picked up my first 911

I have a 1999 boxster which I love so much I thought it needed a friend. 1999 Carrera. has higher miles but i'll clean it up and make it pretty again. Its getting shipped up from Georgia today, it should be here tomorrow sometime. got it for $15,700.. how did I do? As most new buyers... i'll ask stupid question like performance mods I can do and will the turbo sticker make it faster lol I have been reading up on the 3.4l motor... I do plan on rebuilding asap. anyone have any luck doing it there self? I have built tons of motors so I'm not scared and I am aware of the unique aspect of this motor.. I can do it If you were rebuilding your 3.4l, what would you do to up the power a bit? sleeved, forged, turbo etc. ? any thoughts? please pessimists... don't chime in.. I bought my boxster and started personalizing it and ohhhh how dare I !!! wow the kick back I got on this site lol Its my car.. I like to change things up lol please be a true enthusiast about cars if your going to chime in and understand not everyone has to have there car.. just like yours lol

Nice addition and can't wait to see how the progress goes with whatever you do with your ride. Good on you for being skilled enough with tools and wrenching away at your own maintenance, that just means more money in your pocket for parts my friend. Enjoy the 911!

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Thank you sir !!! If you could feel my excitement lol well I'm sure most on here have felt it before as well. I'm soooo stoked I wont sleep a bit tonight lol Ya I always do my own work.. save so much $ that way. I'v done all maintenance on the boxster and all the body work and paint job. that's my boxster and I've kept it running smooth so far

Really like the new car! How many miles are on it? I like the look with the aero spoiler too.

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I love you guys!!! lololol It has 117k on it. my boxster had 99k when I purchased it. I know from what I've read it could grenade with that IMS but as long as it makes it to winter it will be fine. I'll drop the motor as soon as the snow flies and bring it all back to life Ya the look is what sold me on it. the black on black on black... just kinda jumped out at me. looks kinda grunge with that spoiler and the color lol

Very clean boxster, looks like the 996 has a great home now. Enjoy!

welcome! i bought one two weeks ago with 102k miles. I immediately took it off the road and did IMS, clutch, AOS, water pump and LN thermostat. Very close to being finished so I can actually drive it!

Congrats! 996's are a lot of fun

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thanks you the man. did you find it hard to do? I will find out lol

TTT123, Oh yeah I do know that feeling all too well. Plus I'm a wrench on my own stuff guy too. The best was the drive home to drop the motor take it apart to refresh everything drain fluids all and refill, make desired part changes IMSB. Then the real test to hear the engine roar again once re-installed with no extra parts. Lol..

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no extra parts.... you did it wrong lolol everyone should wrench on there own stuff... so fun

Shame on you, a Porsche is not loved without a leak and extras

Good luck with your new 996. The mk1 aero cars are beee-a-utiful

😊 thanks

Congrats on the purchase. There's nothing wrong with making the car your own with mods. That's half the fun!

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not only that, it puts the remainder of the fun in a much more personal context. I may have only updated the appearance, but it feels like I built it

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exactly.. the sense of accomplishment of doing your own work.. puts a smile on my face. especially when I hear others talk about how much they spent for said stuff. ok so quick question, If I change the oil when I get this porshe today and there is no metal in the filter. would that be a good indicator that the ims might be ok? I do have every intension of redoing the drive train in the Porsche but I would like to drive it for a month or two before I put it on blocks. If I find any metal chips obviously I will be do it right away but would you guys drive it for a bit if all looks well. any advice on things I should do to make sure its ok to drive for a bit. with 117k miles on it and not knowing if the ims has ever been done I just want to be wise about it. Thanks

Yes I wouldn't worry about it as much as you are you have a 99 with the much more robust dual row bearing it has a less than 1% chance failure rate vs about 6% for the single row that is in late 2000ish-2005.5.

