BoxsterLS376 introduction - LS3 conversion :)

[itsnotanova]

I hate to see you go. You've brought a lot to this forum in the short time you've been here. Thank you for this detailed thread. In my opinion, this thread is the best put together thread I've ever read/watched. You were very detailed about everything and the video clips along the way were a great bonus. I'd almost consider you a trend setter. Was there anyone else that showed a detailed list of what it takes to put a LS into a boxster?! Renegade might have built the first one, but I believe you're the first to show the rest of the world how to do it. Thank you and I'm sure whoever buys your boxster will have tons of fun

p.s. We need one last video of you doing a burnout driving away into the sunset

[Smallblock454]

Originally Posted by BoxsterLS376

Converted car is now for sale.
http://986forum.com/forums/boxsters-sale-wanted/60379-ls3-v8-porsche-boxster-s-480hp-conversion.html#post483143

Greetings everyone,

I've got other projects in mind and it is time to move onto the next phase so I am officially offering my LS3 V8 Boxster for sale.

Offered for sale at $44,000.

2000 Porsche Boxster S - LS3 V8 Conversion -480 HP-
Approx. 145K on chassis, Just over 3,000 miles on conversion~
Grey/grey and is not perfect but in overall very good shape. Convertible top is fairly new and has a upgraded glass rear window. Lots of small dents that unfortunately I caused a lot of leaning over the car during installation but nothing horrible, I was quoted $300 to fix all the dents on the car. Drivers seat back bolster is torn and worn from getting in/out of the car, things like that but nothing that can't be fixed~ We have the technology, we can rebuild it~

The car was just weighed on a set of Longacre racing scales with approx. 1/2 a tank of gas weighed in at 2,991 pounds with the "quiet" exhaust system which adds about 50 pounds~

I have had a lot of fun with this project but it is time to let this one go and move onto bigger and better things. I completed the conversion myself and documented the process which you can read about and watch progress videos here:

BoxsterLS376 introduction - LS3 conversion

The car is EXTREMELY FAST. Using Horsepower to Weight calculators it is capable of a 1/4 mile time around 11 seconds flat at approx 125MPH which is just about what a brand new Corvette Z06 will run!!

All parts purchased new unless otherwise noted~
Conversion bits include but not limited to the following:

2013 Chevy crate motor, LS376/480 376CI 6.2 Liter All-Aluminum V8 with optional GM hotcam, Makes 480 Horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque! Nice shakey cam you can feel in your butt $8,200~

GM factory controller kit including ECU, Throttle pedal, Oxygen sensors etc. Everything needed to run the new engine AND make it EMISSIONS COMPLIANT!!! Car is currently registed in Georgia with current emissions but please check your local laws. $1,200~

Renegade Hybrids full installation kit used...plus a lot more... Renegade Hybrids - Basic installations kit, Power steering kit and ALL optional parts were installed on this vehicle, Meziere Electric water pump, High performance clutch etc. $7,000~

CSF Aluminum radiators - all 3 - $1,500
Porsche Heater Core - $300
Porsche Coolant Reservoir tank - $350
USED Corvette C5 engine mount brackets - $150
Hinson Supercars Urethane Engine Mounts - $200
WEVO Boxster V8 transmission mounts - $200
High flow Vibrant Catalytic Converters - $300
Magnaflow Mufflers and X-Pipe - (Quiet Touring Exhaust) - $500
Additional set of muffler bypass pipes~
IMI High Torque Starter - $250
FEQ Aftermarket Axles - $300
H&R RSS Coil over suspension - $2000
Fully rebuilt brake calipers, powdercoated - $600
Hawk HP Plus brake pads, Stainless steel brake lines, new Rotors - $1000
Customer Fiberglass rear firewall
Refinished Xenon headlights - look like new!
Plus lots more...


The car is solid, reliable and supercar fast. No joy rides, been down that road. If you want to test drive it bring a $10,000 cash deposit. You break it, you buy it.

Thanks for this thread and all the work you've done to show us how incredible a V8 Boxster can be.

Hope you'll find a serious buyer for that very special car soon.

Regards from Germany, Markus

[BoxsterLS376]

Thanks guys,

Needless to say this is not a good week for me. Reality is I do not want to sell the car, but I built it with the hopes of finding other crazy people like me who wanted to do this. Well reality is that Renegade Hybrids sells the dream, I'm selling the reality. The difference is about $30,000. Most people today are stuck in lala land and think that it can be done for half that, well I'm sure if you wanted a car with 50HP over stock that performed OK at best but sounded cool it could be done. But why waste the time effort and money if you are not going to make something special out of it?

My only hope is that someone will think this car is pretty special too. I'm open to reasonable offers, but I'm not going to waste my time with dreamers.

