Phoenix from the flames - Porsche Boxster with an Audi 2.7T
Discussion
Escy said:
It's a 2010 Cooper, I bought it locally. I was told the engine was knocking but it turned out it was actually just a bit low on oil so just sounded rough and it was running on 3 cylinders. The headgasket had actually gone. I bought a replacement engine before I bought picked up the car. The engines for these seem to go for over a grand, I got lucky as someone had broken a Mini not far away from me and he wanted collection only for the engine. He'd been messed about on ebay previously, it was up for £650, I offered £400 and he accepted it. I've since sold the one needing the head gasket for spares for £250 so it ended up costing me £150 for the engine, happy with that.
I was going to sell it but the wife has taken a shine to it. She's going to have it, i'm going to sell my MR2 and use the Golf she was using as my daily.
From the pics it looks quite nice, and your engine change appears to be quite cheap. I'm envious of your spannering ability.I was going to sell it but the wife has taken a shine to it. She's going to have it, i'm going to sell my MR2 and use the Golf she was using as my daily.
I've been finding it hard work getting the engine into position, it's heavy and it kept moving around and slipping when i'd get a jack under it. The engine brace across the top is mainly to hold the weight rather than used to pull the engine up and my engine hoist won't reach. I've looked in the past for something suitable to raise an engine and couldn't find anything.
On ebay I found a motorcycle lift, i've seen them before but i've now found one that comes with a platform on wheels that you can sit it into. I've got a similar thing designed for gearboxes (Draper) so between the pair of them i'll now be able to lift the whole thing up straight and wheel it about into the perfect position. The motorcycle lift is rated to 500kg's. There may well be something designed for this job that i'm not aware of but I thought i'd share this as it might be handy for someone else. It's the only one of it's kind I could find on ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1100LBS-Wide-Platform-M...
On ebay I found a motorcycle lift, i've seen them before but i've now found one that comes with a platform on wheels that you can sit it into. I've got a similar thing designed for gearboxes (Draper) so between the pair of them i'll now be able to lift the whole thing up straight and wheel it about into the perfect position. The motorcycle lift is rated to 500kg's. There may well be something designed for this job that i'm not aware of but I thought i'd share this as it might be handy for someone else. It's the only one of it's kind I could find on ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1100LBS-Wide-Platform-M...
dom9 said:
The 190 converted MR2...? I don't need more cars... I don't need more cars... I don't need more cars...
You definitely do need a 2ZZ MR2 in your life, everyone does. I think mine is sold already. Chris Type R said:
From the pics it looks quite nice, and your engine change appears to be quite cheap. I'm envious of your spannering ability.
Thanks. It has few marks here and there but it's nice enough.I've decided on the engine position.
I'm going to use the standard downpipes with catalytic converters, these go right where the gearbox mounts are but my gearbox will be slightly lower and further forward so they need modifying anyway. Easier to do this than to make new downpipes.
I've then taken the engine back out. It's covered in filth (and so am I everytime I touch it), so i'm going to clean it up and change the cambelt, cam cover gaskets and anything else that's leaking. Then it can go back in for good and i'll then fabricate the engine and gearbox mounts afterwards. Progress should be swift, i'm not messing about painting things, changing cylinder heads, conrods, modifying the inlet manifold, etc like last time.
I'm going to use the standard downpipes with catalytic converters, these go right where the gearbox mounts are but my gearbox will be slightly lower and further forward so they need modifying anyway. Easier to do this than to make new downpipes.
I've then taken the engine back out. It's covered in filth (and so am I everytime I touch it), so i'm going to clean it up and change the cambelt, cam cover gaskets and anything else that's leaking. Then it can go back in for good and i'll then fabricate the engine and gearbox mounts afterwards. Progress should be swift, i'm not messing about painting things, changing cylinder heads, conrods, modifying the inlet manifold, etc like last time.
It's not much fun when it's -2 degrees and you can't feel your fingers but i've been cracking on.
I changed the cambelt as I had no paperwork saying when it was last done, turns out it must have been fairly recently as the old belt still had the writing on it. Ben from The Turbo Unit kindly loaned me his cam and crank locking tools (met him when a friend has his S4 tuned by him).
I took the flywheel off to check the condition of the rear crank seal as the engine was really oily. I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I found a water leak coming from one of the bolt holes. Turns out the crank seal housing forms part of a water jacket.
The front engine mount on the Boxster has seen better days. I pressed out and pressed in a replacement (improved 987 one).
Replaced the cam cover seals, I think this was the main cause of the oil leaks (perhaps old ones). The previous owner had recently replaced them, he'd used loads of silicone sealant and made a right mess, took me a while cleaning it all up. He'd also massively over tightened them so they were probably leaking still.
