Been without a fun car for a while. Sold my ND almost a year ago for a Tacoma. Got the itch real bad for a project.
One of my friends in California got a decent 2000 boxster for like $3500 or so. He was having fun. I decided to look into it. Ive always wanted to try mid engine.
The boxster line is pretty interesting.
97-99 - 2.5, 5 speed. Great gear ratios. Dual row IMS not as prone to failure.
00 - 2.7 or 3.2 in the S. Rev limit raises to 7200 in both. 2.7 got revised ratios that are arguably worse. 3.2 got a 6 speed. Dual row IMS not as prone to failure.
01-04 - single IMS bearing that has probably the worst failure rate of any. Needs to be upgraded. Slight HP bump, changed from 7.2 to 7.8 DME. Not really sure what else changed to give more hp but it's pretty negligible.
05-06 987 series, same 2.7 or 3.2. power went up again. I know the air box changed, so did the exhaust. 05 still has the terrible IMS, 2006 has an upgraded larger single row IMS bearing which is better.
07-08 - m97 3.4 in the S, will bore score. Wasn't interested in that. The 2.7 is fine if you do the IMS.
09-12 987.2 - 2.7 became a 2.9 and got a 6 speed. For the S, m97 was replaced by the DI 9A1. Can still bore score but not nearly as bad as the m97. IMS issues mostly figured out.
I wasn't sure what to go for. The 2.9 6 speed was on the top of the list. Decent gear ratios. Should be as fast as the 986 S,. Kinda pricey and rate though. There were quite a few 986S on BAT and C&B I was watching as well.
Then I saw this 2000 S pop up on market place for $3k. 175k miles. New DWS06 tires. IMS was upgraded even though it was one of the better ones of the era. Paint is fucked, top needs tension cables. CEL comes and goes for rear O2 and sai. Went to see it. Owner has a book of service records. Clutch, IMS, timing chain pads all done around 125k. Wheel bearings last year. Took it for a drive and didn't notice anything off. Drove it 4 hours home no issues.
Got the under tray off and saw some oil. Spent a while cleaning everything. Looked like driver side bank was leaking oil from the plug tubes. Replaced all 6 of those and all 6 plugs. Did air oil separator while in there. Drove it some more and found second would crunch when cold. was able to tell it was leaking diff oil from passenger side.
Replaced the passenger side diff output seal (similar to a trans tail shaft seal). Ended up cross referencing parts like 3 times until I found a GM crankshaft seal that was similar size. Fit fine, leak is sealed. The good ole tribodyn 75w90 ex2 fixed the second gear crunch when cold.
Now that maintenance is out of the way... Looking into some mods.
Decat exhaust and intake mod is good for probably 20 whp or so. Along with a lithium battery and stripping the trunk/frunk it's like 120 lbs of weight shedded. This should make it about as fast as the 3.4 S's. The rest of world (ROW) cars don't have sai or secondary O2s that monitor cats. First plan was to just flash a ROW tune on it.
I got a bootleg PIWIS 3 which is Porsche diag software. Problem is I need a DME code to do anything. Only Porsche will give this to you. Neither dealer I called was helpful.
Now I'm looking into MPPS to read/flash. I ordered the bootleg temu v18 cable. Also found a download online. So I'll get that going and see what happens. If I can read the file, chipwizards in the UK will remote tune me. If I can't, then I'll ship the DME to him. Or I can ship the DME to ecudoctors who can do the ROW flash.
Some guys do plenum/manifold/TB upgrades and run a 996 911 tune. More aggressive timing. But I can't get into my DME through piwis so I'm kinda out of luck. Chipwizards also advised not to do any of that.
After that I'll just enjoy it. Mine has the M030 suspension package so I don't really need to do anything there. I don't like the wheels, but 17" options are very limited and these are super light.
So far it's been really easy to work on. Autohaus AZ has almost every part. Because I live in AZ it's basically overnight shipping.
One of my friends in California got a decent 2000 boxster for like $3500 or so. He was having fun. I decided to look into it. Ive always wanted to try mid engine.
The boxster line is pretty interesting.
97-99 - 2.5, 5 speed. Great gear ratios. Dual row IMS not as prone to failure.
00 - 2.7 or 3.2 in the S. Rev limit raises to 7200 in both. 2.7 got revised ratios that are arguably worse. 3.2 got a 6 speed. Dual row IMS not as prone to failure.
01-04 - single IMS bearing that has probably the worst failure rate of any. Needs to be upgraded. Slight HP bump, changed from 7.2 to 7.8 DME. Not really sure what else changed to give more hp but it's pretty negligible.
05-06 987 series, same 2.7 or 3.2. power went up again. I know the air box changed, so did the exhaust. 05 still has the terrible IMS, 2006 has an upgraded larger single row IMS bearing which is better.
07-08 - m97 3.4 in the S, will bore score. Wasn't interested in that. The 2.7 is fine if you do the IMS.
09-12 987.2 - 2.7 became a 2.9 and got a 6 speed. For the S, m97 was replaced by the DI 9A1. Can still bore score but not nearly as bad as the m97. IMS issues mostly figured out.
I wasn't sure what to go for. The 2.9 6 speed was on the top of the list. Decent gear ratios. Should be as fast as the 986 S,. Kinda pricey and rate though. There were quite a few 986S on BAT and C&B I was watching as well.
Then I saw this 2000 S pop up on market place for $3k. 175k miles. New DWS06 tires. IMS was upgraded even though it was one of the better ones of the era. Paint is fucked, top needs tension cables. CEL comes and goes for rear O2 and sai. Went to see it. Owner has a book of service records. Clutch, IMS, timing chain pads all done around 125k. Wheel bearings last year. Took it for a drive and didn't notice anything off. Drove it 4 hours home no issues.
Got the under tray off and saw some oil. Spent a while cleaning everything. Looked like driver side bank was leaking oil from the plug tubes. Replaced all 6 of those and all 6 plugs. Did air oil separator while in there. Drove it some more and found second would crunch when cold. was able to tell it was leaking diff oil from passenger side.
Replaced the passenger side diff output seal (similar to a trans tail shaft seal). Ended up cross referencing parts like 3 times until I found a GM crankshaft seal that was similar size. Fit fine, leak is sealed. The good ole tribodyn 75w90 ex2 fixed the second gear crunch when cold.
Now that maintenance is out of the way... Looking into some mods.
Decat exhaust and intake mod is good for probably 20 whp or so. Along with a lithium battery and stripping the trunk/frunk it's like 120 lbs of weight shedded. This should make it about as fast as the 3.4 S's. The rest of world (ROW) cars don't have sai or secondary O2s that monitor cats. First plan was to just flash a ROW tune on it.
I got a bootleg PIWIS 3 which is Porsche diag software. Problem is I need a DME code to do anything. Only Porsche will give this to you. Neither dealer I called was helpful.
Now I'm looking into MPPS to read/flash. I ordered the bootleg temu v18 cable. Also found a download online. So I'll get that going and see what happens. If I can read the file, chipwizards in the UK will remote tune me. If I can't, then I'll ship the DME to him. Or I can ship the DME to ecudoctors who can do the ROW flash.
Some guys do plenum/manifold/TB upgrades and run a 996 911 tune. More aggressive timing. But I can't get into my DME through piwis so I'm kinda out of luck. Chipwizards also advised not to do any of that.
After that I'll just enjoy it. Mine has the M030 suspension package so I don't really need to do anything there. I don't like the wheels, but 17" options are very limited and these are super light.
So far it's been really easy to work on. Autohaus AZ has almost every part. Because I live in AZ it's basically overnight shipping.
