My Boxster journey

[elgyqc]

I had hoped to use spring compressors, but when I borrowed a set I realised that they only work with the struts off the car... there is no room for them under the fender. So I used the same method as shown in the two videos in the previous post to compress the spring and remove the left front bearing. I had a problem compressing the spring enough... the car tended to lift. After a couple of tries I got the hub carrier high enough and attached the spring with a nylon strap. After hammering down on the hub carrier with a rubber mallet I ended up standing on the carrier to get it so slide down far enough on the strut to get the stub axle out.
When I pulled the bearing this is what I found... very little grease and what there was was more like cheese than grease.





The bearing was not loose or noisy and had about 90K miles on it. The rear bearings were in similar shape although one of them was a bit loose.

[elgyqc]

When I did the second front wheel bearing I figured out how to use the spring compressor that I borrowed. I used a piece of tubing (electrical conduit) to make a spacer. This really helped to compress the spring before using the jack and I was able to install the nylon webbing more easily and tighter. This in turn made dropping the hub carrier easier. Sorry for the fuzzy picture.



This bearing was similar to the others, despite no looseness the grease was hardened.

[elgyqc]

Here is the cupholder I came up with, inspired by Miles1 here
Boxster cup holders?






I made a clip that blocks the lid of the storage space open because it always wants to fall down and get in the way of my shifting arm.

[elgyqc]

An expensive week for me. I discovered that I was losing coolant and found that I had the well known cracked coolant reservoir problem. Then the battery, which had been showing signs of weakness, died, ie would not hold a charge for more than a couple of hours.
My thread on changing the coolant reservoir is here.
Another DIY thread on changing the coolant reservoir

While waiting for the new coolant reservoir to arrive I fixed the release cable for the trunk. It had frayed to the point where there were only a few wires left. Rather than pay for a new cable and go through the bother of replacing the old one I used a loop of cable from another project that I swaged (crimped) to the end of the old one. Seems to work fine but it is so ugly I didn't take a picture.

[ike84]

Originally Posted by elgyqc

. Then the battery, which had been showing signs of weakness, died, ie would not hold a charge for more than a couple of hours.

A few years ago I bought a DeWalt battery reconditioner. It wasn't cheap, maybe$200, but I figured if it even extended the life of a few batteries it would likely pay for itself. I will tell you that the thing works! I've never had a battery get so bad that it would only hold charge for an hour, but I've had numerous batteries (std and deep cycle) that get so low that you have to piggyback them to get the charger to recognize it. 5 cycles on that reconditioner and the battery is as good as new. I've even revived old batteries for friends that were written off as garbage and they're back to life.


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[elgyqc]

Last year my rear window degraded to the point where I couldn't see through it, so I put a patch in it.



Last month I decided to replace the whole window...

DIY rear window in my "new" top.

[elgyqc]

I didn't need another project, despite this I bought a Boxster 2000 S with a blown engine. The full story is here.
Bought a 2000 Boxster S project.
After I got the S running, with the 2.7l engine originally from my green Boxster, Newart came by with his camera and included some footage in his latest Youtube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCZQxqrpWWY

[alansdavid]

Mine has a crack underneath the coolant tank where no one could find it
Only leaked when hot...made it even harder to find and fix.

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[elgyqc]

My 2000 S project, mentioned above, is as finished as a 23 year old car can be... meaning other things will come up and maintenance will have to be done, but now I can return may attention to my green 2000 base which I want to sell.
Two years ago the green car's engine came out for maintenance and was replaced by an engine I bought off ebay.
After removing the original engine I changed the cam chain pads, the IMSB, the AOS and a few other maintenance items. I was in no hurry to put it back in the green car, but it did pass a couple of months in my S while I was waiting to find a used 3.2 engine.
Now that the S has its 3.2 installed the time has come to put the green car's original engine back in place, so today I started the preparation of another engine swap (my fourth).
The car is now up in the air on my Quickjacks. Before starting the swap I have to finish up some details on the engine that is going in, new vacuum lines, oil cooler o-rings and a new RMS.

