So the build begins...
 

So the project is a 1998 Boxster with a 2.5L engine. Purchased the car for a song with 88K miles on the clock December 2011 ($5000), now just running a little over 90K. Car is in immaculate condition for a car of this age. Body very straight and runs like a champ.

When I first bought Gadget (as I call her), I knew she would need new brakes and rotors and new struts (left rear had leaked out) and having built cars for many years this did not bother me. My Porsche experience was spending the better part of 4 years tearing apart a 928S4 talk about hidden issues. Note: My problem here was the mental passion for the Boxster was high and I assumed that the few mods above were all that was needed and life would be great. Saw Madmod's post and jumped headlong into the fray of getting ready to pull the trigger on a suspension.

But things were going to change.... I joined our local PCA group, started reading everything I could find on the Boxster (after the fact...of course) both here on 986, Mike's site, Pedro's site, Pelican, and Flat6's site and quickly began to uncover lots of little factoids and nuances about the Boxster I had not considered. The dreaded IMS issue, RMS, AOS, bearings, clutch, leaky coolant reservoir...the list kind of grew.

Which brings me today and this post. Realizing I was going to be doing more work then I planned, I have had to take a step back and begin assessing all issues as a system and that if I was going to go through the effort of tearing off the pieces/parts what else could I fix so as not to be repeating the process. Additionally this meant that I needed the car in a more useful position for working on her rather then sitting on jack stands. This in turn meant upgrading the garage as my wife refused to see me spend one more project on my back working on a creeper. So a new heavy duty rubber flooring system along with a mid rise lift from Gregg Smith. Cool beans and a bit of work but I still have yet to get into the car!

So here I am after having spent the better part of two evenings going through Pelican (and referencing Design911 website) for drawings, pictures and part numbers to develop a build list (along with many threads the members here have posted) and my plan as it sits today is as follows:

Suspension ROW M030 replacement (to include all rubber seals, plates and fittings)
Sway bar bushings
Brakes and Rotors
Wheel Bearings (Fronts are catching and since I'm doing the front the backs will go as well)
IMS
RMS
Cam chain tensioners (Cyl 1-3 and Cyl 4-6) harmonic testing showed excess vibration with these
Clutch kit (including flywheel)
Clutch Master Cylinder
Clutch Slave Cylinder
CV joints and boots
AOS
Spark plugs, tubes and O-rings (will test the coil packs to see performance)
Radiator reservoir tank
Left Radiator (may repair over replace as it has a small leak)
Front Engine mount
Sparco Seats with lowered mounting adjustable rails
Gahh top with soft window (modifying to make rear window replaceable without removing top)
System wide fluid flush and replacement.

Before I pull the trigger on the components above I am sending the list to Pelican to have them go through all I have indicated on my build sheet (what a cool option that is for putting a project together) and make sure if I have duplicated anything or have forgotten anything to let me know.

Well this is just the beginning and as I start removing and replacing things I will keep a photo log of the work and if I can I will gladly post pictures of other stuff as requested to help anyone else on their projects. My timeline for finishing this project will be dictated by work as I spend a lot of time traveling and that in itself can knock the wind out of you upon getting home...especially when it is long overseas trips. I hope to be done by this summer...only time will tell.

Please, I am open to helpful hints, suggestions ideas and input from anyone who has more time and experience on the Boxster then me...

While you are in there.... a fresh water pump and LN 160F T-stat. Serpentine belt and idler pulleys if they show any signs of wear.

Well, as I begin my project rebuild on my 98' 986. I sent my parts list around to a number of companies looking for bids on supplying all the parts I needed and in the end Pelican came through with shinning numbers. Sure there are a couple of pieces I found elsewhere that I could not pass up the pricing but in the end, I was able to get 98% of all my parts at the best price from Wayne. Additionally, I have the full version of the UK Boxster manual, Bentley manual and Wayne’s 101 Projects book along with about 3 gigs of data from Mike, Pedro, threads from here and across the web. No such thing as having too much information and if I had to ask a question, I wanted to at least be able to discover the answer on my own. With that said, I am sure there will be a few questions somewhere down the line.

OK, so in deciding where to start I chose the wheel bearings. The wheels came off and I pulled the tires off and got the rims over to the powder coater. The rotors and pads were changed last December so that put me next at the wheel bearings.

