Winter engine out fun times

I've officially had my 99 C2 for six years now, which means it's been six years since I moved from sunny San Diego with my 986 Boxster S that I sold to buy my 996 (I miss that plucky little Boxster so much and wish I could have kept both). But since I've had the car for so long now and put roughly fifty some thousand miles on it, with trips across the country and countless country fun drives (including being my sole car for about two years which meant driving through winter blizzards) I figured now that I have an apartment with an attached garage it would be a good idea to drop the engine and freshen things up a bit over the winter. I've been going back and forth on the idea of selling my 911 since I haven't driven it much in the last two years. In the last year I managed to only put a little less than a thousand miles on it since at my previous apartment in Milwaukee the roads were such crap that driving it felt like I was just beating it up, not to mention the mass of insane drivers and all the narrow misses I had living in the city made going for a spin just plain stressful and not all that much fun. But now I'm a little ways outside the city in a quiet country area where beautiful lakes and twisty roads are just minutes from my apartment so driving the Porsche is much more fun and much less stressful so I do think I'm going to keep her My 99 with 113,000 miles. About 50,000 of those miles I've put on in the last 6 years. Don't let the .2 headlights fool you, she's a 99 that a previous owner back in Cali must have spent a ton of money on updating to the newer lights. But the car is old now and it's time to start putting some money into it. I've replaced odds and ends over the years, like thermostat, water pump, alternator, control arms, but nothing this intense. I knew my clutch, throwout bearing, and probably flywheel, were on their last legs. Start up chain rattle on the first cold start of the day and little specs of plastic in the oil filter told me it was time to replace the timing chain guides and tensioners. Smokey start ups, years of oil crud build up on the engine, and erratic idling when the engine is hot seemed to point to the AOS dying. So all in all I figured it was time to spend some money, drop the engine, and start replacing things. Of course starting this project in mid November and spending thousands of dollars just before Christmas and my girlfriend's birthday might mean the gifts I give this year aren't as great as previous years. And before anything else, I have to give a huge shoutout to the many people who post in this forum and others, without your contributions so many idiots like me would probably never attempt any DIY projects! You all rock! Also huge shout out to Finn, the man in the tiny garage! Sir you are awesome! Next time I'm back in San Diego I want to buy you a beer, or many! If you haven't seen Finn's YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@ManinaGarage , I absolutely recommend it! I'm not going to be doing anything like what he did with the whole engine tear down and rebuild, I'm not at all that brave or ambitions yet, but for removing the engine I watched and rewatched his videos many times as he goes over every step in a super clear fashion and explains EVERYTHING he's doing so well that even a goof like me can follow along and do the same! Hats off to you sir you are a superstar! So anywho, Step one was buying new jack stands. The cheapo stands I've used for years from AutoZone were definitely not going to cut it for me to feel even remotely safe crawling under the car, nor give the lift I need to take the engine out. After a few days of looking around and reading reviews I decided to buy the Esco jack stands, Wayne from Pelican Parts endorsing them sort of cinched that decision. And I have to say, despite them being fairly expensive, I can't recommend them enough. They are sturdy and well built, as well as tall enough for removing the engine. Also, side note, I try to buy as many parts from Pelican as I can because I believe in supporting Wayne and all the contributions he's made to DIY knowledge. Step two was a hydronic lifting table. I thought about doing the ATV lifts or jack adapters some have used. But for $250 the 500lb lift table from Harbor Freight was perfect. I'd read in some forum posts that the 500lb wouldn't be enough, and in others that it was. I decided to take a gamble on it since at it's lowest it was an inch or two lower than the 1000lb lift table and would allow the engine to come out without having to lift the rear of the car higher than the jack stands would allow. Step three was a new jack. The low profile jack I'd bought last year is nothing special, it was like $120 at Home Depot, and worked just fine for oil changes and brake jobs on my Mini Cooper, but it definitely doesn't have the reach to get the car on the highest setting of the Esco Jack Stands. Plus buying another jack would give me two jacks which would help in a lot of things. So back to Harbor Freight again where I got the Daytona 3 ton long reach low profile jack as well as a 1000lb engine stand. I have to say I've never been so excited and happy with a jack before haha! I know Harbor Freight is not the best place to get the highest quality things, but so far I would absolutely recommend the Daytona jack and the lifting table. How well they stand the test of time does remain to be seen. Up on jack stands and rear bumper removed. Removing the bumper is stupidly easy and I can't believe I haven't done it before when removing mufflers for changing out coil packs, spark plugs, etc. It really only takes a few minutes. Also the "cold air intake" is not something I'd really recommend, the induction noise does give a very sexy sound though, but the other trouble with it fouling the MAF and the fact that it's