Dharn55

Cylinder heads for 3.6 are also about $2800. Check with Sunset or Suncoast for their cost +15% price. Or check some wreckers for used heads.

My experience is with the 3.4 engine with VarioCam, where the cam cover holds the cams in place and special hold down tools are needed to remove the cam cover. I looked in my manual for the 3.6 with VarioCam Plus and the systems/heads are very different. The manual does not show the use of the hold down tools and it looks like there are caps to hold the cams that are seperate from the cover, although it looks like one cap may be built into the cover. Hard to tell exactly from the diagrams in the manual. Maybe there is someone here that has specific experience with the 3.6/VarioCam Plus heads. When I look at the PET program it still shows the matching cylinder head/cover, and seperate number for the cover alone. I also don't see any caps not part of the cylinder head besides the one set by the sprockets. Can you post a picture of the damage to the cover. The shop that fixed my cracked head cut out and welded in new material. Maybe they can do the same if the damage dones not include any bearing areas. Otherwise I think you maybe stuck replacing the head. I know a head for a 3.4, with cams etc. lists for about $2,800.

It might be possible, but you would have to remove the head to line bore it. And the diameter of the bore cannot be made larger so I think it would be very difficult. What year is yours (i.e. a 3,4 or a 3.6). Also what side 1-3/drivers or 4-6/passanger? If it is a 4-6 on a 3.4 there are lots of used heads available, if it is 1-3 they are much harder to find as this is the side that cracks.

The cam covers are different from the 3.4's to the 3.6. Also, you can't just replace the cover, the cover and the head are paired sets as the two are line bored for the cams. The covers act as half of the bearing journals for the cams. At least this is true for a 3.4, I think also for a 3.6.

I bought one on line for about $100. Seems to work great.

The gold seal is an expansion plug. If you can get the right size it si not difficult to replace, but Porsche won't sell you one. It looks like one located at the bottom of the cam cover. This is not a "pressurized oil" area, and is probably not the source of the leak. It could be the cam cover itself, they don't use a gasket, just silicone gasket material. Not unusual to get some leaking from them. I will look at my car tomorrow when it is light out to see what else it could be, but mine is a 3.4. so it is a little different than a 3.6.

By the way, I think you should do a story of your experience and post it here, on Rennlist and 6speedonline, this is very useful information for all of us owners. But try to be as unemotional as possible, the more objective you are the more impact it will have. Maybe Roock will even step up to the plate on the issues if he knows he is getting bad PR.

Hang in there guy, it may be a simple fix. I am really sorry to hear about all your problems with Roock, I know there have been other members that have had the conversion done and it seemed to go smoother. I think they were done in his shop in Atlanta though. I think one problem may be that you are so remote that it is hard/expensive for Roock to deal with these follow-up problems and work out the bugs. But he did take on the project in LA and should have committed to the follow-up. He should take more ownership for the issues you have faced. There is no way that dropping the engine, or just the trans for a clutch change should effect the fuel lines. If the trans is dropped there is no impact on the fuel lines. If the engine is dropped, the fuel lines are disconnected, so it should not have an impact unless they are not reconnected properly. And in your case, if it is the return line that was "plugged" there should not be a problem at all. As for the clutch, it is hard to tell which side is which. I know that when I did mine I kept close track of the side, but even then when I put it back together I worried if I had it right, and looked in the manual to see if there were any disgrams or hints, but could not find any. Fortunately I got it right. You would think that his tech would have enough experience to know the difference. Don't take the $4,500 cash for clunkers, shoot I bet the are alot of members that would do alot better than that (just kidding).

Here is one for using a switch rather than the 4 stalk control http://www.whiteson.org/boxster/mods/obc/ And another with the stalk http://www.ppbb.com/scgi-bin/boards/986/mu...mes;read=207508 If you google OBC Hack you will find a long list of sites with info. I did the switch hack a couple of years ago, then bought a 4 stalk control, but it is still sitting in my work room, one of these days I will get to it.

