DIY Engine Out

Howdy y'all, A few months back I picked up my Seal Grey 2001 C2 and I've been loving it. Drives great, sounds like a vacuum but we'll fister that in time, little floaty front end above 80MPH which I've come to understand is part of the charm of a 25 year old suspension. I've made an account and come to the forums to ask a few general questions and a few not so general questions. As far as I know, with 76k miles, the car has the original IMS Bearing. I have no history on what has been done to the car. I did request bore scope photos as part of the PPI, and requested it be done from the sump, but the photos are not particularly clear and the paperwork I received after the fact noted that they performed the bore scope through the spark plug holes, so thank you Porsche Fort Collins. Not much I can do about that now, but the car shows no other symptoms of bore scoring (other than oil consumption, which I have not verified as occurring or not occurring yet). Consider me a Raby-holic, I'm up to my gills in Rennvision content. My goals when I bought the car involved new suspension, new exhaust, and fixing the paint. I've now come to understand that the M96 has a few things I need to address, and I've put together a list of parts I think I'm going to want to replace if i want to drive this car for the foreseeable future. The intent of this point is to get a gut check from those that have done some of this work themselves and understand the engine better than I do to make sure that I am neither missing any required "While you're in there" items nor doing anything too excessive, like changing out a proven part. I plan on doing this work myself, and I have the tools to drop the engine, and I'm familiar with some of the tools that I'll need to do the timing chain work, but there are still a lot of unknown unknowns. I do plan on buying the Focus On: M9X Engine Assembly videos, or at least just the ones I'll need, since I have no intentions of going any deeper than the valve covers to access the timing changes and variable valve timing wear pads. water pump VVT wear pads air oil separator coil packs oil filler tube coolant pipe junction belt rollers intercooler? temp sensor new timing chains master/IMS drive chains? IMS Solution RMS Items with ? I am particularly unsure of. Additionally, while I've got the intake pieces disassembled, I figured I might as well try out the IPD Plenum. I've seen a lot of mixed results on the plenum, if anyone has links to Dyno runs on a 3.4 (which supposedly has a better result than 3.6) that would be great to see. Ballpark estimate of how long this work should take me? I'm estimating 2-4 entire days going at the newbie pace I'll be working at. Should I buy a Durametric or just ask a shop with one to take a look? Please let me know you thoughts, especially guideline questions. A lot of being able to research this myself is just building up that vocabulary to increase the search space, and I'm hoping some guidance from you old heads will give me that. Sorry if this post breaks forum rules, I'm new to this and I know there ought to be a list of rules but I can't find them anywhere on the site. Thanks and gig em.

Add to your good list also: - thermostat (low temp or not, which ever you prefer - I did the Low Temp one) - all vacuum tubes renewal above the engine / under the intake - vacuum canister repalcement - crank to cam chain guide rails change - is the brake line that goes above the transmissoin / engine in good shape? If not, change that at the same time when engine is out. Crank to IMS chain and IMS to heads chains change requires the engine case to be split (heads off also). When you do this engine out service, take your time and it will be a nice project with long lasting great outcome - no rush.

I would recommend the UAOS with track drainback and the 9ii oil filter tube with track drainback connection. This removes the factory oil filler tube which cracks in the flexible portion causing large vacuum leaks. Also, with the UAOS you can eliminate the water line to the AOS and not have to worry about the coolant line connector breaking. Replace the coolant reservoir and the cap. In my opinion, there is no benefit to installing the IPD Plenum if you do not do any other modifications to increase airflow (porting the heads, larger displacement, headers, X-pipe Free flow mufflers). Porsche designed the intake system very well on the stock engine. I installed the IPD and 83MM TB on a 3.6 bored out to 3.8 (but otherwise stock) and could not tell any difference in performance. I ended up reinstalling the stock Throttle body and intake plenum. Good luck with your project. Mark

The PCA put together a 4 part video series on exactly what you are trying to accomplish here. You Tube I'd be sure to check those out first. Wayne Dempsey's Projects book is useful as is the Bentley Publishers 996 Handbook. Both are in our shop library.

Does a cracked oil fill tube cause an air leak and will it make the motor run lean or rich?

