Some not so fun repairs
 

Few weeks ago i was driving in Angeles Crest Highway and all of the sudden my car dumped about 1-2 gallons of coolant! luckily i wasn't alone so went down and got some water and everything seemed ok for few days until it started leaking coolant and temp went up a bit. After taking it apart here are the things i need to do:

New coolant reservoir tank
New coolant level sensor
New water pump
LN engineering Low temp (160F) thermostat
New Tensioning roller
New upper deflection pulley
New lower deflection pulley
New main serpentine belt
Of course new coolant
And while everything is apart
New spark plugs
New spark plug tubes
And since im ordering stuff
My HID's burned out a while ago so i got that too

Im doing all the work my self so hopefully ill get all parts in time and ill be able to drive my boxster next week.
How much is this costing me? If you have to ask, you cant afford it!

Heh. A salesman once told my grandfather that very same thing when he asked what kind of mileage one could expect from the $100,000 motor home they had on the lot...

"If you have to ask, you cant afford it!"

LOL thats not a very nice salesman. Well mine was quite nice and i got a pretty good price, thanks to suncoast porsche! So far i have not found anyone with overall better prices.

I recently did many of the same items on my 2000 2.7 when my water pump failed.

New water pump
LN engineering Low temp (160F) thermostat
New Tensioning roller
New upper deflection pulley
New lower deflection pulley
New main serpentine belt
Of course new coolant

It went smoothly for the most part. I haven't yet had to tackle the coolant reservoir tank and understand it is rather difficult to do.

If you haven't already planned on installing a new reservoir coolant cap it is a good idea to install the latest variation available.

Good luck,

ddb

what is the basis for doing the low temp thermostat? i asked my indie mechanic and he said he would not do it as he thinks Porsche designed it right out of the box...he said unless it was a race engine he'd not do it.

i live in the San Diego area....you know what my weather is like.... nice year round. is there a reason why I would or would NOT benefit from this?

i am doing my waterpump in a couple weeks.

I have replaced my coolant and oil caps few months ago, perhaps thats why the tank cracked as it got better seal :confused: . The reason im getting low temp thermostat is because i do Auto Cross about once month and the car get driven double as there are 2 drivers and temps tend to go up but when i went to willow springs with 2 drivers without much break was pushing it, so ill take all the cooling i can without putting 3rd radiator.

How do you like new thermostat ddb?

There's lots of stuff not designed right with the M96 engine, right out of the box by Porsche. Not a good justification for choosing against the low temp thermostat. We have quite a few dealers that use these now over the stock thermostats and are very pleased with the extra cooling as measured on the gauge in most conditions.

Long story short, with the low temp thermostat you are getting full coolant flow at the same temperature where the factory thermostat is just opening. The full explanation can be found on our web site, or some of our previous posts in response to questions about the low temp thermostat.

When autocrossing, the car typically just sits there without airflow over the radiators between runs. Like with bumper to bumper traffic, you won't see the full benefit of the low temperature thermostat unless the fans are manually actuated to come on earlier. We're working on a fan controller to take over operation of the fans to help make use of the low temp thermostat in these situations.

I was considering on making a manual switch for the fans but something automatic sounds interesting...

I'm digging it! It isn't like my car was overheating or anything before but since I was working on the cooling system (due to the water pump failing) I thought it was the perfect time to install the thermostat. I believe in the benefits stated by Charles, Jake and others and am glad I did it.




I'm interested in such a controller as well!


ddb