You've inspired so many of us fellow boxster owners with your innovative and relatively inexpensive solutions...and as a dad of two kids who grew up around me working in the garage, my son especially had the fixiturself bug. (I only wish I'd have thought of the swear jar ;)) So, thank you!
As a long time air cooled guy I acquired an 03 986S to dip the proverbial toe in the water. I've loved reading your posts and plan to incorporate or follow your lead on many of the things you've done. This summer I decided to track the car. (been involved with PCA Club racing and DE for 25 years with early 911 which I'm taking back to street. ) Through the process with the box, I added deep sump, baffle mod, spin on oil filter and the car had already had the dual ceramic LN upgraded IMS. Hot day, but careful with rev's and heat. Spun bearing. Much knashing of teeth and after 2 months of not finding a decent 3.2, I found a 70K 03 3.6 motor. Had the LN I'M done already. Dirty but leak free and just enough grime in the intake stacks to lead me to believe a normal motor. PO purchased entire 03 as a total front end collision. Also owns 99 996 and thought he would put this motor in until realized the challenges of cross pollination between the vastly different DME and CAN BUS. <6% (cold) leakdown. Long story short, I'm now preparing to do a swap.
While I have many questions, what prompted me today was reading about your IMS puller. How do you tap only part of your thread? (Impossible circum.) We doing only 1/2 the length? (Re 8mmx1.0 vs 8mmx1.5). Other questions: Sonax tire cleaner? What happens to sensors when you delete the second set of cats? Do you weld bungs on the pipe itself? I'll be doing new clutch but waiting to see condition of flywheel. More but I'll keep them short and specific to your topics.

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I doubt that I'm all that inspirational but I thank you for saying so!!

The long coupling nut has the 1.5 (call it a coarse thread) thread all the way thru, so I just took a 1.0 ( fine thread) tap and started it on the other end and ran the new thread in. I didn't drill it or anything. Just ran it in 50% of the way to make sure it had enough thread engagement for the end of the bearing stud. If that had not worked, I would have welded 2, 1.0 nuts onto the end of the coupling nut.

Yup Sonax cleaner. That stuff is the bomb for wheels and engines and transmissions. If I were to go all OCD on it (or CDO depending on how bad you have it) I would h ave pulled out the small steam cleaner to get at the small crannies cleaned out.

There are no sensors for the 2nd set of cats. The new pipes have holes for sensors but they are not used.

Ask away. We have air cooled in the house too!

Where did you source the tensioner?

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I Re read several times and figured it out. Nice job.
I live in Colorado with pretty stringent epa standards so am concerned about this car passing emissions minus second set of cats. I realize that many boxster owners live in California which has the harshest EPA standards in the country so would be interested in knowing what they do there if they delete. They also visually inspect here so without the second cats, they may ding one on the basis of the emissions control having been altered visually. However looking at this, it seems that I could reattach the old cats for the purposes of emissions and then run the straight pipes and be good to go.
Out of curiosity, what part of New York state do you live?

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I live near Poughkeepsie, about 1/2 way between NYC and Albany. But, we have just sold our home here and will be moving to our home in MD on the eastern shore to get ready for retirement. We need to cut costs to do this early if we want.

There are cats there so unless they have a picture of the system handy, the visual might get by them.

A weekend update!!

Work continues slowly on the multiple projects from the interior to the oil cooler.

Last update was about how I had oil in the coolant :-( Very distressing to see. I pulled the cooler and pressure tested it only to find a leak from the oil side to the coolant side. I ordered a new "S" cooler which is about 2x the size of the original base cooler and once it arrived, I bolted it right in. It fits without taking any other parts off!! I like that.