really sucking in hot air are less than desirable. I really only still have it in there because my dad (who has an 03 996) wanted to swap for my stock airbox for a while for whatever reason and then had to go have his engine rebuilt a second time, so my stock airbox has been with his car for almost two years now). Air intake removed. I took lots of pictures of the engine before I started taking things off or apart to have references to go back to later. It's dirty in there and you'll probably see some dried coolant all over. That's from the little hose connector that runs to the AOS that decided to break one night in winter in a parking lot when I decided to top of the oil and the oil filler tube popped up and the brittle little connector broke spraying tons of coolant all over the place. I absolutely recommend changing that little bugger out when you have the chance because it is absolutely no fun to be stranded by broken piece of $20 old plastic. Step four was dropping the engine. I used to think once I owned a house with a proper garage I could buy a lift and then do an engine drop. Well it looks like I missed the boat on buying a house I can actually afford in this stupid market so I decided to make do with what I have. I'm not going to go into any detail on much here or do any step by step guides, others have done much better jobs at that than I ever could. This rambling and not well written post is more just to share what I'm doing this winter and hopefully provide inspiration to anyone that wants to do some engine out service on their car but is intimidated by the idea of it, like I was and well still am. Getting the AC compressor removed was much much more of a pain in the a$$ than I anticipated, and I anticipated it to be a pain. But I got it out after multiple trips to the hard ware store to get quarter inch socket extensions. I was contemplating just disconnecting the AC lines but in the end gave it one more go and was able to get the stupid thing out. Also, not pictured, disconnecting the power steering lines was really only possible after lowering the engine a bit. Here the lift table is in place after all coolant and oil have been drained and most things have been disconnected. For lowering the engine and transmission I have the lift table under the engine and a jack under the trans. I found lowering it all a little bit helped with disconnecting the clutch slave cylinder. Oooo! Almost there! Removing the drive shafts was a pain, as well as the shifter linkage. My advise there is anticipate it being slow going and bring some beer. Voila! she's out! The lift table and jack combo worked a treat! Goofy photo of me being a dork courtesy of my girlfriend. And yes I am wearing slippers. The garage floor is cold already and those bad boys keep my feet comfy and warm. The oil stains have relegated them to only garage duty now. Years of leaves, random bird feathers, rodent turds, a receipt, and McDonalds ketchup packet all hiding on top of the engine. So this is where all my oil has been going! After removing the AOS I'm pretty sure that the bulk of this mess was from that leaking. On bank 2 the oil leaks look like the AOS pipe and Y connector piece to me. Let me know what you think! Trans disconnected. I don't have my new clutch to compare it just yet. But the pressure plate seemed pretty deeply grooved when running my fingers over it. The clutch disc didn't look super far gone, but I'll compare it when I get my new one. Also, not pictured, the flywheel had quite a bit of play. Much more than the new LUK flywheel that I just got in the mail. So I'm glad I ordered that right away. On rock auto the flywheel is like three or four hundred dollars less than on other sites. Looks to me like the RMS has been leaking for quite awhile. I can't really tell yet if the IMS flange is leaking as well or if it's just all oil dripping down from the RMS. Intake manifolds off. Kind of a lot of oil down there. Not pictured are the valves with little pools of oil on them. I think I was very overdue for replacing the AOS. Oh look! Some critter had decided to munch on my 02 wires. Thankfully the wires themselves seem fine. Here's a better pic of the oil crud mess on bank 1. So that's where I'm currently at with my winter project! My plan for the next few weeks/months is to replace the AOS, the IMS (with the LN Engineering dual row retrofit), remove the cam covers and replace the plastic guide rails, and the timing chain tensioners. Other things I want to do this winter are replacing my brakes (they are in desperate need of it), get new tires, new mufflers (probably won't happen this year), and coil overs (also might not happen this winter). If any of you have replaced the chain guides and/or IMS bearing please let me know how it went! These big ticket items are why I wanted to remove the engine, and while I know these are doable tasks, messing with engine timing does make me pretty nervous. I have the Pelican Parts 101 projects book, and I've ordered the Bentley manual as well, but absolutely would love to hear from anyone that has done these themselves! Also if anyone has watched Jake Raby's videos on engine assembly I saw that you can buy individual episodes and am thinking about buying the episodes on cam installation and timing. I would like the whole series at some point, even I don't ever actually rebuild an engine, but so far on parts and tools I've probably spent about three grand or so and haven't ordered the IMS beating kit yet, so money is either going to be tight or my debt is going to go up haha I plan on posting some updates here when I actually start getting into the chain guides, IMS, etc. Again this isn't meant to be a guide for anyone as I'm the one always in need of guidance, but to share my progress. Any advice and feedback is absolutely welcome! Thanks for reading!

