Shandangles 986

[Shandangles]

After a wasted youth dicking about with old corollas morphed into a decades long dry spell of no fun cars, cut to being mid ish 30s…….back in November after much persuading and assurances of money in = money out etc etc the misses let me buy a Porsche when she was approx 4 months pregnant so we could have some fun before baby arrived. The car in question turned out to be a 2000 986 Boxster S 6 speed, blue over tan with 123961km.
 

We picked it up and immediately went on a weeks long road trip up to the Hervey Bay / Bundaberg region of QLD. Was a roaring success, apart from a bit of leg sunburn. Who thinks to put sunblock on their legs while driving

more to follow

[Shandangles]

A Few more pics from the first roady

 

After this it was any excuse to get "him" out and about. The old Boxster is surprisingly practical with the regular boot and Frunk.

 

Had to update the 22 year old headunit to something with bluetooth at a minimum. Matched colours is a bonus

[Shandangles]

More weekend driving duties commenced.

The clutch was always a bit shit. It had precisely Zero feel, I would stall it every single time I drove it without fail. I wasn't entirely sure if it was the car or me as the Misses had no issues driving it.

Eventually it decided to cease living while pulling out of a local repco. Anything above keeping up with traffic levels of acceleration would cause it to slip. This left me with a bit of a dilemma. Do I repair it myself or pay some mob to do it. Do i Replace the infamous IMS bearing at the same time or wing it (is located behind flywheel)? This was at the start of march, with the baby due start of may so either way I had approx 2 months to  sort it as "car time" would be drastically reduced upon babies arrival.

I got a couple of quoted from reputable independent Porsche garages in the region of $6k which I thought was a bit excessive, but I had the "its a formally very expensive European sports car surely it'll be too complex for my 80s corolla level of mechanical aptitude" running through my head. 

After a week of pondering I decided id give it a crack. I also decided to do the IMS bearing while I was in there for peace of mind.

What is the IMS you ask????

IMS stands for ‘Intermediate Shaft’, and the IMS bearing supports the intermediate shaft, on the flywheel end of the motor. The purpose of the intermediate shaft is to drive the camshafts indirectly off the crankshaft. By using an intermediate shaft, the speeds of the chains are reduced, which is better for the chain life. This basic design was used through the entire lifespan of aircooled six-cylinder Mezger engines used through to 1998. The inclusion of an intermediate shaft which drives the camshafts indirectly off the crankshaft has been a mainstay of the horizontally-opposed flat 6 engine utilised by Porsche.

 

These bearings thanks to the internet have a horrendous reputation of failing causing a complete loss of the engine. The reality is the early cars 1997-2000 with the dual row bearing have a 1% failure rate and the later cars 2000-2007ish have approx a 8% failure rate as per the American class action law suit that was taken against Porsche.

As my car was on the cross over year I couldn't order parts until I pulled it apart to assess. Parts were coming from Pelican parts in the states so shipping etc was going to be slow so it was looking very sketchy I could get the job dine before baby came.

Into the garage for disassembly we went

After a about 6 hours over a few nights faffing about underneath figuring out what had to come off etc I had the mammoth transaxel sitting on the floor

off with the dual mass flywheel

the infamous IMS bearing lives behind this little Dorito flange

The car has pretty good service records but no mention of ever having a clutch which makes sense that it was cooked at 125km. Had to clean 22 years of clutch schmutz off

I actually ended up getting the water blaster under there, shit was spotless.

 

While I was under there, there was a pleasant surprise (again not in the service records)

Some nice stainless headers and de-cay mid pipes. still standard rear muffler tho. Either way its a nice bonus.

 

With all of that done I was able to ascertain I needed the larger (earlier) dual row bearing as the indent on the bearing flange is much shallower than the single row.

I also found the dual mass flywheel was cactus so unfortunately had to add that to the shopping list.

 

TBC...

 

 

 

 

[Roman]

I was like 

"Oh cool a thread about a nice low km modern car, will be nice to see some pics of it going on adventures etc even if it just stays standard and doesnt need any work" 

Next few posts down:

[xsspeed]

I bought some 'modern cars' as fun dailies but it has turned into either pay lots of money for shit service from 'bavarian specialists' to repair things or embark on deep research and full day adventures removing bits of car just to replace a headlight led, so i feel this

I overpaid on one for a chain replacement via said specialists and cheated on the other and got the dealer to do a mech warranty which is now also getting a chain replacement - definitely keener than i've been by pulling the box off

[Alfashark]

And so begins the slow march to 911 ownership!

They're not horrifically difficult cars to work on, and there is a decent logic behind the way things are designed and assembled in these and pre-996 911s, as opposed to other high performance vehicles of similar vintage.

As you're no doubt discovering, there's a large amount of aftermarket suppliers too which helps. 

[Shandangles]

Its been nothing too extreme in the scheme of things but I was definitely hesitant. Ha, not even close to being able to afford any 911 unfortunately, can dream. Was either a Boxster or a 924/944 and the convertible was easier to get over the line with the misses

 

I the proceeded to part ways with $3400 AUS for a new clutch, flywheel, IMS bearing and IMS removal / install tool. Thankfully Pelican Parts hah a proper "everything required" clutch kit with stuff like pressure plate bolts, flywheel bolts, RMS etc which made life significantly easier that it could have been.

While all the bits were being packed and shipped I thought I'd do some more maintenance but purchase parts locally to fill in the time. Regular stuff like oil and filter, and some slightly obscure stuff like replacing the Air Oil Separator which is like a factory catch can type of thing.

While dropping the oil I collected some and sent it off to be analysed, came back ok, recommended going to slightly thicker oil which was done.

