The Long Distance Boxster S Rejuvenation Thread

[nuvolari]

I posted the beginning of this saga on Rennlist awhile back and then forgot about it as I don't go on there as often as this forum so I thought I'd put it here too and try and keep it updated as I struggle through getting this car back on the road. Apologies for those who have already seen it but more new updates to come soon and here are the posts to get others caught up:



OK, so I bought a 00 Boxster S in Oct of 2021 and loved it immediately but then things went south. Literally. I live in Los Angeles but about 2 weeks after buying the car, I set out to visit Mom in Nashville (2000 miles away) in the new car. The car had 2nd gear issues and I planned to fix that as well as replace the IMS bearing in Mom's garage and hopefully live happily ever after. I purchased a 2nd gear detent from GBox after I described the issue to the not-much-of-a-sense-of-humor-or-patience guy over the phone and he enthusiastically proclaimed that I was a good candidate for a cheapo 6 Speed tranny fix detent at $175. All things relative considering if that doesn't fix it, it's $3000-4000 rebuild! Ouch! Uh, yeah, not so fast....A lot has happened since....

Some of this is old news as I posted many threads complaining about the shortcomings of the 986 but I'm back to say that I've come to terms with these issues. Well, some of them but thankfully, Porsche loaded the 986 with enough issues to keep us all busy for decades! (~30 catastrophic engine failure issues if I can paraphrase J.R. without paying him!) Don't get me wrong, I love the car and miss driving it everyday and if you have a trouble free example, I am truly jealous and envious of you. I hear they exist and I hope to turn my car into one soon, but being the anxiety driven pessimist that I am, I am in constant fear of bore scoring, cracked heads, AOS mega-failures and IMS explosions! Not to mention the Getrag 6 speed tranny problems too!

So, for nearly a year and a half I've been ordering parts, doing research, asking questions and making plans to get back to TN and put everything together and race around. Hopefully, I'll be back in a month or so and begin the Boxster beguine! I'll try to document all of this to help others and to ask questions.

(**UPDATE: Still not back in TN yet. My soul is fighting it tooth and nail but I think I'm ready...Stay tuned!)

Ok, time for some pics because presently the only Boxster I have with me is this one




and I love looking at pics of the car from that short love affair I had about a year ago.... It's funny because I never really liked Boxsters before the purchase. I have always loved Porsches (I've had a 944 Turbo for 20 years and a 944 before that) but I've never been a convertible person and I never liked the looks of the Boxster that much. But after buying one and driving it for a short month, albeit cross country, I absolutely love the styling, in fact preferring the early cars over the 987 and later cars. It definitely reminds me of a 356 or Speedster, increased by mine being silver. I also love having the top down. Ok, now some year ago pics when the car was in one piece:

















The above pics were taken on Piuma Rd in Malibu which is one of my favorite canyon roads out here. The Boxster was fantastic on these roads. I especially loved the micro steering corrections that I could make in mid corner to add or subtract the turning radius to the tiniest degree! It's really quite amazing how sensitive and accurate the steering is. Granted, all my cars are 80's cars so it's good to see that steering has progressed for the intervening years because I'm not sure build quality has. Oh, please forgive the dirty car; this was right after purchasing the car and it came with the dirt for no extra charge. By the way, this was probably the cheapest 986S in the country at the time. More to come on that....





Here is the Boxster at rest behind my beloved Alfa Romeo Milano which is my daily driver. Don't mind the paint; that's called patina and it costs extra! And that's Tates the cat. She's sweet and great. Until she's not! And then she's absolutely feral and horrible. Pretty much the 986 of cats, I suppose. Just ask the rather large dogs and people she's attacked.
Oh, and the Milano now has Porsche phone dial wheels on it which look great and are very period correct.

Stay tuned for the 2000 mile journey, coming next....

[spdrcr21]

Thanks for sharing!

[nuvolari]

Originally Posted by spdrcr21

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you.

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Below is how the fried eggs looked when I bought the car but after a quick treatment with a headlight restoration kit, they came out much better. They are still a bit green but I had never done this before so I think I could have done the buffing a little longer and maybe gotten rid of all the color and haze. But they definitely worked much, much better and it was nice to have the clear eggs on the long drive across the country.