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oh cool, thanks for that. I'm been reading like a mad man the last couple of days but I didn't catch that in any of it. thanks

I think you did GREAT at that price! I know you're gonna LOVE that car. Keep us posted with the upgrades. Pics of the work in progress would be great to see too! Bill

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thanks. Ill post up more pics tomorrow. Im sitting in back yard with my little buddy(son) enjoying a bon fire waiting for it to show up lol im not anxious at all.... really lol

O shoot, I thought you had it , so when does it get to y'all

Congrats! Looking forward to reading about your 996 discovery. I also started the Porsche journey with a Boxster - a very fun car, but the 911 is a beast in comparison. Lots of luck with it!

What do you mean by "rebuild asap"? I would do the basic maintenance (oil, filters) and drive it a little while. Fix the other little things you will come across. That is what I am doing with mine. I will drop the engine in a couple of months and do the more significant preventative maintenance. Rebuilding the engine is very expensive and I have no plans to take it apart, other than installing the IMS Solution, RMS if it is leaking, and chain guides. If it ain't broke, don't mess with it!

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it just got here about two hours ago. Got to drive it for about a mile then had to leave to take care of some buissness. It seemed pretty quick but it is beat up a bit. Seems to run good. thanks.. im excited. The get up and go felt nice i will figure things out with... than rebuild it all lol. Im the oppisite... if its dirty.. rebuild it lol. I dont mind spending the money for the fun of doing it. I have had quite the array of cars and have rebuilt most of them. Supras, vettes, camaros, mustangs, etc. this one will like its new home lol

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I will post up more pics of the messed up stuff tonight after my wife and i clean it up some.

What's that white car in the garage?

Dang, that's exciting. I see she is already getting love, good to know that she is in good hands. I'm glad that it feels strong and running properly, no blinking CEL, or any Cel Light is a great thing . Dump that oil and filter quick. Enjoy.

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Yes please say!?

It's definitely a race car

So now you can give the wife the Boxster with no regrets

No its not a race car muhahaha everyone who comes to my house "says what is it?" I say its my car, they say "ya but what is it" lol i say its my car... it is a one off design, not a replica and i own the molds to build it. Ther is only two others in existence and there Wont be anymore unless inshare the molds. I dont have a build of it cuz im trying to keep it quiet till im done. Will weigh 2200lbs, have 800hp from a twin turbo 5.3 through an audi trans (mid-engine) i had built in new jersey to hold 1000hp. Im about two years into it and i have a out two more to go. Ill post up a pic in the next reply. But it will be a street car. Ok back to porsche... its been ragged on pretty well. Interior is very weathered, ghettoed and in need of some love. The only light on is the coolant is flashing. Also on the way home tonight from going for a cruise i got pulled over, apparently i have no tail lights. Serpintine belt sqweeks, start a little slow and idle is anlittle rough. It does have an after market exhaust, and a monster stereo system... like blow and thump you ears out. It drives quite nice i must say and is pretty quick. Its not fast like my vette was but as you guys know its a different kind of driving experience than a vette so it puts as big of a smile on your face I will definitly be tearing it down like i did the boxster and making it all new. Took ancouple pics while we were out tonight.

Few more pics. I didnt mention in the last post. My wife and i took out the seats and attacked it with my cleaning kit before we left for the cruise. Oh oh oh !!! And the rubber kneck and compliments i got .... wow lolol my boxster never gets that much lol everyone was giving me thumbs up when i got gas one guy screamed out hid window "nice car!!!" Well it could have been rice tar.... he was driving by and it was hard to understand.... il stick with nice car lolol

Drum roll please .... it will stand 40" tall wheel base is 105" and its fat... really fat. If i remember correctly it like 63" wide at the rear wheel wells. Im on my phone... not sure why they are upside down... ill edit them in the morning on my laptop

Ok so i know where the emergency release was on the boxster when i couldnt get into the rear trunk but i can not Find the one for the 911 . Does anyone know how to get In the trunk when the cable is not working?

