viper501

My CEL has been on for a few days but has historically been a MAF issue that comes and goes. I thought I had cured it by replacing the oil/air separator bellows and it was running like a champ for several months. However, the constant state CEL returned and then left and returned again recently. While cruising at about 75mph and about 3 hours into my trip, the car hiccups and the CEL starts flashing. Engine feels rough, almost as if I was running over bad pavement. Got off of the interstate at the next exit and the car cuts off as soon as the RPM's drop. Fortunately was able to get to a gas station and do some inspection. No fluids from the bottom of the engine. The coolant levels appear OK and the oil level and color is perfect. I suspected the MAF so I pulled the plug to force the car into limp mode so I could find a NAPA. Car would not start at first but finally did and ran but needed to be coaxed to run. Would not idle at all. Very rough running. Nursed her to an Advance auto to get the codes read and came up with a MAF code ( as expected esp, after unplugging it), multiple misfires, add'l codes for misfires on cylinders 1, 2, and 3, and an evap canister purge valve misfire code. Cleared the codes, plugged the MAF back in, and restarted to see what she'd do. Started but would not hold idle again. Clearly misfiring. Pulled the codes and the MAF was gone but the evap code remained and it was showing several misfires. Nursed her to the Porsche dealer, such as it is here, and left her for diagnosis tomorrow. :censored: Car is a 99 c2 with regular service. Plugs were changed about 10k miles ago and the coil packs were inspected. Did not find any indication of cracking or other failure. Alternator was replaced around the same time frame due to catastophic failure. Car is a daily driver and has a little over 126,000 miles. Any ideas or suggestons?

125k miles so far. Daily driver. Runs like a champ. *knock on wood* *edit* and this is on a 99 C2 non e-gas car with headers and exhaust. Had a few odds and ends to deal with (alternatory kicked off at about 110k miles, coolant hose failed some time ago due to age and water pump died about 100k( IIRC )).

Donovan, regarding the ebay headers, if you are referring to the thread where the guy did a before and after dyno IIRC he had the gasket on backwards and realized it after he yanked them off. Seeing that he'd fubared the install, he reinstalled the headers (correctly) but never reposted his dyno results. My point about the headers, and other N/A mods is that there really isn't a whole lot to be gained by them. A few ponies under the curve here and there but nothing remotely near the standard $$ investment from our high margin aftermarket suppliers. Those boys are eating very well when the P-Car community is paying ten to fifteen times the costs of manufacture.

I'm using a set of the Hawk HP+'s and have been very happy with them for 'vigorous' street driving. Fairly rotor friendly and great stopping power. Izzy, saw your car this weekend but couldn't find you. :)

With those prices, you may as well get a supercharger and get some real power.

I did a set of stainless headers *only* because I was able to find a nice set on ebay that were less than 300 shipped. I was a bit skeptical of the quality at first but was impressed when I examined the welds in person. They bolted up and fit perfectly. The engine seems a little brighter and sounds a lot more throaty. That said, I wouldn't expect any big HP increases out of them or any other header. There just isn't a whole lot to do with the header on these cars. While I disagree that the factory header is well engineered, it certainly is not 'badly' engineered.

Another potential cause could be impending failure of the oil cooler.

GOB, recheck the position of the throttle cable, assuming you are not an egas car. The small plastic flange that the cable passes through on the throttle body is shaped at an angle and may be the cause of your high idle. I had it in upside down at first and it put tension on the cable itself. Flipped it over and all was well with the world.

i'd suggest you ck for a vacuum leak, esp. w/ the bellows from the oil air separator

I hope he's using a wet kit. I've heard of people doing it, but nothing more than a 50 shot. Hardly seems worth it frankly. As others have said, I'll be interested to see how the engine lasts.

Might also consider pulling the pan and working on it from both sides. You could cut a slot on the flat of the plug from the 'inside' and use a large screwdriver to remove it. Just be careful that you don't crack the pan if you start hammering things into the plug. If you do, I've got my old pan for cheap.

Cali, I bought the OEM skid plate from Gert at Carnewal when I did the X74 install. Hasn't had any ill effects that I can tell and I've driven the snot out of the car since then ( I do 'bout 30k miles per year on the 911 ). I have noticed several scrapes on the plate though so I'm pretty happy that I listened to Gert and got the plate. With the Euro being so strong, or the dollar so weak, I think I'd check with some of the online Porsche dealers for pricing. I suspect that with the exchange, they'd be less. And it is an easy install. Three bolts (all 10mm) and its on. Still have access to the oil pan drain although I seem to take it off when I'm changing the oil just for inspection purposes.

there are good instructiions on the brey-krause website.

