Knackered old Porsche with loads of natural light - Boxster!
Discussion
poppopbangbang said:
Heaveho said:
Other than appearance what benefit do spacers offer? I've always understood them to place more stress on wheel bearings etc? I removed the 15mm rear and 7mm fronts on mine when I bought it because of this.
They allow you to tune the roll centre of the vehicle, fine tune effective spring rate and tune the under/oversteer characteristics of the chassis as well as all the obvious aesthetic reasons. Realistically in race car world you'd do this work then get your race wheels produced incorporating the relative offsets you'd ended up at etc. With regards wheel bearing loads, how often do you buy tyres based on them being the same weight as what the car did sign off on? That's pretty much the difference with the size of spacer we are discussing here when it comes to wheel bearing load. Porsche will happily sell you a set of spacers from the Tequipment catalogue for example. Note we're talking about small spacers here, not the Carlos Fandango 50mm jobbies
poppopbangbang said:
TameRacingDriver said:
Very nice. I've joined the club again myself, and in a fairly similar looking colour 
Here it is alongside the car it's replacing.
Lovely car Here it is alongside the car it's replacing.
But I would say that right? I am biased but having spent a fair whack of time in later MX5's the Boxster is so much better (and that's taking into account the personality the MX5 has)..... and they rust a lot less!
This MX5 is running 200 bhp and is a hoot, but it doesn't feel or sound special the same way as a Porsche. It felt initially more fun but doesn't have the all round talent and it will never sound as good, or feel as special.
The rust thing is a fair point too I reckon, MX5s definitely need expensive rust repairs, and cost even more to put right if they are left to rot.
The Pork is everything I hoped for. First time in this particular car with the roof down, and it had me grinning like a cheshire cat, especially with the sports exhaust liberating the noise I always felt lacking in my standard first one.
Will set up my own readers cars thread soon
poppopbangbang said:
They've aged superbly well really, very different design language to modern Porsche but the still look fresh. I am one of about three people that think the fried egg headlights have aged well..... but only if they're litronics that had no "yolk" to begin with
I have ambers on mine and I love the look of them....but I must admit that yours looks fantastic without them!That number plate is great too! I understand on the rear with the recess that it's pointless having a shorter plate but on the front, have you thought of having a smaller one?
A small update on the Boxster following it's first MOT with me, having had a good poke about underneath there was nothing that jumped out aside from the rear arms needed replacing as the ball joint in both sides was just showing play as identified by COG at the recent setup. To be fair these probably would have passed but hey lets put some new bits on it!
New Pankl arms:
And with an original from the car, it had clocked up just shy of 100K miles on these!
Fitting was very straightforward as the captive nut on both sides behaved and stayed captive so just over an hour for both sides from start to finish. I did them the easy way by pulling the rear arch liner out and accessing through the wheel arch.
It is proper road car filthy compared to the 996 but then this is meant to be the dirty daily so I suppose that's okay.... Coffin arms are relatively recent despite their looks with less than 10K on them and aside from some stuff looking a bit grotty it's actually in pretty good nick all round.
Passed with no advisories which considering how little mechanically I have actually done on this car is a testament to the previous owners keeping up on things:
_MOT_pass.png?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds)
I then went on holiday and in an effort to make me not friends with it any more it locked me out, the alarm system had gone into sleep mode whilst away and unbeknown to me the drivers door lock had packed up at some point in the past weeks. Which meant I couldn't unlock it on the remote or on the key. After putting the hammer down I got into the wheel arch liners to discover the emergency release wasn't where it was meant to be etiher, so with a bit of further "sign of a mispent youth" which I won't detail on a public forum I got the bonnet popped and was able to reset the alarm by disconnecting the battery.
No part of me was impressed by this
So door lock is now on the to do list but as punishment it's been banished outside as the 911 is back shortly and wants significant putting back together'ing!
On the bright side the new rear arms
New Pankl arms:
And with an original from the car, it had clocked up just shy of 100K miles on these!
Fitting was very straightforward as the captive nut on both sides behaved and stayed captive so just over an hour for both sides from start to finish. I did them the easy way by pulling the rear arch liner out and accessing through the wheel arch.