It's good to see you're still around @B-ran ! Glad to hear from you. Every now and then an old thread would get necro'd and I'd wonder if you still had that 996.1.5? Really happy to see you're taking care of it. Hope the projects go smoothly for you and hope to see you driving around (the internet,) in very best of health.

I own the DVD series. There are separate sections for 3-chain and 5-chain timing. I think it is a great idea to just buy the section(s) you need since you’re not performing a complete rebuild.

That coolant line connector available now from Porsche in metal. That being said, mine still has a temporary connector in place and new part is somewhere in a box! My .2 cheek mufflers no fun to remove as the space between brackets and engine is tight. I also have spare AOS around, just in case I need it. I applaud your bravery in tackling this job. Cheers

I am impressed! Good work so far...be careful of what you use to get all that grime off the engine.

Its great to see a guy doing his own DIY with the minimalist of tools, awesome job. No Fear

Here are some of the things I replaced last year. Any questions please ask. Buy are borrow a Camshaft Timing tool. Add Rear main Seal and Variocam pads AOS. 997-107-131-00 Filler Tube $71.19 1 $71.19 996-105-180-58 Engine Timing Chain Tensioner $74.12 1 $74.12 996-105-188-02 Engine Timing Chain Tensioner $122.23 1 $122.23 996-105-186-02 Engine Timing Chain Tensioner $100.74 1 $100.74 996-105-170-54 Timing Chain $29.43 2 $58.86 900-123-147-30 Seal Ring 27 X 32 $0.86 3 $2.58 996-105-112-01 Engine Auxiliary Shaft Seal $16.80 1 $16.80 999-707-409-40 Engine Oil Cooler O-Ring $2.52 2 $5.04 999-707-389-40 Engine Oil Cooler Gasket $0.86 2 $1.72 999-707-554-40 Pump Seal $4.07 2 $8.14 999-707-369-40 Engine Oil Dipstick Tube Seal $3.26 1 $3.26 900-385-093-01 Hexagon Head Screw 6 $0.86 3 $2.58 000-043-205-01 Vacuum Hose $6.14 1 $6.14 996-107-047-51 Crankcase Vent Elbow $16.20 1 $16.20 999-084-641-01 Lock Nut $8.08 2 $16.16 996-111-113-50 Exhaust Pipe To Manifold Gasket $4.68 2 $9.36