Yellow, hazy fried eggs before....



Haze free, slightly green fried eggs, hold the ham, after

And now onto the drive to TN and how it wasn't exactly uneventful. After a few hours and well into Arizona or New Mexico, I noticed the car was leaking oil since the oil level was falling whenever I filled up with fuel. Then I noticed an oily covering all over the rear bumper and when looking underneath, I saw a dripping sway bar and lots of oil. This was a new development as the car was not leaking until the trip. And as the car wasn't leaking before, I only had a little less than 1 quart of oil with me. And it was getting late but I figured how hard can it be to find a 24 hr Walmart out here in the stix or near Albuquerque? Well, apparently it's impossible! Nothing is 24 hours anymore and worse yet, not much is open past 9 or 10pm! So fearing of continuing and running too low on oil, I pull into a rest area and attempt to sleep. Ok, so no Porsche is exactly comfortable to sleep in but at least in my 951 I could recline the seat and deal with it but sleeping in a Boxster is akin to sleeping in a middle seat on a flight. So, after an hour or so, I get on the phone and look for something, anything, that might be open at this hour and I find Clines Corners truck stop not too far up ahead. But will they have Mobil 1 0w40 or comparable? I doubt it so I phone them where the friendly guy says they have Mobil 1 but if I hold on, he'll check which ones exactly. Great! Ends up they actually had a few quarts of something similar enough to put in the car to protect the engine from running dry so, yay, on the road again to pick up the oil at one of those strange roadside places that has gas, food, minimart, fireworks and oil! So a few pics and quick refill in the freezing NM wind and I'm heading east again!


Ooops, where is my oil going? The beginning of the missing oil.




Oil Leak halfway between home and nowhere




Mysterious Oil Leak? I blame Devil Dog Road!




Maybe that oil leak will fix itself....If not, what's a little Boxster work on the side of the road in the middle of Nowhere!




Another stop for gas and that oil leak is getting worse!




In goes the last of my oil while the DQ Marathon station gently sleeps.




No sleep til Boxster....Rest Area sleep is tough in a Boxster!




Clines Corners, New Mexico: When you're in dire need of fireworks, state souvenirs or Mobil 1 oil at 2am, this is your place; this is your ONLY place!

[nuvolari]

After the stop in Clines Corners and the possession of enough oil to last the night, I pressed on. I'm a night person so I'm pretty good well into the late hours of the night. Everything went well, I guess, as I can't really remember anything until I stopped for the correct oil and coffee once the sun came up. I was wearing one of my Blipshift shirts (can't remember which one exactly but I wanna say Audi Quattro short wheel base in full rally car livery) and the barista started talking cars, telling me he used to have a Corrado which brought me to bring up my 16v Scirocco and then finally onto the Boxster and all the excitement overnight I had experienced. With this, he genuinely seemed uninterested which surprised me until I remembered how I used to be before driving a Boxster. I didn't dislike the Boxster; it's just that I thought convertibles weren't in the cards for me. But it's really nice to discover something later in life that you always thought you never liked and then it's like a new food you never tasted before. Hmmm, maybe I should get an automatic transmission car or an SUV....Ok, no, no thanks, let's not get crazy!

Oh, well, probably better to end the car discussion as otherwise I may have stayed even longer talking cars instead of getting on with my drive. So, off I go resisting the urge to redline the car so he can hear what he's missing but with the mysterious & serious oil leak, full revs are not a good idea which even I in my rather tired state of mind thankfully recognized.

Lots of miles to go yet but thankfully the leak stayed consistent and didn't get any worse so the drive was uneventful. The one thing I remember is that my right foot and knee were in pain. I realized that this was caused by the stiff spring in the accelerator pedal and also the angle my leg wanted to go to support the pedal. But by the time I figured out something wasn't right, my knee felt like I'd ridden 50 miles on a bike with the pedal clips angled out 45 degrees! So I used cruise control a little bit (which I really don't like at all) and I tried moving my leg to a straighter position which was tough and then I got mad that the pedal spring is so stiff when it doesn't need to be. Hmmm, note to self: see if the pedal control unit is able to be modified.
So I've done this drive a few times, always in a Porsche. Once in a NA 944 and 3 times in a 944 turbo. I have to say that the Boxster isn't much more comfortable. The biggest thing is that the AC works, my first car ever with this feature! I have to say, I'm an AC believer! Also, my 951 is slightly modified: Bilstein Cup shocks and 450# springs insure that the car is rough over bumps. And a B&B exhaust insures it's not quiet but otherwise, the car has great bones for high speed cruising across the country which I truly didn't completely understand until attempting the same trip in the Boxster. Similarly, my 986S has a Borla exhaust and Bilstein B6 shocks so I think the ride is a bit stiffer than OEM even if it's not 450# springs rough.
Then again, maybe it was just the stress of losing oil but I thought it would be night & day difference between the two.