Realizing that a number of folks have posted up wheel bearing threads and there are some novel approaches by others to speed the process of replacement, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone and emails with many people and uncovered an aeronautical company specializing in lubrication of aircraft engines and whose owner is a Boxster owner

He has taken his engineering abilities and passion for the Porsche and produced several tools specifically designed for the 986 and some of its issues. Casper Labs casperlabs.com has a new design that allows the replacement of a wheel bearing in ~1 hour/wheel wherein you do not have to remove the suspension the eccentric, nor do you need a hydraulic press for removal nor insertion of the bearings. The tool is fully functional for all four wheels.

I would love to show you how the tool works, but I have been asked not to as he is still building his business market. I will say this is somewhat of a bummer but I will honor my word and not show anything more than what he shows in his marketing pictures. In his defense I bought the first tool off the production line. Hey, I can respect a request…but I can show what it looks like with a bearing out. In the end it did take about 1 hr wheel and in the end I am stoked with how easy the whole process went.

Total cost for this project: Tools, wheel bearings and 5 hours time just under $500.00

Ease of project (using Wayne's format) two wrenches

I was even able to let my wife do one wheel as she is really into this project and at 5'4" and 105lbs she was able to do one complete wheel!

Here are some shots below:

he IMS will be down the road hopefully next week. Next up will be pulling the suspension our and starting on some of the other items. As I take them on I will post up pictures…with that said if there are any pictures someone would like or need of components, let me know and I will take them as I get to those areas.

So how does someone buy the wheel bearing tool? There was nothing obvious on the web site???

Give Bill a call and ask him about the wheel bearing tool:

Bill Ryan
Casper Labs, Inc.
tel. 561-575-3157

Thanks, think I will add one to my tool box.

Be sure to check the dual mass flywheel while you're doing the clutch. It is likely worn out after 90K miles.

And while you have the drive shafts off to replace the CV joints and boots, check the spider gear in the transaxle. If any of the previous owners were doing burnouts, it is likely pitted and worn.

I will be servicing the both axles with new components all around and will definitely look at the trans axle and I need to check the DMFW when I have access to it. I have not had any of the symptoms...but that does not mean anything as parts generally tend to work normally till they are reaching end of life.

My head would like to believe it will be fine, my heart tells me not to listen to my head. Since I have so many upgrades I am doing, I will perform the test...but even if it passes I will likely drop a new one in.

Well another day and more items knocked out. I have taken the approach that before I just tear things apart and bag and tag parts, I have started a notebook with a detail of each item that is coming off and notes about any issues.

So I decided that the area of the car to start with was at the back end of the car and work my way forward. Pulled the braces and cross brace, pan, sway bar and then dropped the exhaust system as a whole item. As each item came off I spent the time to clean and polish each part back to a nice shine. Many would say why...and I remember advice my dad gave me a long time ago: if you don't clean something when you do work on it, how will you know when something changes and it gets hidden in the existing dirt?

As I dug into the car I was impressed how clean it was considering it is going 14 year old. Not much dirt and little to no leakage on any of the seal. However, like a lot of threads I have read, I spent a fair bit of time cleaning off the cosmoline from parts. A soft wire bristle brush on a drill works wonders to bring that like new look back.

After all that the big item for today was the axles and CV joints. Once the exhaust was out they simply dropped out and were ready to be worked on. If you are planning on doing your CV joints and you order the kit...be aware that your new parts may show up in an unassembled condition. Ball bearing housing and inner spline were rolling around in the box. You would think it would simply be an easy assembly...think again. You need to pay attention to how the inner spline inserts into the body of the CV. After mucking around with it for about 20 minutes, I found that dropping one of the six bearings out, inserting the parts together and then popping the sixth bearing in at the end...the CV joint worked like magic.

After rebuilding the axles, I got my cardboard sheet to put my transmission bolts in when I remove it...and the I found a little surprise. Bolts G and H were MISSING! Not a common thing, but on my 96' Bronco I had the same thing happen where two bolts had backed out over time. Good thing Wayne had the part numbers listed in the project book...so they were ordered today.

Also, thank you Thstone...my DMFW and transmission mounts showed up yesterday. Yeah it was pricey to get the flywheel, but after looking at all the threads and discussions on the forum, I would sooner replace it now then put all these new parts in and have to come back in a year and do the flywheel.

Well, enough gabbing, here are some pics of the work.

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Nice thread. Thanks for posting. Keep it coming!

Today's target was to remove all of the rear suspension components and struts, clean brake housing, wheel hub assembly and suspension cross member of all the cosmoline, grease and oil that has accumulated. This simple task turned out to take the better part of 9 hours today.