this is cool. I'm about to do this project myself in my 02 C2. i was planning to start later this winter, as I'm renovating my garage, but my clutch bearing (and possibly clutch fork) craped out at exactly 60K. clutch seams to be still good (not slipping or anything) but makes noise when i press it, and the pedal is sluggish. happened to me also with my 99 Boxster when the clutch fork broke. this pictures are from the Boxster. the 911 just got on the lift (which was a project by itself), and i also got the HF hydraulic table (1000lb), and a rotating engine stand from Summit racing. nothing is really wrong with the engine beside the clutch bearing, but I'm about to preform almost everything you mentioned as preventive maintenance. IMS solution, AOS including all the pipping, RMS, new clutch kit with all new HW and new flywheel, and new set of injectors. I'm also going to remove and reseal my bank 2 cam cover, as it has a small leak since i bought the car 7 years ago with 34k miles (probably will to so bank 1 as well although it is dry as a bone). not planning to touch the chain guides, as i never saw a spec of plastic in the oil (i change oil twice a year or every 3k miles) and the cam devotion shows 0 & -1. but I'm replacing the tensioners to the updated version, and will inspect the small pads under the valve cover (3 chains engine). will probably start with the project next weekend as I'm still waiting for some of the parts arrive, and also have visitors from out of town. so far I got the car on the lift and removed the cross members and coolant lines. her is a pic from when I started. good luck with your project.

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Thank you Dr_Strangelove! Have to admit I haven't been on here as much for awhile, got distracted with life, getting back into flight training, and other expensive things haha but it's good to hear from you sir! I'll definitely try to keep everyone updated as I get further along.

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Thank you sir! Getting the engine out was actually easier than I really would have expected it to be. I thought for sure I would need to have my brother or a friend come over some point to help, but aside from asking my girlfriend to come watch and be ready to call for help if I got flattened under the car I was able to get it out alone. Fingers crossed I can manage the rest!

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Thanks! I did order a cam timing kit from amazon, not sure how good it will be until I get my hands on it. Is there a specific one you have used or recommend?

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Thank you! And good luck with yours! That lift looks pretty damn sweet! I'm jealous! Some day... And if you can when you get your engine out please let me know how you get it onto the engine stand. I put the stand I bought together the other night but could not find a way to maneuver it into a position where I can bolt it up to the engine. I may put off mounting it on a stand until after I replace the IMS bearing, but I did think it would come in handy to be able to rotate the engine around for cleaning and removing the cam covers, etc. Best of luck to you!

Thank you as well. im going to take my time with this project so you will probably be ahead of me I was thinking to buy the HF engine engine hoist , but I have seen so many videos with the hoist interfering with the stand. I also enjoy doing some fabrication work, and plan to enjoy this project (I�m in no rush). So I plan on fabricating an interface plate to support the engine in 5 locations ( as I cannot remove the yoke from the stand). to get the engine off the table, I will build a crane that I can later use to remove the engine on my truck. I already got one of these.

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The one from Amazon is fine. I had read of someone damaging the freeze plug in the end of the camshaft with the hold down tool by screwing the bolt to tight into the cam. It just need to go far enough in to keep them from popping out. The big mistake I made the first time was installing the variocam actuators into the wrong banks. Had to take the whole thing back apart.

I also have the one from Amazon and it works fine for me. I’ve rebuilt a Boxster 2.7L with it.

LN is having a black friday sale. Discounts on IMS kits. Jake Raby's engine build CD set for 299!

Also if you haven't heard of it I would highly recommend the ultimate AOS, available directly from the manufacturer (a rennlist member) or from LN. See the UAOS thread if you have a spare weekend, it's a good read.

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any Black Friday deals on the UAOS?

