Phoenix from the flames - Porsche Boxster with an Audi 2.7T
Discussion
I bought a load of bits to freshen up the engine and try and cure a few leaks. Ordered from Autodoc which gets sent from Germany. I like the huge choice they have with lots of brands and the prices are good but it took 4 days to dispatch which left me pulling my hair out as I didn't get the bits until after the weekend. Probably won't use them again.
I bought a cam gear puller tool as I usually use my hydraulic puller but it's too bulky to get the cam gears off inside the Boxster engine compartment.
I wasn't planning on taking the inlet manifold off but I spotted some oil residue around the air temperature sensor that's fitted underneath the manifold. I had changed the O-ring previously with a generic one but it's still been leaking so I bought one from Audi. That'll teach me for being too lazy to make the trip to the dealer in the first place. While the inlet manifold was off, I thought I may as well swap the new bigger injectors over.
I'm changing the cam seals amongst other things so the cams had to come out. I hadn't planned on doing any of this when I started changing the turbos but it'll be worth it if I can cure all the oil leaks. That said, i'm not convinced there is such a thing as an oil leak free Audi 2.7t. The timing tool fits inside the Boxster engine bay. I've got a decent amount of room to work on it, much more space than you get with the flat 6.
I bought a cam gear puller tool as I usually use my hydraulic puller but it's too bulky to get the cam gears off inside the Boxster engine compartment.
I wasn't planning on taking the inlet manifold off but I spotted some oil residue around the air temperature sensor that's fitted underneath the manifold. I had changed the O-ring previously with a generic one but it's still been leaking so I bought one from Audi. That'll teach me for being too lazy to make the trip to the dealer in the first place. While the inlet manifold was off, I thought I may as well swap the new bigger injectors over.
I'm changing the cam seals amongst other things so the cams had to come out. I hadn't planned on doing any of this when I started changing the turbos but it'll be worth it if I can cure all the oil leaks. That said, i'm not convinced there is such a thing as an oil leak free Audi 2.7t. The timing tool fits inside the Boxster engine bay. I've got a decent amount of room to work on it, much more space than you get with the flat 6.
C350 said:
Mine were all fine for oil leaks, however boost and vacuum leaks were a different matter!
You were being punished for the lack of oil leaks, clearly 
They weren't too bad when they were younger, the cam cover gaskets (2.4 and 2.8 did much the same) seemed only to last a few years but most people left them alone until the leak was bad enough to dribble onto the exhaust. Now they're a few years older there's a lot of rubber in there to have dried out and shrunk/cracked.
I bought a spare ECU so I could cut the connector off to use to make a wiring harness adapter for my LPC8 ECU. It was from an Audi A4 2.4 auto and therefore worthless, I paid £7 posted. 
I wasn't about to mess about spending hours desoldering the connector so I hacksawed it off like an animal. Then started putting it together. I initially planned to make this so I could switch back to an Audi ECU if I found myself in over my head with the new ECU. As it turns out, i've ditched the original map sensor and the narrowband lambda sensors, plus the fuel injector size is now different so it's not really an option. I did need to briefly get it out of the garage to fix my sisters car (Clio that failed the MOT on subframe rust) and it still ran which I thought was impressive.
It looks a mess and I need to finish off some wiring and tidy it all up. The good news is, i've had the engine running on the new ECU, it fired up first time on the basemap i'd been given. I've had lots of help from Baldur who's is the person that designed, built the ECU and wrote all the software. I'm impressed one person is capable of doing every aspect. I was a little worried about going for a little known ECU that there wouldn't be a support network (forums, facebook groups, etc) if I ran into problems or needed advice. Baldur's customer support has been brilliant, because he's done everything himself there isn't a single question i've asked that he's not got straight back to me with a detailed answer. He's helped me trouble shoot some wiring issues and helped me set-up ECU parameters and functions like VVT.
https://controls.is/shop/ecu - that's the link to the ECU if anyone is interested. It's a bit of a bargain at £700. It has sequential ignition and injection for 8 cylinders, on board wideband controller, DBW throttle, CANbus (the scanning function lets you work out CAN ID's), VVT for 4 cams, auto trans control, 8gb of onboard data logging up to 1000Hz and all the usual things like anti-lag, traction control, cruise control, etc. It's better than ECU's over twice the price.
I wasn't about to mess about spending hours desoldering the connector so I hacksawed it off like an animal. Then started putting it together. I initially planned to make this so I could switch back to an Audi ECU if I found myself in over my head with the new ECU. As it turns out, i've ditched the original map sensor and the narrowband lambda sensors, plus the fuel injector size is now different so it's not really an option. I did need to briefly get it out of the garage to fix my sisters car (Clio that failed the MOT on subframe rust) and it still ran which I thought was impressive.
