[Adam]

Originally Posted by pecivil

based on what I found out, it isn't the physical size of the engines, its the electronics that control them.

If you have a pre 00 boxster you do not have Egas. So the easy swap (easy meaning that the ECU and wiring stuff all is pretty much P&P) is a 3.4 carrera engine that did not have egas.

If you have a 00 or 01 boxster (I am not sure about 03) then you want a 00 or 01 carrera 3.4. This engine has egas, and has variocam, exactly like the boxster 2.7 does.

If you have a 00 Boxster S, then you go with a carrera 3.6. This engine has variocamPlus, which the boxster S has. Plus it has the 6 speed tranny, that is the same as the 996.

If you have a 03 or later boxster, I think you go with the 3.6 carrera engine.
If you have a 03 or later BoxS, then I think you can do the 3.8. Not positive on this.

If you have a 987, then you definitely go with the 3.8.

So its not that you can't do the 3.6 or 3.8 in the earlier boxsters, but you need lots!! of electronic wizardry to make the electronics work right. I think it has been done, but it makes the swap much more difficult, time consuming.

I would have loved to done a 3.6, but my 2.7 doesnt have variocamplus, only variocam, so I needed a 3.4 to be plug & play with my stock harness & ecu.

Make sense?

To give a quick rundown on computers and add some info, the ECM's on pre-2000 boxsters had Bosch motronic 5.2.2.... 2000-2002 cars had Motronic 7.2 and all 2003-4 cars have Motronic 7.8. I think 2005+ boxsters have 7.8 motronic too, but I'm not positive. Boxster owners would want to make sure their ECM is compatible with the correct 996 engine.