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If you have a 99 like mine, the rear hatch release is on the drivers door sill, along with the frunk release. There is an emergency release cable on both ends. On the rear I would check three places: 1. It is laying under the drivers side taillight. You can fish it out with a thin wire with a loop at the end. Sometimes people put a small piece of tape on it to hold it in place right behind the lower edge of the light. 2. The loop of the cable is looped over the plastic "wire" attached to the back of the plug covering the tow hook hole. This is the ideal place to keep it, in my opinion. 3. It is laying behind the bumper below the drivers rear tail light, It will be tough to locate it with the rear hatch closed.

You are doing it right! The car hobby is what you want it to be. It's not about pleasing others. I think both your cars look pretty good. I'd do things different, but that's my part of the car hobby.

Nice car(s)! As for mods i'd consider the matching GT3 front bumper and side skirts to complete the aerokit Looks good though, definitely need a new front badge!

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I will search some more when I get home. thank you for chiming in. I did see a pic online about it being under that rear light but thought how in the world would I get to it. I will rig something up to try and get in there. also you said there should be one at both ends, correct? so if I take off the cover next to the drivers seat would it be there and able to give it a pull? thanks again... greatly appreciate it. Amen brother lol its all about having fun in the this short life we are blessed with. although I have to admit.. after driving this car this weekend... I put in a special request to god to let me bring one up there when its time lol we are on good terms.. I might have a shot I really really like the bumper on the boxster and I MIGHT get it for the 911. but the gt3 one looks nice as well. ok so up date new on my first weekend getting to drive it last night out to dinner with the family. c6 corvette is behind me at the light... i take off normal and shift to 2nd gear and i hear him floor it and try to pass. I floor it.. he gets up to me front bumper to front bumper side by side and the porsche pulled away, quite quickly lol now i know vettes and the c6 base modle is 425hp and they are fast. i couldnt believe my porshce smoked him. i slowed back down and he caught up to give me a huge thumbs up and smile lol wow i love this car lol I cant help but think he didn't know how to drive that car or he was being nice. it was just quicky and if it went the distance I'm sure he would have caught back up and passed but as anyone gone up against a c6? also while looking for that trunk cable.. seen this(pics attached) full fabspeed exhaust

Exhaust is a nice find! What size rear tires are on it? Curious they look pretty wide.

285/30/18's I'm not a fan of the 30 ratio.. I'd rather see 35 or 40 but those tires are very dry rotted. I have 285/35/19's on the boxster and like the look of that. Tires will be on my short list to replace. also need to strip the wheels and redo the paint on them. they are very poorly plasti dipped. The exhaust does sound nice. my wife ran into meijers(like a walmart if you not from around Michigan) and I drove around the parking lot and when she came out she said " are these cars supposed to sound unique like that" I said "oh yes... yes they are lol it screams when you get the rpms up there. guys all n all... I cant believe I finally have a 911.. what a riot to drive!!! I grinned the whole drive to work this morning in it lol although I dove with my flashers on since I don't have any tail light lol I still enjoyed it lol

Congrats and welcome! As said previously, don't worry about the IMS bearing on a '99. Agree on making the aero front bumper cover and rocker panels a priority. My first 996 was a black '99 with the full factory aerokit (with the taco wing). Those cars just look fantastic and draw a lot of attention. I think silver wheels look better on a black car than black wheels. As for doing mods on the car, other than turning it into a Frankenporsche or those headlight covers to make the headlights look round, you'll find a lot of enthusiasm for making the car your own. BTW, the interior pic of your car didn't look bad. Alumalook gauges and the aluminum e-brake handle and gearshift **** are nice options to dress up the interior. Just FYI, the aluminum e-brake handle and gearshift **** have gotten crazy expensive. When I got my first car, I bought a set to replace the regular ones it had and I think I may have spent $800 combined for them new. When I got my current car 2 1/2 years later, the price had risen to around $1,700 for those same parts. I ended up finding a used shift **** from a junkyard, but still paid $350 for it.