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LN has UAOS on sale and has some in stock.. You can order direct with a 4 week lead time for 10% off today and this weekend only ....( delivered by Christmas )....I have a batch currently at the Anodizers.....

What is the height you had to raise the car from the rear jacking pads to the floor?

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Good to know! Thanks! Sucks you had to take it all back apart though. I am thinking I will be doing one bank at a time so I don't mix anything up.

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That's pretty awesome! I'm hoping it will be many years before I need to do a full rebuild, but if the engine popped it's something I think I'd really consider doing. I'm no mechanic but I do like seeing how things go together and work. For you how difficult was making sure the timing was correct after getting the cams installed?

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Just ordered my IMS replacement from LN a few minutes ago, thanks!!

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I haven't measured it, but if I find my tape measure I'll try to do that this weekend. I can say that the Esco jack stands I used claim a maximum height of 21 inches, but I believe that's without the rubber pad on top that they come with, so it may add another inch. Using the Harbor Freight 500lb lifting table and the jack stands at their highest setting the engine came out with maybe an inch or less of clearance from the car.

Great work! Thank you very much for this write up! I have a 99 as well. I would be curious to know about the AOS bellows. Was is split or intact? Also, as an FWIW, I replaced all three �cheap�chain tensioners recently but still get chain slap on cold start up. It�s much worse when sitting for days. I�m thinking it�s one or both of the $1400 timing chain tensioners. I mention my experience only so you don�t get frustrated if you still have slap at start up after replacing the three cheap ones. Happy Wrenching, Brian

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Its not how it works in this case. The 2 short cam chains r always in tension and cant "slap". The tensioners r for the variocam function and it they were not working u would get a code or at least feel it as a bad idle and possible misfire. U can monitor there function with a durametric or high end sensor

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Great explanation! Thank you. What do you think might cause chain slap if all three tensioners have been replaced on a 5 chain m96?

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What are your cam deviation numbers?

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Camshaft position 1 deviation -3.0 degrees crk Camshaft position 2 deviation (USA only) 0 degrees crk

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worn out chain guides. if you will drop your pan you will probably find small fragments of brown plastic.

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Makes sense. Yes, I�ve seen brown bits in the pan. Can the guides be replaced without dropping the engine?

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Did you install the latest/updated P/N tensioners? Porsche released a TSB about updated tensioners that don't bleed off as quickly and helps reduce the noise at start-up.

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The bottom two were similar. But the top appears to have been updated. They were replaced in 21. Running DT40 oil. I don�t recall much cold start slap in 21 as I daily drove the car. Drove other cars in 22, so the 99 sat idle. Seems to only occur if it sits for days. Worse the longer it sits. Can�t imagine one of the replacement tensioners was bad???? Didnt intend to hijack the thread. My apologies.

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I�m not an expert by any means, but for my understanding the pads that wear the most on a 5 chain engine are the ones under the chains connecting the camshafts on each cylinder head. These can be replaced with the engine in the car, but I�m not sure these are the ones responsible for the rattles. You Tube you have pretty good cam deviation readings, so it is possible that the other pads are in fault. i�m sure one of the experts will chime in.

Extremely helpful video! Great visualization.

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This thread helps explain all the changes: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ioner-tsb.html The tensioner usually responsible for the rattle at start-up is the IMS unit, latest P/N is 996 105 180 59.

hey. where are you located? I am in Delafield and dropping my early 996.1 2/98 this winter.. Just quickly scanned thread while at work Would be great to have a experienced hand when it comes time to lower my engine down. DM me if you'd like.

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I'm just up the road from you, I'm in Hartland! Let me know when you're going to start!