In this picture a little surprise jumped out when trying to clean up the gunk on the ebrake cable. Turns out under the rubber guard where the nut on the cable attaches into the main attachment. The rust had built up around this nut and was eroding the nut building oxide up and into the brake cable. I was able to clean all the rust and erosion out then sealed it with a rust proof coating.

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The next couple of pictures show the amount of build up of gunk.

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All the suspension pieces are out and I have cleaned my components now its time to drop the struts. Since I am doing this a section at a time, I am only working on the rear suspension and struts, the fronts will come later.

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With the plug removed I am now able to see all three nuts that are holding the strut in place. For this nut you REALLY WANT TO USE THE TAPE TRICK! If you don't the nut will fall down in to the body of the car and you will kick yourself for not doing this.

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Continued in next post...

With all three nuts removed the strut just dropped out. I went into the shop and took all the new components and assembled the new struts and arraigned all the new suspension parts in a layout for both sides of the car. These items will not be installed until I have the tranny dropped, and all the other components in the engine compartment installed.

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As you can see with all the parts out, this leaves me a lot of room to work in when I get ready to do the IMS and RMS.

Again, if there are pictures of anything anyone can need...let me know. When stuff is out it is a great time to capture them.

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Dug in and finally struck IMS gold...
 

OK, another day and another update. Seems this thread has a little bit of interest so I will keep doing it in case someone finds something of use.

Today was transmission removal day and the first chance to see how the exterior of the IMS looks. To get there was a tad bit of a task. Why? Well, beside Porsche being worried that someone will steal the transmission fluid by using a 14mm triple square plug, it turns out that they also use a 10mm triple square on ONE of the transmission bolts just in case the fluid thieves try to take the transmission as well. If they are that determined...they can have them both! Good thing NAPA has the tools in stock.

After cleaning all the suspension out I am at the point of pulling the transmission. Couple of things to note that are not covered in Bentley or 101 Projects is that on the shift cables (for a 1998) there are locking washers on the attachments that you need to pry open prior to lifting off of the transmission. They will have three prongs that hold it to the mounting plug.

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OK, now that I think that I am ready to pull the transmission, I realize that one of the "missing" bolts turns out to be a nut on the back of bolt "G". Well, now I am only missing one bolt not two as I originally thought. With the nut removed the transmission separates as easy as pie. Make sure you have the engine supported as noted in Wayne's book and you will have a tranny sitting on the ground.

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Now it is time to pull the clutch and flywheel and see just how bad things really are. Mind you I am at 90K and the clutch feels smooth as butter... Well, the reality is this clutch and flywheel were toasted. I have a feeling that if I had just taken the minimal effort, I would be back in six months doing this all over again.

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So the question remains...where's the gold!

Uncovered the IMS...
 

Well after digging for a few days, we finally achieve gold!

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What did I find? Well it seems that the IMS is not leaking...but the RMS has a tad bit of a leak.


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The IMS on the exterior does not appear to have any indication of failure, leakage or other aspect that would say this is a bad thing. However, I have seen that a fair bit of parts seems to be right on the margin of either "still good for the moment" but failure will occur in the near future.

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It will be a few days before I get to the IMS as I need to replace the reservoir tank, clutch slave cylinder, AOS and transmission mounts. Wait! I actually did get one more thing done today...the transmission mounts were upgraded today.

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I also got the transmission cleaned up and ready to start the update on the clutch. Hope something here helps someone out when you tackle your Boxster project.


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Eric,
I recommend replacing the seals on the oil cooler while your at it, inexpensive and easy to do.

Good call, I had not thought of that. I will order them tonight. Thank you sir.

Thanks for the thread. Very interesting.

A slow day...but a day of learning...
 

Well to say today was productive would be a good thing and a bad thing. Today started out with the intention of installing the AOS, Clutch Slave and Reservoir. Got the AOS out with not much difficulty as having nothing in the back end made it very simple.

Before I installed the new AOS, I wanted to replace the Reservoir since there was "more" room to access the hoses. Let me say to anyone who has replaced the reservoir without dropping the tranny and exhaust system and suspension...I tip my hat to you as you are gods among men! I could not imagine how you did it. So at this point is where my day goes sideways.

First off, here is how much space you have to work with in removing the hose clamps from the back side of the tank.

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While I commend Porsche on building a good car, I would like to smack the back of the head on the engineer who designed this aspect. I have a feeling it was the same one who did the IMS. After fighting the clamps, cramped space and poor angle to see the danged parts, I realized I needed to drain the reservoir before I pulled the last hose. Getting inside the trunk I found that you only need to pull the carpet back right at the corner wherein I exposed the three bolts that hold the reservoir tank. After draining the radiator fluid I was able to pull the tank into the trunk and remove the final clamps. While the tank was not cracked, it was deeply colored, indicating the plastic was hardened and would not have held out much longer.

