efahl

Reviving the newest thread I could find on this topic, just want to document the symptoms in case it helps others... Just finished mine, 1997 Boxster chassis, 2001 3.4 motor. The original AOS from the Boxster's 2.5 was on the 3.4 motor, it had the horizontal diaphragm chamber. The very slowly accumulating symptoms were hunting idle, stalled once at a light and driveability at low throttle became increasingly difficult (throttle control off idle was jerky and it felt like you were going to stall especially when cold). The final and highly diagnostic symptom was a 3-4 shift at redline resulting in a huge cloud of smoke in the mirror and the consequent "OH $HIT" moment. After the big puff, the smoke was fairly visible and continuous, but not thick. I got home, did the odd googling, which lead me to pull the J-tube out (plugged it on the intake manifold end) and the smoking stopped almost immediately. I also noted that the idle was smooth with the plugged J-tube, which simply reinforced the already obvious diagnosis. Got the new one, installed this morning in about 2 hours elapsed time, probably half of which was just cleaning off the accumulated crap on the engine (godliness is next to cleanliness :)). It's a pretty easy job, the only tricky part was re-installing the accordion hose clamp on the bottom (I couldn't find my big box of Real Hose Clamps, so I reused the spring clamp). Started the motor with the cover off, checked all my fittings and it looked good, so took it for a drive and wow the car was transformed. I can't believe how much the leak affected driveability, rolling off a stop smoothly is quite easy now and I'm surprised that I was so acclimated to the poor behavior that I didn't figure it out sooner.

I completely concur. Summer tires lose grip when it gets cold, but so do all tires. I have driven my Bridgestone RE01Rs down at 20 F (on dry pavement) and they are much grippier at that temp, than say, the Pirellis on my wife's Ford are at any temperature. This hysteria about "summer" tires losing more grip than "other" tires is just nonsense. Eric

Paul, Yes, they have a nice slot in the bottom and big holes for the shoulder straps. Here's a shot of the bottom slot with the bolster pulled out (all the seating surfaces are held in by velcro). Eric

You absolutely should question my response, it probably is a resistor. I didn't look very hard (bad light, old eyes and crappy magnifier) and I'm not at all familiar with smt parts. :) My son the photographer has finally relented to pull out a pile of expensive equipment to take a photo. I can now actually see the color!

Danny, mine's got a 104 cap there. Eric

I've been using a Deltran Battery Tender Junior for about five years and just love it. I recall it was about $27, but just did a web search and found them for $24. I might have to get another couple for various cars.

So you got it out? What specifically worked, heat on the block?

Will, How many miles on the chassis? Have you ever changed any suspension bushings or control arms? (I'm imagining a worn bushing or loose ball joint or something in one of the track arms...) Eric

If you just need help putting miles on the car, you can probably find a volunteer or two here. :)

I wait until they are on sale at my local auto parts store and pick up whatever 4-wire sensor they happen to have, cut off the connector and crimp it into the old one. Last ones I got this way were Bosch parts for a Ford Crown Vic or some such thing and cost me $27 each... My place doesn't advertise when they are on sale, so you have to call or ask when you are there.

Probably because Amsoil is too small to bother with when people here in the US can get other stuff that they've already tested (Castrol, Mobil and so on).

Ain't you afeard of them armadillos? Up here we have white tail deer, which can really mess up a midnight run.

Too many customers giving them crap about the 20k change interval?

If you go to your local hardware store, they will have an assortment of what are called "fender washers," which are perfect for this job (very big outer diameter compared to "regular" washers). If you have a really good hardware, they will have them in stainless. Eric

I'm trying to reverse engineer the 2001 3.4 install in my 1997 Boxster chassis in order to be able to replace parts when the time arises. Looking at the parts catalog, I see the two big coolant hoses from the front of the motor to the tubes in the tunnel have a couple of date-specific variants, and am wondering if anyone can tell me if the different parts are due to chassis changes or engine changes. Specifically, do I need the old hoses because the chassis connections vary by year (and engines are all the same) or do I need the newer hoses because the engines are different (and the chassis are all the same). Here's a snippet created from the pertinent catalog page with part numbers, any help or comments appreciated... TIA, Eric