A little update. I haven't gotten a ton done lately, mostly because I've been waiting on parts. I ordered the LN IMS Retrofit on Black Friday and it should have been here last week, at least according to the email from UPS but still shows that it hasn't actually been picked up yet. But spent quite a bit of time cleaning the tons of oil crud off. Before. After a few evenings of huffing chemicals and using ten million pounds of shop towels. Exhaust, coil packs, and spark plugs removed. Cam cover cover off. The variocam pads definitely look like the source of all the plastic debris in my oil filter. New pads next to the old ones. Got the new timing chain guides and Variocam chain pads in and the cams allocated and back in and totally busted one of the bolts that go into the variocam actuator. Huge thanks to Dr_Strangelove and JohnCA58 for pointing me in the right direction to buy new bolts. Luckily after removing the lifter carrier the end of the bolt that broke was easily removable. Panic attack averted! So now just waiting on new bolts for the variocam actuators and the IMS kit. Hopefully I can get bank 1 back together soon and then tackle bank 2 and the IMS bearing. In the mean time I'll probably spend some more time trying to get all these pounds of caked on oily gunk removed and do some of the other things on my list like changing out the thermostat for a low temp one, replace the AOS and crankcase breather hose.

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Small world. Feel free to hit me up if you need help. Would be more than happy. I will bring beer.

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hello. I am ready to drop but have concerns with how high the car is. Do I need to max out the jack stands? I was going to drop with my high lift jack and scissor tranny jack (don�t google tranny jack). Looks like I am still not bight enough. Thinking of lowering halfway and removing intake manifold. What is the height you are at? If we could talk on phone that would be great. I will PM you my neighbor.

Well, my engine out project is done and running better than ever. How is yours coming along? one important tip, make sure throttle cable is properly routed. Through clutch hard line coil and below fuel lines connecting fuel rails. Mine was at 1/2 throttle at first start.