Couple of notes here: The new tanks do not come with the dipstick hole drilled. This was an easy fix and a little filling and the tube was easily reinserted. Secondly, you need to be extremely careful with the cooling level sensor at the bottom of the tank. It will be a stiff turn to twist it out and you need to be careful when reinserting it in the new tank.

Well, as I finished bolting it back in place I needed to install the second piece of the oil filler tube. That was when I found that the third tube that attaches to the engine was broken. Dang, this is going to be a pain. Before I tear out parts to get to this I decide to pull out one of my unique tools. I have a 25' 4mm borescope that I used to inspect how bad this might be.

The main computer unit:
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The working end of the borescope:
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I did not buy this for the build, but for a project at work that proves to be useful in inspecting internal parts of engines and other hard to see areas.

The scope found that at the bottom of the third pipe there was a crack that went 3/4 of the way around the pipe and is showed to be an old crack as there as a build up of old oily sludge that seemed to have been plugging the crack.

OK, this means that the AOS is not going to be installed as I will be pulling the throttle body out when the new pipe arrives.

So lets move on to the Clutch Slave...not! Seems I did not read the Pelican part list on the slave as there are two additional parts you need. The adapter and new hose. Seems that the old slave body was metal and had a traditional screw in fitting.

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Well the additional parts Porsche is extremely proud of, the adapter is $160.00 and the hose is $140.00. In placing this order I added a few more items and tools so, this aspect of the build will wait till next week.

So tomorrow will be the front suspension and steering tie rods and hopefully a tad bit more productive.

Interesting thread! You are a better man than me:cheers:

I love threads like this....
Eric, Could I get your old bearing to inspect?

Eric,

Have you been able to complete all these task by yourself of is another set of hands needed to accomplish some?

Feelyx, which bearing? The IMS...if so my friend who did the harmonic vibrational analysis has asked to have a first look at it. He is in the process of updating a study paper over his work which will be going into PCA North American. My car is part of the study group where we baselined my car before the build, the after analysis with the new components will be used in part of his paper, along with about 45 other Porsche cars.

Mind you, my bearing did not show frequency anomalies, rather it was my cam chain tensioners that showed the highest frequency to noise ratio.

Here is a link to the first paper:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwYQrJT16ogVYlM5T1JCSXFta0k


Once he is done I would be glad to ship it to you.

Jay, it is just me right now (with my wife acting as support for this) She loves working on the cars and learning, but since I am doing most of this during the day time hours while she is at work, she ends up being my evening support and beer drinking buddy at the end of the day.

Surprisingly, all of these tasks are simple enough for one person with the tools. Like I said in my previous post, anyone who does this work using only jack stands I take my hat off to them as it can get cramped under the car. Robin said for this project there was no way she wanted me to have to work like that. After seeing my friends lift at his house...the decision was made.

Nice thing about this lift (besides the cost), is if don't want to leave it in the middle of your garage, you can wheel it away. Since her car fits over the top we just leave it set up.

Awesome... Thanks Eric, Please post a link to the final update to the analysis if you can, thats good stuff. Makes me wanna finish this off....
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/boxster-cayman-forum/649150-my-ims-fix-3.html

Eric, you are a very lucky man, does you wife has a sister..? :rolleyes:

..ha! Good luck on your build

.

nice thread eric.. your car is very clean underneath..

does your wife have two sisters ???

Why some friends should not help...
 

Day 5 and today brought some surprises and more progress. I had a friend call me up who wanted to help and spend the morning just catching up as we had not seen each other in awhile. (This will come in later).

With yesterdays minor set back of the broken oil filler tube, I decided today I would get some bigger things done. On tap for today is removal of the front suspension, remove the drivers side radiator, replace the fuel filter, replace front swaybar bushings, build struts and then clean up components.

First up was to remove the under panels to access the fuel filter. I am sure that there was a good reason to bury the fuel filter where they did. This is an easy job, but it does require some patients as you need to be careful in working around the plumbing.

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Spend the time looking at all the attachment points. In particular are the clips that hold the front panel. If you look at the clip you will find there is a tapered section that you can put a straight screw driver and pop one side of it off. This will allow the clip to hang free and in some cases it might drop off.