It is proper road car filthy compared to the 996 but then this is meant to be the dirty daily so I suppose that's okay.... Coffin arms are relatively recent despite their looks with less than 10K on them and aside from some stuff looking a bit grotty it's actually in pretty good nick all round.
Passed with no advisories which considering how little mechanically I have actually done on this car is a testament to the previous owners keeping up on things:
I then went on holiday and in an effort to make me not friends with it any more it locked me out, the alarm system had gone into sleep mode whilst away and unbeknown to me the drivers door lock had packed up at some point in the past weeks. Which meant I couldn't unlock it on the remote or on the key. After putting the hammer down I got into the wheel arch liners to discover the emergency release wasn't where it was meant to be etiher, so with a bit of further "sign of a mispent youth" which I won't detail on a public forum I got the bonnet popped and was able to reset the alarm by disconnecting the battery.
No part of me was impressed by this
So door lock is now on the to do list
but as punishment it's been banished outside as the 911 is back shortly and wants significant putting back together'ing! On the bright side the new rear arms
Edited by poppopbangbang on Thursday 4th May 22:16
Whilst collating new bits from the parts store for the 996 today I found the battery clamp that I was supposed to fit before it was MOT'd recently..... I think mentally I had been putting this off as there was obviously a reason it didn't have the correct one fitted - someone had done a particularly impressive bit of bush engineering to use the next bolt hole down.
A brief inspection showed why and in keeping with said bush engineering I resorted immediately to pure hope by sticking a tap in a pair of needle nose mole grips because surely that thread in the battery tray was fine and could be salvaged without even removing the battery:
This is the first time this has ever worked I was sure it would be stripped or have half the original bolt left in it but no, with a quick tapping I was able to wind a bolt in without issue:
I think in the past it has had a larger battery fitted which was later replaced with the correct size but the threads in the hole for the original size battery had corroded in the mean time - the battery tray used in the Boxster and 996 is pretty handy really as it supports multiple battery sizes with the same clamp and tray by offering options for where the clamp is bolted down.
Either way one more job done - back to the 996!
A brief inspection showed why and in keeping with said bush engineering I resorted immediately to pure hope by sticking a tap in a pair of needle nose mole grips because surely that thread in the battery tray was fine and could be salvaged without even removing the battery:
This is the first time this has ever worked
I was sure it would be stripped or have half the original bolt left in it but no, with a quick tapping I was able to wind a bolt in without issue:I think in the past it has had a larger battery fitted which was later replaced with the correct size but the threads in the hole for the original size battery had corroded in the mean time - the battery tray used in the Boxster and 996 is pretty handy really as it supports multiple battery sizes with the same clamp and tray by offering options for where the clamp is bolted down.
Either way one more job done - back to the 996!
Great thread. I took a similar flyer on a 2.5 a few years ago. An eccentric older woman was moving out of her rather large house on a Saturday. Her daughter went into the garage on the Thurs and they remembered she had a Boxster parked in there that she hadn't moved in 3 years. She put it on Autotrader for £2k... I was in the right place at the right time, phoned up, established it wasn't a scam and sent a mate with a transporter to collect it.
It turned out to be a great gamble once I'd removed the family of mice from the roof, fitted a new battery and cleaned it.
It turned out to be a great gamble once I'd removed the family of mice from the roof, fitted a new battery and cleaned it.
k is that out? eltax91 said:
Oooh naughty. 
I have no idea, but is the rest of the driveline up to 500hp without major changes?
Depends how good you are at calibration and correctly specifying the engine really, the sensible limit for it all is about 300ftlbs of torque which at 8500RPM gives 485bhp. Sneak that up to 330ftlbs and it'll make over 500bhp at 8000 RPM. As always power isn't what breaks things, twisting force i.e. torque is, hence why it's important to get it revving (it can do more useful work in the same time period). I have no idea, but is the rest of the driveline up to 500hp without major changes?
It's also why a pretty big turbo is important coupled with a decent sized wastegate and accurate boost control. In this case I'm thinking an externally gated GT3076 is about right although you are getting up towards the top end of what that will do but going bigger hurts response and power band. As always it's a game of compromises between boost threshold, response and air mass delivery. A short intake path and low inlet volume will help too so we're really talking charge coolers built into the shortest air delivery path or even the intake manifold (ala current BMW).
