Firewall brace

Talk and Tech about turbocharged 924/944/968 cars
AudiSport
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Can this be installed without removing the booster?
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#1

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Doyle623
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Yes, for sure.
1986 944 Turbo - Vitesse MAF (Stealth), Evergreen K27/8 Raptor, Kroon, Ftech9, KW V3, etc.
2005 911 Carrera S Launch Edition

#2

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chris white
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Proper way to do it….it takes a little prep work!!
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#3

AudiSport
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If those welds hold! That plate only solves one problem. The seam of the firewall also comes loose from the fender. If that happens. Your whole plate is still moving.

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chris white
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If your firewall to fender welds come loose you have a lot more issues than clutch pedal flexing! Don’t worry about the new welds, they are fine.
If you are adding a brace to solve a flexing firewall then you are not fixing the initial problem, just transferring the load to more sheet metal without fixing the initial failure.

#5

AudiSport
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Yes, it is a lot of problems. And it happens. If you're in there that deep I wouldn't do just the plate. My red car looks like it lost the weld at the FW to fender point and then proceeded to flex until it's cracked in a couple places. Once that FW fender connection goes, there's a ton of flex you don't want there. Even with a plate since the whole firewall is moving then. If you're seam welding the FW to fender great. No issues there. But you still have seam sealer there, so obviously it's not seam welded. Just the old tired factory spot welds that are about to fail. At least the brace (a preventative measure) in my first post should take the load off that joint, transfer it to the strut tower and lessen the stress on the firewall.

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chris white
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I have been building / tracking these cars for 25 years, never seen the fire wall to wheel well welds fail. I suppose if you use an absurdly stiff pressure plate you might get issues. I only added the plate because I had the engine bay stripped and was seam welding the strut towers. The brace you pictured is really just a band aid if you have a cracked fire wall. Better than nothing but not really a fix.

#7

AudiSport
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My black car has no issues. This brace is a preventative measure. My red car absolutely lost the welds at that point.

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Tom
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Did you make that brace or is that one of the kits (only944?)... Pretty epic rabbit hole you went down with the grinder. :lol: Very nice. Might want to turn up the gas if that's MIG...? I generally keep turning it up the gas until the soot gets as minimal as it's going to get.... You might be picking up junk that's inaccessible behind the sheet metal though....

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chris white
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Tom wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:17 pm Did you make that brace or is that one of the kits (only944?)... Pretty epic rabbit hole you went down with the grinder. :lol: Very nice. Might want to turn up the gas if that's MIG...? I generally keep turning it up the gas until the soot gets as minimal as it's going to get.... You might be picking up junk that's inaccessible behind the sheet metal though....
MIG welds and yes, you can't get all the crap out of the seam welds. Burns off a little crud in front of the weld but the welds are solid. For real structural welds I wouldn’t live with that but for seam welding it will work

#10

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