I decided to whip the bottom of the sump off for a nosey while I was under there.

 

 

These little bits were stuck to the oil pickup, slightly concerning....... I think the big white bits are from the chain tensioners, the metal?????who knows, was alloy from memory???

 

Next issue was the Air Oil Separator which lives at the top of the drivers side bank at the top, it was an absolute ballache to replace without the box in the way, I can imagine doing it with the box in there. 

First step was to put the car into "service mode" this involves half opening the roof, un hooking the roof tension cables and removing the top engine cover through the clam shell opening. I had to do this anyway to remove the cabin engine cover to put everything at TCD etc.

 

The AOS in its correct orientation

 

From memory it has 4 connections, the big one from the drivers side head (white rag) 1 that goes though the block somewhere and 2connect to hoses I think.

 

I also replaced both O2 sensors and relocated them slightly further down so the could read all 3 cylinders, previously they were in a bung slightly further up the header but only reading 1 cylinder. Did this help, I don't know but it seems a logical step.

 

TBC...

[ajg193]

Sensor pointing down like that won't last long, water can pool in it.

[JustHarry]

Probably gets warm enough that water wont be an issue 

[kws]

I'd relocate it back to where it was too tbh, they're pretty clear that the sensors shouldn't be lower than 10 degrees upwards from horizontal. 

That engine is bloody spotless inside, despite the pickup chunks. In the photo with the oil filter, what are the big steel cables either side of the wood block for?

[Shandangles]

Might be something I have to look at then?? I don't remember seeing anything about the angle of them in the box they came in but it may well have been there!! I was surprised how tidy it was in there too.

The steel cables seem to be a "just in case" last resort to hold the engine in if the mounts fail or something. You can see they attach to the rear crossmember with 2 bolts in the pics of the flywheel etc etc

 

The parts arrived!!!!!! On the thursday Thursday, Misses was booked in for an Induction of labor on the Friday night so It wasnt looking good. I was hoping to get the IMS done and flywheel on at least...I had that done before she went in as I took the Friday off work. Couldnt spend all day on it as all sorts of family were here so had to deal with them.

The IMS removal / Install Kit with my jerry-rigged flywheel strap and additional cam lock tool.

[Shandangles]

Nest step was to "lock" the cams in place as to release tension off the IMS shaft i needed to remove the hydraulic chain tensioners. Another internet super scare is the cam timing jumping without locking the cams. The IMS kit cam with 2 camshaft locking tools, 1 for the 3 chain and 1 for the 5 chain engines. The difference being on the 3 chain both cams on each bank are driven off 1 chain with the 3rd going from crank to IMS, on the 5 chain only 1 cam is connected to the crank then the other cam is joined to the driven cam in a master/slave type arrangement. Some places said I only needed to lock 1 bank, others said both, so I made up a locking tool by copying the supplied one in the kit just to be safe. 

Unfortunately I only took this horrendous pic of the home made lock installed

 

Next was rip the RMS out

Now I was a numpty and didn't take any pics of the original IMS bearing in situ or the puller attached but as it turns out the original bearing was mint which was devastating .

This is essentially how it comes out though, threaded puller onto the ims threaded shaft, and wind the sucker out!

You can see here on my recently removed bearing the little clip that holds it in place, you need to apply quote a bit of tension to overcome the clip holding it in which made a hell of a crack once it snapped out. Dam near shat myself!!!

I took the Dust cover off to inspect, everything was absolutely perfect. What is believed to be the cause of the failures is the engine oil over time washes out the factory installed grease and due to the lack of oil supply to the bearing the balls eventually fail. Generally speaking cars with over 100k on the original are going to be fine (internet hearsay) and low mileage are more of a rick as lots of sitting / drying out of bearing etc

 

No pics of installing the new bearing, essentially just gets smacked in. All installed. You can see its slightly off centre so I couldn't get the new cover on. Everyone's favourite unit Mr Andrew Baird came over and provided an additional hand to get the job done We ended up taking the 3rd cam tensioner off the front end of the engine which lives under the AC pump, was an absolute cunt to get back in. The new bearing is a Ceramic Ball type, apparently much better suited to this situation. It also comes with only 1 dust seal on the engine side to aid in oil draining. 

Next step was battling with the new "spirolock" clip thing, what an absoloute fuckup of a design. Took WAY longer than it should have to get done.

Retaining flange in

[Shandangles]

This was all complete before we went in to the hospital for the induction on the Friday night. Turns out that particular Friday was Crazy busy in the birthing ward and "elective" procedures like inductions were put off so I had the Saturday to finish her off.

The father in law helped get the box back in by driving the jack which made life significantly easier, the box literally slid straight back on first try, I was stunned. . Then it was just box mounts, half shafts, the angle bracing, shifter cables and undertray. I didn't quite get it 100% finished before baby was born, it needed about an hour and was all done.

All told it was about 6 hours to disassemble, 5 hours doing AOS, o2 sensors, IMS bearing and clutch etc and about 4 hours Re-assemble. Total of about 15 hours driving to driving which I was pretty bloody happy with.

That's about where we are up to now. Have done about 500km since everything has been finished with no dramas. Which isn't really enough use to justify keeping it in my mind, I'm constantly looking for something cool but more family orientated but who knows. I have a wagon fetish so there's a couple of old HZ ish wagons tickling my fancy currently as well as a X3 Cressida I like in my price range, we can only dream right. I still really enjoy my bi-weekly Porsche drives lol 

 

 

I also chucked some black LED indicators at it straight off Aliexpress because orange is shit.

 

Other than possibly chucking some spacers on and then forcing myself to lower it a touch its about finished. Dilemmas