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lol "taco wing" that made total sense when I read it lol to funny. ok on the look of it... my wife would share your view. I just turned 40 and I guess the mature look might fit a bit better but I do like how all the black on this car just kind of makes it look mean. but I also like clean and classy as well. she wants me to put the rims on the boxster on the 911... we'll see. mods will be coming but I'm going to go a little slower with this one than I did the boxster. body and appearance mods one winter and motor and chassis mods the next. vs stripping the boxster down in one winter and doing just about everything other than rebuilding the motor. that interior looks better in the pics than it is. my wife and I clean and armor all protectant that whole interior so it looks clean... its pretty dried out. seats cushions are ruff and very stiff/lumpy.

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Hope you're enjoying the sound! Looks like you have our Sport Headers and Maxflo Mufflers, although with factory cats. You should definitely ditch those cats, they are a bummer haha. Once you have the engine freshened up, IMS bearing replaced if it hasn't been already, and you are looking for some more power...I have a local 996 client of mine that is running our full exhaust, intake, and VF Supercharger Kit and we got it just over 400whp. Absolute BLAST that car, smile per gallon factory is quite impressive. Would recommend that kit over a Turbo for sure.

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Do you have a link to the cats? Supercharger huh....how you doin?!? Lol have a link to that as well? And yes it sounds nice but it is quieter than the ones fab speed vids i seen on you tube.

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Sport Cat or Catbypass X-Pipe VF Engineering Supercharger Yeah that Supercharger kit is great quality and other than a solid stroker motor build by Jake Raby i'd consider it the best power adder out there. Yeah if you want some real sound/power those cats have got to go. I'd recommend catless if you don't have to worry about emission, that'll spice things up haha.

Would i need a tune for cars delete? Supercharger is something i could see me doing. Thank you for the link.

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If you don't want CELs for cat inefficiency yes, although the CEL won't effect drivability. Tune will get you a nice bump in the top end too and sharper throttle response. If you want the Supercharger (or anything else for that matter) let me know as I've got great relationships/accounts with the various aftermarket suppliers out there. I'll be sure to take care of you

Who should i talk to about the tune over there? Pricing, options etc.

So i grabbed my little plastic wedge thing and made that little pull dohickey.. pulled out the emergency cable easily... pulled on it and still wont let looses 😩 Please someone help. What are my options? How can i break in?

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Yours truly haha. Message me your number I'll give you a call today, we can chat about that and whatever else you have questions about

message sent. please if anyone has any ideas on how to get into the rear trunk... please chime in. I sooo don't want to pay a dealer an outrageous amount of money to reach there hand somewhere and pop it the emergency pull cord did not work. once there is tension on it, there is no play and it doesn't fell like there is any give at all. I pulled pretty hard and nothing even budged. my next thoughts were to drop the exhaust and everything above to try and reach up from the bottom if that's even an option. thanks

If you haven't already have someone push down on the lid to remove tension from the latch while you pull the cable perhaps?

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I pushed down and then pulled but I have not had someone push while I pull... I will try that tonight. thanks for the thought. Brian

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I know right lol Now if i could get padt this trunk issue so i can enjoy the car

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Congrats on the purchase! As a fellow Boxster and 996 owner, I can tell you that both have their merits. Don't be surprised if you find yourself rarely using the Boxster anymore, though (ceptin' while you are rebuilding the 996 motor). Paid more than that for my Fabspeed stuff.

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Really?!? wow ... so I got that going for me lol I'm gonna add the cat delete and tune asap but gonna hold off on the supercharger till I'm rebuilding the motor.

Congrats! We got our first 996 three weeks ago after having sold our two air cooled 911's years ago. (We never should have sold those cars, we know.) Jealous that you can do it all yourself!

