Still working on getting the new house together, but the other day I ran into another woman mechanic. Like me, her experience is mostly with conventional engines, not flat sixes, but she's knowledgeable. She said to call her if I need help with tasks that are easier with two people. Actually, she's so fascinated by the engine swap (which she called "interesting and ambitious") she said she'd just enjoy hanging out and giving me a hand if I need it. So far I've done everything solo, but I won't turn down help. You know the old saying, "Wrenching loves company."

Opps... too late. I haven't had any problems. 4 on the floor like this boxster or my daily boxster got towed with a dolly from where I bought it to my house.





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At first glance, that car seems to need a little attention. Or perhaps it's only lens distortion?

Looks like a 90's Miata with Boxster seats and wheels. Look at the cut-outs in the hood for pop-up headlights. Or maybe a Boxster rolling chassis with Miata body parts. Also, I don't see any sign of an engine between the seats.

Look at this 1990 Miata:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1990-mazda-mx-5-miata-264/

Hi, Al. Those are definitely Boxster Turbo Twist wheels. Which, by the way, are my favorites. If I bought a 986 that had fancy wheels, I'd replace them with Turbo Twists. Hard to improve upon perfection.

I like them too, and I wish I had them because they seem so much easier to clean than mine. Especially that damn brake dust.

That's definitely not a Boxster body, though.

And BTW that front frame is not from a Boxster, either.

A bit altered... :D

Its a boxster. Tubed out with an FD RX7 body on it.

Its got a rotary engine in the middle. (this car retained the factory firewall for the most part)


But back to towing. I've never had problems towing (granted I haven't towed 986's much) I can't see why it would be a problem flat towing.

The countershaft is on the bottom of the trans, and the lube is driving by that input from the wheels. For the same reason you can tow bugs in this way.

The only reason why I think the manual says you shouldn't is because of the floating steering wheel and keeping the key in the on position will kill the battery. I guess Porsche just didn't want to deal with a bunch of warranty claims for dead batteries.

My lord why would anyone pay money, let alone $40k, for a Miata?!?!?!?!?! LOL


The engine is right where its supposed to be. :D

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DLvGua88hO4

Ah so it's an RX7, not a Miata, as I originally thought. Pretty slick (or sick) LOL. I assume the Boxster engine was grenaded, but what was wrong with the body that you had to transplant another ono it? What's that engine in there now? It seems to sit a lot lower than the Original Boxster engine.

EDIT: Nevermind. you answered the engine question below. But what was wrong with the body?

I don't know what happened to the flat six. I might have been a runner. Don't care I tossed the engine in the trash as soon as the car came to my house.

The skin came from a salvage guy in Florida. The skin looked like it got swiped in the right rear corner. I slapped it on my truck and took it home. Cheapest way to get an FD now a days.

Oh, you mean the 986 body. Not much wrong with it. I cut the skin off of it and saved it for future repair to my DD. As it so happens the RF fender is on my DD now. I used the junky fender that was on the boxsterado on the RX986 (for the fuel door), and swapped the blue fender (resprayed) onto my DD.


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Is that tree growing out of the frunk? :D

what the eff did i just read?

There will be a quiz that counts for 90 percent of your grade.

What did you have trouble understanding?

The first sentence "Oh, you mean the 986 body" is shortened because I had made a previous response in haste and didn't think about the OP's question regarding the 986 body.

The next sentence "Not much wrong with it." depicts the condition of the 986 body. "It" in that sentence stands in place for the type of car I'm describing, in this case its a 986.

This sentence might get dicey for a boomer (thats someone who is old). "I cut the skin off of it and saved it for future repair to my DD". "skin" is the outer shell of a monocoque chassis. "It" refers again to the 986 car type. I didn't use a coma to separate the compound sentence, but its not always necessary to do so. The "it" in the second half of the sentence refers to the forementioned skin. "DD" is colloquialism for daily driver.

I'll admit this next sentence is superfluous. "As it so happens the RF fender is on my DD now". I use this sentence to describe how I used the "RF" (that means Right Front) fender. I again use the two characters DD to suplement writing daily driver.