Clutch wise a single mass flywheel and a single plate clutch will do just fine so driveability will be very similar to original. Sachs produce a couple of suitable single place uprated clutch options which depending on friction material choice will do 310 - 370 ftlbs reliably.
When you start running the numbers on this it begins to look better and better. Useable power band is circa 4000RPM which is pretty similar to standard Boxster, weight will be around 15KG less than standard, mass distribution is essentially the same, driveability has very little compromise to it and the vehicle operation is essentially as per standard with some caveats on minimum fluid temps etc.
I'm not saying I'm doing this for sure yet but the initial investigations look very promising. Some further work is required on front engine mount, charge cooling, catalytic system (as I like all my stuff to be lower emission than when it was new) and engine control system - specifically with regards to if I'm building this as a fully analogue car with cable throttle and no TCS or a DBW car with TCS and an OE (probably ME7.5) engine controller.
amstrange1 said:
I like the idea of this. Quite a few in the USA seem to have done it too, and the 1.8t has plenty of goodies available for it.
Could be a nice side hustle in selling conversion kits I suspect?
The ones in the US have been done using the 058 block which is longitudinal from the factory (so different sump, inlet manifold etc.), it's also quite different to the later 06A block in terms of how the oil pump and water pump is driven and a few other bits. Could be a nice side hustle in selling conversion kits I suspect?
I want to use the 06A block which is mostly available in transverse configurations but it all looks very possible to make one longitudinal using bits of Audi A4 etc. advantages of the 06A block are better ancil packaging (internal water pump), chain driven oil pump, much more compact FEAD options, larger selection of internals etc. etc. but not as straight forward regarding front engine mount and general longitudinal'ness as the earlier 058. It's a better option for this though I think!
poppopbangbang said:
I'm not saying I'm doing this for sure yet but the initial investigations look very promising. Some further work is required on front engine mount, charge cooling, catalytic system (as I like all my stuff to be lower emission than when it was new) and engine control system - specifically with regards to if I'm building this as a fully analogue car with cable throttle and no TCS or a DBW car with TCS and an OE (probably ME7.5) engine controller.
Oh please do it. And document it as much as possible, as if an open source project. Outlaw Porsches used to be the preserve of those that loved the cars but did not have the budget for a recent Porsche. That has changed and it is now for the well off.Even better do a low cost, second hand parts version with around 300bhp/lbft. I know with your engineering background you like to push things without too much concern for budget but a low cost plan would be fascinating. Boxsters with knackered engines are cheap due to the rebuild costs of the flat six. An alternative route to fix and end up with a great car would be amazing.
RM said:
Oh please do it. And document it as much as possible, as if an open source project. Outlaw Porsches used to be the preserve of those that loved the cars but did not have the budget for a recent Porsche. That has changed and it is now for the well off.
Even better do a low cost, second hand parts version with around 300bhp/lbft. I know with your engineering background you like to push things without too much concern for budget but a low cost plan would be fascinating. Boxsters with knackered engines are cheap due to the rebuild costs of the flat six. An alternative route to fix and end up with a great car would be amazing.
Everything I am considering would let you stick a standard 20V from a TT in there which with a few cheap bits will do 280 - 300bhp and similar torque (most of the bits that require changing on a TT to do that you'd be changing during install anyway). Once you sort out the electronics architecture and engine install bits it doesn't really make a different to the chassis integration what parts are inside the motor or how big the turbo is Even better do a low cost, second hand parts version with around 300bhp/lbft. I know with your engineering background you like to push things without too much concern for budget but a low cost plan would be fascinating. Boxsters with knackered engines are cheap due to the rebuild costs of the flat six. An alternative route to fix and end up with a great car would be amazing.
I've just been going through some wiring diagrams and it does look entirely feasible to run the whole thing on ME7.5 which is a nice, modern ECU (TT, Golf GTI etc.) with a torque based calibration, dual sensor knock control, wideband O2 sensor support etc. etc. basically something which would take an awful lot of calibration work on an aftermarket ECU to end up with something not quite as good. It's also infinitely mapable with £500 of of the shelf kit. If you were doing the above standard engine install you'd just delete the immobiliser in the ECU and away you go!
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