However, I did make it, arriving at around 3am. I'm not sure on the total time but let's just say it won't come close to my 951 record of 31 hours.

Hopefully, I'll get to experience the trip once more in the rejuvenated Boxster but many miles to go before that happens. And then, many more miles....

And, of course, the pics:


Yay, sun comes up and still about 20 hours to go!



Crossing the Mississippi. Wait, didn't I see on the news there was a giant crack in this bridge?!?




Never exactly "happy" to be back in TN but this was a long drive! Crap, and yet still another 230 miles to go!




Ok, finally approaching Nashville and not a car in sight...




Great, my life of excessive espresso bars and beautiful women in yoga pants is now replaced with bales of hay and pick up trucks! Help!



There are a few fun roads in TN but now they are populated by people yelling at you to slow down and pick up trucks trying to race you! The South: Land of Contradictions!



951 comes out to play...Very different by oh so similar!



Thank God I have the 951 there also as the Boxster went under the knife and is still awaiting rejuvenation!





My brother has a Milano just like mine only his looks like it should. Mine has lots of goodies though and runs great. His has issues which is another story.... I've been told there's another car in this pic but I don't recognize giant American cars that feel like boats. Mom wishes she had daughters!




Mom in her one and only Boxster ride so far because later in the day, a quick 2nd gear detent replacement ballooned into engine out repair extended to the current day.

[Andy804]

Looking forward to how the rest of the story goes!

[nuvolari]

Well, as stated in the last post, I decided to do a quick repair and see if I could save 2nd gear on my Boxster. I bought the car with an issue and spoke with G Box who seemed to think my problem could be possibly solved by their 2nd gear detent. It's supposed to be a quick an easy replacement so I thought I'd see if I was that lucky.... Turns out, I'm not...Or I might be...But I still don't even know actually as I never got the chance to check. When I tried to remove the old detent, it would not come out! I was informed that all it would take would be a magnet, but nope, no detent! So then I tried a Super Magnet but still no detent. I called G Box back. Maybe these guys know Porsche gearboxes (or maybe they don't, honestly, I couldn't even tell) but they sure are short on personality and help. But he assured me it should just come out. And it didn't. Then another call and he said heat it up, so I did but still nothing. Another call, another annoyed G Box guy....But this time he told me to use an easy out to grab the inner recess of the detent so I could grab it and pull it out. So I tried that. For a long time. Like maybe two days. But still no detent. The detent would move up and down slightly but then would stop and not come up any further and out. So another call but now I was having trouble getting ahold of them at G Box. (I think they were avoiding me.) But I did and the guy had no idea why it wasn't coming out.
At this point my only choice was to pull the transmission. I was planning on doing the IMSB since I had just bought the car and did not know its IMSB history and so pulling the tranny, although slightly earlier than intended, was not the worst thing to happen. Nope, the worst was still to come....



Out with the tranny, and just for the detent....Are you impressed with my Block 'O Wood balancing act? Looks horrible but was actually amazingly well balanced.




Even Mom couldn't get it! I'm going to give her GBox's number; that'll show 'em!!!




All cleaned up and nowhere to go! That's life in TN or with a 6 speed Getrag!




So out with the tranny and now with more room to work and better access for both tools and sight, I figured the detent would be out in no time! Well, guess what? NO DETENT!




Well, hello, all you shiny gears!



And yet another call to G Box and the guy says my only choice now is to pull the transmission nose cone and get to the detent from the inside. So, off with the nose cone and out pops the most spread eagle detent anyone has ever seen! I sent pics to G Box but still haven't heard back but since that email was sent in October of 2021 and it's now January 2023, I'm not expecting an answer as to why the detent looks like it does. I guess I'll try another phone call....