Nice list. If you do not own a turbo, you do not have an intercooler so no need to worry about that. However, if you are having the engine lowered and the intakes removed to accomplish all these proactive repairs, then here are a few more you may want to consider while the engine has the intakes removed and is lowered for easier access: - replace oil pressure sending unit on the passenger side/right hand side of the top of the block - replace the timing chain tensioners (one is underneath the air conditioner compressor, one is horizontal near the oil filter (the IMS chain tensioner) and one is vertical and is located on the bottom of the engine opposite the IMS tensioner. - is you notice whistling/whining for a minute after each start, the emissions system fan/blower near the coolant tank has a shining bearing. I have seen some people pop this fan apart and lube the bearing to silence the whine - I have not done this myself so this is You Tube stuff I watched fwiw If you are going after coil packs, look at the spark plug tubes for leaks, too - check your rear engine mounts - check your engine to body ground strap for corrosion - check the Y cable that routes from your alternator for corrosion - put in a magnetic oil drain plug if not already - put in a magnetic transmission drain plug if not already - check differential oil level and probably pump it out and refill it just to be safe - it is less than a quart of oil so you want it clean and you want the adequate amount - consider adding an oil pan baffle or even a deep sump and a baffle if you plan on any track days or heavy performance use to avoid oil starvation of the rod bearings - there are threads on this topic - consider moving to 5w-50 oil not 0w oil any more, according to related threads and the fact Porsche is recommending 5w50 oil too

Oh yeah. 9Werks YouTube has a video where he dyno tests an IPD plenum on his 996.1 and he gained 10 HP. I also just picked up a very nice 1999 996.1 C2 with 55K miles and I am doing many of these items, as well - so have also been studying all the threads and videos and also a phone call with Slakker Racing. I am adding the Ultimate AOS with track mod, the Hartech Racing Sump, LN Engineering oil pan skid plate, along with many items on your list as my main concern for this engine is oil starvation and overheating the oil. Already has heavier sway bars and struts, so I am not addressing that area right now. - no float and no wandering at 130mph plus at the one track event I have driven this car in. You may want to consider bars/struts when you need to refresh these. I am also considering to pop off the front inner fender panels and drill some holes in them to allow more airflow through the radiators and into the wheel wells, to take further stress off the cooling system, as well as installing the "fan mod" for PCA DE events https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...JB4nTrY5qCBVeb https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...-fan-hack.html ALso, check and possibly change your trans fluid if you do not have this on your list and check your power steering and clutch fluids if you have a manual.

May be getting into the weeds based on previous recommendations, nonetheless: Not sure if there is an upgraded (997?) oil cooler available, would recommend that as well as center radiator if tracking if in future. Updated oil pressure piston/spring? If you end up removing the heads, send to Hoffman to upgrade valve seats, they’ve been known to fall off into cylinder, and also check for any developing cracks (is shot peening useful here?)

Thanks for the information everyone. I�ll start by saying what a machine these things are. There is a stretch of road south of Granbury Texas named Paluxy highway, and it has these extremely long sweeping turns that this car screams through beautifully. One of the best roads I�ve had in this car since driving the Raton Pass when I picked up the car from Colorado. I�ve taken some first steps towards maintenance and have the car on jack stands right now as I�m replacing the coolant reservoir (nearly impossible to muscle out btw), water pump, thermostat, serpentine belt, and engine mounts. Cleaned the MAF as well since I�ve been feeling some hesitation on throttle. Decided that one roller, and therefore all the rollers need to be replaced. The Ac Compressor pulley has some play, so it looks like I�ll be replacing that in time. Still need to take the water pump off, I think I�m delaying that for fear it�s missing blades and this job gets a whole lot harder. The engine mounts I took out were dated 2011, but honestly I can�t sense a difference in the play of the main bolt between them and the new ones, hopefully I�ll feel a difference on the road. I didn�t look at the difference in sag/compression before putting the new ones in. Below I�ll list the main resources I used. water pump replacement: You Tube Draining the coolant: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...pump-tips.html If you�ve purchased an airlift kit to pull vacuum on the system, the gaskets it comes with work nicely to fit into the reservoir and hoses. if you follow the above, you might still have coolant gurgling around in your system. I had to remove the smaller thermostat hose and pressurize from the reservoir neck. I did this with multiple hoses off. Once once you�ve got 95% of the coolant out at this point and multiple hoses disconnected, you can give it pressure up to 20 psi, at least that�s what I went up to.

@996hobby Seems like we�re in pretty similar boats, albeit for now I�m leaning more towards GT car than track car. I�m looking at replacing the shocks with Koni Special Active and keeping the springs. I live in Austin and as much as I like the look of the lowered car, our roads are abysmal. forgot to mention, it just rained pretty heavily and I had to close the frunk with the battery disconnected (a deliberate choice) so now I get to learn how to unlatch that So, a few questions in general 1) I have the car on jacks, what should I be looking for underneath the car as a health check? 2) I haven�t yet learned the suspension, but what bits can I play with (and what kind of movement should I expect) to figure out what might need replacing?

Consider new or rebuilt fuel injectors. A tip - if you are doing this on jack stands or the like, and you use a harbor freight lift table, with the rear bumper cover removed, you need 35” clear to the underside of the heavy aluminum inner bumper and the floor. “A man in a garage” on you tube has a great step by step video kn removing and reinstalling the engine.