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Once you remove the covers you are presented with this:

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In the last picture above, the bracket you see with the two bolts...this is where the fuel filter is located. You will need to remove a few parts to access. There is a foam piece and a bracket that will need to be removed and then a compression fitting that holds the filter in place.

Note: have a bucket and rags ready when you remove the filter as you will get about a pint of fuel that will come out of your filter. I thought I had prepared with enough stuff to catch everything...not...as I had about a half cup of fuel pour on my head. Doh! This burns and I am glad I don't have to do this every year. After the burning sensation stopped and I had the old filter in a bucket, the new one was installed and back in place I was ready to start draining coolant.

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OK earlier I said I had a friend who wanted to come help and spend some time catching up. While he is not a car buff, we have built enough bikes together that this would be fun. Yes and no. I asked him to pull the main radiator lines and drain out as much as he could. Well, this seemed to go well as he got the catchment unit out and things seemed to be going well....then...

I hear this comment...what is this spring and screw doing with oil coming out! Crap...that is not radiator fluid.

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Well, he had managed to remove the piston from the oil pump and start to drain some of the oil. After a few words, we laughed and agreed that he is good at building bikes, he sucks at working on cars. I reinstalled the parts and spent about an hour laughing and telling each other how much we were stupid. My car, while it is important, is not work more than a friend.

On to the rest of the day, my friend decided that it would be best that we stuck to bikes when working project. I removed the rest of the suspension, and cleaned up the underside leaving me with installation of the front steering components and suspension.

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In addition to the suspension, I had been dealing with a drivers side radiator leak. Turns out it was in the middle of the radiator. My better half says...order a new radiator and be done with the problem rather then tracking down someone to repair it.

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A lot of these pictures I am posting are so that folks can see what things look like.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the wheel wells and determining what I am going to do on Friday.

Again as always, if there something you need or would like pictures of...PM me and I will get a picture posted for you.

Have a good evening,

Eric

Nice so its better than the two posters out there? What brand and model is it?

Yes I will have to recruit the GF when the time come but she will want me to build a boxster for her as well!

Nice so its better than the two posters out there? What brand and model is it?

Yes I will have to recruit the GF when the time come but she will want me to build a boxster for her as well!

Today was a simple day as my target was to get the front suspension installed. I had a tad bit of cleaning on a few parts that I did not get to yesterday. No friends who wanted to help, no dropped oil pump pistons or any other parts.

We had a good laugh over that yesterday as I don't know who was more freaked out, me at hearing the comment or he at having unknown parts fall out.

I digress, the process was simple enough in getting the parts put back, but is much easier with new parts rather then reutilizing older parts. Probably the hardest part today was the fact that the bolt that holds the brake line to the hub sheared off yesterday and I had to mill down the housing and drill and tap out a new hole for it. Took a little over an hour from set up to finish, but the bracket was reset.

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I will say an amazing thing happened today as yesterday I found that the drivers side radiator was cracked on the housing (more than a shop could fix) so I went to PartsGeek and ordered a replacement...and it showed up TODAY! They have proved themselves to be very reliable with one off unique parts. Not as good as Pelican where I can just call up and have something added in under one minute...but with the radiator in hand, I will be able to button up the front end tomorrow. I am hoping that I can get started on the clutch master cylinder and a few other items for Saturday. The next biggy is going to be the IMS/RMS but I need a couple of tools and parts to arrive before I will be able to get to that.

Eric, thanks for sharing! Really nice posts(s) and much appreciated!

Just another idea: How about upgrading to the larger "S" oil cooler since you may want to do the seals anyway?

And yes, you are a lucky man with a wife like yours! Mine starts to understand when I wrench on our cars but that took a long time.

Looks like your car will be as new when finished, so jelly!!

Later,
Andy

Andy, your comments are much appreciated. The oil cooler had not been on my radar for upgrading or the seals. I ran across and older thread that talked about updating the seals...so at a minimum they are already on order. Seems like a great idea on upgrading the cooler...so thank you.

When my wife and I were first dating and we went out on my bike and she said, "this thing go any faster then this"? I knew this was going to turn out well.

:):D;)

Good one! My wife really likes modded cars now! We even modded our mountain bikes.

Keep up the good work, everybody here is cheering you on.

Eric, great post, thanks for sharing.. How did you support the engine when dropping the tranny? I've got a scissor lift at home and thinking of doing the clurtch/ims over the winter. Just trying to figure out if I'll be able to achieve it.

Not sure if this is going to cause anyone consternation, but I have done this on other builds and it works nicely for me.