Phillip – Took a look and some pictures this morning. Hope this will help. In this picture of the engine compartment you can see the extension of the airbox that goes to the lid. This should be removed for better access. It snaps in and out of the airbox. In this picture the extension has been removed and you can barely see the fuel lines/connections. For a better view and access you may want to disconnect the hose the air injection pump (at the end and push it aside), the electrical connection to the vacuum valve just above the alternator, and maybe even the coolant hose attached to the coolant reservoir neck. This will provide much better access. The next two pictures are of the fuel line connections to the fuel rail. The one toward the rear of the car, closest in the pictures is the supply line (I believe). It runs from the fuel filter shown in the next picture, to the fuel rail, thus it would be the supply line. It is a 19mm nut. However, on a 3.6 I think the connection is in an entirely different area, above this (based on the diagram in the manual). The connection toward the front of the car is the return. This is the one that should be plugged. It is a 17mm nut. It would seem that a hex plug in the appropriate size, with some good sealant would take care of this. Now Roock may have relocated this line. Don’t really know. The line goes toward the rear of the car and I think it connects to a rigid line to the front of the car behind the air injection pump. I can’t really see or feel it on my car, would have to remove the injection pump, but I can kind of see the rigid line in there. Roock may also have removed the flexible line back to the rigid line connection and plugged it there, but if this is the case the leak should be appearing over to the left of the picture, behind the injection pump. This might also be a good place for you to plug the line if you need to. Here is a picture of the fuel filter. The line you see coming out toward the rear of the car is the supply line. On a 3.4 in just loops around and connects to the rear connection on the fuel rail. If you trace this line on your car you should be able to see where it is now connected on your 3.6. Hope this will help.

Phillp - I will take a look tomorrow when the light is better. You can get at the lines, but may need to do a couple of quick disconnects of some hoses and a plug connector on the vacumn switch in the area for better access. I am not sure which of the hoses is the return, the one with the larger nut (19mm) or the smaller one. It should not be too hard to make a plug, a hex plug with the proper thrad size and some good sealant should do the trick. Will Roock give you any guidance on how they plugged the return line, they should. If it is the line you should be able to access it from the top. If it turns out to be an injector instead, you might need to remove a the rear bumper, a muffler and some shields for better access. Sorry I did not get the message until after dusk or I would have taken a look today.

I think Loren is right on the fuel lines. I checked my manual for the different instructions on removing the engine for a 3.4 and a 3.6 (MY 2002+). The 3.4 shows both the supply and return lines. The 3.6 shows only one line, must be a supply, and it is in a slightly different locations than mine were. I would post a picture from the manual but somehow my version of Adobe Reader won't let me cut and paste the pictures/diagrams, only the words. Didn't used to have the problem with an older version of Adobe, but have had it with the last few updates. Anyone know of a fix for this, then I could post the diagrams and pictures. In any case, Roock must have plugged the return line so that is definetly the first place to look. Could be an easy fix. Good Luck!!

I did not realize that the 996 3.6 had a returnless fuel system, I thought this went into effect with the 997. Could be wrong as Loren has an incredible knowledge of these cars. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow and post them. On my car there are also fuel lines/connections to the AC compressor, for cooling the fuel. I was once told these were only on the TT's, but my car has them. However, they are on the top of the engine toward the passenger side, so it would not seem that the leak on the drivers side would be from these. If the 3.6 does not have the return line then it would have hadd to be plugged, and the loss of this plug would be an obvious place for a leak.

Fuel pump is in the front in the tank, so that won't be the source. There are two connections to the fuel rail on the drivers side beneath the coolant tank. One is a 19MM nut, the other is a 17mm (or 15mm). One of these might have come loose. There is also a fuel filter above the engine on that side, might be a loose connection on it. Could also be a bad fuel line in this area. I am not sure if an injector could crack and leak, but that is also a possiblity. Sorry to hear you are having so many problems with the conversion.

That is good news in a way. Alot easier fix than if an expansion cap had blown out.

