pomocanthus

I saw one at the Houston Auto Show today. It looks MUCH better in person. The stripes are actually becoming except for the "Porsche Design" text. The 19" turbo wheels were awesome on the car. The only thing really wrong with the car was the $72K sticker. It held its own next to a flourescent green C4S and the Lamborghini Orange special edition Boxster.

Yes, I think they're going for $4K primed or $5K for painted. They are only for the 986 though. The top for 987 Box is not out yet.

Todd, I am quite uninitiated when it comes to engine swapping, except for reading what you have done. Can you explain why PSM/ABS will be an issue? Thanks, Hung

C-Man, Any issues with additional torque from X51 3.8 on non-S tranny? I see that Ruf offers these upgrades only for the 987S. Is there a technical reason or are they only doing this for exclusivity (as if their conversion price wasn't exclusive enough)? Hung

I am considering my next car and looking ahead 5 years as well. I am thinking of getting a MY2005 987 Boxster now and in 5 years dropping in a 3.6. It looks like it shouldn't be any different than doing the same for a 986. If I have any issues, I figure I can always bring it to Todd and he'll have it replaced in an hour. :lol: I like the front end of the 987 Boxster vs that of the Cayman. I just don't like the VW Bettle fog lights in the grill of the Cayman. I also like the idea of a wolf in sheep's clothing. To round out the conversion, I plan to get the Zeintop (not available for 987 yet). All in all this should cost around $55K and be more versatile than a 997 Targa that costs almost 2X. It also allows me to phase in the costs. Any thoughts? Comments? Or should I just get a 987S now? $35K Boxster 987 $15K engine swap $5K Zeintop

Which headers did you go for? Have you noticed any difference in peformance? atm, I bought mine on eBay for around $130. I figured what the heck, it's cheap enough that if it didn't work out then I don't eat lunch for 3 days and spend that time putting back the factory headers. It turned out that I noticed a difference in the response of the car. Before, it seemed almost as if the engine couldn't push the exhaust out and now there's a whooosh sound every time I put my right foot down. Here's a link with differing opinions so you can make up your own mind. I for one had a very positive experience. I bought from "surewin" for what it's worth. I am not affiliated with this person in any way. You can probably still see my feedback. Hung http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=17862

Thanks Loren !!! ... becoming a Contributing Member :renntech:

Does anyone know what the P/N to the 10mm screw that secures the brake line? I tried looking on PelicanParts but couldn't identify on the diagram. I managed to shear off the head when reinstalling. Thanks in advanced for your help. Hung

I just wanted to close out the topic and thank everyone for their help and advice. I replaced the headers with after-market ones and haven't heard the rattle since. Although it wasn't the old headers causing the rattle, in the process of banging out the pressed-in bolts on the cats for replacement I must have somehow reseated the loose heat shield(s). Now my car is noise free and accelerating much smoother.

I am still debating although I am leaning towards DIY. Stefan said that it was pretty straight forward with no surprises. I'm all for saving $1K. I am expecting my kit by end of Feb.

It actually is cleaner than factory delivered because I removed all of the Cosmoline, and clean and polish the undercarriage. Not bad for a 65K mile car. The car always wins top prize at any Concours it is entered in. What is your regimen for cleaning? I want a clean car like that! My '99 Boxster had engine failure at 55K which dumped some oil all over. Dealer replaced engine but didn't clean the rest off very well. Now there are lots of dirt on oil.

Is this true for '99 2.5 as well?

Thanks Loren. I have driven all three and each have their merits. BTW, I meant a Cayman S not a Boxster S. My original question wasn't very well formulated. I was really looking for recommendations from a reliability stand point. Care to chime in again?

I currently own a '99 Boxster and am looking to upgrade soon. The possibilities are 996 w/ 35K, 996TT w/ 50K, new 987S, or 3.6l install plus a bucket of cash. My Boxster is on her second engine (int shaft failure @ 55K) It sounds like the way to go is with the 996TT. Loren, can you chime in on this; as I believe you have a Boxster, a 996, and a TT, correct? Thanks, Hung

C-Note green ... because you might as well papier mache the car with $100 bills. J/K ... I LOVE my P-car.

One other note. Does the exhaust smell rich? Mine was running really rich because the MAF was giving the computer false readings and the computer thinks that it is running too lean (your 1128 and 1130 codes). It tries to enrich the mixture to the point of back firing, which I think is uncombusted fuel getting in the exhaust stream and combusting in the cats or muffler. Don't run your car too long in this condition; you might damage the cats, which is way more expensive than a new MAF, new O2 sensors, and new plugs combined.

I had same problem around 60K. Do you have K&N air filter? In my case, I over-oiled the K&N filter and the oil droplets were released into the air flow and contaminated the MAF. A contaminated or failing MAF will give you all kinds of problems. The first thing you need to do is clean your MAF. There are many threads here showing you how. After that I recommend you give the throttle body and intake manifolds a good cleaning to remove the oil. There are threads for this too. :renntech: Note that the TB and intakes are downstream of the MAF so the oil there could not have contaminated the MAF. After a good MAF cleaning, my car ran OK for a while but I ended up replacing it. Apparently, it is common for them to die around 60K. I also ended up replacing the upstream O2 sensors and replaced the spark plugs. Also replaced AOS. The best few hundred dollars and couple of days of work I have ever spent on the car. It looks like you already have the biggest hurdle done. The hardest DYI in this bunch is the AOS R&R. You should be able to do the rest yourself. Good Luck, Hung

I recently ordered RoW M030 from Sunset and expecting it in late Feb. :clapping: How much should I expect to pay to have it installed? I've read your posts and am a little skeptical that I can get it done in one weekend. She is my daily driver. Thanks, Hung

