2002 Boxster S - This is gonna hurt.

This is probably the third time I've tried to type this up. I have a whole intro that I just am too disheartened to type up right now, but it involves a 1983 911 sc, a 1987 944S and my childhood.  

In July, in the middle of four weeks of travel for work. I found a listing for a 2002 S. 

"oil in the water, for < $5k"

So I bought it. 

day 1, drug it home to dads house,  went for a short test drive, where it proceeded to puke it's oily coolant guts out of the coolant tank.  then flew out of town for work (again, for 6 more weeks)

day 7, dragged it home from dad's house. 

Early August:

I pulled the engine oil coolant radiator to check it for leeks. But noticed that it had been replaced with a  JY one at some point.  There was NO water flow through it due to how much oil/coolant gunk was in it. I had to use the hose to push the oil plug out of it to get flow. It did hold vacuum but I had lost patience and ordered parts already.  New engine oil coolant part installed already. I also installed the coolant expansion tank. Whoever designed this stupid setup can die in a fire.  Why would you not make the bulkhead fitting have ONE more barb on it so that the entire tank can be serviced easily???  I also pulled three of the plugs (on the side I was working) they are oily and I ordered new tubes to be installed eventually (with new orings).  No coolant in the oil at all. 

I have now done 5 flushes of the system.  On the 6th flush I found one of the hoses was shredding, so I bought all new hoses and thermostat for the front of the motor.   

Last friday the wife's 2013 mini cooper S Clubman went into limp mode.  It's got CPO so I wasted half my day monday at the dealer, only to have it go straight into limp mode 100 ft from the dealer...  Due to other shenanigans, my truck is now at my wife's office, she has the mini (now fixed with four new coils AND spark plugs) . and it's time to pick up the kid. 

So I threw the last new coolant hose back on the porsche, burped the system and rode the 0.5 miles to pick up the kid.  Everything seemed great.  Until halfway back when the low coolant light comes on. I shut it off and coasted home.  One of the hose clamps I had put on top of the barb instead of behind it. So when the thermostat opened it dumped all the coolant out.  Guess that's flush number 7.  Everytime the system gets cleaner by the way.  This was also when I had put cleaner in the coolant.  Which was in there for all of thirty minutes... Guess I need to buy a few more bottles. 

This morning it was raining, so I dropped the kiddo off with my "racecar" (per the 6 year old).  halfway there? "drive to workshop" light came on.  This appears to be different from an CEL, is amber not red... The battery is damn low because I've been driving it so little.  (also leave the hood/trunk open so that if the battery dies I can still get the frunk open.) 

Oh and when I got home last night, I saw that it was now leaking out of a hose from the front of the car.  So i'm going to order all new hoses for the front and start that fun.  

to DO:

take front bumper off and figure out what to order.

order the Air Oil Separator. (has the white puff on startup.) 

I'm hoping to get it going w/o ordering a JY 3.2.  DC partshauz tried to convince me to 3.6 or 3.8 swap it, but i'd need a new 7.8 DME or to rewire my existing (conflicting info online) and the motor itself is $7.5k. 

Once I have some sort of confidence in the motor the plan is to then work on things like tires, brakes, seats (interior is messed up), radio (only will turn on if the car is off, will stay on for about 5 min before it will shut off when the car is on). 

It looks nice. Sucks about the problems.

Dirt and leaves and crap accumulate in between the engines radiators and the radiators for the AC (I'm too lazy to look up what it actually is called in english) on the boxster. It makes the radiators corrode over time and it reduces air flow. Removing the front and the plastic cowls for the radiators is easy. If this is a keaper, you might want to consider replacing the radiators while you are in there. They are not terribly expensive and since you are doing the hoses anyway...

Good news, the Check Engine Light is for the smog secondary air injection pump. something I care little about at this current time. 

It's super low on this list of things to solve.  Also my water/coolant is finally starting to look better. 

radiators for the AC

Condensers  

So, I've been tooling around. Need to figure out a better way to get pictures on the board. 

I spent 4 hours claybaring and polishing the car last friday.  IN preparation for the New kid to show up (born Tuesday at 1;15 pm, boy number 3).  

I got 90% of the spiderwebbing out.  Also ran to the Tax man and got the registration handled, now I have to go to the DMV to get my plate. 

I've been driving it around.  still have oil in the coolant.  No loss of power.  Further research shows this means I have a cracked head.

