BoxsterLS376 introduction - LS3 conversion :)

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by Lcrivers816

Did you use LS1 flywheel bolts?

Sorry not sure off hand if they were Chevy or Porsche as they came with the Adapter plate/clutch setup, but I would figure they are Chevy LS bolts to bolt to the Chevy crank.

How's yours coming along?

[Lcrivers816]

Slowly but surely

[shockandawe]

Which alternator and ac compressor Porsche or Chevy?

[Crono0001]

Selling already?

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by Crono0001

Selling already?

I guess selling is a strong word as I'm not putting it on craigslist or posting it to Ebay just yet. More like making it available here to someone else to see if I can make converting these a viable business, or just a side hobby to make myself a weekend hot rod.

It is awesome to drive and very fast, if I can start building these for people and make a living doing it then I'd be willing to sell it. But not everyone wants to drop $30K on a $10K car. If no one else wants it then I have no problem keeping it If someone else wants it then i'll gladly build another one and so on. I think everyone needs a V8 Boxster!!!

Reality is that anyone wanting to build one of these on a strict budget can certainly do it, but there will always be more to do. You can't double the HP of a car and expect everything to be hunky dory. I could very easily spend another $10K on this car right now on mechanical upgrades that I think would benefit it but I don't have it.

2 biggest things I would upgrade would both be in the transmission. I would put in a Guard LSD and a taller ring & pinion. I think the stock ratio is something like 3.444 and could probably benefit from something closer to 3.0 as first gear is too short and the rest are ok but you can easily spend most of your time in 5th and 6th and not worry about downshifting. I'm sure there are R&P's for racing out there to shorten everything up but not sure if anyone makes a taller one or not.

While the suspension on the car is good, it could always be better... I figure any 15 year old car would feel better with all new bushings, shocks or coil overs etc. but you better be in for a bit of a bumpy ride as upgrading to the basically solid mounts you already definitely feel the road!

Brakes are also very good but probably also a good idea to upgrade them, if not a full caliper/rotor upgrade, at the very least upgrade to some Hawk racing pads to help slow this animal down as it always wants to go fast!!

From there you could easily spend another 10K on cosmetic upgrades such as that sweet ass widebody kit and 997 conversion Lcrivers816 is doing!

But in the end it is all about what you are really looking for... If you are not a DIY guy spending $60K+ for a well sorted out Boxster with a V8 is a lot but you have something very unique and fun to play with that you can't just walk into a dealership and buy. You can daily drive it, track it take it to Porsche meetings, hot rod shows, exotic shows or to the drag strip and have a great time wherever you go.

Sorry I feel like I'm starting to ramble - What can I say it's hot and I'm bored at work

Have a good one~
J

[Lcrivers816]

How is it going? Still waiting on the clutch on mine =(

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by Lcrivers816

How is it going? Still waiting on the clutch on mine =(

Going well thanks. The car is living mostly at home now as pretty much everything is complete and working. I would like to give a quick shout out to Steve @ Renegade. Always friendly and willing to answer calls and questions~

The biggest issues are all sorted... ish! A tach adapter got my tach working properly so that is good. The only other issue still remains with the cooling system although I've got that worked out on a temporary basis at least for now with a toggle switch for the fans. I haven't let it get too warm lately so it hasn't done it but seems like once it would reach about 210* or so the coolant would all rush out of the reservoir (causing PIA light on dash to flash) everything was still cooling fine but won't refill the coolant tank until you shut off the motor for a few minutes, then it fills back up and all is good. Weird. Could have just been more air in the system but for now flicking on the fans keeps everything under control.

I still have the t-stat gutted right now although that needs to be sorted. The GM computer isn't set to turn the fans on until 207*F which is probably fine but I've found that flicking them on around 180* keep everything pretty cool, even driving it around here in Georgia showing 96* on the dash the car runs about 195*~ Last night on my way home it was chilling at around 175*

Oh and I'm getting a check engine light for "Idle higher then expected" which kinda sucks but I believe that can be programmed down unless there is a leak that my smoke test didn't show.

Otherwise been driving the car pretty regularly and have logged about 350 miles on it so far. It is a completely different animal and I think the biggest problem so far is that I drive it way to fast. Luckily I'm not a complete idiot anymore when it comes to speeding but I'm bound to get into trouble eventually

I actually made a new video on the way home last night although I didn't post it for fear of self incrimination. Maybe i'll post it as a private video like the last one. It is a short cruising video with a quick 6th gear run from about 55mph to 90 mph... takes about 6 seconds and the MPH climb 4 MPH per tick on the digital speedo so it. Also dropped it into 4th for a quick blast and it didn't take long at all

I tried to sign up for the "wanna go fast" event here in Georgia in September but it is already sold out Maybe a trip to the drapstrip is in order - daddy needs some official times!!!