I changed the cambelt as I had no paperwork saying when it was last done, turns out it must have been fairly recently as the old belt still had the writing on it. Ben from The Turbo Unit kindly loaned me his cam and crank locking tools (met him when a friend has his S4 tuned by him).
I took the flywheel off to check the condition of the rear crank seal as the engine was really oily. I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I found a water leak coming from one of the bolt holes. Turns out the crank seal housing forms part of a water jacket.
The front engine mount on the Boxster has seen better days. I pressed out and pressed in a replacement (improved 987 one).
Replaced the cam cover seals, I think this was the main cause of the oil leaks (perhaps old ones). The previous owner had recently replaced them, he'd used loads of silicone sealant and made a right mess, took me a while cleaning it all up. He'd also massively over tightened them so they were probably leaking still.
Thanks, that's the plan. 
I put the gearbox back on and got it all back under the car. I've spent the whole weekend working on it but progress has been slower than i'd like as i've been fabricating things which is easier said than done.
On a Boxster there are 3 engine/gearbox mounts, one at the front of the engine and 2 either side of the gearbox. I've got the engine sitting where I want it so I made the mounts for the gearbox. I've also started on the front engine mount. On the last car I made a cradle that went under the sump and down the sides of the engine but i'm going to do it differently this time. I've found 2 places on the front of the engine I can bolt the front engine mount to. This will leave me more space down the sides for pipework (as this one is twin turbo). The drawback is i'll need to remove the front engine mount to fit an auxiliary belt. I've made the mounting plates, just need to cut some box section steel to link it all up and weld it together.
I put the gearbox back on and got it all back under the car. I've spent the whole weekend working on it but progress has been slower than i'd like as i've been fabricating things which is easier said than done.
On a Boxster there are 3 engine/gearbox mounts, one at the front of the engine and 2 either side of the gearbox. I've got the engine sitting where I want it so I made the mounts for the gearbox. I've also started on the front engine mount. On the last car I made a cradle that went under the sump and down the sides of the engine but i'm going to do it differently this time. I've found 2 places on the front of the engine I can bolt the front engine mount to. This will leave me more space down the sides for pipework (as this one is twin turbo). The drawback is i'll need to remove the front engine mount to fit an auxiliary belt. I've made the mounting plates, just need to cut some box section steel to link it all up and weld it together.
gobuddygo said:
...can i ask while you don't just refurbish the original Boxter engine?
I would have thought that was fairly obvious? With a reasonable boost increase the V6 turbo Audi lump is going to be significantly more powerful than the original NA Boxster motor. Plus it's a cool engine swap project as well.MX6 said:
I would have thought that was fairly obvious? With a reasonable boost increase the V6 turbo Audi lump is going to be significantly more powerful than the original NA Boxster motor. Plus it's a cool engine swap project as well.
Might be obvious if you know anything about Boxter engines which i don't, are they not tunable then?gobuddygo said:
Top work and love your threads, can i ask while you don't just refurbish the original Boxter engine?
Thanks. I've still got the Boxster engine so I might strip it down and see what's up with it when I've got a chance. I bought this car with the intention of doing the engine swap. I feel that the Audi engine offers better reliability and lots of tuning potential (can see over 500bhp on standard internals). ndg said:
Escy said:
Thanks, that's the plan.
The drawback is i'll need to remove the front engine mount to fit an auxiliary belt.
Will you have space to ziptie a 'spare aux belt around the mount? If you have a failure, cut the old one off, un-ziptie the new one and thread it onto the pulleys.The drawback is i'll need to remove the front engine mount to fit an auxiliary belt.
ndg said:
Will you have space to ziptie a 'spare aux belt around the mount? If you have a failure, cut the old one off, un-ziptie the new one and thread it onto the pulleys.
That's a good idea although I think it's a bit of a non issue to be fair. I've not had a drive belt fail for years. Escy said:
ndg said:
Will you have space to ziptie a 'spare aux belt around the mount? If you have a failure, cut the old one off, un-ziptie the new one and thread it onto the pulleys.
That's a good idea although I think it's a bit of a non issue to be fair. I've not had a drive belt fail for years. shalmaneser said:
Escy said:
ndg said:
Will you have space to ziptie a 'spare aux belt around the mount? If you have a failure, cut the old one off, un-ziptie the new one and thread it onto the pulleys.
That's a good idea although I think it's a bit of a non issue to be fair. I've not had a drive belt fail for years. gobuddygo said:
MX6 said:
I would have thought that was fairly obvious? With a reasonable boost increase the V6 turbo Audi lump is going to be significantly more powerful than the original NA Boxster motor. Plus it's a cool engine swap project as well.
Might be obvious if you know anything about Boxter engines which i don't, are they not tunable then?Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff