A much better photograph of the current state.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psgf2e6lb5.jpg

I'll spend my "9/80" day off tomorrow getting meticulous about fastener torque, wire routing and installing my new oil cooler, front and rear main seals, AOS, flywheel, clutch, etc.

I'm pondering bolting the engine and transmission together and lifting them up inside as one unit. My cross member is already off and it seems like (given a proper lift mechanism) that it would be a bit less fiddly.

going up...
 

Happy Easter everyone.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...pskcmzpsh8.jpg

A shout out to a post in a different forum by JFP in PA for posting how to properly use a PVC coupling to seat the RMS. I managed to get my first one all jacked up just using the coupling and a rubber mallet. His trick just adds the crank bolts which barely catch on the ledge. Easy.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psoghmldbk.jpg

I've been waiting for this day for months.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0mj8tal7.jpg

And this is the pile of parts NOT going back in my engine

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psi9k0syh6.jpg

You can't log on to a water cooled Porsche forum and "swing a cat" without finding a IMS thread. Just a bit ago I almost completely crapped a thread here on 986 and I probably did enough damage as it is. Instead of doing a 9 page rant I decided to bring it to my own thread, since I've obviously stunk this place up enough.

What caused me to post in that thread was the always present remarks pointing out that comments about IMS failure are suggesting that a M96 powered car is any less reliable than any other vehicle.

Here goes:

In the 90s I ran a type 4 VW bus (I know that is technically an incorrect term, but VW people will know what I mean) 196,000 miles. That was a 2 liter air cooled four cylinder pushing a rather substantially built tool shed at 80mph no problem. The entire fun of driving the bus was that you drove the snot out of it and didn't go to jail. At the end its compression was so low that in a wind storm it would move across the parking lot but it NEVER broke and NEVER left me stranded.

More on point, my MO is to purchase 4-10 year old cars that I loved when they were new but could not afford. I have had fantastic value from purchasing cars that had 100-165k miles and doing service myself as they needed it. There's a 2004 V8 Touareg in my driveway that runs like a Rolex and has 124k as of this morning. Everything, and I mean everything (it's my woman's car) works. I've done the transmission valve body and sometime soon I'll be doing the lower control arms to get rid of a bit of shimmy on braking. BFD, right? I've owned three BMWs. Two of them needed gas, tires, oil changes. Oh and two turn signal bulbs.

The third was a really, really old car. It was a chapter of life where I needed to tighten the belt just a bit (was trying to buy a house). I sold my turbo subaru and went low. Over the time I owned it I did the valve cover gasket, the front lower control arms (both really common and not particularly difficult to DIY) and my water pump crapped a few blocks from my house. The replacement took possibly 45 minutes. I got it for $5000. The window sticker for $39k was in the glove box. To fund my 986 I sold it after 18 months for $4500. That's driving a great European sedan for CHEAP. I could have driven a Camry. Way too beige for me.
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0e4c562a.jpg
Tell me it's ugly and that I should have got a Camry.

The M50 engine found in the BMW is easily a 300k mile motor if you do your part and keep oil in it. I loathe that BMW went away from the straight six. I wouldn't own a bmw newer than the e46.

The M96 was introduced when Porsche was trying not to go broke, and had brought in the consultants from Toyota to teach them how to actually produce a car without having to hand build them. If they had not, Porsche would be uttered in the same sentence as Saturn, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Saab and actually a number of other manufacturers (Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Maserati, Volvo, Bentley, etc) which were rescued as more of a hobby by financially sound companies. In that same breath I'll mention that without the dreaded SUV line, it would not be possible to buy a new Porsche.

The M96 is a throw away motor as designed. I don't really care who is the CEO or the chief of engineering, that there is really stupid. Evidence that they did not really look to the future: You cannot grind the crank undersize, line (or align, I can't recall the term) bore a crankcase and go oversize on the outside dimension of the main bearings. You can't resize connecting rods, bore the cylinders or do diddly crap with worn cam journals except replace the entire cylinder head and cam cover(can I get a WTF?).

