Too many Boxsters?

[78F350]

For the last rallycross, I was too busy getting my tow vehicle ready (replacing the rear struts and internals of the DEF tank) that I didn't take the time to get everything checked on the Frog.





The rear struts are modified VW Golf front struts: 6 months to live build thread
The bottom bracket on the left strut was not tightened enough. It rotated and the strut slipped down. No serious damage, but I only got one run and had to quit for the day.



I was going to swap the stock rear suspension from the Parts Car, but I'm not going to have enough time before the next race day. The Parts Car still runs great and has functional air conditioning. I'm going to put a spoiler and some good tires on it and run it one more time.

[78F350]

Night Rallycross next Saturday. I bolted some lights of the front of the parts car this afternoon. It is now officially the ugliest car I have owned. Ugly, but it's going to be fun for one last race. I expect to get serious about pulling it apart in August.

[78F350]

I had a good night at rallycross. The car held together well except for the engine cutting out a couple times near the end of the evening. It may have been from too much dust in the air filter or the fact that this car is running a DME from an '03 996.



I placed second in the 'Modified RWD' Class. Because parts have been removed and some non-standard parts added (such as the racing chicken), the car is considered modified. The thing is, with this car none of the modifications improve the performance. It's just a matter of replacing parts that were sold with whatever I had handy to get the car running again.



It's been a fun car to play with, but I think I'm done with driving it now. The gearing is really terrible for rallycross. I don't know if all of the '03 - '04 5-speeds are like this, but the gearing is very tall. I could do much of the course in first gear. I actually found myself throwing it down to first to rotate the car for an off-camber 90 degree turn at the end of a straight and it worked well.



I'll have some spare time in the next couple weeks to work on cars. I plan to pull the rear suspension and axles off this car to put on the Frog. From there I may keep stripping it and scrap it or I may haul it to another lot and store for a while.

[78F350]

The Frog is back on stock rear suspension now. I didn't realize until I was well into the job that the modified rear wheel carriers that had been on it were from an S model. I could have just swapped on a pair that I had on the shelf. Instead, I took the base model rears from the parts car along with control arms and struts and put them on the Frog. To keep the parts car semi-driveable I put the S model parts from my shelf onto it along with some blown rear struts. Double the work that I should have done.

It was when I installed the brake rotors back onto the Frog that I realized there was a problem. The rotors that had been on it no longer fit. They rubbed on the calipers. Once I compared the parts that I had taken off with the parts I installed, I realized the problem. Installing a new pair of base model rotors made it all good.

I had planned to swap the damaged axle with one from the parts car, but there was a big difference. On the '04 parts car the axles were bolted to the transmission with M10 bolts instead of the usual M8 bolts. I don't know this history of this car, but it has a factory replacement engine in it. Maybe they put a 987 5-speed transmission in as well? That may explain the high gearing compared to my other 5-speeds.

[78F350]

Rallycross with North Texas Rallycross today. I finally got to race a whole day with the Frog. She held together well, only losing a muffler somewhere on one of my more exciting laps. The mufflers (resonators) weren't doing much anyway. This thing sounds Glorious from about 4,000 rpm up. A chorus of angels bellowing with raspy voices.

[78F350]

Video from Rallycross, Sept 29th:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKIqImAFiYM
I Love driving this car in the dirt. It's easy to see where I could have picked up a few seconds in the run.

[78F350]

A few minor updates...
The 2004 Special Edition had a whining noise behind the seats with engine revs. It turned out to be a failing bearing in the alternator. I replaced the alternator, belt and water pump. I'm planning to replace the idler pulleys later this month.