It looks a mess and I need to finish off some wiring and tidy it all up. The good news is, i've had the engine running on the new ECU, it fired up first time on the basemap i'd been given. I've had lots of help from Baldur who's is the person that designed, built the ECU and wrote all the software. I'm impressed one person is capable of doing every aspect. I was a little worried about going for a little known ECU that there wouldn't be a support network (forums, facebook groups, etc) if I ran into problems or needed advice. Baldur's customer support has been brilliant, because he's done everything himself there isn't a single question i've asked that he's not got straight back to me with a detailed answer. He's helped me trouble shoot some wiring issues and helped me set-up ECU parameters and functions like VVT.
https://controls.is/shop/ecu - that's the link to the ECU if anyone is interested. It's a bit of a bargain at £700. It has sequential ignition and injection for 8 cylinders, on board wideband controller, DBW throttle, CANbus (the scanning function lets you work out CAN ID's), VVT for 4 cams, auto trans control, 8gb of onboard data logging up to 1000Hz and all the usual things like anti-lag, traction control, cruise control, etc. It's better than ECU's over twice the price.
I bought some stainless steel boost pipes, they are bigger than the original pipes but I doubt there is any performance advantage. I wanted them as they have water/meth injection ports.
Ages ago I picked up some cheap WMI parts off ebay. It cost me £100 for an AEM pump, coolingmist solenoid , AEM controller and an AEM injector that had a chewed up end. I bought a spare AEM nozzle and that came with spare ends I could fix my other nozzle with. I'm missing a tank also, not made a decision on what i'll use and where i'll put it yet. I'm not going to use the AEM controller as i'd rather control it with the ECU (will create an output that turns on the pump and a seperate output to control the solenoid)
Making a bracket to mount the pump with, using a random CD changer mount I found in the garage. The tool is to fit rivnuts, quite handy to have.
This is the chosen location, where the air conditioning compressor lived originally. I want to try and hide away as much as possible on this car, so far i've not used any cabin or luggage space.
Ages ago I picked up some cheap WMI parts off ebay. It cost me £100 for an AEM pump, coolingmist solenoid , AEM controller and an AEM injector that had a chewed up end. I bought a spare AEM nozzle and that came with spare ends I could fix my other nozzle with. I'm missing a tank also, not made a decision on what i'll use and where i'll put it yet. I'm not going to use the AEM controller as i'd rather control it with the ECU (will create an output that turns on the pump and a seperate output to control the solenoid)
Making a bracket to mount the pump with, using a random CD changer mount I found in the garage. The tool is to fit rivnuts, quite handy to have.
This is the chosen location, where the air conditioning compressor lived originally. I want to try and hide away as much as possible on this car, so far i've not used any cabin or luggage space.
The air to water charge cooling system wasn't doing it's job, I was using clear PVC hose which meant I could see what was happening, there was air in the pipes which was being pushed into the heat exchanger cores when the water pump would start. I had the coolant inlet and outlet on the cores facing downwards as it was the easiest and neatest way to run the coolant lines but this was the reason the air was stuck in the cores, they were the highest point in the system at the rear of the car. I've now rotated them so the inlet and outlet face upwards.
I like the PVC pipe as it's clear so you can see what's going on and it's not bulky so easy to route through the car but the downside is it'll go soft inside the engine bay with the heat and it's difficult to get a good seal as the pipe wall is thin so it doesn't compress nicely. Normal rubber water hose off a reel is horrible, really thick and bulky and doesn't bend nicely so always ends up looking s
t. I'd recently stripped a Supercharged Range Rover and had kept all the coolant hoses. I like hoses like these that have random bends. It's a bit of a challenge to work out the best way to put them all together.
I decided to run the pipes over the engine with bleed points in the middle which is the highest point. This should solve my problems. The downside is maintenance will become more involved if i've got to drain the system and remove the pipes to get cam covers or the inlet manifold off.
Hard to get a decent photo but you can see the heat exchanger core sat down the side. I'm going to make sure the system performs as it should before I start using the water/meth injection. The charge cooler pump will be run off my new ECU at variable speeds, probably setup from a MAP vs RPM table. One of my theories is the pump pushing coolant around at 100% duty cycle all the time like it currently does is one of the reason the system heats up, no need to cycle it like that when i'm sat in traffic. If those changes don't sort it out, the other options are to increase the capacity of the water tank and fit radiators upfront with a larger surface area like I had on my last Boxster. Hopefully I won't need to.