And the detent...No wonder it wouldn't come out!




However, I'm sure I caused some or even a lot of that damage to the detent but I suspect it was bent from the beginning and that was the reason it would not come out as it should have. But after trying the easy out for hours, I was getting fed up. And the GBox guy really didn't give too many details. He was more like, "Take off the nose cone. Get it from inside. The end!" So as I was trying to get the detent out, I eventually started trying more twisting and torque as I really wasn't familiar with exactly what was happening inside the transmission and in the process, I heard a distinct crack and clunk which was when I broke the detent selector fork. Luckily it's a cheap replacement part.
But the most concerning discovery was all the debris on the magnet inside the transmission. I've been told this is probably from the sealed pinion bearing inside the tranny. (Gee, why does that sound so familiar??) Yup, you thought your only worry was the IMSB but welcome to the world of the 6 speed Getrag transmission. More sealed bearings and more misery. I was told by GBox that the pinion bearing is only good for about 60k miles and then you need a replacement for the completely reasonable price of $2000-4000 installed! Oh, and you're not dissuaded yet because it's only money? Well, the main shaft is hollow and thus requires a special press which no one has and even if they do, you can only press the bearings on/off twice before the shaft can no longer be used reliably. Reliably? Hell, why even bother throwing that word in at this point?




Grab your debris and face magnetic north, only then will you feel the true wrath of the Porsche 986S ownership experience!




My transmission problems in ascending order: Broken fork, $20; old detent, $175; debris field of bearing goo, $priceless$$$!





Of course, I've talked with a lot of Porsche shops since and most shops tend to find the 6 speed tranny fairly reliable, except for the 2nd gear weakness. So, not sure who to believe: Mr GBox personality or Porsche shops.


Ok, well, I've been told I complain too much about this car. And I do. But I expected more out of Porsche and the other German firms who built this car. Don't get me wrong, it's a great car and I absolutely loved driving it. And I suppose the low purchase prices on them is due in part to the quality issues and problems they have. So, it is what it is but that doesn't mean we have to take it sitting down. And this coming from a lifelong Alfa Romeo owner as well as a Porsche 951 and probably the worst of all, a 16v Scirocco. They all have their problems but the unfortunate part of the 986 is that some of the fixes are just ridiculous. There is no reason some of our parts should cost what they do. And traditionally, aftermarket suppliers undercut OEM prices and everyone wins but some of the aftermarket Boxster suppliers are just as bad. I mean the IMSB folks mostly and others who design and sell tools and specialty parts made for the Boxster. I still think they could lower their prices, sell more, make even more money while protecting the limited supply of great cars in the world. See, everybody wins!

So, that's my story. One day when I'm king, Porsche parts will be free!

More to come, not even half way there yet and by half way, I mean half way to teardown.

Oh, and I missed out on a junkyard 2003 986S transmission last week. I'm still in LA and I'd have to get it to Nashville but details....And for $300 at the pick a part, I couldn't lose. Unless of course I get there and it's already gone, which it was! They even left the engine and just took the transmission, along with the immobilizer, calipers and a few other parts. The engine is still there, having by just the front mount. By the way, I always wondered if the front mount would hold the engine and it does. It's not even tilted as much as you'd expect. I would have thought that the engine would almost completely fall out and tip down but either the AC hoses or other hoses are still holding it or it's wedged in against the body at the top and it's still mostly in place. I wish I could grab it but no time or money right now to deal with it.

Here's a pic:



2003 Boxster S 3.2 Engine hanging by a thread. Notice the transmission thieves use of sawing through everything to take my beloved Getrag! I'm so sad!



More to come with my Boxster and moving onto the engine now while the transmission sits and waits....

[spdrcr21]

Hang in there!

[nuvolari]

Originally Posted by spdrcr21

Hang in there!

Thanks and yup, I hope to have it running again by spring/summer....Not sure what year but definitely spring/summer.



And so with the transmission in a holding pattern, I was about to embark down the rabbit hole of choosing which IMSB to buy but first I would try and find the oil leak that seemed to spring up on the cross country drive. I figured a RMS or IMSB leak but what I found was a bit strange. It turned out that the leak was coming from the front of bank 2 cylinder head at the bottom of the camshaft chain housing.