I decided that I'm going to give away the Orient Red car at an annual Christmas car swap that I do. It's a fun event among friends and acquaintances where we meet with cheap roadworthy cars and exchange them 'Dirty Santa' style. In the past, I brought a '98 and '07 Honda CR-V and received a Fauxrari (tarted up Mitsubishi 3000 GT) and a terrible Pontiac Grand Prix. I give away the cars I bring home.
Orient Red:


Fauxrari:


'98 CR-V


The '04 PartsCar is going to be gone by the end of October. The transmission went to a guy who is doing a Honda K-swap in a Porsche 914.

[78F350]

I haven't had much time to play with Boxsters, but did make it to the final race day of the season with North Texas Rallycross. The Frog held together well. My best time was 4th out of 28 drivers, but I had a few runs where I didn't keep the car on the best line and finished 7th overall. The Frog felt good and held together well.







In the off season I plan to get a better setup for the muffler and check over the suspension and alignment to see where I can improve it.

[78F350]

In less than two weeks I'll be joining some friends for the 2025 Texas Carnado. Along with a trailer hitch, new off-road lights, and other changes, I decided to add a snorkel. I won't intentionally cross water deeper than about half way up the door, but unintentional happens. The fender was still dented from when the car rolled over in September and running the snorkel from the side duct up through a dented area kept it clear of anything structural and allows easy motion of the top and clamshell. It looks awkward in it's current form, but I'm going to let my mind adjust to it for a few days before making changes.

[78F350]

The snorkel worked well.



Going fast through the water was a little too much stress on the front lip though and it departed. Someone was kind enough to wade in and grab it for me, but it's not going back on the car.



The front bumper works as-is. I'll take a look through my scrap collection in the week ahead and figure out a better design for a dual purpose 'bow-splitter'.



It was very rough terrain. The Xbox did great and I don't think anything broke, just a few new dents and scrapes.

[78F350]

I haven't had much time to play lately and decided to sell the white '01 rather than deal with the lengthening list of maintenance issues that were gathering. The glass rear window had come out out the convertible top, spoiler was stuck, fuel spiting back out when refueling, door latch-window drop problem with the driver's door, peeling paint and clear coat, speakers shot, and probably more that I'm not remembering. All of it was stuff that I could fix, but not worth my time when I have no time; especially on a car that already has a 'rebuilt' title.
I swapped a top with a plastic window onto it and replaced the Litronics with a pair of slightly burned halogen light with quickly improvised corners to replace the missing amber ones.


One evening I listed it on Facebook Marketplace for $4,000 clearly stating the problems it had. Almost immediately I had more messages from 'buyers' than I wanted to deal with. Someone came the next morning, handed me cash and drove it away.
I've noticed that the buyer 'flips' cars and trucks and immediately relisted it for $6,500. Hopefully both he and any new buyer know the saying about a cheap Porsche.

[78F350]

As mentioned earlier, I want to put a top on a car so can bring it to the glass shop and have the rear window put back in. I have a black '01 that I took the top from to put in the white car that I sold. It cranks and runs on starter fluid, but otherwise won't run.
With no fuel pressure I drained the tank and found that the pump was corroded and the hose to the sender cracked.


Then I found that the fuel filter needed to be replaced. Fuel from the filter:


There is now pressure at the fuel rail and fuel passes through to the return line, but it still doesn't run. Today I'm going to try swapping out the fuel rail and injectors with the engine in the car. It looks like it will be a tight space to work in, but doable. I'll soon know how much trouble it's going to be.

It would be easy to trailer the car to the glass shop and have the window installed, but I've had this car sitting since I bought it in September and it's time to get it running.

[78F350]

I took a break, had a nice lunch with my daughter, and I'm back at it now. The fuel rail and injectors can be removed with the engine in place, but I don't recommend it. I hope that putting the replacement parts in is a little easier. I will probably detail what I did later.
Here it is almost ready to remove:

[78F350]

Now I'm figuring out which rail and injectors I want to use. Probably the set from a 2.7L and not the 3.2L. Is there an advantage to the S model injectors? ...probably not on a base model engine.
Meanwhile here's the Tech article on Pelican: https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/25-FUEL-Injectors/25-FUEL-Injectors.htm?srsltid=AfmBOoqsf5WTIT6276l0s4mPqZxk E1ab6YvjctBQ1rOpPa1EP3oAolJJ Note that the instructions are with the engine in the car, but NOT the pictures.

