Air/Oil Seperator write up?

[Brad Roberts]

I'm about to write one up with GOOD pictures, but decided I'd better check with the "locals" and see if a good one was already somewhere on the site. I used the search *feature*, but as with most forum software.. it is close to worthless.

Let me know if I should continue. I'll walk everyone through step by step with HIGH quality pics and a breakdown of the tools needed, and how I make one small change to the install procedure.






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[steve00s]

There are a couple floating around out there somewhere but if you are preparing one I am sure it would be much appreciated.

[Brad Roberts]

I'm currently going through and cropping the pics + adding arrows and such


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[FTD]

+1 encouragement to go forth

[Brad Roberts]

Working on the verbage

WHOA! Went to upload the first pics and the server took forever!! Let me post them on my server and I'll link to them from there!


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[cas951]

Great. Please post the link.

I'm approaching my 1 year of ownership and to this day I have not opened up the eng compartment lid. I will be going in within the next week and AOS will be one of the things I'll be doing.

[Brad Roberts]

OK! This is what we are replacing in this particular write-up:



Until the post before this one, I *assumed* everyone knew how to get to the engine lid I'll give a quick walk through: Pull up e-brake, hit the button for bringing the top DOWN, release the button right as the top starts to move away from the windshield (3-4 inch gap is good) now with the rear top cover in an upright position, you now have access to the cables that help guide the bottom of the convertible top. These are simple cables attached to the car via "ball socket". I personally pop off the top ball socket on both sides and leave the cables laying flat. Once the cables are released (they should not have any tension on them at this point) the rear portion of the top can be MOVED towards the front of the car (it will pivot up and out of the way) I typically stick my hand into the rear window and create a crease for it to follow as I use my other hand to "collapse" the top (from bottom up)


The rear most trim piece is simply "clipped" into two small plastic holders. You can just pull down on this and it will come out of the holders. Once out of the holders, move the material, you will see your carpet covering for the engine cover.

Do this first:



Then pop these off on both sides.

[Brad Roberts]

Once you get the top "material" out of the way, you can pull the carpet off the top of the engine cover. There will be 4 plastic "twist locks". Flip one half of the locking mechanism up and simply "twist" It *should* be a counter clockwise rotation. It should take nearly NO effort for them to twist and release. They will break. Take your time.

This is the top material up and out of the way.. and the carpet up and out of the way. The engine lid itself has multiple "gold/cad" colored twist locks that hold it to the chassis. These have a small wire "hoop" on them. Flip the hoop up and "twist" it will release the engine lid, simply lift it off when you have all of them released.




Engine lid off:

[Brad Roberts]

Here is the location of the AOS:





You will need a 10mm deep socket, a pair of small channel locks, and maybe a 10mm zippy wrench (Gearwrench)

[Brad Roberts]

I start by removing the upper breather line, and moving the wiring harness out of the way. This requires nearly NO effort. Just barely squeeze and pull away from the AOS





Unclip the plastic wiring loom holder and move the wires back. Take the second loom you see that is NOT in the holder and move it up and over the fuel rail test port. This will give you more room later as you work

[Brad Roberts]

It should look like this when you get the loom unclipped and the second loom UP and over the fuel test port cover.





NOW you can see the lower plastic clamp that needs to be released!!!

[Brad Roberts]

From above and using the same Blue small Channel locks as I used on the breather line above, I reach down and carefully release the lower breather hose. I also move the shifter cables over and out of the way.

[Brad Roberts]

Now its time to visualize Take a look at the length and positioning of the stock bolts. I try to do as much as I can up on top prior to jacking the car up and getting underneath. I can easily remove the two M6 bolts (10mm head) from up top utilizing a short 10mm socket on a 1/4 inch drive ratchet and a Zippy 10mm wrench.

You will be removing these two small bolts. They thread into the block. Once you get them broke loose, use JUST the socket to unscrew them. They will come out pretty easy.





Use the 1/4 drive with 10mm socket on the top one, and the 10mm Zippy wrench on the bottom one. YOU CAN DO THIS from the top of the car. Just feel down the side of the AOS. I do my damnedest to stay out from under the car until I have too. I shot these pics from under the car, just to show everyone where the bolts where located.

[Brad Roberts]

I also go ahead (from the top) and remove this bracket seen here with the blue arrow pointing to it. This will allow you EASY access to the clamp we will remove later from the lower portion of the bellows.





In this shot, you can clearly see the bolts have been removed and the blue arrow is pointing to the clamp that needs to be removed NEXT!! You can also see in this pic, how I removed the M6 bolt for the bracket and moved the bracket out of the way. The bracket holds the plug for one of the O2 sensors.

[Brad Roberts]

After removing the lower clamp (I used the same small Channel locks as above) the AOS will slide up and out of the engine compartment. You will have to twist it and pay attention to things it could get caught on while coming out. FYI: There is a special tool for those clamps you see. I choose not to reuse those clamps and instead, replace it with something MUCH easier to deal with during the process of installing the new AOS

[Brad Roberts]

I go back in with a factory hose clamp





Stock spring clamp is on the left, factory hose clamp on the right! This hose clamp does NOT need 400lb. ft. of torque on it. Just snug. You'll find that trying to put the spring clamp back on with your arms fully extended from the wheel well will prove to be nearly impossible (unless you manage to locate the proper locking pliers that hold CLOSED on the clamp) I find it MUCH easier to stick a 7mm nut driver up there to a regular hose clamp and MOVE ON!


Here is the factory part number for the clamp I used. It is a "fluid" hose clamp meant for BoxsterS 3rd radiator hoses. Feel free to use any hose clamp you feel comfortable with. I choose factory parts as much as possible in my builds/repairs.

[Brad Roberts]

Slide the new AOS back down into the same hole you removed the other one from smile.gif I like to place a little oil on the rubber O-ring that goes into the block, and place a little oil on the bellows that slips down onto the steel tube protruding from the block. Make sure you watch the O-ring go into the block!!





This is the AOS installed with the new hose clamp. MUCH MUCH easier with the clamp. I preset the clamp so it *just* moves around the bellows. This allows me to "locate" it for easy access of the 7mm nut driver. You can also see I put the bracket back for the O2 sensor! AFTER tightening the new clamp for the bellows.

[Brad Roberts]

Once I get everything done on the bottom, I move back to the top where I "snap" back in the upper breather line, and snap back in the lower breather line. The lower breather line can give you fits. I use a HONKIN long flat blade and gently press against the plastic elbow until I hear it snap. You can see it from up above IF you moved the wiring like I showed. Once you hear the "snap" for both breather lines, put the wiring loom back into place and locate the shifter cables (if you moved them out of the way)





VOILA!! NOW.. clean the damn engine. It is probably nasty

[Brad Roberts]

It should take someone who does not wrench on a regular basis, about an hour. I did one not too long ago for a BoxsterSpec guy up at Thunderhill on his lift. I *should* have put the car down and performed 70% of the removal from above, and only went under the car to remove the spring clamp and to tighten the hose clamp. The rest can all be done from above.



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[R60us]

Wow Brad, thank you for the How to. Nicely done!