[shockandawe]

Originally Posted by BoxsterLS376

Thanks guys,

Needless to say this is not a good week for me. Reality is I do not want to sell the car, but I built it with the hopes of finding other crazy people like me who wanted to do this. Well reality is that Renegade Hybrids sells the dream, I'm selling the reality. The difference is about $30,000. Most people today are stuck in lala land and think that it can be done for half that, well I'm sure if you wanted a car with 50HP over stock that performed OK at best but sounded cool it could be done. But why waste the time effort and money if you are not going to make something special out of it?

My only hope is that someone will think this car is pretty special too. I'm open to reasonable offers, but I'm not going to waste my time with dreamers.

The price seems reasonable given all the work you put into it. I dare ask how much would it take to purchase it from Renegade probably a lot more for a turkey one!

[Nine8Six]

GLWS! Hope you sell it for what you ask for. Well deserved!

Oh and maybe not. Can you lower your price to $43,999 ?

.... reason for that is you eliminate any potential Chinese-American buyers with this advertised price. Number 4 in Chinese means Death. And two of those 4 doesn't turn these guys on at all. Worst bad luck you can have!

If they read 444 (triple death) likely they'll drop by the temple in the morning to deliver a gift (often a fruit). Serious stuff to deal with

Ps: as off this writing, no Chinese have died from reading the double nor triple Death number. It is just a belief

edit:
In my China, all residential and commercial buildings built between the 50's and 90's does not have a fourth and fourteenth floors, elevator numbers have been deleted.

[BoxsterLS376]

The number I hear is around $40,000 if you bring them the car although I may be off on that but for a similar build I'm sure it would be up there. That would likely not include other upgrades which I have done such as the aluminum radiators, brakes, suspension system etc.

I got a response from someone on another forum which was something along the lines of "If the dents only cost $300 to fix then why not just fix them?"

To which my basic response was this, it is a 20 year old car, DEAL WITH IT. ALL of the hard work has been done and to be quite honest if you are more worried about door dings on a car like this then you are missing the point and certainly don't deserve to have a car like this.

I definitely appreciate all of the encouragement from everyone here on the 986forums, you guys are a lot cooler then some other forums out there!

Oh and just because I'm selling this one does not mean that i'll be gone forever. I may just get myself a nice Boxster S as a daily driver, I think the cars are great... Although if I take on another project like this it will probably be a Cayman or more likely a 911... Turbo convertible

Only time will tell!

Thanks
J

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

GLWS! Hope you sell it for what you ask for. Well deserved!

Oh and maybe not. Can you lower your price to $43,999 ?

.... reason for that is you eliminate any potential Chinese-American buyers with this advertised price. Number 4 in Chinese means Death. And two of those 4 doesn't turn these guys on at all. Worst bad luck you can have!

If they read 444 (triple death) likely they'll drop by the temple in the morning to deliver a gift (often a fruit). Serious stuff to deal with

Ps: as off this writing, no Chinese have died from reading the double nor triple Death number. It is just a belief

edit:
In my China, all residential and commercial buildings built between the 50's and 90's does not have a fourth and fourteenth floors, elevator numbers have been deleted.

HAHAH! I may change the asking price then! I'm not really a religious person or anything like that but I do believe in Karma/good/bad luck. Reality is if someone offered me $39,999.99 I'd probably take it... AS LONG AS THEY ARE WORTHY!!!!

PS: Thanks for the interesting information!!!!

[Nine8Six]

I'll get 1.4 billion souls to pray for you and your GLWS right away

Thx!

Ps: Religion? Not even sure what that means myself.... certainly have "my very own" and there is place for one in it

Take care there mate (u do good work)

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

I'll get 1.4 billion souls to pray for you and your GLWS right away

Thx!

Ps: Religion? Not even sure what that means myself.... certainly have "my very own" and there is place for one in it

Take care there mate (u do good work)

Thank you! Thank you very much!
You do good work too!
J

[shockandawe]

Do you have any pictures of your custom fiberglass engine cover? Also how did you make it?

[cbbepop]

That's a rare color

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by shockandawe

Do you have any pictures of your custom fiberglass engine cover? Also how did you make it?

I do! I also have a video!

The down side is I also just got my first Apple computer, MAC mini and have no idea how to use it so i'll try and post them ASAP~

It was quite a process and the first attempt wasn't horrible but made me realize that making fiberglass look good is not easy. I then had a guy try one with a slightly different technique which worked OK and was nice and strong, but didn't fit worth a **************** so I scrapped that one too... In an ideal world you would want to do this with a vacuum bag setup to knock it out in 1 shot, I didn't but that what learning is about!!

