Here is a video of the front wheel "rolling" in my workshop...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XIv9SAqQBPI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Dang that was a hard hit! That was the first chance I got to watch it.

I'm just waiting to hit something now that I removed the skid plate, luckily I am back at stock height, looks like a 4x4 compared with lowered boxsters which look soooo good :)

Holy moly:eek:
If the oil pan is cracked, that is a big load on the entire engine crankcase etc...
Hope it's just the oil sump plate...
Are the wheel bearings ok?

This reminds me why I don't like anything protruding below the sump plate.

Is the guard plate custom made? Or is it a brand name? Thinking I might need one too...

It is the one from LN Engineering, it is a solid piece and I believe would provide great protection.

More skid plate ideas: Look at Woody's build thread for some ideas for a custom skid plate, I think he has one. There is also an OEM skid plate for 996, I have never been able to find out if it can fit on the 986 or not, same engine but oriented differently and I have never been able to lay eyes on one to see the attachment points.

Edit: the OEM 996 skid plate would fit I believe, but not on a car with a deep sump, at least not the LN or Pedro sump.

Had the same issue with a rear wheel at the same location 2 years ago. The tire actually went flat. Are you going to Chuckwalla Tom?

My frist experience in that hole. Dang, it was big. Sorry, won't make Chuck because I'm too busy with work. Hope to make it to Willow in Dec.

Here is a photo of the skid plate. Its 1/8" stainless steel. Made by Bilt Racing and sold by LN Engineering (2qt Deep Sump Stainless Steel Guard Plate)


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1509140084.jpg

Driving around the block the wheel bearings seem ok but I'll do a detailed check this weekend while the car is on the lift. Then I'll do an early morning canyon drive just to make sure that there isn't any strange noises while under cornering loads.

New oil pan installed this morning. I'll put the skid plate on tomorrow...

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1509304119.jpg

I installed the sump guard plate this morning. It was really easy - 4 bolts.

Thanks Steve! :)

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My pleasure! Now your new shiny oil plate can stay that way :)

I'm curious if that skid plate makes you feel more engine vibration?

Woody, I'll let you know as soon as I get it back on the road...

While I was replacing the oil sump, I noticed a small drip from the right front area. Thought it might be a very small coolant leak where the coolant hose connects to the radiator. But it wasn't coolant, it was oil.

Removed the right front wheel and found this - the right front shock is leaking oil! In fairness, this was a used shock that was installed after the incident in February. Obviously, it was near the end of its life. No worry, I bought a slightly used replacement PSS9 today and will install over the weekend.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1510358471.jpg

Just want to say thanks tom for all the help youve given me this year. Really appreciated! Good luck getting it all fixed up

It takes a village to own a Boxster! Glad to help anytime. :cheers:

I drove the car around the past few days trying to isolate and diagnose what sounds to me like a possible bad wheel bearing but I didn't notice any difference in NVH.

Now, to be honest, the car already had a good amount of NVH after I installed the semi-solid engine and trans mounts so if there was only a small increase I may not have been able to notice the difference.

I had House Auto swap in the replacement PSS9 this week (too busy with work to do it myself). They also found the top shock mount damaged. HUGE improvement!

But now there is a rumbling sound on the left side. AZ986S asked earlier about possible wheel bearing damage from the pothole at AutoClub Speedway and after an early morning test run up Angeles Crest Hwy (Hwy 2 north of Los Angeles) this morning, it definitely sounds like a left side wheel bearing going bad.

Pothole damage tally: 2 bent wheels + cracked oil sump plate + wheel bearing.

Such a beautiful morning I had to stop at Newcomb's and take a couple of quick pic's...

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1511112133.jpg

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I had House Automotive change the left rear wheel bearing on Monday so I decided to take another quick run up Hwy 2 this morning to make sure that the car is ready to race next weekend. Ran great, handled perfect, ready to race. :)

Alexander Bermudez (Growler, white 964 hot rod featured on Petrolicious Porsche 964 Leave No Room for Indifference), Mike Carlson (black, 74 911S) and Evan Fullerton (E30) came along for the fun!