New Cooler:

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Old bad bad bad cooler:

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New cooler bolted in and not it comes to filling the cooling system and figuring out a way to get the grease and gunk out of the coolant and system. I did some interweb reading and found that the majority of folks that have this issue use dishwasher (Cascade) to mix with the water and break the oil down. We didn't have the massive milkshake level of intermix but enough to leave a fugly film on the inside of the tank and I'm sure everywhere else. I put 1/4 cup into some water, mixed it up and poured it in with my fingers crossed. I let the dishwasher wash and took the car for a drive. after 10 miles or so I got back to the garage and the coolant looked all white and disgusting. I let that sit overnight and then drained it out thru the plug in the bottom of the engine. Refilled with fresh water and took for another ride. 10 miles more and another drain and refill. Today I once again repeated the cycle with simple green in the coolant and I'm getting to the point where the stuff stays clear but there are some white oil boogers floating around that also creates a film in the tank overnight. Not sure how many flushes it will take to get the majority of the oil out. Maybe 1 -2 more i hope....

While waiting for the oil cooler to arrive, I began the install of a new stereo and that required a bit of rearranging of the center stack. I moved the climate controls down to the cubby location and then moved the CD holders up to the top where the climate controls were. I have a single DIN stereo with the fold out screen to install just below the CD holder (useless) and when the screen folds out, it will fold out and stand in front of these cd slots. I picked up a regular sized cubby from Woody to replace the CD holder in the lower portion. All of this just pops in and makes the swapping mostly painless. The wiring from the stock stereo to the new stereo will probably be a challenge.

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I also pulled the rear air-dam motor and system out because no matter what I did I could not get it to work. I figured it was going to have to be replaced but decided to give it a shot to get it going. Once pulled out it was easy to get the motor connections attached to a battery to see if there was life. Nope dead as a Dodo... I began disassembling the motor from the rest of the gearings and found RUST!! It appears that water got into the gear box and jammed the 2nd stage of gearing. Once the motor was pulled out it ran just fine in each direction. I took all of the gear sets apart and found rust and old hardened grease. Once cleaned and re-greased I put it all back together only to find that I didn't have the gears "timed" properly and the 2 posts were not even heights. Take it all apart again and set the 2 gear racks the same and then put it all back together. Practice makes perfect!

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I installed in onto the car but it still doesn't got up and down. With a seized motor, I figure the relays have overloaded or burned and will have to be replaced.

I would check fuses first, than relays.

Regads, Markus

I dropped the quest for a working spoiler and continued to pursue a proper running engine. I have been hearing a miss and once I got the Durametric knock off cable and software from China I was able to determine that #6 was showing LOTS of misses. I had already gotten a new coil in because I heard the miss and figured that a coil pack would be the culprit. Well, it was. This is the log that it can create for you:

Time-------------------------------Misfire counter cylinder 6
15:23:31.98----------------------------------11
15:23:32.48----------------------------------18
15:23:32.96----------------------------------27
15:23:33.47----------------------------------38
15:23:33.91-----------------------------------6
15:23:34.36-----------------------------------8
15:23:34.82-----------------------------------9

So changing the coil for #6 was quite easy as it's only held in place by 2 bolts, so out with the old and in with the new. The old coil has multiple cracks in it highlighted by white marker.

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These cracks allowed water to get inside and either short the coil or allow it to track to ground. I found water on the tip of the coil after pulling the rubber extension off.

Next it's time to change the MAF and see where that goes. Then on to track down the )2 sensor faults... The MAF may just be the root of all this evil!!

Wow. I'm in awe!

Changed the MAF yesterday afternoon and the car has never run better. We haven't had it that long but when started up and cold it had a flat spot and some stumbling. This is what led to the software purchase for looking at things that the computers are supposed to help with.

Install MAF and clear the codes. Drive around a bit and check for new codes. It's throwing a code for the 02 sensor on the #2 bank in front of the cat. Pull in the computer and look at the reading for the o2 sensor and see it reads zero voltage. Check the plug to make sure all is well and then install a new one. Guess what? No more o2 codes.

Today wasn't all sunshine, bunnie rabbits and unicorns tho.... Fix one problem and another crops up. Water pump has decided to pack it in this morning with a nice drip, drip, drip on the drive. What God did I offend to deserve this? I just put 2 gallons of Porsche coolant and demineralization water in the beast. So, new water pump tomorrow and maybe the cooling system gremlins will finally be dead.