You can do all of the above on a type 1 VW motor except bore the cylinders because it's cheaper to throw them out and a set of pistons and cylinders. Now here is a motor originally designed to produce 36hp, and ass hats like myself were extracting 200hp (mine was more like extracting everything possible from a normally aspirated 1600cc on a college budget , but my high school friend's cars were MONSTERS). Case savers, shuffle pins, welding behind the #3 cylinder, offset oil coolers, align bore, counter weighted cranks, using a dual oil relief case, full flow oil filters - these all became well known things that you must do to expect any service life out of a VW engine. It allowed things like 2110cc, dual 48 IDA [insert Tim Allen grunt] without flying apart in chunks. Built correctly a type 1 VW motor is incredibly tough.

It will be the after market which rescues the M96 because, get this: It won't be Porsche.

Jake comes on various forums and says "I've seen X number of these failures in the past 24 months. This if a flaw. EOM". He's very specific as to which engine he is talking about. He stands to gain nothing if your engine doesn't actually fail, he's just trying to say "hey, watch out for this stuff". Some would add that the sentence continues "...but I sell this".

Whatever. Don't believe him. Don't buy LN products. Don't talk about failures modes. Let's talk about car wax.

My old man used to bring home vehicles and right after it was in the driveway he would go in and get out one of those old school label makers. Not the kind that prints on a white strip. The kind that embosses one character at a time. He would create a label which he would affix to the dashboard. They all said the same thing. "Machinery doesn't care". That's it.

It begged the question, of course. Explained it was like this: "This is a machine. Unlike a horse it will deliver everything you ask of it without question. You can run it out of oil or let it overheat or continue to operate it when it clearly has a problem and it will not complain. It's up to YOU as the operator to watch for signs of trouble and to make every decision".

One thing that keeps me from being a fanboi of Jake is when he remarks that he wishes he patented something he has no intention of using. Before anyone steps up to defend him, first off he's a marine and doesn't need anyone to defend him (please). Second, I have a great deal of respect for the work he has done. He's already posted in this thread and if he wants to take me to task for anything I've said he's welcome to. It's called discussion and it's the reason every one of you logs on to look at Porsche forums.

Crushing competition doesn't mean crushing innovation. There is plenty of room in this multi hundred thousand unit production run (which will wear out over and over) for everyone including Jake and the bottom feeders. There is always going to be cheap bastards like myself who cannot on any terms cough up a check for $16-18k for my $10k car.

In fact, given what I've written it is obvious I would buy the nicest $17k Porsche I could find and consider it better money spent.

I once interviewed at Aisin Automotive in Kentucky as a tool designer, and they offered me more money than I had ever been offered to work there. Aisin makes basically every die cast part of every Japense car made in America, and that crosses many manufacturers.

While I was there on tour they showed me a new proprietary piston treatment that Mazda was implementing (and had F'd up a seriously full 5x5 bin overflowing with pistons). I knew that there was a tour from Toyota minutes behind us and I asked if they had any requirement to keep the Mazda pistons from Toyota.

An oddly Japanese thing but none of them gave a crap what the other manufacturers found out. They freely shared information because it worked to make cars better.

I'm trying to remember the last time a Japanese car company went broke. Mmm, yeah I got nothing.

My point is that for the example I used of the type 1 VW engine, the aftermarket stepped up and filled a market demand to toughen a motor that was never intended to produce anything more than modest power. The aftermarket can eventually do the same for the M96 which was thankfully produced in large numbers. The Boxster is a fantastic car to drive. My S model has the same hp as the early model Turbo Carrera, which I grew up thinking was a bad ass car. The Boxster puts the engine where it belongs (sorry 996 folks, it's true).

I'm driven to learn more about the entire car because it's the only flat six powered Porsche I can afford. I learned right away that other than the engine itself, it's just a car. Hell my car has no glove box, no heated seats, no cup holders - it is about on par with my early Miata for luxury (that is: sit down and shut up). Actually the Miata had cup holders but they sucked.

