go on to bring it up to modern day clubsport spec.

First thing i did when the car arrived was give a spare set of Porsche Cup 1 alloys to our good friends PowderTech, they absolutely nailed the colour and finish i wanted and fitted some all important PS2’s.

We will be kicking things off @ DT with some KW supplied V3’s, soon to be fitted and documented to take you along and report back how they improve things.

So it looks like myself and Nick are a pair of Porsche wanekrs 😂, Truth is we are just two little boys chasing petrol head dreams ❤️

Happy Bank Holiday Everyone 😎

Colin @ DT

20/05/2026

Pipework delete 👀

We get to see lots of oddities around here. Some that are almost unbelievable. This was a first for us though...

We've got a lovely Audi TT in for a hybrid turbo upgrade, and prior to coming here the guy had a front mount intercooler installed so that he was ready to take the car to the next level.

And if you looked at the front of the car you would indeed be able to observe the shiny bar and plate cooler in all of its glory.

However...

Yes it has a trick front mount fitted. Yes it looks to be fitted quite well with some obvious care and attention been taken to mount it. But sadly No, there isnt any pipework fitted to the car. 😲

The intercooler still has the transit end caps fitted too, which can be seen if you look closer. The car is running on the original side cooler setup, so the front mount is fitted but is doing absolutely nothing.

And the crazy thing is that the guy genuinely thought the front mount was fitted and functioning.

Honestly nothing surprises us these days...

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