OK here are some more pictures of the threaded and plugged cam I ended up taking out all four of my cams and having both ends of each one threaded and plugged. There is another possible problem if the expansion plugs are still in place. The end journal/bearing will have oil pressuring out of it. This oil goes back into the engine through small passages in the head which can bee seen in this picture If these pasages have somehow become clogged with something, then enough pressure will build up to blow out the plugs without spewing out oil like a missing expansion plug. I guess this could also be a source of the caps coming out/leaking.

The only thing that would blow these caps out is oil leaking from the camshafts, which are pressurized with oil to feed the cam journals. Look inside the plug hole at the end of the cams. There are expansion plugs, here are a couple of pictures When I reassembled my engine after repairing a cracked head I had one blow out on my 1-3 intake cam. Here is a picture of the cam without the plug If one is blown out you will definitly see it and oil will pour out of the engine. If the plug is gone you cannot get one the right size to replace it, Porsche won't sell them and all the domestically available plugs are to deep to work, believe me I tried. Here are pictures of the plug and cap The problem is that the OEM plug is only about .18" deep, and goes up against the shoulder you can see in the picture of the cam with no plug in it. The plug has to go in all the way as the widest part is the top, and it is an interference fit. All the domestic caps are .25+" and so won't go in far enough to fit with property tightness and blow right out. The solution I found is to tap/thread the end of the cams and put in a threaded plug. Here are some pictures of this See the next post for more info, this has reached the limits for pictures

The plugs can be replaced without removing the cam cover of dropping the engine. They are just pressure fit. tehy cost about $10-$13 and it should not take more than 1/2 a hour. The cam cover could also be leaking and that takes a while to get off and on. On the passenger side you have to remove the exhaust manifold to get it off, but it can be done with the engine in the car. As to how one would go bad, not really sure. When I put my engine back together I had one blow out, but that was caused by the expansion plug in the end of the cam blowing out, and if that was the case you don't have oil just dripping out, it is spewing out.

PhilipJ - somewhere I have a DIY that uses a Footwell lighting tip switch and relays to control the fans. I bought all the parts but have never actually installed them. It is nice because is maintains a stock look to the install. I will find the darn link and post it.

Looks like it is coming down the side of the cam cover. check the two green plugs on the end of the cover. Also, the oil cooler is mounted on the top of the engine above this location. Hard to see unless you take off the airbox.

Tim Thought I should give you a little more guidance before you remove the cams on your heads. When the cams are removed you need to be able to reallocate them, i.e. set the timing of the cams to each other and to the IMS shaft. This is critical in reinstalling the cams. Porsche has several special tools, including pretensioners (about $400+ per set at Sunset, have to be ordered from Germany). The manuals show how this is done and the tools required. However, I used a “shade tree mechanic” approach which works well as long as you are not totally disassembling the engine. Allocating the cams to each other is pretty simple. Here is a link to a YouTube video that shows how this is done (If you haven’t watch this whole series of videos on rebuilding a M96 engine it is definitely worth while). However, if you don’t remove the advance/tensioner mechanism you won’t really need to do this as the cams will not lose their position to each other. The next issue is the relation of the cams to the IMS. This is controlled by a chain that runs from the IMS to a sprocket that bolts to the exhaust cam on each side. The manual has you set the engine to TDC and the cams in a certain position, then use “pretensioners.” As I did not have the special tools here is how I did this. The two critical things are the relation of the sprocket to the IMS chain, and then the sprocket to the Flange on the exhaust cam. I used bright red fingernail polish to mark the items and a hard metal punch to make additional marks. For the sprocket/chain setting, you can mark one of the teeth of the sprocket and a link on the chain that it fits into. I did this but did not really need to as I never removed the sprocket from the chain. It would actually take some effort to take the sprocket out of the chain, and I used some wire around the chain to make sure it did not come out. However, the markings are a good safeguard. For the setting of the sprocket to the flange on the cam I put to spots of nail polish in the back/cam side of the flange and the sprocket, then also scratched a line on the flange and the sprocket with the punch. These marks show exactly how the sprocket sets to the flange on the cam. As long as you are not disassembling the engine to the point where the IMS chain is coming off the IMS itself you can use these marks to reinstall the cams in the correct position. Thought this might help as you try to find any crack in your heads while minimizing disassembly and hassles/challenges putting everything back together.