This final sentence is a bit clunky but we can brake it down into one compound sentence, then clarify. "I used the junky fender that was on the boxsterado on the RX986 (for the fuel door), and swapped the blue fender (resprayed) onto my DD." The word "I" is the subject for the first part of the compound. The predicate of that part is "used". "the junky blue fender that was on the boxsterado" could have been better separated with a coma as it describes one thing. "on the RX986" is a preposition. "On" in this last part of the first side of the compound sentence is the preposition describing where the "junky blue fender" was going. "(for the fuel door)" I used paratheses to try to separate this thought from the rest of the sentence for clarity (I failed). The subject for the last half of the compound sentence is an implied "I". In the second half of the compound sentence "swapped" is the verb that is being done to the fender. "onto" is another preposition describing where the blue fender is going. "DD" is used again at the end of the sentence.

https://media1.tenor.com/m/SLjIrbzQG...the-office.gif

My engine swap thread seems to have metamorphosed into TikTok posts in my absence. I'm still busy setting up my new house and shop, and I want you kids to be on your best behavior while I'm away.

I was enjoying your English 101 lesson until I hit, "...but we can brake it down into one compound sentence...".

That's where you lost me. Nice try. :cheers:

I'm still alive, still getting things set up at my new place. In the meantime, since putting the car on jack stands will be my first order of business, I've been thinking about how to make the process less frustrating. The main problem with jacking up Boxsters is the lack of jacking points at the centerline in the front and back. Without them, one must use the "approved" jacking points which, instead of at the center line, are offset a foot or so to one side. As a result, the car is not side-to-side level when elevated, which causes aggravation when trying to place jack stands under the car.

Consequently, I've come up with a Grant Hargraveish solution: a 5"-wide steel channel crossways on the floor jack, with rubber pads that correspond to left and right jacking points. The channel will be upside down on the floor jack in order to keep the profile as shallow as possible and also to prevent the floor jack's pad from slipping off the channel. I ran this plan by my friend the metal fabricator, and he gave it his blessing, although he thought steel would be preferable to aluminum, because he thought aluminum would flex too much. The issue is moot, however, since I couldn't locate aluminum channel wider than 4". Rubber jack pads, including the one on my floor jack, are close to 5" in diameter.

I would be interested to hear folks' take on this scheme.

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That should work, but you don't need to do all that. The suspension and body are stiff enough that even if the lift points are off-center, the lean won't be all that much.

Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDA-qI5HsIU

Consider the following:
With the floor jack under the rear crossmember, jack up the entire back of the car and place jackstands under the left and right side jacking points (just ahead of the wheel wells) and lower the car onto them.
At the front, jack from just behind the front wheel wells, placing the jack well inboard (you will see a good structural location about 18” in). That will lift the front of the car, at which point you can place jackstands at both of the front jacking points, lower the front of the car and pull the jack out.

In summary, lift the car twice and place four jackstands. Easy easy.

Thanks, Al. That was one of the first videos I watched when I first got the car. I like John Salt's videos.

I've had the car on jack stands four times now, using Salt's (and Tom Coradeschi's) method. Which works fine IF you don't need to elevate the car higher than 14" or so. As Salt observed, when raised at the recommended jacking points, front and rear, the car is higher on one side. There's no way around it.

My jack stands have a maximum height of almost 20", and I want every inch of that, to have enough room to drop the engine and transmission. A 14" jack stand height won't cut it. I can't conceive of any way I can achieve maximum height — on BOTH sides — without using something like my floor jack cross member to lift the car evenly and level, both sides at once. I've been thinking about this problem for a long time and I'm fairly certain my design will do the job.

So I'm going to proceed with fabrication (i.e., cutting the channel to length with a hacksaw) of the floor jack cross member, which I have dubbed "The Lift Master" (patent pending). ;) Any bets on whether it will work?

Rereading your post, may I assume by "With the floor jack under the rear crossmember" and "just behind the front wheel wells, placing the jack well inboard (you will see a good structural location about 18” in)," you're referring to the same lift points John Salt used in his video? Otherwise, according to Porsche, damage to the undercarriage can result.

What's the lift on your jack? if it's about 22-24", then the low side should be at around the 20" you need, and the high side will be more than high enough, naturally. .

My floor jack's maximum height is 19.5 inches. My brother's jack is approximately the same. Not enough to raise both sides to 20 inches. I could buy or make tall ramps for all four wheels and stick a platform made of 2x8s or 2x10s under the jack. That's one solution I considered. Constructing the Lift Master™ ;) is even simpler: hacksaw 12 inches off a 48-inch-long steel channel, attach a couple of 5-inch rubber pads .— and it's finished! (Well... my OCD-lite will probably compel me to spray it yellow to match the floor jack, so there's that.) There's adequate clearance to get the Lift Master™ under the front or back with its channel upside down over the jack's pad. The pad will be in the trough, preventing the channel from slipping. The arms will extend out 18 inches (from the jack's centerline) on each side, pads positioned under the lift points.