So collectively putting together everything I learned from the first 2 failed projects #3 was a winner, here are the basic steps I took:

1. Masked off the opening to the engine and filled in the low spots with paper behind it so I would have a solid surface to press on.
2. Laid down a layer of plastic so the resin wouldn't get everywhere.
3. Laid my first layer of fiberglass cloth and taped it into place on the firewall.
4. Went to Home depot and got some 1/4" wire mesh from the gardening department which I then bent and formed into place over the fiberglass cloth. It can be pretty easily manipulated and cut to shape, but still very strong.
5. Getting that mesh into place is one thing but keeping it where it needs to be is another, so I got some 40mm bolts, washers and nuts and used the 4 existing mounting holes I have on the original firewall to bolt the wire mesh to the existing firewall with the fiberglass behind it.
6. Next thing I did was laid down my first layer of resin, I would recommend adding less hardener so you have a bit more time to work with the resin. If you set it up too hot then you will find yourself rushing more then you should so add less hardener and the cure time will take a bit longer, but totally worth it in the end. Make sure you are coating the heck out of the wire mesh
7. GOTTA BE QUICK! Layer #2 of fiberglass cloth, gotta lay this down before the resin sets up so you should already be prepared with the second piece before laying down your first coat of resin.
8. Lay down a second coat of resin on the second layer of fiberglass. This is the part where it would be best if you have a vacuum bag system setup (youtube it if you don't know what I'm talking about), because this is where you are trying to bond both layers of fiberglass. Without vacuum sealing it you will likely get quite a few air pockets depending on how well you set things up, but don't worry, they can be fixed later!
9. WAIT TIL IT CURES! Once everything is strong and the odor is gone then you should easily be able to see the flawed spots. Just get yourself a small sander and grind off the areas you are not happy with. Then all you need to do is go back and make patches with small bits of cloth and resin. At this point I also went back around the edges and added glass around the sides to give it a more finished look.
10. IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!!!! Couldn't help it So I originally got some ceramic high temp grey paint for the front but still wasn't happy with it soo in the end, last step I took was to add some heat protection! I am wrapping the front and back because I wanted a nice finished look. I need to get a bit more heat shielding as I ran out. This is the stuff I used, worked very well!! - Thermo Tec/24 x 48 in. adhesive backed heat barrier 13590 - Read Reviews on Thermo Tec #13590

I've got a few picture of it almost finished, like I said need to go get a bit more heat shielding but you get the idea!





Let me know if I can elaborate/help. I'll get some better pics and my video up soon.
THANKS!
J

[shockandawe]

Originally Posted by BoxsterLS376

I do! I also have a video!

The down side is I also just got my first Apple computer, MAC mini and have no idea how to use it so i'll try and post them ASAP~

It was quite a process and the first attempt wasn't horrible but made me realize that making fiberglass look good is not easy. I then had a guy try one with a slightly different technique which worked OK and was nice and strong, but didn't fit worth a **************** so I scrapped that one too... In an ideal world you would want to do this with a vacuum bag setup to knock it out in 1 shot, I didn't but that what learning is about!!

So collectively putting together everything I learned from the first 2 failed projects #3 was a winner, here are the basic steps I took:

1. Masked off the opening to the engine and filled in the low spots with paper behind it so I would have a solid surface to press on.
2. Laid down a layer of plastic so the resin wouldn't get everywhere.
3. Laid my first layer of fiberglass cloth and taped it into place on the firewall.
4. Went to Home depot and got some 1/4" wire mesh from the gardening department which I then bent and formed into place over the fiberglass cloth. It can be pretty easily manipulated and cut to shape, but still very strong.
5. Getting that mesh into place is one thing but keeping it where it needs to be is another, so I got some 40mm bolts, washers and nuts and used the 4 existing mounting holes I have on the original firewall to bolt the wire mesh to the existing firewall with the fiberglass behind it.
6. Next thing I did was laid down my first layer of resin, I would recommend adding less hardener so you have a bit more time to work with the resin. If you set it up too hot then you will find yourself rushing more then you should so add less hardener and the cure time will take a bit longer, but totally worth it in the end. Make sure you are coating the heck out of the wire mesh
7. GOTTA BE QUICK! Layer #2 of fiberglass cloth, gotta lay this down before the resin sets up so you should already be prepared with the second piece before laying down your first coat of resin.
8. Lay down a second coat of resin on the second layer of fiberglass. This is the part where it would be best if you have a vacuum bag system setup (youtube it if you don't know what I'm talking about), because this is where you are trying to bond both layers of fiberglass. Without vacuum sealing it you will likely get quite a few air pockets depending on how well you set things up, but don't worry, they can be fixed later!
9. WAIT TIL IT CURES! Once everything is strong and the odor is gone then you should easily be able to see the flawed spots. Just get yourself a small sander and grind off the areas you are not happy with. Then all you need to do is go back and make patches with small bits of cloth and resin. At this point I also went back around the edges and added glass around the sides to give it a more finished look.
10. IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!!!! Couldn't help it So I originally got some ceramic high temp grey paint for the front but still wasn't happy with it soo in the end, last step I took was to add some heat protection! I am wrapping the front and back because I wanted a nice finished look. I need to get a bit more heat shielding as I ran out. This is the stuff I used, worked very well!! - Thermo Tec/24 x 48 in. adhesive backed heat barrier 13590 - Read Reviews on Thermo Tec #13590

I've got a few picture of it almost finished, like I said need to go get a bit more heat shielding but you get the idea!