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I did this once in my 99, while having a new driveway put in so the car was at my moms house with no tools. Since 996.1's still have a physical cable from the frunk release lever to the frunk latch I used that cable. Remove the plastic lever tray on the driver side door sill and you can pull the cable from there. There will be a metal triangle blocking the lever from being pulled since the car is "locked", I don't remember if I moved this triangle piece to the side and pulled the lever or pulled the cable with plyers this was a few years ago but this method definitly works. There is also an emergency release cable under the front bumper somewhere which is also an option to open the frunk although I have never done it this way.

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That is a great measurement to keep in mind when doing this. I know from when I did it you need about 26 inches from the sump to the ground to get the engine out with the Harbor Freight 1000lbs lift table, it just cleared at that height. If you get stuck with the engine lowered but can't drag it out because the car is not high enough you can remove the intake to gain a little more room. I recommend a QuickJack with SUV adapters.

@Norocehcap turns out you can actually supply power to a jumper in the fusebox and get it open that way. A lot easier if you have a portable jump starter handy. You Tube

New one for you guys.. I dropped a glow stick (don�t ask) down the windshield heater vent..

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I'm not sure that works if you have disconnected the battery, it will work with a dead battery though, let us know if it works. I could never get it to work with the fuse box but you can also supply power through the 12v socket and that will work. I have done it with a small jump starter box and a 12v socket adapter, it does not require a lot of power. I have locked myself out of the frunk a few times lol. Let us know how you end up getting the frunk open, another method is always good to know in a pinch.

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Jump starters and all that won't work, what works is another battery hooked up to that fuse box and that's what the manual calls for one too.

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Will that work if the car has no battery?

Don�t know what to tell y�all, totally worked, battery was disconnected. I put the red terminal on the jumper, black terminal on the door arm, turned on the pack, pulled the frunk release and it popped open. Edit: only the negative terminal was disconnected, positive was still connected.

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That's good to know, glad you got in, sometimes during the winter I disconnect the battery when the car is not being driven. Edit- I had forgotten my 99 does not have the jump post in the fuse box, that's why I needed the 12v adapter, got confused there for a min, and like you said it does work with a jump pack that's also what I used. It's all coming back to me now. With the battery disconnected the 12v adapter did not work. My bad for almost steering you in the wrong direction based on my bad memory lol.

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That did not work in my case, but in my case the engine was out at the time. I wound up doing the necessary to access the emergency release cable, which is now located in the RH cooling inlet for much easier access.

Just a little 996 trivia... Most times a little 9v battery will pop the trunk when connected correctly to the fuse box jumper point...

Howdy y'all, I've come back to share links and parts pricing for the DIY engine out. All is contained in this spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing Lemme know if i'm overpaying for anything here Some highlights: * Decided to with full Meyle control arms * Still Trying to decide between Ohlins R&T versus Koni Special Active on stock springs * Brembo rotors and ceramic pads. Any issues forseeable with this?

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This is good information.. I think I will make a little frunk popper vs lugging my 60lb spare battery over every time this happens to me. Thanks!

Get the additional Track Drain for the UAOS. You also need to take sump off and get 997.107.016.00: Oil Return Tubes x2. ~$29/ea. Pierburg Water Pump, 996 106 011 57 or equivalent with a PLASTIC impeller blade. plus W/P Gasket 996 106 340 54 M30 Coolant Rez Cap, the BLUE one, 996-106-447-04 -M100 Continental Belt PK-2115 Porsche Splash Shield Clips 999 507 657 09 M100 need. 8-12 of these, they hold plastic undertray parts, you will probably break a few getting them off. ~$2/ea. Maybe 2-4 Brake Pad Sensors 996 612 365 00 // Sort of a Gamble. Only 3 of 4 New BPSs were good, 1 BAD. Bummer ~$6.50/ea. Cabin Air Filter CN3360 /// Hengst Air Filter E457L Check all pulleys for wobble, loose bearings, replace Pulley if needed. Check CV joint rubber boots intact, no cracks. Can replace rubber boots easily, CV joints just like VW-Porsche for 35 years or so... YMMV

Just saw a recommendation for ceramic pads sold by PMB Performance. Reviews in this forum are good and PMB is a solid shop. Also, would search for TRW suspension parts, they are oes; Meyle are OK but not oes.