I like the PVC pipe as it's clear so you can see what's going on and it's not bulky so easy to route through the car but the downside is it'll go soft inside the engine bay with the heat and it's difficult to get a good seal as the pipe wall is thin so it doesn't compress nicely. Normal rubber water hose off a reel is horrible, really thick and bulky and doesn't bend nicely so always ends up looking s
t. I'd recently stripped a Supercharged Range Rover and had kept all the coolant hoses. I like hoses like these that have random bends. It's a bit of a challenge to work out the best way to put them all together.I decided to run the pipes over the engine with bleed points in the middle which is the highest point. This should solve my problems. The downside is maintenance will become more involved if i've got to drain the system and remove the pipes to get cam covers or the inlet manifold off.
Hard to get a decent photo but you can see the heat exchanger core sat down the side. I'm going to make sure the system performs as it should before I start using the water/meth injection. The charge cooler pump will be run off my new ECU at variable speeds, probably setup from a MAP vs RPM table. One of my theories is the pump pushing coolant around at 100% duty cycle all the time like it currently does is one of the reason the system heats up, no need to cycle it like that when i'm sat in traffic. If those changes don't sort it out, the other options are to increase the capacity of the water tank and fit radiators upfront with a larger surface area like I had on my last Boxster. Hopefully I won't need to.
Pretty much finished with the wiring for the new ECU. Had to make lots of changes to how things were previously, changing around how the relays were wired, adding in things, repurposing things i'm no longer using, etc. It looks a bit messy, I could remove the coloured plugs and tape the loom up and make it all neat but i'm going to leave it like it is as it's easy to work out what everything is and to trace wires like it is. Plus it's all hidden away anyway.
I decided to use the windscreen washer tank for my water/meth injection. I'm trying to keep the car as practical as a standard Boxster so want to avoid putting extra tanks in either boot. I bought a fitting for the tank, which I put at the bottom. When running the line to the back of the car there was a spare slot in plastic brackets that hold the power steering pipes which fitted my hose perfectly which was useful.
I decided to use the windscreen washer tank for my water/meth injection. I'm trying to keep the car as practical as a standard Boxster so want to avoid putting extra tanks in either boot. I bought a fitting for the tank, which I put at the bottom. When running the line to the back of the car there was a spare slot in plastic brackets that hold the power steering pipes which fitted my hose perfectly which was useful.
I'm not using it yet, still putting it all back together after the turbo and ECU swap. I still need to make some changes to the exhaust as it doesn't sit the same with the larger turbos. Once it's back together i'm going to map it myself on the road, this will likely take me a while as it's my first time doing it.
Once it's on the road, the plan is to use it for work if the weather is nice and on the weekends. Want to try and get it to some events, maybe Santa Pod, trackdays, show's, etc.
Once it's on the road, the plan is to use it for work if the weather is nice and on the weekends. Want to try and get it to some events, maybe Santa Pod, trackdays, show's, etc.
They'll still work, it's all left plumbed in like it was. Screen wash is sometimes a 50/50 mixture of methanol and water, i've seen people run off the shelf screen wash for WMI purposes. It's not always clear exactly what's in them so I plan to buy neat methanol and de-ionised water and mix my own.
This might be useful to other Boxster or 911 owners. It's common for the alloy shoulders on the wheel bolts to disintegrate. The ones on the front of mine were bad. A set of Cayenne wheel bolts is a decent upgrade, they are 7mm longer and have steel shoulders, as they are OEM you get a decent locking wheel nut. I had a few spacers left over from the last car so decided to put them on. 7mm at the front, 5mm rear. You can't really tell in the before and after pictures but it's made a noticeable difference in the flesh.
The exhaust tips weren't sitting straight after I fitted the new turbos. I knew this would be the case. I also wasn't happy with how i'd designed the exhaust the first time around. I like to think i'm pretty good at packaging things, the silencers I bought didn't fit where i'd planned originally and I'd ended up putting them at an angle which I thought looked a little odd and I was never happy about it. This is how it was before.
I saw a picture of a Milltek exhaust and had a bit of a facepalm moment, I should have been able to come up with something like that the first time around. I bought 4 extra 90 degree bends, cut my exhaust up and set about making my version of it.
I'm much happier with the look of it now. I also removed the logo on the tips which I think looks better.
I saw a picture of a Milltek exhaust and had a bit of a facepalm moment, I should have been able to come up with something like that the first time around. I bought 4 extra 90 degree bends, cut my exhaust up and set about making my version of it.
I'm much happier with the look of it now. I also removed the logo on the tips which I think looks better.
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