The design of the suspension is not exactly befuddling, the transmission is everything it should be, the brakes are fine. If the top goes up and down (okay even up is optional for me), I'm in.

Damn I hope this thing runs.

/rant

Oh, and update. As of this evening my front engine mount is about 1" from putting the bolts in. The wiring harness is in the trunk, my brand new $57 dip stick tube is in place, nothing pinched. The A/C compressor is in place with the front two bolts just started. Looking good.

Great post in a great thread [emoji106]

Great post/read/thread. I love the car, but yeah, the disposable engine is the downfall of the 986. You have to know this going in or you may be terribly disappointed. I honestly do not know what I would do if my car suffered one of the many failures that Jake points out. It is not the most luxiourous car but it is the most fun IMO. It never fails to put a huge grin on my face, even when it is just sitting in the garage.:D Engine options abound and then of course there is the option of just getting another 986 or move on to something else. If it came down to fixing or another 986, I would lean towards one of Jake's engines. Reason being, I love the way my 986 is right now and putting a used engine is too big of an unknown for me. Yes, Jake's engines cost more but I believe it would outlast what ever used engine I would put in there. But, everyone has different situations, wants and realities. That's why I agree there is a place for everyone in the aftermarket. The 986 is still a fantastic vehicle for the money IMO. It has outstanding performance and classic lines. Still a winner in my book.

Well I am dully impressed. You can wrench and write well!

This is one of the few threads that I have subscribed to and have enjoyed your progress and comments. Hell, I am damn happy after I complete a brake job. It must be a special moment in life when you turn the key and the engine comes to life after all of the work you have put into it. Nice job and I look forward to the "I went for a drive" post from you.

And, if and when my M96 motor dies I will haul it across the country to Jake. I bought the Boxster new 14 years ago and plan on keeping it until the end.

Fingers crossed for first engine start.

If possible, you should video record the first engine start. I can't remember how many times I've done a first time start after a rebuild and wished I could have re listened/watched/analyzed exactly what happened since my mind tends to run wild with assumptions when something goes wrong.

...then you should post the video here so we can all get our daily dose of engine porn...

I never had that attitude until we developed things that didn't work, and then someone else would do the same thing and market it as the next best thing. They never knew (and still haven't learned) what the negatives of the technology were/ are, because they haven't replay paid attention to the engine.

I've learned the hard way that we have to Patent the good ideas, and the bad ones. This has occurred not once, or twice, but now 3 different times with two different engine families. Its our fault, because we never dreamed that someone would sell a bad idea.

Learning something, knowing that it could be used by someone else and not protecting the invention is almost like handing the enemy some ammunition, cocking his weapon and just handing it to him. I promise not to let life be easy for these guys anymore; because it damn sure hasn't been easy for us. They should have to expend the same mega figure per year that we do on development to play this game.

Where we goofed up was not patenting the entire procedure of IMS retrofit along with the system of tools and procedures used a decade ago. The business of invention is quite interesting, and today I practice it most everyday.

Crushing is too humane, I'd rather make them bleed continuously with a debilitating wound, but maybe thats just the Marine in me again. Best friend or worst enemy- their choice.

Oh, as far as innovation goes, well the other guy has the same chance that we have to be first at the game and develop the best mouse trap. It his own damn fault if he buys parts from LN for 5 years before he copies someone else's ideas and brings them to market. Maybe they'll learn to start sooner, think harder, and fight harder. I doubt it; because that costs real money and takes real time, and it damn sure isn't easy as failure is the norm.

Thats why we bought a 9a1 powered Cayman and took the engine apart for no reason, just to see what made it tick... Then developed that into a 4.2 liter, we made every part including a billet crankshaft, and did it before some people had ever changed the oil in a DFI Porsche engine.

BTW- Best of luck for a solid engine build. Nothing like that chill up the spine when it starts for the first time. I still get it, if I ever lose it, its time to quit.

This x1000! gah, I can't wait!

Thanks for the supportive replies.

I just had surgery yesterday so the project is going to take about a three week break. I will set up a couple of video cameras on engine start day.