Just be aware - the shims on the Brembo pads are not how Porsche designed the OEM shims. I was a bit suprised when I took mine apart to just replace the pads. That being said, lots of guys running pads like those without the OEM style pad shims and report no issues but make sure you do your research in this before you tear into it. If you�re tracking the car and want to swap pads often, I wouldn�t use the OEM shims. This FCP video shows how the OEM shims are designed: You Tube Also, if you�re replacing the rotors, that means you�re pulling the calipers off and Porsche recommends replacing the caliper bolts every time. Up to you on that. I have Brembo ceramic pads on my BMW and like them a lot with one exception - they squeal when they are cold until you get enough heat in them and they squeal a bit if they�re wet. Im running the PMB pads on my 996, just installed this weekend. They are local to me and have been specializing in Porsche brakes for a long time, so I was happy to buy from them. 3 days or so of driving and I really like the PMB pads, great performance and no noise, minimal dust so far. I removed the shims that came with the PMB pads and installed OEM shims - not cheap at all haha! The PMB pads are made in China though, if that matters to you. The fit and finish of them is great though, as good as OEM or Brembo. https://pmbperformance.com/

Good notes! I'll get sensors, caliper bolts, and shims, the drain back & tubes and add them to the spreadsheet. I already did the water pump and belt job. Kind of a pain, but taught me some lessons, like how venturi valves need a lot more pressure than you'd think! (Why is it pressurizing??) @turkis_tii I'll look into the TRW, I see they don't sell a kit, and I don't see coffin arms. Do they just make the sway bars, drops links, and tie rods? Meyle was so much cheaper than all the competition and with this amount of work I'm fine cutting some corners, I haven't read about any Meyle failures yet. On that note, if I did opt for some level of control arm adjustability, what would be the first place to start? Yeah I ended up changing the sheet to list PRIME rotors and akebano non ceramics pads because I don't want to hear the squeal, but I'll look into PMB if they're less squeaky.

Unfortunately, TRW isn't manufacturing arms anymore. If you are planning on just street driving, you will get the biggest bang for your money with the Meyle kits. Regarding adjustable control arms, there are alot of viable options. I just picked up a set of Demonspeed 996 GT3 adjustable control arms to refresh my front end. Demonspeed uses the 997 Meyle wishbones (416-050-004), which i believe is comparable to Porsche (997-331-043-01). If you decide to use the Demonspeed adjustable GT3 LCA and Meyle wishbone (416-050-004), you will need to replace the nuts/bolts. Here are the part numbers and quantities which cost me $116 at my local Porsche dealer. 2 Hexagone B 12x1.5x9.5 (900-378-165-01) 2 Hexagone B 14x1.5x75 (900-378-135-01) 2 Hexagone H 14x1.5x110 (900-378-329-01) 4 Locknut 999-084-445-01 2 Hexagone N PAF-103-353 Hope it helps.

This post has strayed away from my initial purpose of doing a full engine out service. My engine is running fine, I decided to wait on it. I've purchased all new Meyle control arms, Tarret engineering adjustable drop links, and Feal 441 coilovers. I also purchased Akebono pads, Brembo rotors, and rennline wheel spacers. Here's what's gone wrong so far: I want to point out that most of the bolts that came with the front and rear Meyle control arm kits from @FCP Euro @FCPEuro are too large to fit into the chassis holes of my 2001 C2. I've had to reuse the original bolts, I ought to purchase new nuts for them. BEWARE Front: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/clo...er-trw-997kit1 BEWARE Rear: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/por...le-996rrctrlkt I figured out today that my car was running rear brembo pads in the front. The front rotor had a small lip and occasionally I would get sinusoidal braking pressure, most likely what was causing both. The Feal 441s come with a spacer to extend the height, and a note that says "use this spacer unless you intend to lower your 996 an extreme amount...". I did not see the note. I had to undo most of the front suspension to put them in. In doing so, the front right outer tie rod was stuck in the wheel carrier knuckle, and gave me many hours of trouble, but on the bright side I now own a blowtorch. That's on me. For anyone that's installed Feal 441, how much do you need extend the rear shocks? They're much shorter than the stock strut, but I also expect them to not compress nearly as much. I've read that at maximum length the car is dropped by an inch but I've also read that you need to keep some threshold of threads in the bottom of the shock, and I'm not sure where that is.This is very much a preemptive question because I know I'm going to have to lower the car, measure, and readjust but I want to get it in the right ballpark. If someone could measure the length of threads in the extension on their fitted car I would be grateful. And on that note, should I just have a shop dial in the ride height with the rest of the alignment? The only thing I didn't install were the new inner tie rods. Would it be worthwhile to install them (as in, will it be noticeable) or save it for the next alignment inducing job like like installing a new swaybar? Would I even need an alignment with a new swaybar if I have adjustable drop links? I've learned a boat load from doing this, and acquired many tools. I love wrenching. I'm going to go do more now. I've completed the fronts, halfway through with the rears.

Another question. @AeroF16 I took the shims off of the old pads, which were brembo pads with the two cylinders. Akebono did not supply shims. Can I just clean and reuse the shims with my Akebono pads? should I use adhesive?

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I think that�d be fine, as long as you used an adhesive that will hold up to the temps. Like I said, plenty of guys are running pads with no shims, so I wouldn�t overthink it too much.