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/Box11511375333.jpg

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Uh?? Tom??

Porsche calls for a 1mm bead on all engine cam covers/oil pan cover.. that is WAY too much!! That's exactly how you kill these engines.. the silicon will end up in the oil sump pickup!!

and.. The next time you see me? (Dec. POC event) ask me to show you AIM oil pressure data over the last 10yrs at all the SoCal tracks.

I know. I know. Like any good DIY'er, I just can't help myself. I am in a recovery program for "guys who think that if 1mm is good, then 2mm must be better, and 3mm must be best".

You have no idea how hard it is for me to set my torque wrench to the specified setting and then actually stop when it clicks. I mean, I know that bolt can handle another 20 ft-lbs... :)


Copy. I love squiggly lines. I'll come find you.

You'll be disappointed **somebody sucked you into that deep sump. The 2.5's have nowhere near the issues the 3.2/3.4/3.6/3.8 M96 and M97's. The 2.5 spins 1k less RPM and doesn't fill the heads with oil as bad as the engines I mentioned above. CA Speedway (with stock pan and X51kit) drops from 60lbs of oil pressure in the banking to 20lbs....... for 50-60ft at 130+mph. Next track that we have oil pressure *drop? Chuckwalla. Guess which corner? The banked corner. For 30-40ft. 60 down to 30. Who cares. LOL The engine will run for several minutes with no oil pressure.

Tom, are you still using the cquence rotors? any issues with premature cracking? I intend to use the slotted/dimpled versions once I'm ready to replace rotors.

Thanks!

Yes, I am still using Cquence rotors. The full drilled model that I use will eventually crack but I can usually get through two sets of pads before that happens. I don't think that the slotted/dimpled model will crack at all so it shouldn't be an issue.

Data. Data. Data. It makes all of the difference in the world.

I'm using the slotted Cquence rotors (not dimpled), so far so good. I only have 4-5 weekends on them at this point. No cracks or issues.

cool, thanks for the info. I think I'll go with them. Price is certainly right.

Brad, I was at Chuckwalla last week. Reviewing my in car video, I did not see my Accusump trigger in the 10 deg banked turn. That would suggest no less than 35-40 psi, at least for my setup. Of course, I wasn't running at extreme cornering Gs either, maybe 0.9-1.0 Gs. I do run the EBS oil baffle (X51 type) with a 2 QT Accusump and the 35-40-psi system, with Mobil 1 5W50 oil.

Here's the link:

https://youtu.be/KaEAu7W8_bM

Thre's an orange LED (to the left of the dual gauges) that comes ON whenever the accusump dumps. I does come on occasionally on turns 9-10, 16.

One thing to note, and this may be a factor - the accusump oil pressure switch is measuring closer to the oil pump, and most aftermarket oil pressure sensors go in the valve cover where it reads around 10 PSI lower since it is near the end of the pressurized oil path? I have always wondered too if some of the pressure dips seen on some turns is an artifact of the oil pressure measuring point in the valve cover?

It might be an interesting experiment to really zoom your video in on the gauges and the accusump light to see the correlations.

Follow on to this thread...http://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/70165-fuel-gauge-stuck-full.html

I removed the fuel level sending unit and found that the arm was stuck in the full position. Once I forced it past the sticking point, it seemed to work normally again. Regardless, I replaced it with a new unit. The engine fired up on the first try and the gauge is reading 5/8 full which is about what I would expect.

Relatively easy job, 45 mins taking my time, and I only dropped the fuel pump lines and electrical wires down into the gas tank once!

By the way, I did not empty the gas out of the tank (and had no problems) but I wouldn't want to do this job with a full tank of fuel.

Old unit:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/Old1511813003.jpg

New unit:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1511813017.jpg

Old sending unit:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1511813186.jpg

I'll see Brad this weekend and we'll discuss...

