The 'Black Pearl'

[78F350]

My wife always names our cars. This one is called "Black Pearl".





Its a Basalt Black Metallic 2000 base model that I just purchased from a forum member in Texas. It's a very nice, well cared for car that recently had the AOS go bad and the top get stuck in the up position. 'CraigM' was moving and didn't have time to fix it or deal with tire-kicking buyers.

I was stuck at work the weekend that it was for sale. RedTele58 (Rick) offered to get a trailer and pick it up for me (a 3+ hour drive each way). I went to his place and picked it up as soon as I had a day off and towed it home.
I gave him a hard top for his trouble. -I knew he wanted it and what better time to deliver it? I don't think I would have been able to get this car without his help.




I'll post more details of the maintenance and my plans for the car soon. :dance:
Video of the car after replacing the AOS: https://youtu.be/MCxLwMm0AMI

[BruceH]

Very nice, Craig is a good guy, enjoy

[78F350]

Here's a video I made to highlight a few things about replacing the AOS.

https://youtu.be/WCJ24UCLpZA

Not a full DIY, but some notes.

Disconnect the oil filler tube.
Unbolt the O2 sensor connector from the head.
2002 and earlier models have a rubber hose on the bottom; Position the clamp in an easy place to reach. Use cable style hose clamp pliers.
Clean the intake and throttle body.
Drive the car at highway speed to heat up the catalytic converters and burn out the oil residue.

[78F350]

So now I have a quandary: Should I take this car to the Grassroots Motorsports $2,000 Challenge ( https://2000challenge.com/ ) as a $0 budget car? My wife and I are seriously considering it. I don't think it would be a serious competitor, but it would be a fun and novel way to compete. We could drive the car to Florida and back in comfort rather than towing a car all the way from Oklahoma.

Under the rules I can recoup up to $1,000 of my budget. I bought the car for $1,000 and it came with enough extra parts that I can put their fair market value at about $1,000. Additionally I can trade parts from the car for other parts, including self-trading at documented fair market value. An example of how a self-trade would work is that I could trade myself the custom 'GT Collection' headlights ($1,000) for a set of halogens ($300), a new Pierberg water pump ($200) and AOS ($130) and still have $370 left for incidentals. That would cover any regular maintenance items the car needs and still leave my official budget at $0. It would be so easy it feels like cheating, but that's the rules.

There should be some really cool cars there this year (AngryCorvair's, Robbie's, and more...) that will blow away anything I can build, so this would put me as a front row spectator with a shot at finishing in the top 1/3 at best. Last year my '01 Boxster with a dying 2.5L finished 18th out of over 50 cars and we had a great time.
:dance:

[itsnotanova]

Scored a deal on that one! I personally would keep it as is only because you already have another challenge car. Why do you want two?

[78F350]

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

Scored a deal on that one! I personally would keep it as is only because you already have another challenge car. Why do you want two?

I have a problem... Too many cars and a busy life. Last year's Challenge car has hardly had anything done to it since the Challenge and I'm not sure I'll have time to get it done for this year. This car is beautiful and pretty much ready to go other than working a budget spreadsheet to set it's 'cost' to zero.
I don't want to do anything to harm it in any way. My thoughts on bringing it to the Challenge this year are to temporarily swap in some cheap halogen lights and pull the soft top off. I can drive it to Florida with a hardtop on it and go topless for the event. Upon return, put a new glass window top to replace the original.

[78F350]

Wow... no posts since May. By early June, I had decided not to go to the $2000 Challenge ( https://2000challenge.com/ ) this year. It's just not a great year to drive 1,000 miles across the country, then visit with elderly family and friends in Florida while attending a motorsports event.

I started fixing more minor issues with the car. One of the spark plug tubes had started to leak, so I replaced all three on bank one. Later this year, I plan to do the spark plugs and get the rest of the tubes replaced.


I have a new Pierburg water pump ready to install, but have not got to it yet.

I got a code for the MAF and replaced it with a new Bosch. It runs much better now at lower RPMs.

Recently the headlights quit working while I was driving at night. I thought it might be the bulbs or the HID ballast, but it turned out to be a bad headlight switch. I made it the rest of the way home that night using the fog lights.

My grandson loves riding with the top down. He was with me on a 150 mile drive when we rolled the odometer past 95,000 miles. This car has the child seat airbag deactivation bar installed so plugging in a buckle under the passenger seat turns off the airbag.

[78F350]

I've been wanting to replace the water pump ever since I estimated it was about ten years old. There's been a new Pierburg pump sitting in the trunk for a few months, but I always had something else to do. Today, I finally got around to it. It was a relief to see that the old pump still looked great.



I've done the job enough times that it's pretty easy for me, but I still went slowly and enjoyed working outside in the unseasonably warm December weather.



I had planned to replace the serpentine belt while I was there, but when I put a standard belt on, I realized that I needed a smaller belt due to the under-drive pulley. Now I need to do a quick search of the forum to see what size people are using.

[steved0x]

Was the old pump the original (did you have to cut the gasket to put the new gasket?). Very nice! I am waiting for my new grandson to get a little bigger so he can ride with me. He's only 5 months so I have a ways to go

[78F350]

Originally Posted by steved0x

Was the old pump the original (did you have to cut the gasket to put the new gasket?). Very nice! I am waiting for my new grandson to get a little bigger so he can ride with me. He's only 5 months so I have a ways to go

Grandkids are awesome little people to spend time with.

The water pump had been replaced once. The engine overheated about ten years ago. It came with all the receipts of the work that was done including the rebuild and LN IMS bearing.

Here's how the seller, CraigM, described it:

A little about the car: My dad ordered it new in California back in 1998 (had to wait a long time back then). It overheated once about 10 years ago bad enough to warp the heads, so engine was rebuilt and IMS was addressed then (not sure which version the shop used). I've had it in Texas for about 6 years. Garage kept it's whole life. Only options on the car are the carbon fiber e-brake handle and shift knob, heated seats, and the 18" turbo twist wheels which were a factory option in the correct sizes for the Boxster.

The good:
-New front pads and rotors (Done at Zim's)
-New CV boots (also at Zim's)
^^(Unfortunately this cost more than I'm selling the whole car for)
-Doesn't overheat even in Texas - I put in a 160 thermostat
-Has some extras: 996 throttle body, 996 shifter, underdrive pulley, secondary cat bypass pipes, 160 thermostat, the cool headlights that were being sold on here, LED taillights with originals in a box...probably some more stuff I'm forgetting.
-Has the Porsche factory airbag bypass installed so you can deactivate passenger airbags for kids to ride

The bad:
Convertible top stuck up
Check engine light with smoky exhaust as mentioned
2 keys, but remotes stopped working a while back and I never dealt with it (I think it was after disconnecting the battery for something)
Probably some other minor stuff in keeping with a 20 year old car

I have a complete set of parts for the top and plan to get that working correctly next (currently manually operated). I may also put a new 'glass window' top on it this winter if I ever get caught up enough on projects to make time.

[Qingdao]

Ugh, I just did a WP on a customer's 986 on a lift. I wouldn't wanna do one on the ground.

[78F350]

I did most of the work from behind the passenger seat. With a 2" long, 1/4" drive deep socket all the bolts come out easily and I can actually get a torque wrench on all the bolts with that socket.
Underneath was just disconnecting two hoses and wrenching two bolts (and the plastic panel). Not bad and I could reach it all without getting my body under the car.