Well I'm back at it, finally. I still feel like I came up short in a knife fight but I'm able to work for short periods of time and I gather a little more strength every day.

Two steps forward and one step back.

The night before my surgery I was in a hurry to get the engine shoved up inside and the front motor mount bolted in. That way I would be faced with hooking up connections and other light duty work until it came time to do get the transmission up there.

I didn't write about it at the time because I was so dumbfounded by what occurred that night, but it turns out that both of my two lower engine mount bolts were stripped. When I took the car apart I found one that was undersized and looked like someone had stuck some silicone on it to fake the job. Seriously, who does that? I had no reason to think the threads were toast, just that they must have lost the correct bolt and were trying to cover it up.

So there I was on my back late on a tuesday night trying to set the torque on those big bolts when I realized how bad it was. The bolts threaded in just fine with my fingers but when I went to put a load on them I could just feel the torque rise slightly and then begin to fall off. F.

I obtained a Helicoil set so I could do the thread repair but at that point I knew I was dead in the water until well after surgery. It wasn't until two days ago that I was able to pull it off.

I was really hoping that the tap would be long enough that I could perform the job without having to remove the oil pump housing. It wasn't, and Helicoil taps are so odd ball (by necessity) that you can't just go buy a long one.

I lowered the engine about half way back to the ground, pulled the a/c compresser back out, relieved the tension on the top cam chain tensioner and removed the oil pump housing. I got the Helicoils in while wishing I knew more German, or at least some good German profanity. These are not the only fastener locations I have had to do inserts in. It would appear the castings on this car are actually made of silver cheese and not aluminum. Seriously, how does a bolt that you torque to 7.5 ft lbs ever strip out? I go years without buggaring a bolt hole or snapping off a fastener.

Laying on my back while tapping the hole for the Helicoil I had that brief image of me snapping the tap off flush with the bolt hole. That would have really made my day. Needless to say I was super careful and in the end the job went fine.

I had to buy new gaskets for the oil pump housing of course. It is actually an oil pump housing gasket and then a waterpump base gasket that you snip loose. Since I was on a roll I decided to just head down to my local Porsche dealer where I had to pay $35 for the gaskets that are under $10 for the pair had I ordered them from Pelican or Auto Atlanta. Same gaskets, not OEM copies. They didn't even kiss me first.

Once satisfied that my engine wasn't going to fall out I installed the front mount but noticed that it seemed a little jiggly. Yep, the rubber was torn. Now that is totally my fault as it is something I could have added to my shopping list months ago. I swear I looked at it and decided that it was fine.

I sourced the press in part locally for $55 and then yesterday I had a machine shop press out the old one and install the new one. The mount is back on and I've now raised the engine back up. A/C compressor is on and torqued.

I am seriously considering ditching A/C all together. That is some heavy crap right there, and mine doesn't blow cold anyway (probably vented to the atmosphere by a previous "mechanic"). I live in the PNW and have ZERO use for A/C. None. I'm a hard core convertible guy. Anything this side of light rain and my top is down, regardless of outside air temperature.

I know some will argue that having it removed would hurt the resale value. I can assure you that if I ever sell this car A/C will be the least of the bargaining chips.

As of this morning I'm starting from where I thought I was the night before surgery. I should have the front mount bolted up and the majority of top side connections performed by the end of today (fingers crossed).

Best thread ever.

I bought one of these by accident and I can confirm that it fits a 2.5 perfectly as an A/C-delete belt. I expect it's the same on a 3.2.
Amazon.com: Bando 6PK1930 OEM Quality Serpentine Belt: Automotive

F350,

Well aren't you the steely eyed missile man. Since my a/c is bolted up I'm going to save that tidbit about the proper belt to run an a/c delete and work it into "chapter 2, how I built a motor correctly for once"

I had various family events that took priority over working on my car yesterday, but today I was back at it.

I got the engine raised to where the four studs/nuts that hold the front motor mount yoke to the body could be threaded in and torqued. It almost went too smoothly to trust it, but there it was.