I used a gear puller, worked but it put holes in some of the tubes. I was planning on replacing them anyway.

Tim - No picture, but I know what you mean about the intermix stuff, it is like pudding and is everywhere in the cooling system. I took out my radiators and had them flushed, took off almost every hose and ran rags through them, also the tubes from the front to the back of the car, and cleaned out the engine as much as possible, but could never get all of the stuff out. And the heater coil was never touched. I think the only way you could get rid of all of the pudding would be to replace the radiators, pipes hoses, heater coil and everything else. But I don't think a little of the stuff will be too much of a problem. I still have some that floats up into the coolant tank. I am going to flush the systems a few times of the next few months to get more of it out. Now that the engine is out of the car the first thing you should do is check for the crack at cylinder #1. Here are pictures of my crack, and of the crack that Doug Donsbach has with dye on his. These cracks are at the inner exhaust vavle spring seat extending to the spark plug chase, so the lower left hand side of the chase. You could put some dye in before you reomve the plastic tube and the plugs and might see it, if not then remove the tube and see if it is visible. If you still don't find it start with taking the cam cover and cams off, then the tappet carrier. If yours is the same crack (and lots of them are) you will be able to see it then. Hope this might be your crack/source of intermix as I know it can be fixed. Let me know.

:D Well about 11 months after I first discovered the intermix on my 2000 996 C4 Cab, and 2 ½ months after starting to drop the engine I took the first real drive today. Put about 50 miles on the car and everything seems fine. Total cost was about $2,000 in parts and repair of the cracked head (this included some misc parts unrelated to the cracked head) and a lot of hours of labor (but these days I am working pretty cheap). I guess I will feel better after I put a couple of thousand miles on the car, but I am thrilled to be back in the driver’s seat of my 996 again. I had forgotten how much fun it is to drive this car, especially with the top down. The whole process of tearing down the engine, finding the problem and fixing it was quite an adventure, with a lot of side roads taken. But the final outcome seems to be good. So those of you who have an intermix problem, TAKE HEART! When mine first happened I was told by many sources, on the boards and mechanics that the only fix was a new/reman engine. Well that is really not the case. I will do a longer post later recapping the whole process, but just wanted to let people know that the car is fixed and back on the road. I also want to thank several people who helped and consulted on the project. First, thanks to Doug Donsbach, who has a “twin” crack in the head of his car. We commiserated and he gave me help in fabricating tools, and the picture of his crack helped me find mine. Thanks to Jake Raby at Flat 6. Jake is an incredibly nice guy, who has an unbelievable knowledge of these engines, and was extremely generous with his time and advice. I can’t say enough nice about Jake. Also, a big thanks to 99firehawk, a tech with a lot of knowledge who was helpful in many ways. His time and help were really appreciated. And thanks to Jeff Clark at Sunset Porsche. I have been getting my parts from Jeff/Sunset for several years and they are great. Thanks to John Edwards/Costa Mesa R&D. They did the head repair and valve job on the 1-3 head. John knows the problem with the heads and has experience in fixing them. He was quick and very well priced to do the work. Also thank to Rick and Ron at Valley Tool & Mold in Gilberts, IL who did the tapping and plugging of the cams. The expansion plugs on these proved to be a major challenge, but should never be a problem again. There were a lot of others who helped and commented but I can’t name all of them. So I AM ON THE ROAD AGAIN. If anyone else needs some help with their intermix problem I would be glad to help as much as possible, I have developed a little bit of expertise in this over the last few months.

I hate to disagree with Loren, who is the resident expert and has incredible knowledge of these cars, but spacers won't help on the rears. spaces decrease the offset and the wheels you are looking at have too low an offset now. The higher the offset the farther in the wheels moves, and spacers move the wheel out. I know this from experinece having once bought a set of wheels with to low an offset that rubbed on the fenders. spacers that move the wheel out would only have amde the problem worse. Go to 1010tires.com, they have a wheel offset calculator. You can enter the standard wheels/width/offset and then the same info on any wheels you are considering and it will show you how much the wheels move in each direction.