Porsche Boxster 986 - engine swap project
Discussion
Epic build this mate, I've just sat and read the whole lot. I had the same charge cooler that you are using in my Audi 20v turbo Exige project, when my car was being mapped my tuner was worried about the high inlet temps and said that the charge cooler was a bad design. He advised swapping it out for a barrel charge cooler they seem to be much more efficient, Hennessy use them on their 1100hp Venom 
Here's a picture of my efforts.
Here's a picture of my efforts.
I'm glad the failure wasn't anything to do with my engine conversion, just a bit of bad luck.
I'll be keeping a close eye on the performance of the chargecooler, the inlet temperatures might be what ultimately decides the power it makes. It'd be a lot of work to change it so fingers crossed it'll perform well.
I had to get the car out of the garage last night as there was someone doing some work on the house today. I got to see it out in the wild for the 1st time in over a year. I find it's hard gauge how it'd look on the coilovers and different alloys when it's in the garage. I'm pleased, I definately prefer these alloys.
I took a photo before I left for work in the morning, it was still a little dark and the car is covered in a year's worth of grime (you can see all the dust on the engine bay air intake). You can also see the oil slick where the car is bleeding. The good news is the exhaust is much quieter once I got it out of the garage, I was a bit worried that it might be crazy loud. I'll take a video of it running once i've sorted the power steering out.
I'll be keeping a close eye on the performance of the chargecooler, the inlet temperatures might be what ultimately decides the power it makes. It'd be a lot of work to change it so fingers crossed it'll perform well.
I had to get the car out of the garage last night as there was someone doing some work on the house today. I got to see it out in the wild for the 1st time in over a year. I find it's hard gauge how it'd look on the coilovers and different alloys when it's in the garage. I'm pleased, I definately prefer these alloys.
I took a photo before I left for work in the morning, it was still a little dark and the car is covered in a year's worth of grime (you can see all the dust on the engine bay air intake). You can also see the oil slick where the car is bleeding. The good news is the exhaust is much quieter once I got it out of the garage, I was a bit worried that it might be crazy loud. I'll take a video of it running once i've sorted the power steering out.
I've never been a big fan of the Boxster, but I just want this car so much!
Being a huge fan of the engine when it was in my B5 S4 and RS4 I can imagine how much fun its going to be, coupled with the fact that its my favourite sounding engine!
Loved following this thread and can't wait to see it on a proper run
Being a huge fan of the engine when it was in my B5 S4 and RS4 I can imagine how much fun its going to be, coupled with the fact that its my favourite sounding engine!
Loved following this thread and can't wait to see it on a proper run
Escy said:
Thanks guys.
I took the car on it's maiden voyage tonight. It could have gone better, I made about 6 foot before I had a breakdown, I didn't even make it out of the garage! It looks like one of the power steering lines has rusted through, also an alloy fitting on one of the rubber p/s pipes has split so that'll need to be changed also.
Those PAS hoses are notorious. You'll have a bugger getting them out of the rack if you change the whole pipe - which goes across to the left side of the car, so necessitates a subframe drop to remove. The PAS ram pipes will probably look like they're from the bottom of the ocean too - mine do, and I'm facing a job to replace them..I took the car on it's maiden voyage tonight. It could have gone better, I made about 6 foot before I had a breakdown, I didn't even make it out of the garage! It looks like one of the power steering lines has rusted through, also an alloy fitting on one of the rubber p/s pipes has split so that'll need to be changed also.
It's been a long time with no update.
I replaced the rusted power steering pipes. The high and low pressure hoses were seized into the steering rack, which meant I couldn't remove the steering rack (without getting the hacksaw out) so I had to drop the subframe and change them with the steering rack in situ. Once that was done, I started it up a couple of times to bleed the system. All good, no leaks. I put the car back together, the plan was to get it out of the garage the next day and take it around the block for it's first little test drive.
The next day it just wouldn't start, I ended up spending about 4 weekends on it trying to work out why, this was the most frustrating time during the whole project, I had run out of patience and ideas. I had fuel and a spark while cranking, compression was good, timing was fine. I went right through the ECU messing about with all the settings. In the end, since I was out of ideas I borrowed a set of old coil packs my mate had, in the box was a set of used spark plugs, I thought I may as well stick them in and it fired straight up. It doesn't make much sense to me, the old ones (I say old, about 2 hours running time in total) all had a good spark when cranking with them removed from the heads and earthed. It wouldn't even try and start on Easy Start spray. Once it had run for a while and was warm I tried them again and it still wouldn't start.
I had another annoying problem when I put the key in the ignition and try to start it sometimes it'd jam. This was doing my head in as it meant I had to turn the ignition off and back on which would mean I needed to re-connect the ecu to my laptop if i'd been making changes to the map. I bought a replacement steering column lock and fitted it, it all went straightforward enough except when I put my dash back in and the LCD's have taken a crap. Some people have suggested it's due to the cold and it'll disappear.