In the first picture the central point circled (as noted) I used a jack stand to support the engine while using the transmission jack to back the tranny out. Then I lowered the car a tad bit more and put the dense rubber spacers in and lift the car back up. Compression was minimal and the engine sits soundly on the pads. I have seen others use 2x4's and other small pieces of wood. So I think there are a few schools of thought on supporting. Personally I like the rubber as it maintains solid but soft contact.

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Sunday morning off to a little slower start as I realized that I missed a crucial step in the front suspension installation. I failed to head the "tighten the front wishbone when fully loaded" step as I found that my drop link was pushed up right against it. Loosened up the proper bolts, dropped the car down and loaded the front end and tightened everything back up...perfect. Felt a little silly about missing that, but that is why I write myself post it notes on my build board for secondary and final checks for each of the systems I complete.

Today was spark plug tube, spark plugs and coils day. In preparing for this I had my boat drain plug like is mentioned in Pedro's mods for pulling the tube.

Now, I would like to write that everything went smooth as cake, the tubes came out like butter and the whole thing went back in a easy fashion. This however would be a misnomer. The boat plug worked by itself on only one plug. If found the diameter of the plug tube exceeded the maximum expanded diameter of the boat plug.

As such, I needed more gripping power so I decided to use drywall sandpaper as a insert between the rubber and the tube. This allowed more gripping power and I was able to get one more tube out. After that, the tool did not work worth crap. Without boring you on the process of elimination of what would remove the tubes without dropping pieces into the engine, I ended up using a curved pry bar that was able to pull the tubes out.

Caution: Please, what ever you do...do not break off pieces of the tubes. They will drop right into the engine and unless you can fish them out, you are going to be in trouble.

For my case I was able to keep everything together and all the tube came out. Total time to pull the tubes ~90 minutes.

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Getting the bolts out and the coils removed was not a big deal (with the suspension and removed this becomes an easy task). In the first picture if you look to the edge of the tube you can see the paper between the tube and the plug. You will also see a pair of offset pliers. I found that they worked better than the standard screwdriver Pedro recommended.

In the end I was able to get all the work done in about 2 1/2 hours. However, with the cylinders open I decided to take a look inside each of the cylinders to see how everything looked. Pulled the borescope out and had a look around each. I will say that for an engine that now has over 90K miles on the odometer, I was impressed to see clean cylinder walls.

Cylinder 1:

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Cylinder 2:

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Cylinder 3:

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Cylinder 4:

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Cylinder 5:

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Cylinder 6:

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While some of the cylinders may look "dirty" this is actually minimal carbon build up on the pistons and the cylinder walls are smooth as butter. This makes me feel good as there is no immediate issue on the rings or pistons that needs to be dealt with.

One final picture for today...I indicated that I found a broken "third" tube on my oil filler tube when replacing the reservoir tank. Here is what I found (the center of the picture shows the hole! How the car kept a solid idle I don't know...but hopefully the tube will be in to Pelican next week and I can get it installed the week after.

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So, where do I go next? As soon as I have the two additional parts in for the slave cylinder, I will be installing the new master and slave cylinders for the clutch and installing the rebuild kit onto the transmission. After that it will be the water pump and low temp thermostat.

One of the best aspects of this build is that by setting manageable daily goals, I don't get overwhelmed with tasks, I don't have the car so far disassembled that parts and pieces become overwhelming in how they are spread out. My end goal is to have the car done by the end of the month.

Well, it has been a few days since a new post as I had to go back to work. Funny you wait for vacation time to come around and then once it is over you are already missing it.

Well today was the final draining of the coolant from all the lines, engine and radiator and then I had to deal with the oil pan. Seems the PO jammed the drain plug in so hard it wedged itself in place and they stripped the allen head out of the plug.

Ended up drilling two holes into the drain plug, placed a spanner wrench in then...bingo! Out came the jammed plug. Then after the engine was drained, it was time to remove and inspect the oil filter.

What was in there were small black plastic particles. Only about two small black particles were magnetic everything else was plastic. This seems to follow everything I have been seeing in that I don't believe the IMS is failing, but it still is going to get pulled.

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The final picture is the magnetic drain plug with a 19mm head installed. For those that are worried about how far it will stick down. It is well withing the clearance of the exhaust manifold.

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Thanks for the update! Wrenched myself a bit today. Surprising about the tubes....

Lots accomplished today...
 

Well, decided to take today off and see if I could make a serious dent in my "still todo list". Temps have been running in the 113F+ for the last few days (in Eastern Washington)! so the motivation to work in the evening was really low. Forecast was for nice temps today so...