More to do, and will try to post some pictures tomorrow to close out some projects.

I saw on another thread you mentioned about buying some paint. Are you painting the whole car or just some parts? Please let us know how that turns out too. I'll need to paint some parts on mine and I'm very nervous about color matching.

Not for someone with your skills and perseverance. There are many descriptions of the process. Here's one: Porsche Boxster iPod Integration and Stereo Head Unit Replacement - 986 / 987 (1997-08) - Pelican Parts Technical Article

I installed a double-din navigation unit with ipod integration in my car, but it sounds like you have a single-din unit already and I understand that you would want to control your costs.

Good luck with your work.

Big Update this weekend!!!

First of all Allie is home!!!! It's just for a few days so we can finish up a few things and she can take the car back to VA and get it inspected. It's has a kind of 30 day plate and we are running out of time on that. But to have my garage buddy back and turing wrenches is just the best.....EVER!!

We are just painting parts for the car right now. The goal is to get to the 5 foot, good look condition!! The major change will be the nose. The current nose is broken with a big piece knocked out around the lower right vent opening to the rad. I started to make a repair on it until Allie had the budget to buy a used one or find an aftermarket one she would like. Well, being a cheep Yankee, I troll Craigslist once a week or so for cars and parts. Low and behold, a GT2-ish nose is listed for sale local-ish and she likes it. The price is out of the budget but I take a shot at it an see where it can go. It's a full polyurethane nose of unknown maker as it has no marks on it. The plastic is very thick and strong. A few more pics and some emails back and forth and they guy just wants to get it gone. So I make a ridiculous offer of $120 and he takes 3 minutes to come back and accept!! My buddy who lives in Jersey, goes to make pic up, I send funds via PayPal (who I hate by the way) and it's ours and headed towards home here in NY.

Paint match?? we shall see. I have the light grey primer on there but most of the dings I have filled seem to be over dark grey primer so I may shoot some dark grey on it before color. I'm a real amateur but have done some painting. I did spend a week at McPherson College taking a paint class and Allie spent the same week taking welding and metal working classes. This is an excellent school that has these 1 week courses for 2 weeks at the end of the semester in June for the home hobbyist. Wonderful learning place and we really got a LOT out of it. I have very low expectations and with our 5 foot goal in mind, I just do the best I possibly can.

We have just primed it but it hasn't been quite warm enough in the garage to shoot paint yet so It will probably not get on this weekend. That was part of the plan but a low level parts as Allie needs to get the car down to VA for inspection as she only has a 30 day plate.

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So we left off with the coolant tank replacement. What a bull$hit design to put the one hose inside the engine bay and all others on the manifold. What evil genius figured that one out?? Well, I got pissed off when I could not pull the tank back far enough to get that clamp loose because it was a screw type and NOT a spring type. It's bad enough that the bugger leaks after to PO told me they just put a good used one in but now while working to get the clamp off, I pinch my thumb and give myself a nice deep cut that bleeds really fast. So over to the swear jar and fill-er-up to pay for my lack of control and small vocabulary and get black electric tape to stem the flow. I have a moment of inspiration and grab my small air powered sawzall and give that sucker a go a cutting the stupid thing put so I can get to the clamp more easily.

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz and 45 seconds later we have the tank in 2 pieces and the clamp loose and off.

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And we can now see the location of the EPOXY repair that was made and is now leaking. More trips to the swear jar after make comments about the PO, his family and all of his lineage including the origin of his ancestors and this whole event. This cooling system have been a nightmare!.

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The design is crap as anyone who has done this R&R knows. The manifold fits over 2 studs that are 5 times longer than they need to be, the hoses only reach to the 4x length of the stud so that makes the pulling of the manifold further particularly scary as the fear of breaking something unseen is high, at least in my tiny little swear-jar filling mind. But I have an idea that pays off, and slot that tab on the new tank so I can get it onto the bottom stud and leave the excess manifold pulling to later on.

