New member- intermix issue

Just wanted to say Hi to everyone, I'm a brand new member, not new to the 911 world however, had my 996 C2 3.4 for just over 7 years now! I started my ownership feeling that I had to visit specialists for every little job, I then started to grow in confidence and have since been tackling a lot of jobs on my own, brakes, making brake pipes, ignition switch, fan regulators, services etc. On other cars I have done a head gasket (E46, m43 engine mind you, 4 pot ha ha), water pumps, radiators, thermostats, exhausts, diesel injector seals, air bag suspension, countless services. I know I can say I have tinkered with cars, but do you think that I could be able to remove my engine, remove my heads, inspect and then get them welded/ worked on? I don't have a ramp but have most other tools and am prepared to buy anything I don't have. I know I have intermix, chocolate milk oil, water loss and some brown sludge in the coolant tank. It's not massive amounts but its enough to worry about. Need some words of encouragement or discouragement. Over to you guys :judge:

If you have the space and kit to drop the engine out and get it on to a stand then it isn't that hard to do. Unless things have moved on recently it has been easier to swap a cracked head than get it welded up though, so that might need investigating. No doubt you will find a bunch of other fun things to do whilst the engine is out. Whilst it feels like a huge job to do it, I was suprised how relatively quick and easy it was to remove and refit the engine, it isn't a bad design from that POV. MC

I would suggest dropping Jamesx19 a pm .. he dropped his engine in a tiny garage with very few tools .. an engine crane is needed though . I was lucky enough to give him a hand on getting it out . Workshop manual is here for stripping it .. http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=83491 Oil/coolant mix is often a cracked head .. remove the tappet carrier and inspect for cracks from the coolant core plugs .

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you lift the engine out with a crane? I assumed it would be dropped and you lift the car over it. Do you remove the back of the car and it comes out that way then?

Not the way i would do it at work but engine lid off .. car jacked as high as possible and engine crane through boot lid to lower the engine down . You will need a jack to support the gearbox and a set of low slung wheels on a bed to pull the engine out from under the car . James19 did a post with many pictures of how it was done with his one but i haven't searched for it to be honest .

Thank you deMort, I think I've read the post previously and it looked brilliant, great work you two. I also saw the tool box, nothing wrong with that, I think I remember James19 saying something about a Christmas cracker. I guess I just need to wait for some warmer weather and drop that beast out. Thank you for the Porsche manual link, I've been reading the Bentley manual recently like an expectant mother reading a baby book!

I seem to remember asking James to put a note about the tool kit .. to be fair though i do this for a living .. 38 years plus but only 17 on Porsche and my tool kit is something like £20K but we did this with a handful of spanners and a few sockets .. I did bring a few tools with me though . We dropped the engine and sent it off for a refurb . James had it all planned out so i merely gave him an extra pair of hands to use plus a bit of safety advice such as the rear wheels under the chassis just in case . He had installed the engine before i turned up so i was of no real use at that point but i did find the entire experience uplifting .. Diy at its finest and the reason i come here every night and if someone local then perhaps lend a hand . There is no reason anyone can't do this .. all you need is a bit of advice now an then and a manual .. you have both !

Well people like me really appreciate the guidance! Hoping to start work on it as soon as it warms up. Just finished making a patch for the over the top of gearbox brake pipe. Wanted to try flaring some pipe, and it worked! Will replace entire line when box and engine are out. James

I've removed my engine a few times, the time consuming things are draining the coolant, driveshafts, slave cylinder and removing the PS pipes, AC pump. Porsche made it really easy to remove the engine and if you are able to work on it on a floor trolley just to remove the head, jacks remove the engine easily without the use of a crane, I stripped my whole engine down on the floor trolley this time. I used a couple of jacks to lower the engine and gearbox together onto the trolley, mainly because my engine crane was stuck at the back of my shed, you could reverse that process to get it back in with the jacks again? The engine crane does make it easier to reinstall the engine but jacks would do the job, or you can hire a crane for the day?

That's brilliant. I'm hoping I can work on it, resting on the trolly I lower it onto. I know the headers will be a pain to remove and will probably need to look at getting studs drilled out and fit some new headers. I'm pretty excited to give it all a try. What issue have you had your engine out for?

Several engine rebuilds and I have also removed it with the gearbox to get the gearbox worked on. I don't have a huge amount of room and the car is up on axle stands, you may need to remove the inlet manifold to pull the engine from under the car, dependent how high you can actually get the car up. I made a low profile trolley out of wood and some casters. As for the manifold, you will need to remove only the one you need for the corresponding head and if your existing head is scrap (finger crossed it can be rescued) it shouldn't matter too much if you have a few bolts snap?

Yeah that's true. I'm really hoping it can be saved. Fingers crossed!