Even if you bore your engine, you're going to need to have software to make it run properly. The stock maps probably can't adapt to that kind of change in their operating parameters. There is a thread here or on Rennlist about this swap by a boxster driver. He did the 3.4 and has now gone to the 3.6 liter. He's probably a good source for questions on this topic.

Jim, Give it a few miles before taking any expensive action. IIRC, it just got better as I drove it more to the point that the problem resolved itself totally. Since my car is a daily driver, you might want to schedule a nice weekend jaunt to the Ozarks or down to Grand Lake and enjoy the sunshine while you work it out.

Well, the new pan is in. Unfortunately, my friend with the lift was busy so I had to do it on ramps and jackstands in my garage. Due to space constraints, I don't have any photos to share, although there really isn't anything earth shattering there anyways. Visual inspection of the old pan and the visible parts showed no apparent, or at least obvious, problems. Everything appeared very clean. No signs of any sludge buildup in the pan, nor any visible metal particles. Carefully removed the minute amounts of sealant and then wiped the mating surfaces clean with brake cleaner on a rag, while paying careful attention to not allowing any of the cleaner inside of the engine. Also wiped down the new pan's sealing surface. The only real difference appears to be in the baffling itself. The x-51 has some small side baffles that are not present on the standard baffle. Total time was about an hour and a half. I think it would have been a *lot* easier with the lift but I wasn't willing to wait until next weekend. BTW, my friend loaned me his dispenser for the Loctite 5900 tube. Looks like a small squeeze actuated caulking gun. According to my friend, Mercedes uses the same loctite 5900 for their cars so that may be an alternative source if you can't find it at the Porsche dealer or and aftermarket store. Now I have to get back to the twisties so I can see what kind of difference this made. At the same time, I switched out to the Castrol Syntec 5/50. Given the ambient temps in the deep south, I think I'll be fine during the summer.

OK, so I went to the dealer and asked for the drei-bond. They said, none here so I wandered out in the shop and asked the mechanic (the only one) whether he had an extra tube lying around so I might be able to do this project. He said that Porsche no longer uses it for the oil pans and has replaced it with LocTite 5900. He was kind enough to dig around in the shop and actually give me a spare tube. :D So, I'm still on track to install the pan tomorrow morning. I'm going to try to take some pictures while under there to document things.

Now I understand. I need to do the mod one of these days... too many projects, too little money.

Loren, don't have the OBC, at least that I know of. Though I suppose that it could be 'on'. How would I tell?

my 99 c2 does the same thing

Yes, I would like to use the Drei-bond but I know how pathetic my dealer is, especially in the parts area. I'm going to check with them tomorrow and find out whether they have it, and if so, how much they want for it. They drive me nuts.

I have received the x51 pan and baffle assembly from Suncoast. I also have reviewed the Brey-krause instructions regarding their pan installation. Seems that they should be relatively useful for my X51 pan. But, they recommend not using RTV due to adhesion of the RTV and suggest that you use only Porsche Part Number 000 043 203 73 Drei-Bond gasket sealer. Is there a readily available alternative/substitute for the drei-bond out there? Also, anyone have any experience and tips regarding this project? BTW, I am doing it in hopes of prevent oil pressure droop when running around in the mountains. Some of the tighter turns at the bottom of a downhill run under braking saw my pressures bounce down more than I was comfortable with. I'm going to try to remember to photograph things as they go along and do my own DIY / Observations.

Fred, a picture might help us understand what you're talking about.

as suggested, I would try changing fluid. I was experiencing similar problems on my 99 C2 and changed the transaxle to BG fluid with a friction modifier. Cured the problem entirely. The transaxles can be rebuilt as noted by Richard. Porsche recently started selling parts and there is an independent that has been selling 2d gear syncros for a while. His ads run in Panorama all the time. There is also a thread on this topic that I posted in a while back.

I'd be surprised if the bracked didn't fit into your car as well. It is possible but I would not think that Porsche would have spent the money to redesign/configure the dash for the facelift cars. It may be that the part fits but just wasn't put into the pre-facelift cars. I'd suggest you look at www.6speedonline.com There are at least a couple threads on this, one of which is by a guy that did the complete facelift dash upgrade to get the 'new' cupholders.