Update time! First off I have to apologize for taking this long to update or even check in my post here, sorry about that! Long story short I got everything back together and the engine back in the car towards the end of January. After double and triple checking a lot of things I very nervously climbed into the driver seat and prepared to start her up. I pushed the clutch in, felt a little pop, and the pedal went to the floor and stayed there. Needless to say my heart sank and all the words that followed were not suitable for print here. I'd bungled the clutch slave cylinder install and unfortunately it shot the piston and bits into the bell housing. I tried fishing them out with my fingers and that didn't work. So I ordered some bendy magnets to stick in there and try, also didn't work. I then ordered an endoscope with a magnet attachment to hunt down the rebel pieces of slave cylinder. Also did not work. So she sat for another two months during the cold winter where I just could not be bothered to crawl around on the cold garage floor anymore. I didn't post anything here mostly out of a sense of shame at messing up one of the more simple tasks in my whole endeavor, and the fear that as soon I did have that remedied and I started the car it would go bang. No joke here I definitely had a lot of nights tossing and turning in bed worrying that as soon as I turned the key my beloved little beetle would die as a result of some incompetence on my part. Fast forward to the end of March and it was warming up and I bought a transmission jack and decided to remove the trans and leave the engine bolted in. And it's a good thing I did too because there were bits of the slave cylinder piston hiding in there that I would not have seen even with the endoscope. So with that done and some help from my girlfriend in making sure I wasn't crushed to death (oh yeah, there was a lot of paranoia about being smushed under the car and what a nasty way to go it would be, but luckily Esco jack stands seem to be worth every penny), I was able to get the trans hooked back up and bolted tight, installed the new slave cylinder, after a few days got around to bleeding the clutch, and then a few more days of popping down to the garage, making sure stuff like the fuel lines were secure and everything was connected to where it was supposed to be and tight. I'll tell the rest with the pictures below. Here we are getting ready to remove that dastardly little devil called the IMS bearing. Removing the bearing as actually a kind of satisfying task, especially with the nice loud pop of the retaining circlip. To my eyes the bearing seemed in good condition. No imminent signs of death that I could discern. After removing the bearing I removed the seal and found no grease in it, just some nasty burnt smelling oil. So while it may not have been imminently about to go bang, I'm very glad I replaced it. And here's the new IMS ceramic dual row retrofit installed. There was a bit of a mishap of the IMS shaft being pulled off to one side after I had the bearing installed. Thankfully I was able to search the forums and find that I was not the first to have this issue and that the always super helpful and awesome Porschetech3 had answered how to fix that. Here's the IMS bearing without the grease seal. Installing a new Rear Main Seal. The LN tool for this was extremely helpful! Though I am a little worried I'll have to replace the RMS again as there is a little oil leak now, but I haven't poked around enough to identify exactly where it is coming from yet. New dual mass flywheel. Bought this, a new clutch disk, and pressure plate on rock auto for what I felt like was a great deal. I'll try to write out the cost of everything I did at some point soon. And for as much as all the parts and tools cost, I know I saved a small fortune doing all this myself. Inserts for my extremely worn and tired transmission mount. Putting more things back together. A new air oil separator. One of my biggest regrets was realizing after the fact that I'd messed up and gotten a URO parts AOS instead of a factory on. And while I would love to get it the ultra AOS was out of my budget for everything I wanted to do, but someday, probably sooner rather than later. Starting to look more and more complete. Not shown here but I did replace the idler pulleys and I'm glad I did. The old ones were very tired and sounded awful. Deep inside the belly of the beast changing the fuel filter. Not a very difficult job, but not particularly easy to do lying on your back. At this point I just sort of moved in under my car and my cat would come down to the garage to visit me. And my lovely girlfriend occasionally would come visit with some hot chocolate. Getting closer! It's in! Look! A flying Porsche! And after the several month hiatus of removing the transmission and reinstalling a new slave cylinder and bleeding the system again she lives! Finally at the end of April after a long time spent in the garage and in many pieces the plucky beetle rides again! The first start was absolutely a butt clenching moment of terror where I was wondering if it would explode or catch fire or do nothing at all and I'd be left in the garage curled up in the fetal position rocking back and forth whimpering. My dad decided to drive down in his 928 and follow me for the maiden drive to make sure nothing fell off my car or caught fire. Our first dinner date/sunset cruise in the car after everything. Some new shoes. These were very much needed as my alignment was waaaaaaay out and the tires were worn down to the cords. Sadly I had to wait another month to get these installed and an alignment done. Replaced the engine mounts after hearing some groaning noises when starting from a stop. While they looked like they could stand to be replaced they weren't the source of the noise. The cross braces were the culprit and they simple needed to be tightened up a bit. Somehow I missed torquing them to spec. Replaced the brake rotors and pads. And as you can see they were really in need of it. The retaining pins were so severely coated in brake dust that I spent far too long having to get them out, and then spent even long wire brushing super caked on brake dust off. Several thousand miles and thousands of smiles later. You really can't beat that side view And here were are now in October. Closing in on a year since I started the project. There's still so much more I need and want to do. And this next winter or spring I plan on doing a fairly comprehensive suspension refresh, as well as taking the engine out again to replace other odds and ends I didn't have the budget for this time, stuff like new coolant tank, starter motor, coolant hoses, brake lines, clutch line, replace worn window seals, restore the headlights, etc. Again I apologize for not keeping you all updated that have followed along! After the debacle with the slave cylinder I was a bit bummed and stayed off the forum for a bit, and then after everything was done I wanted to get a couple thousand miles on the car before I could report back. Well here we were! Almost four thousand miles later and I have to say if anything I'm more afraid to drive the car then ever! And that's not because I'm afraid of it blowing up, it's just have some real blood, sweat, and tears into it and I'm worried about the thousands of idiot drivers that might smash into me and wreck it haha! But in all seriousness if you haven't undertaken a fairly big project like this yourself I definitely recommend trying. The amount of satisfaction, and the cost savings, are huge! I have such a deeper and better appreciation for how this car was made and put together and how it all works together to turn petrol into happiness. It's been a great learning experience and honestly I'm so happy I've done it. I'm already a pretty sentimental kind of guy and easily get attached to vehicles, my first Porsche (a Boxster S, being the prime example), but now having put in a good amount of work into this old gal, I love her more than ever. So here's to another seven years and another sixty thousand or so miles! P.s. I want to put out a huge thank you to everyone on this forum who's ever posted any sort of DIY or question that gets answered. But extra special thank yous to Porschetech3 for all of his wisdom and advice he gives to everyone here so freely, and to Finn (the Man in a Tiny Garage) for his YouTube channel and inspiring in me the confidence to try things that I felt were a little too far outside of my abilities and comfort zone. You guys all rock! P.s.s. Finn! Get another 996 for crying out loud!!