I followed that with reconnecting all the coolant lines from below, the P/S pressure line connection and most of the connections on the left side of the car. I still need to hook up the fuel line, install the clamp on the P/S return line and install the metal clip which helps some of the above mentioned hoses behave during maneuvering.

Up top I got the SAI air hose hooked up, engine compartment fan connector, the pressure side fuel connector, the oil filler tube and something else that escapes me at the moment.

Too late, I realized that my starter ground cable (the one that people occasionally find disconnected and start threads about) was routed incorrectly. It needs to slip between two tubes of the intake manifold if it has any hope of attaching at the front edge of the SAI bracket.

I don't know that there is a correct wrench that will get that starter bolt off. In the end it was tiny movements with a box wrench and finger dexterity that got that starter bolt off and the cable rerouted. To get it back on I had to devise a way for me to lay on top of the trunk face down over the engine. Mission accomplished. I also had to temporarily remove the AOS flex hose and the oil filler tube.

Also on top I got the PS reservoir installed and clipped into place, the battery junction box installed and the positive cable bolted up.

Basically I hooked up every damn thing I found sticking out. By the time I was worn out for the afternoon I had a few places that I was thinking "I know there was something here I had to do", so I broke out my old checklists and the manuals

Sure enough I missed:
The single wire connector for the a/c compressor
The C shaped clip on the vacuum booster hose
SAI connector plug

I also made notes to check that I properly installed the AOS flex hose (I know I got the filler tube back on correctly).

I've got a fresh set of check lists to complete all tasks and I'm down to 32 steps including filling and bleeding fluids.

It will actually be sort of weird to sit in this car let alone turn the key.

I had a good day yesterday and this was the result

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7jrrmlfp.jpg

I intend to drive this car by the end of the day

Well it ran. This is the car on all fours for the first time in months. I pushed it out of the garage to fill it with fluid and install a brand new group 48 battery.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psguxv7c23.jpg

No ugly mechanical sounds, knocking, tapping,etc. But it is not running on all six cylinders. It seems like an induction leak or crossed plug wires (not really possible on this engine)

No codes. I was really beat when I even pushed it outside and didn't have the energy to keep it up. I'll give it another look tomorrow after work.

Congratulations on the first start up. I have not gone into my engine beyond a CPS and a water pump. I have done a few V8's. I got to think there is a wire/missed connection or something. Don't push on your recovery. It's harder to heal a human body than an engine that is not running well.

Congrats! Bet the missing will be an easy, obvious fix after a good nights sleep.

Could be a loose injector electrical connector if it's a steady miss.

Or if it is skipping all over and running terribly check the rubber tubes on the intake. If the bottoms are not seated they let in air and the massive vacuum leak makes the engine run terribly. I have data.

Snorkel wasn't on the throttle body well enough, and i missed the connector to the throttle body itself (FYI, way better throttle response when it is connected).

Checked my gas cap, did a 1minute tune and fired it up. Runs way better but not perfect yet. Maybe five-ish cylinders and consistent, so now to track down the uncooperative cylinder.

I have a coolant leak from one of the little rectangular caps on the oil pump/coolant housing. I would swear i never removed it but whatever. I've got the gasket so I'll be changing it shortly and going through another pile of coolant.

Took me seven months plus but here is my very dusty car in the driveway

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...psk0puzzos.jpg

I diagnosed the misfire as cylinder 3 via obd2. The connector was loose. Runs great at the moment. I'm going to fix the coolant leak and then see what is left besides a good wash job and vacuuming.

Awesome! Great job. Congratulations. :cheers:

Congrats! You now know the Boxster better than most on this forum. Nothing like hands on experience as the teacher.

Very impressive DIY. Nice job. And, thanks for taking the time to post this thread and the photos.

Congrats on the rebuild, very impressive! That has to be a great feeling to get it running again:cheers:

Flaps,
Your #135 pic is a look up the backside with your jack stands on either side. Did these provide sufficient height to allow engine trans drop?

