Blue boxster resurrection project

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by PaulE

Thanks for sharing. 46 years ago I was a supervised participant in the rebuild of my 948 cc Austin Healey Sprite engine and a few years later rebuilt my 3 liter Austin Healey 3000 engine with a lot of help. My own Boxster S engine was rebuilt by my shop last year, I couldn't imagine doing this. And you are doing it all at home with a new baby in the house, if I read that correctly a few pages ago. Congratulations on that and please keep posting!

Rebuilding an Austin may have been a challenge back in the day, in the pre-internet days
Yes, you got that right, unfortunately the Boxster has only two seats, not ideal for a family, my wife is not concerned about it though, she says by the time it will be back on the road the baby will be able to drive it anyways

[Homeoboxter]

The everlasting Boxster project continues. I uncovered the car just to make sure it`s still there. It is. Been resting here for about 1.5 year. It doesn`t look bad from a bird`s point of view:



Back to the engine. New crankcase seals.




Upper half is coming to mate with lower half.



Mating surfaces are thoroughly cleaned and a small bead of Loctite 5900 is applied in a pattern described in the shop manual.



Speaking of which, he shop manual makes a big deal about alignig the cases using this aligning mandrel.



This is how it looks in real life, i borrowed this picture from ebay. It`s listed only for $4000. Used. I think I`ll pass on this for now.



Instead, I just used the oil pump housing to align the cases and it worked. I inserted it in the engine case, tightened the bolts around the IMS bearing bore, removed it, then tightened down all the bolts in the correct sequence. The screwdriver is to lift the IMS for positioning. It also helps a lot if you place the rear IMS bearing flange in, otherwise the whole assembly gets jammed, so you really need to take your time with this step. But you also have to be quick, because the Loctite is curing...



This is the bore where the oil pump housing with the front IMS bearing fits in. The IMS is right in the hole. It`s a super snug fit, and the slightest misalignment will make it impossible to slide the oil pump housing on. Don`t ask how I know...



Finally the case halves are joined, sealed and the bolts are tightened, ready for pistons 4-5-6.

[Homeoboxter]

It`s nice of Porsche that they marked the best crankshaft position to insert pistons. This is for #6.



Piston going down. Manual says if the wristpin or circlip insertion fails, the piston can be removed by pulling it out using something glued on the top of the piston as leverage. I don`t want to go down that road.



Wristpin on the insertion tool.



I might have missed it, but the manual doesn`t say a word about how to set the connecting rod in the center so that the wristpin can slide in. I spent a good 20 minutes on trying to align the conrod in the middle by grabbiing it through the oil pan side, no luck. Then I just flipped the whole engine upside down and used gravity to hold the conrod in center. I still have no idea how this could be done otherwise
.





Wristpin in piston #6, circlip is ready to go.



Passing by the toilet paper roll used to hold conrod #5 aside.



This step requires some practice. The circlip has to be inserted using quite a bit of force. If you try it out a couple of times prior to the actual assembly I think it`s hard to screw it up.



To make sure the circlip is properly seated I used my DSLR camera and made close-ups from the other side of the engine through the insertion hole and then I zoomed in. I`m convinced it won`t fly out.

[Homeoboxter]

Circlip seating for piston #5 and #4, respectively.





All pistons are back in their original positions with new rings.

[iscle]

Wow, every time I visit this thread I'm more impressed!

Looking forward to the first start up

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by iscle

Wow, every time I visit this thread I'm more impressed!

Looking forward to the first start up

Thanks, yeah, I`m looking forward to it too, as you can imagine Still lot of things left to do.

[Homeoboxter]

Got some gaskets and other stuff from Pelican. Time to move on with the engine.



New crankshaft seal.



I don`t have the insertion tool, so I simply used the old seal and a spacer made of two used bearing shells to drive the new seal in the engine case with the pulley and its bolt.










The original waterpump looks like new, so I decided to put it back in with a new gasket.





Same for these chain guides, they have very little wear. They should be fine with new chains.