The RMS and IMS housing, dry as a bone and not the culprits of my oil leak but I kind of wish they were....




Hmmm, the offending oil leak...I don't think this is factory Porsche policy, to JB Weld oil leaks, but would it really surprise those of us who are familiar with these cars? Ha ha...




All cleaned up and the oil leak showing.


There was a thick layer of JB Weld covered by the grey silicone to try and stop the oil leak, unsuccessfully in the long run.

Argh, so what now? A couple forum questions and a phone call to Len Hoffman, the M96 cylinder guru. On the forums, I was told about 3.2 L heads and their propensity to crack so I was suspecting that. However, an email to Mr. Hoffman with pics and he wasn't so sure. Furthermore, no one suspected a bad head gasket as these never fail on M96 engines, a rare but nice quality to have.

Oh, Len Hoffman was great to deal with. He was helpful, knowledgeable and his prices aren't horrible. I have since heard great things about him from others. I may or may not send my heads to him, depending on how deep in I go. I have a couple of broken cam bearing bolts that I will have to have removed and then just normal head reconditioning. The heads look pretty good though so I might just need minimal work on them, in which case I'll do it myself and have a local machine shop resurface them....

Well, at this point, looks like the engine must come out. So, deeper and deeper I go with this car instead of the simple detent change I had been expecting.

And, long story short as there are definitely some new things to learn when removing a mid engined car's engine for the first time.

1) Learn how high to raise the car BEFORE you begin because it is quite high up, 24-26 inches to be exact. That's without removing the rear bumper cover.

2) Remove the rear bumper cover. Gives you more room and you don't have to raise the car up as high. I'm not sure how much lower you can go as I made the mistake of disconnecting the battery as well as all the wiring harnesses and ECUs needed to remove the engine. Then I found out that you can't remove the rear bumper cover with the rear spoiler in the down position. Anyway, I was able to get the engine out by removing the lower suspension brace and then spinning the engine 90 degrees once on the ground, or in my case, on three very small furniture dollys from harbor freight. These dollys were perfect for the engine with one on each side on the exhaust manifolds and one at the front engine mount. Other people told me to just put the engine directly on cardboard and then slide it out which I tried but I could not move the engine in the slightest and really wonder how they could. The M96 engine weighs around 400lbs so it's not light, aluminum be damned. I also thought about trying those furniture sliding discs but couldn't find any near me to buy at the time. Those may work on a smooth cement garage floor but they tend to be quite small so may be tough to keep them in place.

3). Be careful about hoses and wires still connected. It's very easy on a mid engined car to miss these and then when lowering the engine, they will break, tear and become damaged before you can even tell something's not right. I broke two wire connectors on the right side, one for the aux air pump and one for the engine compartment fan. Then my fuel lines, although disconnected, became wedged in something on the chassis and I didn't notice until the engine was tilting up at the front. By that time, I may have damaged the fuel line connector, hopefully not but won't know until it's reconnection time. Also, I never noticed the broken wire connectors until the engine was out. I've since heard of many others having trouble with these same connectors, both fuel and electrical. So, tread lightly!

The dollys seen in the next pic were a big help. They are very low and when you see them in person, you may think they will just collapse under 400lbs of angry M96 weight but they were fine and were never overstressed. Also, I noticed HF now sells what looks exactly like these but now in shiny silver metal so that may be an even better choice.



Engine about to come out but first, that grimy center brace must come out. Also, you can see the HF small dollys I used. I can't recommend these enough! They are cheap small, roll easily and fit lots of flat and strange shapes to stay put under the engine.



Now turn engine 90 degrees sideways and the exhaust cut out looks like the perfect shape to clear the top of the engine. But in my case, it wasn't or at least not quite yet. I still didn't have the clearance so I removed the passenger side front jack stand and lowered that wheel to the ground. That raised the rear bumper clearance by quite a bit. I was actually surprised how well that worked and it was easier than removing intake runners and other parts to gain clearance.



And so out comes the engine finally.



Lots more room with just the right front wheel lowered to the ground.



Yay, engine out...