I've been driving the car a few days now. It has about 160 miles of mixed driving and it runs great. No new problems of any kind.

I still have the smallest of coolant leaks on the oil pump/coolant housing. Where I had initially thought it was the square lid I could now swear that I can see coolant "weeping" from porosity in the casting. This is the same oil pump housing I had before, so I'm not sure why it would choose to start in now.

I'm going to start with a stone cold, very dry engine in good light and see if I can find where it is coming from for sure.

Uh, so a few other things.

I had firm plans to upgrade the exhaust, had pondered an underdrive pulley - perhaps combined with an a/c delete, and then the 987 snorkel, 996 throttle body and 997 intake T. Based on the concessions I made (not doing crap about my heads, cylinder bores/rings/pistons) I decided that extracting additional power would be counter-indicated (read: a really dumb idea and waste of money).

I did decide to do the Fister mod from FD motorsports, since it sounds incredible and is less money than a Borla, etc. I had my muffler all wrapped up and ready to ship off prior to my surgery but it was not a top priority. Once I was finally able to work on the car it became a larger priority to see if all the work I had put in was a complete waste of time or not. An exhaust system can wait, and is of cro-magnon difficulty level.

Now that I've driven it some, I'm even more convinced that the exhaust is an early change. That and an alignment job.

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/...pszo0dbusy.jpg

What you see in that picture is an intermediate height. It is high enough to get the transmission out and to do any work needed under the car.

It is not high enough to get the engine out from under the car, nor to rotate it 90 degrees which needs to be done during install. For that I jacked the car up maybe another 6" at the bumper.

Once I got the engine ready to lift straight up, I lowered the car back to the position you see here. No sense lifting the engine any higher than needed, and having the car sit more level would be a benefit when trying to get the transmission aligned and mated up.

First congrats to the rebuildt. But where are the videos of the first engine start? ;)

Regards from Germany
Markus

Looking at these to get high enough.
Sunex Medium-Height Jack Stands — 10-Ton Capacity, 18.9in.-29.9in.H, Model# 1310 | Jack Stands| Northern Tool + Equipment
Might have to fab a better contact surface shape.
Thoughts?

Biggest issue with putting it on a jackstand that high is how will you get it to that height?

http://thomasdgeorge.com/wp-content/...d-IMAG0511.jpg

you could always...

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1381129330.jpg

That thing looks like it is ready to slide off....

Bootleg,
You don't need circus freak jack stands. As healthservices points out, it will be your floor jack that has difficulty.

I put the jack stands at the jack points for the car. Since they are ahead of the rear wheels that puts the back bumper really high as is.

With my harbor freight jack stands on the second or third notch the car is high enough to drop the transmission and pull it out from under the car - no bumper removal needed.

When it came time to slide the engine out, i put the floor jack ahead of the jack stands and lifted at the rolled body seam (it is a rigid vertical flange) and used a block of wood between the seam and my floor jack. Lift one side, extend the jack stand two more clicks then go to the other side. Rinse, repeat.

That car in the pic is WAY higher than my car ever got.

Flaps10, are you a pilot?

Has anybody tried taking them (motor/trans) out together?

Heliguy,
Yes. Single and Multi Commercial, non current CFII. My day job is flight deck design and I currently fly for pleasure.

Bootleg,
If I had an actual lift (which lifts the entire car vertically) then I would do it that way for sure. As it is, if you drop the engine/transmission together, the width of the engine would be too wide to make it past the rear suspension castings. You would either have to lift the car way up to clear it, or split the engine and transmission/pull the transmission out/rotate the engine/pull the engine out.

Indeed. I took them out together and replaced them together. Clearing the castings did require lifting the back of the car until the nose was nearly on the ground.

just an idea
 

Flaps & James,
Thx for your thoughts. Looking at the Quick Jack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qye_-Lyb58

Thinking I could build a structure beneath it. Then using conventional hyd jack, raise each side and slide the assembly in place. Once level and on the stand at ~10" height, I could raise the 22" of the lift jack for a total elevation of ~32" Would that be sufficient to remove the engine & trans together? See any flaws here?