First off, my purge valve made it to me from Bar10dah yesterday, so that was the first item to get installed. Before making the installation I verified that the part was the upgraded version from what I already have...it was and hopefully when I get the car buttoned up, the error code on this will have been cleared. In addition, I followed the directions on many posts that says to use a compressor and blow the lines out and reassemble.

Next up, my next to last order from Pelican showed up having my new clutch slave cylinder line and connector. I had ordered the slave and master cylinder but failed to notice that you have to order two additional parts. The little connector and new line added $320.00 to the build bringing the upgrade of just the slave to over $400.00. Porsche is mighty proud of these parts. Oh well, out with the old and in with the new:

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You would think this would be a simple conversion, pull the old line out, replace with the new connector, install the new line and attach the slave. Wrong. The instructions are in German with no English or French translations. So, I first translated the directions which are as follows:

überwurfmutter von kupplungsstutzen abschrauben!
überwurfmutter bis zum anschlag an den stecker schieben!
baugruppe mit montagestopfen bis zum anschlag in die!
uberwurfmutter einstecken!
überwurfmutter gemeinsam mit der baugruppe vom stecker abziehen!
überwurfmutter halterosette und baugruppe demontieren!

In English:

union nut from unscrewing clutch clip!
union nut to stop the slide connector!
subassembly mounting stuff up to the fence in the!
Insert the nut over !
union nut pull together with the subassembly from the plug!
union nut holding rosette and subassembly dismantle!

Translation to me:

Huh?

OK, I called Pelican and asked if they could simply confirm what the pictures in the instructions were indicating as it appeared that the plastic piece (see below) was being used...but I was not making sense of it.


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Pelican had nothing in the books, on file or in their database to help and they were surprised as this is an upgraded piece that had a TSB on it, but could not find that either. OK, so a little brain power was needed on my end (for a Friday that's asking a bit). What is happening here is the black plastic piece is simulating the brass end of the new slave line in holding the plastic compression fitting. You attach the new connector to the existing line with the plastic piece in place, remove it before you reach a tight fit, insert you new slave line and than tighten. The whole thing is to keep parts and pieces aligned for the final assembly. Not that difficult, but going through it for the first time you do need to think about what you are doing. In the end, the slave was installed and I was happy.

Next up was the clutch master cylinder...how hard can this be? I set the car at a height I can get to the clutch peddle and into the bonnet with ease and begin the process of removing parts. If you have never done the master cylinder, the slave cylinder line is removed by pinching the protruding ends of the black fitting together while pulling at the same time. It releases the spring clip holding it. Note: put something under these lines as you will get drippedge and you don't want to ruin your paint. Now to what I hoped was the easy part, removing the master from the clutch peddle. Not! You need to be a 5' 1" contortionist to stick your fingers, arms, head, light and tools into this area to remove the two nuts and one cir clip. I was able to do it as it just took patience and a slow approach. In the end the master cylinder came out, the new one went in and this portion of the project was completed. Time to complete was about 2 hours.

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Next up new water pump and low temp thermostat but decided to stop for a bit of lunch and let the experience of the clutch parts settle down, the dog needed to go outside and I had a delivery of some new tools that showed up! Yeah more tools!

Since I need to remove the inside panel to pull the serpentine belt off the water pump...best get it off. Four main plastic fittings and the carpeted section comes off, seven screws and two nuts and the metal panel is off. Using a 24mm socket I relieve the tension on the pulley and remove the belt from the water pump. Now in studying my notes and postings on removing the water pump, some have stated you need to drop the front motor mount to access the "tough bolt", while others have stated you can do it from below. I opt for the below method to see if it can be done with out removing the front mount.

In the end it can be done, you just need to have ample light and patience to get to all the bolts on the water pump, primarily the hard to reach one behind the motor mount. Also, PAY ATTENTION TO BOLT LENGTHS! There are two long bolts on the pump...but if you loose track of where they go, they are mounted through the holes that have the set plugs built into the water pump housing.

So I pull the water pump and find that I did not have to cut the gasket, which indicates that the pump had been replaced at some point by the PO. I also pulled the thermostat and it appeared it had been replaced as well, however it was a stock temp so it still needed to come out. In a side by side comparison I am glad I did this (even if there was a functioning water pump) as the old impeller was the plastic version. Yes it was in good shape, but it is not worth risking failure down the road.