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Thanks. well hopefully all of us with these 996 cars in a few years will own gold mines as well lol so quick update... going through the receipts I found in the car. turns out it had a new clutch installed at 82k so my clutch has roughly 37k miles on it.. that's nice. going to Porsche dealer on Monday to get some help with the trunk. they are only going to charge me for one hour labour plus what ever parts. so not to crazy. they were not to keen on my idea of dropping the exhaust and going at it from the bottom lol either way I'm happy its not going to be a small fortune. Also been talking with John from Fab Speed... what a great guy. got to see some great pics/videos and info about what they have going on there and wow definitely on my short list to road trips to go check that place out. looking forward to getting some of there products and services for my car asap.

so i made it to the porsche dealer and had them open The trunk. No bump stops and the ride lossened it up a bit. I sprayed some wd-40 on it when i got home. And will get some new bump stops While they were showing me, i noticed some color under the hood pretty sure thats the fab speed kit ... thats another bonus. Who ever had this car liked fab speed... me to!! Lol after getting the virtual tour from john at fab speed i definitly have plans to have them do some stuff. My brother is looking to have them do some stuff as well... lots of stuff for him lol anyway just wanted to update. Oh also for those who have tail light issues... look at your contacts down in the light housing. Mine are rusted out and thats why i have no tail lights. Easy fix, just need to order the new light harness.

Great result! How did they get in I wonder? A mixture of someone operating the leaver and someone prying up the lid would be my guess. Anyway that's the fabspeed 'cold air intake' unfortunately hardly a cold air intake however it does remove the helmholtz resonator which is used to reduce intake noise and help even out airflow for the MAF. So your intake noise will be louder with it!

I bought my Boxster a stable mate like you.

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Ya from what i gathered, someone pulling and someone gave it a good tug. No i know and only was charged $87 so im happy. Ya know i read up on that fab speed intake a few days ago and liked what i read but i do not the porsche design on how they loop the air duct back infront... or infront back... you across the rear of the motor to where it sucks in air through that opening. I felt the porsche plastic ducting and it was HOT!! Has anyone done there own mods to make it suck the air on the right side or something else perhaps?

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Oh sweet!!! Good for you. Is it not the coolest to drive them both!! Loli love the 5 speed in the boxster and the high reving feel of it and i love how every take off in the 911 feels like im going down hill lol. I want to start a thread after iv had the 911 a little longer about the differences, pros and cons and others thoughts of the two cars. They both really do have there place and both are a riot to drive

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The only intake I would recommend is the EVOms intake (although I have no experience with it the design IMO is the best of the aftermarket intakes). Forget the fabspeed 'competition' intake it sucks in hot air from the engine bay. The evoms at least routes the standard intake snorkel location to a boxed pod filter. IMO if you're looking for upgrades get an IPD plenum or under drive pulley.

I've got to say that the Boxster is much nicer to drive, it handles better, it's much quieter because the rear tire noise is blocked by the firewall, the small engine is just silky smooth and the 5speed shifts much easier than the 6 speed. The extra 100hp in the 911 is nice but my previous Porsche was an X50 Turbo with a Techart tune so all these are turds but I'm getting old and don't care about going fast anymore. My wife says that the Boxster causes more heads to turn and look than the 911 does when we are driving them.

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I'll have to check out evoms. thanks for the info. I like the handling of both in there own way.. but I'm also one of those guys who laughs when I'm told a corvette handles horribly compared to a Porsche. I think most cars have there own nitch. having quite a few different sporty cars... They all have there place and I love em all lol I do wish the 911 was a bit more powerful but it is nice in power compared to the boxster. and yes the 5 speed imo is way more fun then the 6 speed but that six speed does shift extremely smooth for me vs the 5 speed which I have to work into each gear... I really feel the shift in the boxster where as the 911 is really kind of just a falls into place kind of feeling. I don't like how easily I can slip into the wrong gear in the 911. anyway lol both a riot to drive