Thanks
J

[Lcrivers816]

That's awesome to hear! Did you get the AC going too? Steve 2 day priority shipped over the flywheel bolts were missing from the kit :ah: Spec sent me the wrong clutch disc (ended up with a regular clutch, they had my flywheel 3 months and nothing in regards to the twin disc). It wouldn't be a project if everything didnt go wrong lol.

[BoxsterLS376]

Sucks to hear about your clutch, hopefully you get it soon, we need updates man!!

I actually started to test fit the AC lines the other day and did some figuring... I figured that the way I have things set up the factory lines bolt right up to the compressor with just enough clearance to get by, just need to have the fittings removed from the other end, cut down the lines and have them re-crimped, bada bing. I also need to sort out the belt but that shouldn't be that big of a deal now that the alternator is sorted, although I think i'll need a bit shorter belt.

I'm gonna take the car to work tomorrow and think i'll mess with that a bit, it would be nice to have A/C!! I also need to see if I can get the rear firewall made and perhaps a cold air box for the air filter as well, hopefully that guy will be around tomorrow.

Regarding flywheel bolts, mine came with the kit but I bought the upgraded clutch kit for $1000~ so it was all nicely packaged together if I recall. All of the bolts for the clutch/flywheel were in a 3 section plastic bag which was heat sealed. If you didn't buy the upgraded clutch not sure if you would get them or not.

Good luck!
J

[BoxsterLS376]

So just a quick little update...

Well I figured it would happen eventually but was hoping it would last more then 600~ miles

Hopefully i'll be able to come up with some better videos here in a bit as I got a little gopro type camera, which I was testing on the way home from work Friday and came around one of my favorite corners in 2nd gear, gave it the beans and BAM KLING KLUNK RATTLE Turns out I found the limits on the axle as it came apart on me on the ride home, WAH WAH WAH.

Doesn't look like anything broke in particular but rather came apart because of too much angle to the dangle. That and I was stressing it out about as much as possible making a right hand 120* uphill turn. Was it my fault, yeah sure, but what is the point of having a car like this and not driving it like an ass a bit?!?!

So I ghetto repaired one of my original axles and put it in for temporary purposes... now I really need to look into upgraded axles, only problem is that I don't think anyone has made any, including Renegade. They were talking about it a few months back but haven't heard anything going into production.

I found a few companies out there who will make custom axles etc. so may just have to have a set made up special for it. If I go this route I may have them made just a bit longer to help compensate for the transmission being back a bit further.



So to recap, if anyone has suggestions for upgraded axles, please let me know!

Also can anyone suggest a decent easy to use program for editing .MOV video files? I'll post the video of the axle blowout as soon as I can cut the video down to size as I'm sure no one really want to watch my whole ride home

Thanks
J

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by BoxsterLS376

Also can anyone suggest a decent easy to use program for editing .MOV video files? I'll post the video of the axle blowout as soon as I can cut the video down to size as I'm sure no one really want to watch my whole ride home

Thanks
J

Camtasia is a good video editing software I use at work for making screen capture videos and then editing them, and it comes with a fully functional 30 day trial. For simple editing windows movie maker is good but I'm not sure if it has support for mov.

Steve

[Bayley]

Any idea what actually failed?

I'm wondering if the CV joint is popping out of the cup after having the transmission moved backwards that extra inch. I've recently learned the importance of having proper CV to cup engagement after having my race car (don't get all excited, it's a 1992 Plymouth Sundance...) pop the axle on lap 1 of a 24 hour endurance race.

We swapped to a more modern engine and redesigned all the motor mounts. Unfortunately, the geometry wasn't quite spot-on and we were blowing passenger axles within a lap or two. We eventually made a 1/2" spacer between the outer CV axle and the hub that pushed the axle further back into the trans. Once the spacer was added, the axles stopped failing.

Just throwing this out there because I have my concerns about moving the transmission back without lengthening the CV axles.