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Now as I was cleaning the block where the gasket was going to sit, I also took time to look over my notes, the manual and threads from numerous boards I have saved and decided that I was not going to use any "additional" sealant on the gaskets. Part of replacing a part is following the torquing specs. These are metal gaskets with a low torque setting. Wrenching down on these guys could blow the seal and predicate the need for additional help, however, after seeing Mike and Pedro's threads they don't use sealant and follow the specs...and it works. Since Porsche does not call it out I am going with the product as directed. I may kick myself down the road, but I also know that when using seals as directed, things tend to work out for the better.

Putting the water pump and thermostat back in place was a cake walk. Alternate your pattern when torquing down the bolts, verify you have all the bolts correctly torqued in place and reconnect your hoses. Time for this job was just over an hour.

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Last thing for today was the RMS...
 

Last item I decided to tackle for today was the rear main seal (RMS). As I showed earlier in the thread, mine is leaking and needs to be replaced. I spent a great deal of time reading a lot about what people have done, not done, tried, failed, succeeded and otherwise tried to work their way through the installation of this little seal. It is amazing how setting a seal to 13mm can cause so much heart burn.

Well, in my research I found several wonderful threads. One was on manufacturing your own RMS seating tool and the other was on the reasons behind the depth setting for the RMS. First off, the tool. There was a thread where a user took plumbing connectors and fabricated a tool. I see why they did this when you are facing over a hundred bones for the Porsche tool. For my tool I took a slightly different approach and when with plumbing end connectors rather then cutting wood spacers and gluing parts together. I simply took a 4" end cap and mated a 3" flat end cap inside of it after cutting it down the the proper depth setting (13mm). I added a hole to accommodate the lip on the crank and the set pin thus giving me the proper depth to seat the seal.

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Once this was done, I needed to remove the old RMS, and has been proven over and over again, I drilled my hole, inserted my screw, used a pry bar (placing my hand under it when pulling) and removed my old RMS.

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Now with the old seal out I want to share a thread from cheetahonline which had beautiful shots of the new PTFE RMS seal installed and why you want to ensure the 13mm insertion.

The M96 Porsche engine found in the Boxster / Cayman has an Rear Main Seal "RMS" to seal the back end of the crankshaft (the end the connects to the transmission). The photo above shows the old seal already removed. The problem that many people have is how to properly install the new seal, so that it won’t leak again. Porsche has updated the seal itself and the recommended installation depth. To see which RMS update is available for your specific engine, check out Pelican Parts - Porsche Boxster/Cayman Parts & Accessories Catalog. The new RMS will come with a plastic installation sleeve as shown above. For the rest of these photos, the crankshaft has been removed from the vehicle to show how the new seal is installed with the plastic sleeve and the new mounting tool. Normal procedures, such as completely cleaning the area should be done before replacing the seal. This article is strictly showing the proper procedure for aligning the seal.

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Place the open end of the plastic insert onto the crankshaft end. This should fit on as shown. This surface is where the seal will slide onto to stop splashing oil from exiting the engine. This seal does not support the crankshaft in any way, it is only a seal to stop oil leaks.

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Slide the RMS onto the shaft as shown. The depth does not matter yet, as the setting tool will be used to get the proper depth. (they used a delrin tool in their thread similar but slightly different from mine)

Place the tool onto the end of the crankshaft (rotating it until raised area on the crankshaft lines up with the hole on the tool). With a hammer, tap around the back of the tool evenly until the tool bottoms out against the crankshaft. This should be very obvious as to when it happens, as the sound of the taps should change once they are contacting.

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Remove the tool and the seal should be mounted squarely to the crankshaft as shown. This new mounting depth of around 13mm is shown above. The original depth of 11mm left the seal farther out on the crankshaft. The reason for the change is most likely two-fold: the seal is moved away from the edge of the case where is could leak easier and moving the depth to a slightly different spot to avoid an attempt to seal on an area that already had been shown to leak.This should be done during clutch changes, or during an IMS replacement / upgrade. The RMS itself is a $10 part, but labor to replace it is usually billed out at 8 hours (same labor to replace a clutch). Therefore, take the extra few minutes to replace the seal if there is any sign of leaking any time that the transmission is removed.

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(end of Cheetahonline post)

On the directions that came with my new seal, it clearly states you want to insert and leave the seal alone for a minimum of 4 hours to allow the material to seat properly. Not a problem as my project is not going anywhere for the next few days.

So, how did my tool do for seating the seal???

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Well, we are almost at the point where I am ready to do the deed on the IMS, I still have a couple of areas to work on but I decided this was enough for today.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions...please post them up. I am only writing my own ditherings here to document what I am going through on this build hoping that some of it is useful to someone.