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This trick allows a bit more maneuverability of the tank while getting that clamp on the hose tightened up.

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OK, cooling system now secure and we are ready for fill up with special german coolant and distilled water. I had drained and used compressed air to blow out all remaining water in the system, checked it all for tight and started pouring the stuff in. Got it hot, burped a lot of air out and took it for a ride. Looking good, very happy, grab overfilled swear jar and head to beer store :-)

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Allie comes home and wants to go for a ride in her "new car". She heads out onto our country roads and come back with a HUGE smile on her face. This is a great car and runs nice as well as sounds killer with the Top Speed full exhaust. BUT as we stand there catching up and talking cars, we see a small trickle of pink fluid run out from under the back end. Ugh, I drop into swear jar filling mode and she drops down to see what's leaking. I'm hoping hose, but she says no, front of engine, looks like water pump .... What the $&CK!!! I have been under and around the bottom of the wreck for weeks and there has never been a drop of moisture around the damn pump. This is what you get when you really can't fully test drive a new and very cheep car completely. Every step along the way to full test drive has lead to another thing needing attention.

So I get online and order a new pump to be delivered overnight so we can get this in and fixed for the trip back to VA. I can't get what is considered a good one overnight, so we order a Gates that might have the plastic impeller. Well, it doesn't. We install it anyway as we are short of time. She KNOWS it will have to be changed again in a year or so and monitored in-between at oil changes to watch the bearing for looseness. It was only $76 too, but it's brandy new and not a rebuilt, from a real company, with a warranty, so maybe it will go the year. Fingers crossed.

Allie digs into the Box for her first time to change the pump. Seats fully forward, engine covers off, back carpets out and the the good stuff starts.

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Next post. ONly 10 images allowed :-(

Fire up the ratchet and 10mm to pull the back cover, pop the belt off, and begin getting the water pump bolts out. Yes, she has pink, steel tipped, work boots!!

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Small hands are a very big part of the ease of doing some jobs. This goes very quickly with her doing the work. My big keilbasa fingers struggle in these tight places :-( I sit back and pass her tools and offer whatever info she needs (very little) and in 10 minutes she's done up top so we move to the bottom of the car to drain the coolant and get the last 3 bolts out.

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While the coolant drains, she replaces one of the 02 sensors, in front of the pass side cat, that has just thrown a code. These are so easy to replace.... The cheep Chinese cable and software work perfectly in reading these codes for us as well as letting us see the actual reading in real time. Such a good tool for $21, shipped for free!!!!!

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Checking the connection on the rear 02 just to make sure all is well. Small hansd pay off on this one!.

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OK, the 10 pic limit sucks!!!!

Coolant drained, last 3 bolts out and then it water pump removal time. The offending article.

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Gasket scraping ensues to get a surgical clean mounting surface and new pump slides right in. Refill with coolant that was drained (thru a paint filter) until it needs topping off. Overall about a 1-1/2 hour job with the coolant drain and 02 sensor replacement.

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She gets in with one of here sisters and takes it for a ride and comes back with the BIG (pretty) smile once again, but this time there is no leaking and no filling of the swear jar!!!

More to do this weekend but these are the biggies. New windshield on Monday and off to VA she will go.

Once again, a great write up

One thing, the factory WP gasket is metal and uses no sealant. The one you took off does not look right

When you get around to re-replacing the WP, check out warehouse33auto.com If you put RENNLIST in the discount code place when checking out, you get a 10% discount. With the discount a Pierburg WP is under $200. Pierburg make the WPs for Porsche and the one I bought had the Porsche number on it

Finnegan, you are very easily Awed!!!!

Jay, I didn't know about the metal gasket and the one we took off was paper and the new one was also paper.

Today was very frustrating with this stupid cooling system. But let me start with the good project of the day.

The appearance of the Box is a little weak and I wanted to improve this, so I bought a small wing for the back end to ultimately go with the new nose. I know there are some that will LOSE their minds over this modification. I did read thru those old posts and somewhat agree with them. So, the mind got working and the clever parts cam e out. I put the carbide blade on the table saw and marked the shape of the bottom of the wing and began cutting away the excess part of the dam, looking to make the fit and function work like the original air dam.