Base vs S:

[78F350]

I wasted a lot of time working on the cooling system (heater loop). The metal tubes from the engine to the heater core both had some ugly welds on them that I thought were leaking.


I have some good tubes on hand and though it would be simple to swap them. It all went well until I had what I thought was everything disconnected and found that it was jammed between the gas tank and body. The gas tank has to be lowered at least partially to get the tubes out. Some day I'll do that, but this was not the time. I cut the 'bad' sections out of the tubes and joined them back together with some rubber heater hose.

I ran the engine for a while to warm it up and check for leaks. I found the leak. Not the tubes to the heater core, but the heater core itself. Coolant was flowing from the HVAC drain located near the front end of the heater tubing. I bought a new heater core that should arrive Monday. In the mean time I'm going to loop the heater system back to itself, bypassing the core.

Other things done:

• Put on some barely used Continental ECS tires JustanOkie gave to me along with some other smaller parts and a few tools. The tires are about five years old and I'll do my best to put some wear on them before the age out.
• Installed a headlight tray on the driver's side along with the plastic support trim behind the bumper and right fender.
• Fixed the cables for the frunk release and found that the cable for the trunk release was missing. I rigged some wire to the rear fender well to have a functional release.
• Bolted a seat in.
• Got the insurance, title and registration done.
• Installed the driver's door from an '04 on to replace the door which has bad paint and no door handles. It's a different black, but works for now. The car is metallic black and the door is plain black. I may have my son in law do some repainting for me because I really like the Basalt Black Metallic and most of the paint on the car is good.

Tomorrow or Friday, I'll drive it to the glass shop and have them fix the rear window.

[BFeller]

Your use of foaming upholstery cleaner on engine is nee. The results look great.

[78F350]

Originally Posted by BFeller

Your use of foaming upholstery cleaner on engine is nee. The results look great.

Thanks. I should add greater emphasis to using LOW Pressure if using a power washer and pay attention to where it is pointed. The wire harness connections were water resistant 20 years ago, but may not withstand direct pressurized after. I like to run the engine and warm it up afterward to help clear off residual moisture and make sure everything is good.

[78F350]

The engine has been removed from the Blue '02 S for a while now and is in my garage. It needs more clean up, but the transmission and flywheel are off and it's ready for me to replace the IMS bearing with a LN 'Single Row Pro' bearing.


I am thinking of selling the 6-speed transmission. The problem I have is that I can't test it to make sure that it's good.

Currently there are three 986 engines on my garage floor. A 2.7L from the Frog that has bad rod knock and chunks of metal in the oil, a 'good' 2.7L that had the wire to a variocam actuator cut during the previous owner's removal, and the good 3.2L that is getting ready for the silver car. Today I'm trying to strip all the useful parts off the chunky 2.7L so I can scrap the block next week.

Meanwhile I have a Honda CR-V and two Toyota Prii that I'm working on catching up on maintenance and fixing a few issues.

[78F350]

The original single row IMS bearing was in great shape and has now been replaced with the new LN bearing using the Faultless IMS tool.





New Pierburg water pump is on.


A few other minor things, then I'm pulling the bad engine from the silver car to swap over the almost new clutch and flywheel along with the intake and injectors.

[78F350]

The Silver 2000 S is running well and on the road now with the engine from the '02 S. It took a long time to get it all done, but life has been busy with a daughter's wedding, work, and several medical issues.






I plan to daily drive it for a while to make sure no problems develop. I also have some minor work to do with trim pieces and maybe converting the top back to normal operation. It's a nice car, but I don't plan to keep it long - owning it doesn't bring me anything more than my other Boxsters already provide.