Tom,

You now need to calibrate the dash to the new sending unit (PIWIS1-2) which.. requires emptying the tank :(

Isn't it close enough "as-is"?

No, it wasn't. I had House Automotive drain the tank and perform the calibration. Should be good to go now!

Another great weekend of racing in the books!

First, congratulations are due to Nigel Maidment (NigelT here on the Forum) for winning the POC Boxster Spec Championship for 2017! He and Anders were only 1 point apart going into this weekend and Nigel clinched it by winning races 1 and 2. Well done!

As for me, I struggled in practice on Friday and Saturday morning to get up to speed, but by race time I was finally back to my normal race pace. Nigel, thanks for the help!

I started 7th of 14 cars in the first race and had a poor start so I was happy to simply maintain my position behind John Monmeyer in 6th. While the front four cars checked out ahead of us, 5th (Andrew Weyman), 6th, and me in 7th battled hard for 13 of the 14 laps. I was able to get into 6th only to be passed back a few laps later when I slid the car out of Turn 5 and John was able to maintain his momentum to pass me on the back straight into Turn 8. Weyman did a great job defending the whole race against attacks from both John and I to hold onto 5th.

I started 7th in the second race and got a great start moving up to 4th. Again, 1st-3rd checked out ahead of us while 4th-8th battled the entire race. A very fast driver started at the rear so he worked his way by early in the race and then after successfully defending my position for 10 laps, I was finally passed and finished 6th while still under heavy attack from 7th (Ana Predescu).

Unfortunately, I didn't race Sunday since I got sick on Saturday night and felt so sick that I packed up, drove home, and spent Sunday sleeping and feeling like crap on the couch.

A well deserved and hard earned shout out to John, Andrew, and Ana for a weekend of close and clean racing.

Lots of good photos and video coming! Here is a pic of the Boxster in the paddock.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1512408724.jpg

Man that sounds like a lot of fun. I spent some of this weekend chasing a spec Boxster, caught and passed him, to then find out it was a cooldown lap and he was going into the pits :)

Thanks, Tom. Sorry to hear you got sick. For the record, Anders was 4 points ahead of me going into the weekend. And I only managed 3rd in the second race, which turned out to be good enough since Anders pulled off with a couple of laps to go after making his way from the back of the field to 2nd after an "interaction" with the lead car. I have some pretty cool video of the first race I can show you at some point if you're interested. Anders put us all in our place on Sunday with a clear victory. I finished 3rd again. A satisfying end to a great season of racing. Next year is going to be even more competitive with some fresh, and apparently very quick, entries to the BSR field.

Nigel, thanks for the corrections and congrat's on the Championship. :cheers:

Nigel always likes correcting people. Great to see you again Tom. As much as it pains me to say this "CONGRATULATIONS NIGEL". I finally ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY

I am stuck in fuel gauge hell.

If you remember, the gauge would never go above 3/4 even when the tank was full but would work normally between 3/4 to empty. Then the gauge stuck at 3/4 so I couldn't live with it any longer.

I've replaced the sending unit, made sure that the lines aren't interfering with the float, had the sender/gauge re-calibrated, checked the wiring from the sender to the gauge, verified that the sender is indeed sending the proper signal, and manually commanded the gauge using a tester - and the gauge is still stuck at 3/4.

This made racing last weekend quite interesting because I never really knew how much gas was in the tank except when I filled up completely. After the first race, I filled up completely with 7 gallons meaning that I finished the race with about a 1/2 tank or 60+ lbs heavier than I should have been.

The shop's conclusion this week is that the gauge itself has failed. A local instrument repair shop wanted $750 to repair the fuel gauge. Seemed like a pretty high price, I mean, that's almost a new set of tires to replace a circuit board (and yes, I value every financial transaction in equivalent sets of new racing tires these days). I declined their repair offer and ordered a used instrument cluster from eBay for $99 (including shipping).

Sure hope this solves the problem. I'll let you know what happens when I get the replacement cluster next week.