The fit needed some trimming and tweaking but it finally made a nice fit and it was off the the garage to throw a coat of semi gloss black on it.

Then to the install of the wing. The hole that they give you to work thru is quite small and I used allen screws which limits the throw of the wrench and makes for a slow install. I think it came out quite nice except for the paint
match.

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Now on to the cooling system :-( Grrrrrrr.

We topped it off and took the car out for a long shake down ride. 25 milers in we stop for gas and fill up. Start up and continue on. Cooling system is acting normal and going up and then back down. Allie has some speed on going up a long curvy hill and all of a sudden she looks down and the temp gauge is almost to the 250 mark and the red light is flashing. We pull over and sit for a while to cool down and then open the coolant cpa to see how much coolant is present. Well, after some steam and some liquid release, we refill with water but since it's hot, needle at the 0 in the 180, she won't restart. She cranks over plenty fast and we hear it trying to fire but no joy. We wait ands try again, same thing, plenty of crank no fire. Wait and try but now battery is beginning to show signs of weakening. We have to call Missus better 7/8ths to comes rescue us as we need a jump and I'm fearful of a full on overheat and seizure. My better 7/8ths arrives on the scene and with cables it jump started and the temp is 180. Once underway we see the temp rising so we pull over and get the tow strap out. Tow home and add some money to the swear jar.

Looks like we have 2 separate issues:

Overheating with no heat. I have ordered a new thermostat and hope this is the issue. I don't know and I'm beginning to throw parts at it. Not a good strategy....

Hard to NO start when HOT. I did some research and there seem to be 2-3 issues that might be involved here. The crank position sensor failing, a vacuum vent thing on the intake manifold leaking and maybe something else I can't recall at the moment. I have a CPS in the garage and Allie will change that tomorrow. But what else could it be??

I need help with this one.......

Very interested in how you managed to modify the aftermarket spoiler to maintain the air dam characteristics. Can you post a how to when you get a chance please.

Did you think to feel the radiators while you were stuck on the side of the road waiting for it to cool down? If they were cool then that's a good sign as you want to find the system isn't cooling - rather than the engine is making more heat that the system can handle.

I like your plan to replace the thermostat and CPS. It will be interesting to see if you find anything jammed in the thermostat. Were all pieces of the gasket accounted for? It's tight in there and easy to do...

p.s. my daughter (Tilly) is 10 months old, I can't imagine how proud you must be to have your girl spending time at home with you in the garage. Whatever else you have or haven't done with your life, at least you know for sure that you got that fatherhood thing RIGHT!!! Good job.

I didn't modify the new wing at all. It's meant to bolt onto the 2 posts that go up and down already but you have to remove the old air dam for it to fit. I took the air dam off, put the painted top on the shelf and placed the air dam on my office desk. As I sit wasting too many hours a day on conference calls, I hold the spoiler and air dam in my hands and think. The only thing slowing me down is the drone of BS on the calls... One morning I have my eureka moment and simply lay the spoiler over the dam and start doing tracings with a pencil. Finance is yammering on about the cost of toilet paper of pistachios, I'm not listing and finalize what will be cut away. Call gratefully ends with no decisions as usual as my management uses consensus decision making which means they can never get 100% agreement so nothing ever gets done at that level. But I make up my Mind to fire up the table saw and start hacking away that evening.

Aluminum is soft like wood and the alum is quite thin, so it doesn't even slow the saw down. It takes a few trims to the the fit I want and I got out for a test fit after dulling the razor like edges. The fit is off slightly so back to the saw trim a wee bit here and a wee bit there and we have a very good fit!

Paint it black and install. The areo guys won't have a stroke and an air dam vs. wing jihad. I can go back to my project knowing the is have the best of both worlds!! Better looks and proper air damming going on. I should run the UN. Red Neck, Yankee engineering wins again.