I thought I would give a quick update. I just posted in another thread that I had about 750 miles since putting the engine back in. I just looked and I'm at 909 miles (less than 30 with the top up. Low 50's and a light drizzle and that b**** is down). I had intended to dump the oil and cut the filter open about 409 miles ago, but apparently I'm a few days late.

No leaks. Coolant is still coolant colored, oil is still looking just like $80 worth of fairly fresh oil should. I should have already ordered some Joe Gibbs oil for the next stretch but have not.

Temps are good. It's a fun car to drive, especially above 4k rpm. I don't even think I've hit 6000 rpm yet. I'll spare the rod for a while until I actually trust it. It sounds fantastic, but too quiet for my tastes.

I added up my receipts and while I'm missing a few they added up to $2816. My girlfriend doubts that number and had figured I was between $5-10k. I knew it wasn't that high for sure and had a number in my head of around $3500. I know what some of the missing receipts are for and while all of the big ticket items are accounted for I would allow that some of my add-ons may "add on" another $300-ish. The total tally includes every clutch part except the flywheel (which checked out fine) and the disc itself (it was fine and will certainly last until the next time I'm in there).

Based on that math I would say I'm WAY ahead of anyone purchasing a used motor from a wrecked car. I KNOW what is in my engine. Every part. The knowledge gained from holding all the pieces, measuring, torquing has been priceless in terms of preparing to build a better one in the future. No rush...

While getting reacquainted with the car I have begun to recall the things which were going to need attention. I have some suspension noises which, from my searches, appear to be sway bar links front and back, and my left rear "track arm" which makes a rattle right behind my back on some road surfaces. Under heavy braking the front tends to wander side to side a bit (for other than heavy braking there is no such squirming). Probably looking at front lower control arms and tie rod ends to freshen up the front of the car.

My steering column makes some crunchy sounds if you're doing any parking lot lock-to-lock work. My power steering pump is noisy, something I hadn't noticed before. As it does for most victims, er, Porsche owners, the pump tends to make noise only when cold. Fluid level is fine (just above the line) and I used the Pentosin called for on the cap.

I had replaced all my clutch components because I had difficulty engaging first and reverse, and I could feel a certain amount of clutch drag. On a perfectly flat surface I could engage first gear and the car would move ever so slowly forward, and going to reverse, well, you get the idea. I had already bled my clutch several times and replaced both my clutch master and slave cylinders prior to discovering metal in my oil.

The current clutch drag is much less than before but I'm still having difficulty with first and reverse. Shifter mechanism and cables are on the list to check/replace.

Now that I've read some more I realize I should have taken a fellow forum member's advice and replaced my transmission fluid before putting the braces and stiffening pan back on. Seems the 6 speed is susceptible to such behavior if the wrong fluid is used. And if that's not it, then my first gear synchro is toast. Yay. Another project.

My high beams don't work. They work to flash as passing lights, but when you push the lever forward they just stay low. I think it was doing that BM (before metal).

My paint job is like a crime scene. It's actually in pretty good shape, but it's got tons of little scratches all over the car. Several months ago I attended the only local PCA event I've been to so far and it was at Griot's garage which just happens to be minutes from where I live. At the time I knew I would some day be interested in freshening up my paint job, but with a gaping hole for an engine bay I had more pressing matters. I certainly didn't want to disprove the theory that you can't polish a turd. They have a kit with polisher and several products which they assure me will make my car look tons better.

I just scored some floor mats from a fellow inmate (factory ones, they're excellent). Just moments ago I received an ebay short shifter kit. No other parts on the way at the moment.

I didn't read some pages of the post, but what parts of the clutch assembly did you replace? Had same symptoms recently with hard to engage gears. Slowly turned to impossible to engage any gear unless motor was off. My pressure plate was broken (creaky) and the clutch fork was cracked (I assume less cracked/bent when selecting gears was still hard but possible, i.e. the stage you are at). Hopefully those were part of the replaced parts list?