[elgyqc]

I changed the vacuum lines and the vacuum canister. The canister that came out was leaking through a crack on the bottom, the same as the three other canisters that I have seen.

[elgyqc]

A couple of the vacuum lines broke while I was removing them, they become very crunchy especially near the canister, I suppose because they are near the engine block there and get well cooked.

[Matt at Pelican Parts]

Good to see you still updating this thread! Good thing you bought new vacuum lines when you did the new canister!

[elgyqc]

I'm back at it again, after months of not motivating myself to get out to the garage and get on with the swap I have finally taken a few steps forward. The engine that is coming out is sitting on my latest low-rise dolly on the garage floor and the original engine that is going back in just needs the new RMS installed followed by the flywheel and clutch.
Then I have to pull the outgoing engine from under the car and swap over the alternator and a power steering line as well as the transmission, and make sure nothing else has been forgotten.
The garage is a bit crowded and I can't open the door yet to make space (during the winter I cover the door with styrofoam sheet insulation and seal it with plastic sheeting since the garage is heated by a thermo-pump). So moving around two engines, the engine hoist and the engine stand is a challenge in choreography.
I succeeded in dropping the engine by myself despite a transmission jack that can only briefly hold weight, it needs a rebuild. I think the rebuild will have to be done before trying to reinstall the engine.

[elgyqc]

I was able to pull the engine out from under the car today. My latest low-rise dolly worked great, I had almost an inch of clearance at the 2 strategic moments;

the transmission passing under the mounting bolts for the diagonal bracket



the manifold under the bumper



Pictures and more info on the new dolly are here

https://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/83130-engine-swap-%96-getting-enough-clearance-quickjack.html#post660142

[Hasdrubal]

That's great to see, at some point I'll need to recreate that setup.

[redpepperracing]

Nice! I finally got motivated on my winter project, I'm almost ready to reinstall the engine. I don't recall having an issue with the transmission, and I took the rear bumper and head shield off so no issues there.

[elgyqc]

I was able to rebuild the transmission jack, but I could not find a replacement seal like the original. So I had to adapt a standard u-cup seal to make the repair. This seems to be par for the course for inexpensive Chinese made hydraulic equipment. My hack is explained here:
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/fixing-my-transmission-jack-and-engine-hoist-hydraulic-cylinder-seals.530957/

I added oil pressure gauges to both my Boxsters, in the original green 2000 base I installed a 996 sender with output for a gauge plus the output for the warning light along with a VDO gauge. When replacing the blown engine in my 2000 S I used a cheap gauge and sender bought off Amazon (which works fine except that the sender failed after a while, I installed a new sender and it is OK). Since I am selling the base I decided to swap the (expensive) VDO gauge and 996 sender to my S. Today I swapped over the gauge but it will be awhile before I switch the sensors... and lo and behold... the VDO gauge gives me about half the oil pressure on startup. So it seems that you cannot use a cheap Amazon sender with a VDO (Porsche) gauge... or vice versa.

The engine that is going back in the car is now under the car, I was waiting for my transmission jack to start the installation... so I hope to start that process tomorrow.

[redpepperracing]

Hi Grant, I have added the 996 sender as well, which VDO gauge did you find that worked with it? I haven't looked around yet, apologies if it is a quick Google.

[elgyqc]

Originally Posted by redpepperracing

Hi Grant, I have added the 996 sender as well, which VDO gauge did you find that worked with it? I haven't looked around yet, apologies if it is a quick Google.

I bought mine here:
https://www2.cip1.com
A Canadian site that saved on the cross boarder hassle and their price was competitive.
The model I got was VDO-350-104 and it was $46 three years ago. I don't see that model on their site now and the one that they have is $72. They also have a "heritage" model for $50 that should work.

[redpepperracing]

Thanks for that link. I assume the prices you are mentioning are the USD prices. I don't see the heritage one but I'll keep looking.