[BoxsterLS376]

Thanks Bayley,

Yes that is actually what we are going to try first because I do suspect that moving the transmission back just a little is the cause. I'm gonna get the bad axle cleaned up and see what went bad other then just pulling apart. I know there are a few raised areas on the outer portion that I saw but could be more - find out soon enough!
Thanks
J

[martsink]

Originally Posted by BoxsterLS376

Thanks Bayley,

Yes that is actually what we are going to try first because I do suspect that moving the transmission back just a little is the cause. I'm gonna get the bad axle cleaned up and see what went bad other then just pulling apart. I know there are a few raised areas on the outer portion that I saw but could be more - find out soon enough!
Thanks
J

Hey, did you find anything suspicious when you pulled apart the axle? I'm trying to get my car on the road next week and I really hope this doesn't happen to me.

[BoxsterLS376]

I found them to be suspiciously short No but really it appears to have just pulled apart for the most part. The outer CV joint appeared to be riding on the very outside of the joint from the wear I can see and the combination of a heavy load with an uphill right hand turn pushed it to the limit. You can see 2 spots where the metal gave way when it finally let go and pulled apart on the outer portion of the CV joint. The cage itself it still fully intact although it does have a crack that I can see but I think that was not the cause of it.

I think I have a solution though which for testing purposes will be fine and could be a permanent solution. Hopefully a spacer on the transmission side will be all that it needs so I'm going to get my CNC guy to make some up then will need to get some longer bolts. I'll start with 1/4" and will get a 1/2" one made as well.

I've got everything I need to rebuild my factory axles now although I'm in no hurry until I can get this damn check engine light sorted out, technically the tag is expired now so I need to find some one who can turn the idle down on it but so far no luck

[martsink]

Originally Posted by BoxsterLS376

I found them to be suspiciously short No but really it appears to have just pulled apart for the most part. The outer CV joint appeared to be riding on the very outside of the joint from the wear I can see and the combination of a heavy load with an uphill right hand turn pushed it to the limit. You can see 2 spots where the metal gave way when it finally let go and pulled apart on the outer portion of the CV joint. The cage itself it still fully intact although it does have a crack that I can see but I think that was not the cause of it.

I think I have a solution though which for testing purposes will be fine and could be a permanent solution. Hopefully a spacer on the transmission side will be all that it needs so I'm going to get my CNC guy to make some up then will need to get some longer bolts. I'll start with 1/4" and will get a 1/2" one made as well.

I've got everything I need to rebuild my factory axles now although I'm in no hurry until I can get this damn check engine light sorted out, technically the tag is expired now so I need to find some one who can turn the idle down on it but so far no luck

I might be interested in those spacers. Let us know how it goes.

[The Radium King]

tarett sells rear axle spacers. not sure what tranny you are running (thread way too long) but 's' axles are longer but would require you swap the hubs as well.

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by The Radium King

tarett sells rear axle spacers. not sure what tranny you are running (thread way too long) but 's' axles are longer but would require you swap the hubs as well.

Yup the kit they sell is exactly what I was thinking...
Axle Spacer Kit, Rear, 15mm, 986 /987/996/997

It would be easier to buy one from them but @ $185 I think I'd rather wait and see if my guys can cut a few out. I'll may call them up and see if they will hook me up... I'm not very patient

[Bayley]

Originally Posted by BoxsterLS376

Yup the kit they sell is exactly what I was thinking...
Axle Spacer Kit, Rear, 15mm, 986 /987/996/997

...I like this option. Thanks guys!

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by Bayley

...I like this option. Thanks guys!

Me too!! Give Ira @ Tarrett a shout and he can set you up - iraramin@tarett.com. I was going to have my CNC fab guy up the road make a set but by the time they do all the CNC drawings raw materials etc. it would cost me that much, take longer to get done, and I'd still have to find the bolts!

Thanks to The Radium King for pointing these out to me!!

I took the time last week to rebuild one of my factory axles and installed it on the car Friday. I was checking the amount of room I had between the axle and transmission when the outer CV is compressed and there is over an inch of travel so these 15mm spacers are going to fill the gap nicely!!

Only thing left to make me feel 100% about it would be an LSD... which technically I have I just need to pay my boss for it! Of course if I pull the transmission out to do that then I'll go ahead and get all of the gears cryoed and REMed to make it as strong as possible. I think I took some pictures of a few 914 V8 gear boxes we just put together, it pretty sweet. Takes all of the surface imperfections off the gears, almost looks like they have been polished/chromed. I don't really want to have the car down that long right now as we are coming up on perfect driving weather here in Georgia soon!

I don't suppose anyone has a spare 6-speed S gearbox they want to donate or sell REALLY cheap eh?? Can find them on Ebay for about $1200~ but I'm so tapped out on this project it is not even funny so it'll likely have to wait!

Thanks
J