So, to speed this up, I'll skip much of the engine disassembly and get to the cause of the leak. Apparently, the heads much have been off at some point and when the engine was being reassembled, a tiny speck of dirt or metal landed on the head gasket and right next to the sealing lip. And so the gasket was never able to seal at this point. I've since learned that this exact point on the head can cause problems with the effective head gasket sealing even with all things perfect and no specks of dirt in the way.

***Len Hoffman told me during a phone conversation and then I saw Yogi doing this on youtube to spray copper gasket spray on both sides of the head gasket just in this leg area of the gasket to create a better chance of sealing especially during the initial heat cycling of the new gasket. You can see this practice on yogi's garage videos on youtube when he puts the heads on.
***Furthermore, note the torquing of the small M6 Allen bolts in this area. He begins by torquing these bolts, then torques the head bolts completely. Once the head bolts are finished, he goes back and retorques these M6 bolts. They are all slightly loose now and a couple are very much loose.

The above two ideas are important things I've learned from others along the way in this time studying Boxsters and working with them. They are simple things that I have only heard rarely and which surprised me as these are fundamentals that anyone in a modest rebuild or M96 engine work will come across and which may be the difference in a successful project and dealing with leaks down the road. And that is what most surprises me about these cars, in that there are so many secrets and undivulged knowledge or even shared information amongst people at the top. Unfortunately, this began with Porsche themselves and this water-cooled engine. Want to know an official torque for internal engine bits? Well, you think you can just look in the Porsche service manual, do you? Nope! Want to hear what causes IMSB failures from the original engineers? Good luck! Want to call a reputable seller of Boxster upgrades? Well, be prepared to pay for the knowledge and then again for the part and then again for the instructions to install them and then again for when it might fail and then again for more parts.
It's mostly the fact that in 35 years of strictly European car ownership (Alfa, VW, Porsche) I had never come across this strange pricing, gouging and secrecy until the Boxster. Sure, some items were expensive and some experts were cranky, but nothing outside the scope of the normal world. And while M96 cars run the gamut from $3000 to $50k?, it's still relatively low budget compared to modern cars so some of these prices are just not worth investing in a car that has literally 30 issues that can cause catastrophic engine failure. It just seems with more sharing of knowledge, all owners and sellers will advance and many more engines will ultimately survive.

[elgyqc]

Well done!

[Gilles]

I had the same leak at the valve cover of my 987CS (bank 1-3), and I remove the cover (with engine on car, but lowered a few inches..) and replaced the spark plugs green seals that go between the head and the inside of the valve cover and the leak was fixed

[nuvolari]

Hmmm, the pics of the removed head, speck of dirt and head gasket didn't post in the last post so here they are:




First view inside the engine and it looks pretty good or at least relatively clean and free of buildup.





And the business side of the head. On the head mating surface you can see the small gap in the dark line where the oil leak was coming from. It is the lower right corner, slightly out of focus but still clearly visible.






And there it is, the indentation in the aluminum and the damaged head gasket where the speck of dirt was. I didn't find the speck so I just hope he has found a nice quiet spot in the garage never to return to any M96 engine ever again!


Ok, and now onto the IMSB. From other online threads the general consensus is that my IMSB is probably original. Similar to other OEM bearings, mine is a dual row NSK that was made in Japan. It seems to spin freely but the IMS was full of old dirty oil so the seals have definitely been compromised. I haven't removed it yet; I was having trouble with the pinion bearing remover and still need to get a blind hole bearing remover. Also, I haven't really decided on what to replace it with. At the moment I'm leaning towards another OEM bearing since this one lasted 160k miles! I will probably remove the outer seal....?!? Let me know what you guys think as I really am having trouble making an IMSB decision. And I'm running out of money so the OEM bearing is around $50 although I might also need to buy the Pelican kit just to get a new center bolt. Take a look at my flange and let me know if it is suspect. It has some marks on it and an indentation, specifically on the shiny part that goes inside the inner race of the IMSB. I don't think that's critical as it just needs to fit inside and once in, the center bolt and nut hold everything together tightly.



About to peer into the dreaded IMSB!




OEM? NSK "Made in Japan" IMSB




The IMS flange has some slight damage. Not sure whether to reuse or replace?