I called Hoffman Machining in Georgia after researching the Porsche boards.  Rough quote? $2100 to rebuild the heads to stock spec after rewelding and machining. 

it could be cheaper if it's a rare crack, but the most common is also the biggest and most expensive to fix.  Per Jake Raby and other "experts" on the M96 these cars never blow a headgasket. It's a MLS gasket.  so I'm very sure that's the problem. 

As such, I'm stuck. I'd like to keep driving it, but I bought the car as a fun car I can drive to the airport when I have to travel. (it's 1.5 hours away each way).  I do not THINK there is a problem with driving it, but cannot miss a flight to a client because my car broke down.  Decisions, Decisions.  

Also a local dismantler posted a fairly pristine 2000 non S for parts.  Wants $400 for the entire top assembly.  (which looks to be in better shape than mine.) 

Things the car NEEDS:

Tires

Legal Plates

radio that works (radio will only turn on if the car is off, then shuts itself off about 5 min after the car is started)

AOS system repaired

Crank Position Sensor (hard cold start)

Some random bits in the interior that are missing for no real reason. 

ok

looked it up, let's see if this works. (and in the future all of my iphone photos will be jpeg vs HEIC which was my main problem). 

So the car arrived to me like this:

After the first pass of M105 on my Griots polisher:

and then finally, after some M205, more polishing. Unforutantely the paint is still rough to the touch, which means I did not do enough Claybaring.  :(  will be another round soon to clean up the paint more.

Also started wondering if a 3.5 V6 Ford Ecoboost motor would fit... 

So reading this thread convinced me to just drive it and enjoy it.  It's paid off and E36 M3 happens if it happens. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/i-sort-of-bought-a-car-that-sort-of-runs-a-1998-sl/145344/page7/

I got the car fully licensed on Friday.

The lady would not up me to 996.  and my last name starts with PRI.  LOL

Next up: 

Not the things that I had as a priority a few posts ago!

Headers: $149 bucks. Yes you read that right. Cat delete, better laid out headers for 149 bucks. FOR A PORSCHE.  

Ebay Link

I'm going to try those first, then look at their exhaust ($250)

My line on a hard top told me $1200 bucks and I straight out laughed at him. Not interested in it.  

Next: 

TIRES.  Do I go get Michelins? or some cheapo rikens? 

Will be DD (kid 1 mile to school) and I'd like to do a few CASUAL autocrosses. (and not care about classing). 

Prices do not include fees, just set costs per Discount Tire website. 

Michelin A/S 3's: $786

Azenis RT615+:$700  (my current favorite). 

Azenis FK510 $584

BFG Sport Comp 2's are ~$570 which is not bad. Tires are good new, suck ass when worn though (noisy).

Milestars 932 xp+: $400

18" wheels, nice and wide. And expensive. 

225/40/18 and 265/35/18

I'm also trying to find a cheap radio that will bolt in and use the stock bose amp and give me bluetooth.

No power to be had by deleting the cats.  Keep them.

In reply to docwyte :

I'd honestly like to keep them (cats) and still get a somewhat better flowing??? exhaust.  Not a fan of burning the world down for no gains. 

I know full well there are minimal gains on a modern Porsche when it comes to power.   Mostly looking to wake up the exhaust some.

None of the ebay headers have Cats in them *in this cheap range".  else I'd have listed one of those. 

edit: example of the layout stock.

Are you saying to leave the headers alone and just get a different muffler? 

Congrats on the arrival of Mad_Ratel kid #3 !

In reply to Mad_Ratel :

Yes, leave the headers alone and just change the muffler. 

Whatever you do, if you replace both parts of the exhaust with ebay stuff it's going to be unbearably loud and probably sound like crap also. Having heard what the ebay catback alone sounds like, I might actually favor replacing the headers only. But ditching the cats is always risky for ruining the exhaust note/volume too and makes no real power difference. So I guess what I'm saying is I'm not really sure what the answer is other than to not buy ebay exhausts...but that costs real money. Or do what I did and stumble upon a used good (well...better than ebay) quality aftermarket exhaust for cheaper than the ebay parts.

someone messaged me that just wrecked his car, has the circuit work headers and high flow cats... So I may just hold off and see what he wants. 

edit: so these appear to be just as bad as the other's I linked.  But with Cats.  

