my DIY engine rebuild

[flaps10]

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

[flaps10]

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.

[clickman]

Awesome! Great job. Congratulations.

[Jamesp]

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

[Chuck W.]

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

[BruceH]

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

[BOOTLEG]

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?

[flaps10]

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.

Originally Posted by BOOTLEG

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?

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.

[Smallblock454]

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

Regards from Germany
Markus

[BOOTLEG]

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?

[healthservices]

Originally Posted by BOOTLEG

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?

[healthservices]

Originally Posted by healthservices

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

you could always...



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

[flaps10]

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.

[heliguy]

Flaps10, are you a pilot?

[BOOTLEG]

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

[flaps10]

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.

[Jamesp]

Originally Posted by BOOTLEG

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

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.

[BOOTLEG]

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?

[flaps10]

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.

[epapp]

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?