More problems arose during removal of the cams when one M6 bolt broke and another came out with damaged threads:



That sure did break easily! And it's going to be fun getting the broken piece out of the head.





And another one bites the threads! Fixable but another expense and/or struggle.




And now a look inside the cylinders. At first I was worried about the small marks on the lower part of the bore but I was reassured this is normal.




Even though I've been told this is normal, it remains a bit worrisome. Still, considering the engine has 160k miles on it, it's pretty impressive. Unless of course, the engine is not original.









.

[nuvolari]

Originally Posted by elgyqc

Well done!

Thank you, sir.

Originally Posted by Gilles

I had the same leak at the valve cover of my 987CS (bank 1-3), and I remove the cover (with engine on car, but lowered a few inches..) and replaced the spark plugs green seals that go between the head and the inside of the valve cover and the leak was fixed

My leak was on the head gasket so the cylinder head had to come off. Not sure if it could be done in the car but it definitely would not be fun! Easier to take the engine out....

[nuvolari]

So all of the past posts were done in Nov/Dec 2021 and I've been away from the car for a year and a couple months. I'm planning on heading back soon to work on the car and see my mom who's 91! I'm just having trouble getting out of LA as I suspect I'll be in TN for awhile and so I will definitely miss Los Angeles.

But for now, I have a few more pics from the teardown:




A shot down the intake valves into the engine. Porsche do design nice entry ways for the intake charge. My 944 turbo is similarly direct and clear.
This intake is pretty dirty; the previous owner needed higher revs and more throttle! Not to worry, once together again and under my foot, this engine will rev highly!





Inside the sump. Doesn't look good but I took this off long after taking the heads off so the contamination is due to coolant leaking out and into the sump I believe. Nothing unusual in the sump except a plastic rivet from the baffle and some chain tensioner debris IIRC.







Not sure if the grey is grease from the IMSB or not. Anyone know?

The previous owner put a bunch of stop leak in the coolant which loaded the coolant with metal particles so the grey might be that mixing with the oil. I'm still figuring the best way to clean out all that gunk.

[nuvolari]

Yay, back with my car in Nashville and ready to get going on the rejuvenation if only my 951 hadn't developed a leak and washed out my DME and KLR computers....Argh!
Hopefully they are savable but if not, my beloved Alfa Romeo Milano (with Porsche phone dial wheels) is being shipped out to me. And if you've never owned an Alfa, you don't what you are missing. This Milano is the best car I've ever owned. It's great fun, sounds incredible and better than any car out there short of a Ferrari. And if you've never driven a California canyon road, you really don't know what you're missing. I was slow to embrace California but now that I'm gone, I miss it so much. It really is a better life out there despite all the problems. I can't think of a single advantage to living in the south but I can think of many disadvantages starting with the food. God, the food here is crap! I've been here a week and I'm ready to starve myself. And don't get me started on how few Porsches I've seen; exactly 3 and I own 2 of them; the other was a Panamera so, yeah, not exactly an auto aficionado's state of grace.

Anyway, my b1tching will lessen with time but as long as people seem to embrace the worst qualities of living, I will counter with complaints and rants. However, 986 updates to come but please enjoy some pics of my Milano in the Los Angeles canyons in the meantime:

[nuvolari]

So lots of new progress...

First, my 951 is up and alive. Amazing but simply cleaning the ECU's with distilled water brought them back. Then I had to fix the rusty hole that caused the leak but with much use of POR-15 treatment and putty plus some SS metal panels, I think it's pretty solid.
Anyway, I know this a Boxster thread so I will now inform you that after much struggling with homemade IMSB removal tools, I broke down and bought a used LN Pro Tools kit. And this worked to remove the bearing in literally 10 minutes but there was a problem. The dual row circlip was damaged in the removal or possibly it was damaged when installed but it was basically squished into super thin metal and also broken in half. Then this bit of metal seems to have sliced a groove into the LN extraction tube! Also, the bearing was then stuck in the tube and was difficult to get out. That would explain the difficulty in trying to remove the bearing with DIY tools in the beginning. There's a thread on that....

So now I'm at the point where I need to find the dual row bearing circlip. I have not seen this part for sale so I'm a bit worried. Please let me know if you know where to source this part.

