Secondary Air System surgery - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Bala · 03-06-2012, 01:54 PM

Took the whole system out. What a pain to get to it. Had to remove throttle body, intake hoses, unbolt both manifolds, loosen alternator, loosen ac comp, and still some bolts are so hard to get to even using a universal joint ratchet. Need a lot of patience and I stopped trying to remove the manifold half way when I saw what all I had to remove to get it out. Anyway, its full of carbon and instead of trying to salvage I decided to replace the major ones so I never have to do this again until I die.

Replacing:
Porsche Boxster Air Injection Parts

Vacuum tank
Change over valves (i have 2)
Check valve
Shut off valve (most expensive item)
Y pieces
Gaskets
Rubber hose elbows

Also replacing the entire oil fill tube line. With all these replaced my car should never give me the codes for SAS. If it did I'm going to open the intake and throw a stick of dynamite and start the car.

AndyA6 · 03-06-2012, 03:11 PM

Oh man!

Is there a way to clean the system instead of replacing the parts? Just wondering....

landrovered · 03-06-2012, 04:27 PM

Every time I have touched SAI I have regretted it.

Bala · 03-07-2012, 01:48 AM

There are way to check the funtioning of the components to see if they are working properly. I think my vacuum tank is fine but given the look of things in the engine compartment s and considering it is 12 yrs old i just thought of replacing them instead. I broke the plastic tab on one of the vavles. The plastic on this car has to be the worst quality ever.

The shut off vavle has so much carbon there is no way to clean and make it work like new. I total setback is around 350 if changing hoses and stuff. I would thats not bad for eliminating the issue which could lead to other problems. And the dmv inspection.....

manolo · 03-07-2012, 08:30 AM

Make sure you have a remote start if you go the "dynamite" route.

maj75 · 03-07-2012, 12:31 PM

And you could have eliminated the problem with a ROW tune...

Well, your SAI system might not have been working properly, but the Inspection people would never know and you would have gotten a few more ponies. (Unless they plug into your DME as part of the inspection)

Bala · 03-07-2012, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maj75

And you could have eliminated the problem with a ROW tune...

Well, your SAI system might not have been working properly, but the Inspection people would never know and you would have gotten a few more ponies. (Unless they plug into your DME as part of the inspection)

Few more ponies maybe but a lot more error codes I did get for sure. There was a pop pop sound on startup->idle. I think I can attribute that to the vacuum suck on the oil tube. The damn thing was cracked in 3 places at the ribbed area. Seems like engine heat might have melted it at the ribs. I need to figure out how to stop that once I install the new tubes. I read somewhere that these tubes needed a mesh sock but Sunset says that is not available anymore. I can see so many places that I need mesh sock, or need replacement or additional ones.

As for the inspection, I did clear some errors by fixing some issues, drove the car like crazy and took in straight to inspection. Luckily the guy said he wasn't going to go crazy about it. Whatever that meant, I passed. No codes at that point though. I do get the SAI codes and that's why this replacements. I have confirmed the MAF is good so next in line were oil fill tube and SAI.

And I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Not fixing the SAI would give me more ponies? I thought it was the other way around?

bar10dah · 03-07-2012, 07:27 PM

Appears the SAI only operates during the first 60 seconds or so of cold engine start? So, SAI there or not, should not affect HP increase/decrease?

Bala · 03-08-2012, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manolo

Make sure you have a remote start if you go the "dynamite" route.

Good advice! This is why i love this forum.

onaFLYer · 03-08-2012, 09:18 AM

Quite an undertaking, to say the least. I don't think I need to go this far with my car, and it's SAI issues. We looked at all that stuff during the rebuild, was fine.

You might want to try some header wrap for insulation purposes. I know it's a tight fit, I looked mine over pretty well in the car trying to eliminate issues.

I'm going in for the smog test today, fingers crossed....

Congrats on passing yours.

maj75 · 03-08-2012, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bala

And I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Not fixing the SAI would give me more ponies? I thought it was the other way around?

No, the ROW tune gives you more HP. The cracked oil tube has nothing to do with the SAI error codes, so that needed to be fixed. I just meant that a working SAI does not give you more power and if it fails to function (assuming no vacuum leaks) it won't cost you any HP. The ROW tune stops monitoring the SAI so the recurring codes/CEL stop. It also gives you a few ponies as an added benefit.

I just dyno'd my car (2000 S, rebuilt motor with the ROW tune, snorkle delete and Che exhaust, and a SAI that would otherwise throw codes) and had 254 HP at the rear wheels. I didn't get a pre-exhaust dyno and I don't assume that the exhaust added much HP over stock. But 254 at the rear wheels ain't bad for an essentially stock 3.2.

Bala · 03-08-2012, 12:34 PM

Interesting. I thought a malfunctioning SAI caused issues with engine performance. I do have high idle issues, crazy pop pop sound on startup etc. Are you telling me all this was not necessary? I'm going to shoot myself.

As for the ROW, I haven't read up on that so not sure what that is about. I have 2000 3.2 as well. I think what horses I have is more than enough to get me killed. Don't need to make the odds in favor of death.