Oh before I forget I wanted to put together a very rough, in no particular order, list of all the things I replaced. 1. Cam chain guide rails 2. Main chain guide rails 3. All chain tensioners 4. IMS Bearing 5. AOS 6. Flyhweel 7. Clutch 8. Pressure plate 9. Low Temp Thermostat and gasket 10. All six coil packs 11. Spark plugs 12. Throw out bearing 13. Idler pulleys 14. Fuel filter 15. Brake pads 16. Brake rotors 17. Exhaust manifold bolts 18. Clutch slave cylinder 19. Exhaust manifold gaskets 20. Trans mount insert 21. Mass air flow sensor 22. Oil filter housing 23. Engine mounts 24. Serpentine belt 25. Assorted gaskets 26. AOS cross pipe and Y connector 27. New muffler mounting bracket (2 actually, because the first one I bought was for a 996.2 so if anyone needs one let me know!) 28. Oil pressure relief valve. 29. Brake pad sensors 30. Spark plug tubes 31. Shift cable pins 32. 4 new tires 33. Magnetic drain plug 34. Muffler clamps And probably some more that I'm forgetting at the moment. Some of the many new tools and gadgets I bought are 1. Esco Jack Stands 2. A new low profile long reach jack 3. Harbor Freight 500lb lifting table 4. Engine stand 5. Timing tools 6. Transmission jack 7. Bolt extractors 8. All manner of new wrenches and extensions and sockets 9. Bentley manual 10. Electric socket wrench 11. Cordless drill 12. Motive Power Bleeder 13. Gasket 14. Endoscope 15. Lots of others I can't remember right now At some point I'll try to add up a rough figure of what all I spent. Or maybe I won't. Do I really want to know?

Badass. You give me courage to not fear an engine out (maybe next winter!) job. Great thread!

Fantastic thread & loved the update. I can absolutely empathize with that sinking feeling when you put the clutch in for the first time. Kudos to powering through it and hope there's many trouble-free miles ahead of you

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Thanks! Having it done it once now I'm pretty confident I could get the engine out in less than six or seven hours now if I stay on task and don't get distracted. And if you haven't seen his YouTube channel check out Finn's (The Man in a Tiny Garage) videos. Seeing a guy who had never done anything mechanical remove, take apart, and reassemble his engine was truly a confidence inspirer. If you have the time and desire to do it I can definitely say it's very rewarding once it's all done and working again. https://www.youtube.com/@ManinaGarage

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Thank you for the kind words! I hope so as well, but also I'm trying to be okay with knowing stuff will go wrong and break on a 24 year old sports car haha! She has lived a life, and not an easy one at that, the midwest roads take their toll. But at this point, baring any unforeseen circumstances I do plan on keeping her for a long while and just treat it like an ongoing project. She's no garage queen and I can't expect it to look and operate like one.

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Great job, buddy! Those images ... wow... lots of oil mess to clean up. You're truly a rock star!

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I did exactly the same thing on my Z4MC. I totally sympathize. Great job on getting it all back together and enjoying the car. 996's rock!

Thanks for the write up and I hope your car is still going down the road great. Can you clarify what went wrong with your slave cylinder reinstall and how you avoided it the second time around? I�m gearing up to drop my engine and would like to avoid that experience!