Dad's 1983 911 had SSI 1970's tuned length headers and sung. but they were $2500 for the headers... then a BB exhaust, sounded amazing but $$$$$$$$$$$.

I am NOT interested in spending that kind of money. I've also heard "well known" brands like fabspeed do not sound good either. 

so Pedro's mod?  

Or the Krios mod.

I’m interested but it’s a low priority for me. 

Update:

Ordered/Have in hand:

Spark plugs, Spark plug tubes

HVAC brackets and faceplate for the uppermost dash location. 

New radio ($59) plus pre done wiring harness ($20) from Crutchfield. (I hate electronics and have a newborn so I took the non GRM option). 

Started trying to figure out my cold start issues.

Possible causes per the internets:

My AOS (Air Oil Seperator) is on it's way out, I have vaccuum at the oil fill port but not enough that it's hard to open the cap, and I have minimal oil smoke on start up at this time.   This could cause a problem.

Secondary Air Injection is leaking and the car is having a hard time lighting the cats. 

Crankshaft position sensor (but most of the detailed discussions involved this at hot temps and hard starts). 

Mass Flow Sensor.  disinclined to this one.

My gut feeling: when I was trying to put that stupid coolant expansion tank in, I bumped something to do with the secondary injection system. I had a code for this a while ago (which I've cleared and never had again).  The cold start issues also started after I struggled with that expansion tank.  Need to see if the tank and the secondary injection mess are in the same area. 

My key fell apart. The housing kept popping loose. I was getting anoyed at it and contemplating gorilla gluing it together when someone on the facebook group posted about how cheap a new housing/blank was on amazon.

Ordered, put my guts in the correct key and voila 9.99 later my key no longer falls apart.  Still trying to see if there is a way to program a second key w/o the dealership taxes. I know my 2003 mazda 3 had a combination of window/key toggles etc and it would put the car in learning mode. Made it MUCH easier to add a key.   and now that I said that, I just found this: 

https://itstillruns.com/program-porsche-key-fob-7602962.html

may be worth trying for another 9.99 (and getting my blank cut to match). 

What exactly does the car do on a cold start? Of the things you listed my first guess would be the MAF. When mine went bad it would take an extra crank or two to start and then run like crap for the first few seconds. Ran 99% fine the rest of the time except for bad fuel mileage. Should trigger at least a pending code if it's bad though.

It turns and turns and turns, after about 10 seconds it fires up. After that, runs fine. Smooth idle etc. 

So I walked into the garage to take a video for you guys and damn me if the car did not start right up.  (video attached). I was so disgusted i just turned it off. LOL. 

The ONLY difference between now and the past, I usually turn the key immediately vs waiting the few seconds before hitting it. 

I tried that and it started right up again.  So now I am super thoroughly confused. 

https://youtu.be/XtNWwaXwtZU

Why did I just get the idea to get one of these, and slap in a V6 Manual from an Accord or something???

Thinkkker said:

Why did I just get the idea to get one of these, and slap in a V6 Manual from an Accord or something???

I honestly have no idea why no one has done a kit of something for them.

Renegade has an LS kit.  But you'd think some sort of V6 TLS-S kit would exist. 

In reply to Mad_Ratel :

Maybe a fuel pump, loosing it's prime/bleeding off the fuel back into the tank from the line, or just plain weak and taking abnormally long to build pressure. 

Or a slowly  leaking injector. Not fast enough to cause warm starting issues, but overnight, it  floods the manifold with fuel vapor when engine off,  but given long enough time (couple days between start attempts) and the fuel evaporates, then all is good. 

Mad_Ratel said:

I keep coming back to this photo of freaking planet Jupitor in your catch pan. How is this car still alive?!  Awesome to see that you're having fun with it regardless.

TGMF said:

In reply to Mad_Ratel :

Maybe a fuel pump, loosing it's prime/bleeding off the fuel back into the tank from the line, or just plain weak and taking abnormally long to build pressure. 

 

Or a slowly  leaking injector. Not fast enough to cause warm starting issues, but overnight, it  floods the manifold with fuel vapor when engine off,  but given long enough time (couple days between start attempts) and the fuel evaporates, then all is good. 

this seems plausible. need to think about it

nderwater said:

Mad_Ratel said:

I keep coming back to this photo of freaking planet Jupitor in your catch pan. How is this car still alive?!  Awesome to see that you're having fun with it regardless.

or his barrista has Starkinsons