Let me know if I can elaborate/help. I'll get some better pics and my video up soon.
THANKS!
J

It looks very nice and yet for a novice laying Fiberglass is seem hard to do. If your willing to make another I would buy it?

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by shockandawe

It looks very nice and yet for a novice laying Fiberglass is seem hard to do. If your willing to make another I would buy it?

It definitely wasn't easy! I probably have 20 hours in the dang thing

I'd help but I don't know if you want to drive down to Georgia to have me help you out with it! You really need to have the car you are making the firewall for because of the "custom panel beating" I performed to get the opening big enough. I could make one that might get you close but I know if would need to be reworked to some extent ( I still need to finish final fitment on mine!).

The problem is in trying to make it without a proper mold. If I was just making one to replace the stock cover it would be no big deal, make a mold then lay up the fiberglass in it. Because each car is different you really need to use the car as the mold if you want it to fit properly.

I would talk to a local stereo shop or possibly a local fabricator and they should be able to help you out. I'll post up my video and pics and if they have questions about what you wanna do just point them towards this thread!
Thanks!
J

[BoxsterLS376]

few more, slightly out of order...

[BoxsterLS376]

Greeting everyone,

Sorry for the delay!
So I finally figured out my new Apple computer enough to put a video together!! I was even able to put 2 videos together so you don't have to watch them seperatly!
I'm a real pro, I know One day you guys may actually get an edited video!!!

Video is a bit longer then usual and is still uploading at the moment, 7:43PM EST. Should be ready for viewing in about 1.5 hours so no need to post - "hey the video isn't working"... give it a few minutes
Thanks!
J
https://youtu.be/9DqeUYbFi-U

[JRL]

JJ the car has shaped up nicely. Last time I saw it the trunk area looked like a snake pit - great job. Love the firewall cover too.

I've been out of commission for a few months. I had an aortic aneurysm that required intervention which was done early December. Things went sideways and I ended up back at Emory in the ER two days later. Major surgery followed along with a month in the hospital (Merry Christmas) - I'm still in recovery mode but getting better each day.

If you still have the car when I am able to drive I'll give you a call and set up a visit.

Very nice job - you did well.

[BoxsterLS376]

Thanks Randy!

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Hope you get better soon!
J

[JEhunter]

John, I haven't been following lately. How's the build going? Sounds like you're working on Brakes, Suspension and some cosmetics... Any new Pics? John H (Canton Ga)

[BoxsterLS376]

Originally Posted by JEhunter

John, I haven't been following lately. How's the build going? Sounds like you're working on Brakes, Suspension and some cosmetics... Any new Pics? John H (Canton Ga)

Hey John,

Hope you've been well. I wouldn't call it a build anymore as much as I would say ongoing project I think i've got about 3,700 miles on the conversion so far and the car is doing great!

The do to list is super short and for the most part I have just been driving the car and enjoying it. The car has come a LONG way since you last saw it. Brakes and suspension are all done. Remade the cooling system a bit, trunk is tidy, firewall is done as far as I'm concerned, I may throw some carpet on it but I kinda like the way it looks with the heat shielding on it.

I'm also now in the process of making a cold air box out of fiberglass which is coming along pretty well. I've signed up for the Wanna Go Fast half mile drag racing event in Clayton, GA in May so i'm gonna see what it can do! I'm hoping for 160+ but we will see

I'm also about to put some new tires on it and either have the wheels refinished or get a new set. Since we are on the subject what do you guys think of these?? I was shocked at how inexpensive they are compared to other BBS's!

https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelCloseUpServlet?target=runWheelSearch&initialP artNumber=SR022SG&wheelMake=BBS&wheelModel=SR&whee lFinish=Anthracite%20Painted&showRear=yes&selected Rear=SR021SG&autoMake=Porsche&autoModel=Boxster+S& autoYear=2000&autoModClar=









Oh also I made a straight pipe exhaust that probably wasn't on it last time you saw it! Sounds wicked awesome

I was actually thinking of building a new exhaust system too! I would like to put together a valved system with an electronic switch. It can be done but would likely have to remake the entire system in order to make it all fit... All in due time!!


** Speaking oh which, any of you guys building a LS V8 car interested in buying my exhaust system?? Since I would be rebuilding it completely i'd sell the quiet system and the straight pipe system together as a package since they both bolt right up to the downpipes. Send a PM or post a message here if you are interested and i'll get some info together on it.

THANKS!
J