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by nuvolari

So lots of new progress...
So now I'm at the point where I need to find the dual row bearing circlip. I have not seen this part for sale so I'm a bit worried. Please let me know if you know where to source this part.
.

Had you asked LN about the circlip? Perhaps they may have a good suggestion

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by nuvolari

.. my beloved Alfa Romeo Milano (with Porsche phone dial wheels) is being shipped out to me. And if you've never owned an Alfa, you don't what you are missing. This Milano is the best car I've ever owned. It's great fun, sounds incredible and better than any car out there short of a Ferrari.

Nuvolari, your comments about the Alfa Milano are spot on and actually a bit shy.. I owned for about 13 years a (heavily modified) 2008 Alfa Milano Verde that I had to sell a bit more than a year ago and miss that car very much :-( Porsches are ingeneering marvels, but Alfa's have a Soul :-)
.
PS: I also had a 2.5 Milano Silver, and still have a 79 Alfetta GT that needs light restoring (but wife does not know that I own..)
.

[nuvolari]

Originally Posted by Gilles

Had you asked LN about the circlip? Perhaps they may have a good suggestion

Sent a question about the circlip to LN so we'll see. Thanks for the idea as I would think they should know enough to find one somewhere. If not, maybe someone has one left over from their IMSB replacement? Seems like a really good idea to replace these and not reuse them but I have never heard any details on doing so.

Originally Posted by Gilles

Nuvolari, your comments about the Alfa Milano are spot on and actually a bit shy.. I owned for about 13 years a (heavily modified) 2008 Alfa Milano Verde that I had to sell a bit more than a year ago and miss that car very much :-( Porsches are ingeneering marvels, but Alfa's have a Soul :-)
.
PS: I also had a 2.5 Milano Silver, and still have a 79 Alfetta GT that needs light restoring (but wife does not know that I own..)
.

Ha, impressive that you are able to hide a car from your wife!

And the Milano really is a great car! It definitely needs more power but it's not horribly slow in stock form. But the steering is wonderful and even the brakes aren't bad with some better Hawk pads in there. Transmission linkage gets panned a lot but I've never had any problems or been annoyed by it. The only thing about them that has bothered me is the roll center geometry which makes it hard if not impossible to rid the car of body lean even with stiffer suspension items. Traditional Alfa handling trait although Autodelta managed to make their race and rally Milanos and GTV6s corner very flat so it must be possible.

Say "Hi" to CA for me, miss it there wildly!

[nuvolari]

Originally Posted by Gilles

Had you asked LN about the circlip? Perhaps they may have a good suggestion

Well, LN was no help regarding the circlip. They answer questions quickly but as my request was unusual, they thought I was trying to reuse the old bearing and then when I suggested an additional and lower cost IMS Solution choice by using lower cost materials that might even need replacing at certain intervals, they said they offer lower cost options that I'm already aware of. However, I've read about too many failures of the ceramic hybrid bearing they offer to feel confident with that choice especially since that bearing is now quite expensive too. And while I like the roller bearings, I don't think they have been out long enough to know how reliable they are.

So I figured a $1000 Solution with some cost cutting from the original would be great for us and profitable for them as well. I mean how many of us want the Solution and realize it is the best choice by far but are simply stopped by the extravagant price? I know I am and I read other comments online that suggests the same. And with these cars still falling in price, to spend $2000 on a bearing just doesn't make sense when the car is worth $5000.

Come on, LN, give us some options with the IMS Solution!

[nuvolari]

Onto my Boxster rejuvenation since that is the topic of this thread. I'm still sorting through all the parts, both new and old. I've also bought a 987 airbox to install while the engine is out. And I bought an engine stand to facilitate working on the engine but in my haste and hopefulness and overestimate of my strength, the engine remains on the ground as I have no way to lift it high enough to get the stand upright. So now, I have to decide on whether to get a hoist or maybe a transmission jack which would be helpful to reinstall the engine when I get to that point...if I get to that point....



The parts stash so far....There are more parts in there than how it looks. And larger parts too including AOS, clutch, flywheel, etc. not included in the pic.




The heads, still needing lots of work




The 987 airbox, complete with MAF tube and hose. Still not sure exactly how I will connect it to my car as there are many variations depending on which throttle body you intend using. More to come on this adventure....









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