My mate came over to help me and we had a crack at getting it running in a drivable state. There were a few issues to contend with, it had an air lock on the coolant system so was overheating, the DBW throttle had a big flat spot, the idle wouldn't settle after it was rev'd, it was bouncing up and down and sometimes cutting out. It took a while to sort everything out, we noticed the crankcase breather pipes collapsed when the engine got up to temperature so had to change those. Once it was all sorted it was ready for it's maiden voyage to the petrol station and back. That went perfectly, no knocks or clunks, no smoke or explosions. It's not far off now
https://youtu.be/hGRKChCAAGM
I replaced the rusted power steering pipes. The high and low pressure hoses were seized into the steering rack, which meant I couldn't remove the steering rack (without getting the hacksaw out) so I had to drop the subframe and change them with the steering rack in situ. Once that was done, I started it up a couple of times to bleed the system. All good, no leaks. I put the car back together, the plan was to get it out of the garage the next day and take it around the block for it's first little test drive.
The next day it just wouldn't start, I ended up spending about 4 weekends on it trying to work out why, this was the most frustrating time during the whole project, I had run out of patience and ideas. I had fuel and a spark while cranking, compression was good, timing was fine. I went right through the ECU messing about with all the settings. In the end, since I was out of ideas I borrowed a set of old coil packs my mate had, in the box was a set of used spark plugs, I thought I may as well stick them in and it fired straight up. It doesn't make much sense to me, the old ones (I say old, about 2 hours running time in total) all had a good spark when cranking with them removed from the heads and earthed. It wouldn't even try and start on Easy Start spray. Once it had run for a while and was warm I tried them again and it still wouldn't start.
I had another annoying problem when I put the key in the ignition and try to start it sometimes it'd jam. This was doing my head in as it meant I had to turn the ignition off and back on which would mean I needed to re-connect the ecu to my laptop if i'd been making changes to the map. I bought a replacement steering column lock and fitted it, it all went straightforward enough except when I put my dash back in and the LCD's have taken a crap. Some people have suggested it's due to the cold and it'll disappear.
My mate came over to help me and we had a crack at getting it running in a drivable state. There were a few issues to contend with, it had an air lock on the coolant system so was overheating, the DBW throttle had a big flat spot, the idle wouldn't settle after it was rev'd, it was bouncing up and down and sometimes cutting out. It took a while to sort everything out, we noticed the crankcase breather pipes collapsed when the engine got up to temperature so had to change those. Once it was all sorted it was ready for it's maiden voyage to the petrol station and back. That went perfectly, no knocks or clunks, no smoke or explosions. It's not far off now
https://youtu.be/hGRKChCAAGM
My mate Adam made up a cool video showing the story so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEp9s3gHbWI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEp9s3gHbWI
I have thought about a 4 after the S. Porsche do a 4S badge so could use that to do it. Don't want to make it look cheesy so I'm not sure yet.
With the dash, I noticed the LCD's had gone like that before I even plugged it back in.
The spark looked good when tested and I'd have expected it to start (or at least try) on easy start even with a weak spark. It's strange.
With the dash, I noticed the LCD's had gone like that before I even plugged it back in.
The spark looked good when tested and I'd have expected it to start (or at least try) on easy start even with a weak spark. It's strange.
Escy said:
I have thought about a 4 after the S. Porsche do a 4S badge so could use that to do it. Don't want to make it look cheesy so I'm not sure yet.
With the dash, I noticed the LCD's had gone like that before I even plugged it back in.
The spark looked good when tested and I'd have expected it to start (or at least try) on easy start even with a weak spark. It's strange.
Hmm, but 4 usually indicates 4wd, which it isn't. With the dash, I noticed the LCD's had gone like that before I even plugged it back in.
The spark looked good when tested and I'd have expected it to start (or at least try) on easy start even with a weak spark. It's strange.
Awesome build by the way, really looking forward to seeing it accelerate once it's running the way you want it to.
yajeed said:
Hmm, but 4 usually indicates 4wd, which it isn't.
A '4' before the 'S' (e.g. 4S) usually means 4wd... I don't think there has ever been a '4' after the 'S' (on a Porsche) for 4wd although people do refer to the Series 4 928 (not 4wd) as an S4.Might be wrong on that but the engine is an S4, so it makes perfect sense.
TonyRPH said:
A bit of a wildcard suggestion, but I'm wondering if you don't have a bad earth somewhere?
A voltage spike could have caused the LCD issue along with the inability to start.
Oi - stop stealing my ideas A voltage spike could have caused the LCD issue along with the inability to start.
TonyRPH said:
Ooh sorry.
(note to self) stop skim reading threads.
Secretly I was happy it occurred to someone else and I wasn't being thick (note to self) stop skim reading threads.
I had very similar issues on a Williams that seemed to be sorted by swapping things but in the end; it was a corroded/ not attached earth and that being 'helped' by pushing/ pulling cables when swapping parts.
I did think there may be an earth issue so I changed the engine to chassis earth strap when I had the starting problem.
The LCD's were fine, I removed the dash binnacle and noticed while it was off the car that two of the LCD's had these marks on them, sure enough when plugged in they were like in the photo. It was really cold when I did the job, apparently people say it's common for it to happen in the winter.
The LCD's were fine, I removed the dash binnacle and noticed while it was off the car that two of the LCD's had these marks on them, sure enough when plugged in they were like in the photo. It was really cold when I did the job, apparently people say it's common for it to happen in the winter.
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