Ben, Take a look at this thread by Insite. It looks like the best bang for your $ is in suspension upgrade. You should talk to him about his RoW 030 set-up. Hung http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=10254

I have to disagree. I bought a set of headers from e-Bay for ~$130 hoping for the best but expecting the worse. I figured that at worst I would have wasted a couple of days of manual labor and $130, but I'd learn a lot about my car in the process. The build quality was excellent and the welds looked very good. After consulting many people on this board during installation, I was pleasantly surprised at the improved and sound and even more surprised at the improved throttle response and possible increase in hp. I say possible because this is strictly from my perception of how the car is driving and not from any dyno results. Of course there were some downsides. Don't expect any kind of support from the seller for this kind of price. Luckily, there are people like Dana, Stefan, Bruce on this board that are willing to help. There were also one fit issue. The connections to the block and cats were all fine. There was some interference with the underbody panel on the passenger side. I had to slightly modify the underbody panel and the metal brace that it connects to. Other than that it was well worth the money. I think I would have happily paid 2x the price. Here's a link with a terrific write up by Dana. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?s...amp;#entry91889 I feel compelled to add that the person I bought the headers from must have bought one from Fabspeed and copied the design, because they look almost identical (on eBay). I have no clue as to the quality control that this person has so I may have been lucky with the headers I received. But then again, perhaps all his headers are made to the exacting standard. I am in no way affiliated with any of the people selling on eBay. For me it was well worth the $; for others the additional $500+ for a "brand name" headers might be worth the peace of mind.

Nice write up Dana! Sorry for slow response. Here's a pic of the top bolt on the passenger side that I was talking about. Note the three washers on the cat side. Also note (not related to the pic), make sure you tighten the nut on the bung of the header. The after-market header that I bought was made for either the Boxster or Boxster-S, so it had a bung for installing O2 sensor (for Boxster-S). I figured it was tight from factory so I didn't bother; well it rattled OFF during my morning commute. I didn't have an extra plug so I was in a bind. No local source had it and overnight delivery from Pelican was going to be $50. Since it was made for an O2 sensor, I simply installed an old O2 sensor I had from previous R&R. It sealed fine and I am driving her around until the plug comes. The R&R was definitely worth it. The car sounds soooo much better. The exhaust no longer sounds like an indistinguishable loud vacuum cleaner but has more tone to it. The car also accelerates better. The slight hesitation in 2nd gear is now completely gone. This will keep me happy for at least 2 weeks :D

Finally got the driver side finished. Now I know what all the fuss was about. The pressed in bolts were a pain to remove but thanks to Dana's and Stefan's suggestions of heating with propane and using a B.A.H. it only took about 1 hour to remove. At least I don't have to go do weights at the gym today; after swinging that B.A.H. at the bolts. It has gotten cold and dark so I haven't put the underbody panel back on yet. Needless to say I haven't driven her around although I did fire her up. The sound is different but I can't quite pinpoint what the difference is. Perhaps tomorrow when I'm driving her around, celebrating MLK Day. One thing of note: the bolt holes on the cat side fits the bolt just right while on the after-market header side it is oblong, allowing for minor location adjustments. Because of this I think it is better to feed the bolt through the cat-side flange towards the headers. This way the neck of the bolt (unthreaded) fits almost perfectly inside the holes on the cat-side flange. Besides, this is the only way I could do it for the top bolt because of interference from the VarioCam housing. I also noticed that the top bolt sticks out too far through the header flange and comes awfully close to that VarioCam housing. I imagine that vibration from engine and road may cause the assembly to move enough so that the bolt could rub against the VariaCam housing. To "shorten" the bolt, I simply added washers on the cat-side; at the head of the bolt. This way more of the bolt is on the cat-side and less sticks out on the header side. You have to play with the number of washers to get enough of the bolt away from the VarioCam housing and still have enough threads for the nut. I'll take some pics and post tomorrow. Hung

Dana, Stefan One of the threads talked about tie-wrapping an AC line away from the headers and wrapping with insulating wrap. Did you wrap? I searched web and found that people wrap the headers to keep everything else cool and to keep the exhaust gases hot. The idea is that hot gases is less dense than cooler gases and thus can travel faster towards the cats and muffler and ultimately out. It sounds plausible but will it cause any problems with the cats? Will hotter gases going into the cats cause problems or do the cats generate much higher heat and won't be affected? Thanks, Hung p.s. fav in my tank is French Angel

Stefan, I was able to replace the passenger side header today (in between watching Aussie Open). I was fortunate in that a couple of years ago factory replaced the passenger side cat and they used regular bolts to replace the pressed fit ones. With a little overnight soaking of PB Blaster, they came right out. I haven't tried the driver side yet since it still has the original pressed fit bolts. I'm leaving that challenge for tomorrow. I have an idea on how to press out those bolts and will let you know how it worked out. Hung

This is a little odd. When you heat metals they will expand, so the bolts would seem to expand and be even tighter in the holes of the flange. If you heat the flange instead, I think it would expand the hole and allow you to remove the bolt more easily. Perhaps Dana's mechanic heated the bolts so they expand and break any corrosive bonds to the flange. Eventhough the bolts expanded and was a little tighter in the holes, the BIG gentleman just muscled them out. Does this make sense? I'm about to replace my headers and was reading up on all suggestions. What values did you guys torque the bolts to the block to? What about the bolt and nut connecting the headers to the cats? Stefan, it seems that I am doing a lot of the same R&R you've done (just a few months behind). Thanks, Hung