C'mon, Al — you don't think it's a simple, semi-innovative solution?

Okay, where's Grant?!

I can’t say, as I’ve never seen the video. It’s a method I’ve been using since 2006. I put some photos up in a post, probably on the Pelican Parts forum, many years ago…

Tom, is there another Pelican Parts forum besides this one? Also, if you want to see Salt's video it can be arranged, assuming you can present proper identification.

my personal jacking procedure
 

This is what I do whenever I need to jack the car high on four jackstands, please note that this is my personal procedure that has worked for me since 2007 I first got my 987CS, and now I use it on the 981CS

1) get the rear wheels on ramps

2) raise the front driver side with the floor jack, enough to put a 4x4 underneath the front left wheel (this extra step is required as my car is lowered..), otherwise the jack and the piece of wood will not fit under the front bumper

3) get the floor jack centered with the frunk emblem using a 2x6x24 piece of wood under the front part of the subframe and raise the entire front, then use two stands under the facory jacking points (I use 'jack pucks' attached to the jacking points) between the jack and the frame.

4) I center the jack using the exhaust pipes as a centering point and use a 4x4x36 under the bolts that connect the diagonal braces to the rear suspension mounting points, raise the rear axle just enough to raise the wheels to allow me to remove the ramps and install the rear jack stands.

IF, needed to get the car higher, I "very carefully", slowly raise the front a bit (one click on the stands) and then move to the rear axle and do the same with the 4x4 Note: you need to raise each axle just a bit to avoid the risk of the pucks slipping from the jack stands.

Please note that I have the Quick Jack, but sometimes just thinking about the weight of the ramps gives me a back ache..

.

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/boxster-cayman-forum/729592-what-kinds-floor-jacks-2.html#post7581158

Thought I'd check in and prove I'm still alive and kicking. The place I bought turned out to need a lot of work. I underestimated how rough it was. But I bought it for a song, and it was built on a fairly large lot, the main attraction. I've been tied up getting it in shape — furnace, water heater, plumbing, toilet, bathtub/shower, 220 dryer outlet, roof, etc., etc., etc. Doing most of the work myself, of course, because I can. And when I get ready to flip it, the way things are going in today's real estate market, I'll probably double my money. Why not just stay here, you ask? The reason is simple: Because it's unsuitable for installation of a 2-post lift. I'm determined to have one. Anyway, I'll be back in the swap saddle by and by, count on it.

I've been wondering where you were because I haven't seen a post from you in some time... part of me was hoping you had your Boxster all finished and you were taking a long, well deserved road trip, but I decided that thought was premature. So, glad to see your post and hope you get back to working on your car once your domestic tasks are taken care of.
Larry (the Bald Eagle)

I've been wondering where you were because I haven't seen a post from you in some time... part of me was hoping you had your Boxster all finished and you were taking a long, well deserved road trip, but I decided that thought was premature. So, glad to see your post and hope you get back to working on your car once your domestic tasks are taken care of.
Larry (the Bald Eagle)

Thank you, Larry. The ironic thing is, I'm feeling guilty about spending all this time on the house instead of working on my poor little 986. But if I don't get this house stuff finished before cold weather sets in I'll be in big trouble.

I assumed that you guys get plenty of rain, but never knew that it gets too cold in the PNW area..

The PNW has freezes from time to time. The winter before last the temp dropped into the low teens. Roads were glare ice. That's the kind of weather where you'll need to have a torpedo heater on hand if you're working in the garage. I have mine, Mr. Heater. Not much of a conversationalist, but he can keep a garage toasty.

Thought I'd take a break from installing a new kitchen faucet to give you an advance peek at the Lift Master™. To obtain enough clearance to slide it underneath the car to the lift points I use ramps under the wheels. But then, I have to use ramps with the supposedly low-profile floor jack alone. The Lift Master™ worked perfectly in testing. The car was level side-to-side at maximum jack height. I didn't take a picture because it wasn't painted yet, but more photos to follow when I put the car on jack stands to drop the old engine (although it might be a while before I can get to it).

Lift Master™ dimensions: 5" width x 1" height x 36" length. Height added to floor jack: 3/16" (thickness of the steel channel) plus 1" (rubber pads).

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