How to remove the transmission with the engine in place.

As I recently posted on here, I put manual transmission oil in my tiptronic Cayman S during a transmission service. I had this oil in there for over a month, and did a full track day with it. I have now pulled the transmission out, and sent it off to be rebuilt. I couldn't find many good resources while doing this, so I figured I would make a comprehensive guide with photos on how I did it. I used two sources as a loose guide, one being the pelican parts Porsche Boxter transmission removal , and the other being another post on ******** . I found the pelican parts tutorial had some very slight differences on the 987.1 Cayman S, as well as a couple small missed things. And I the post on ******** felt hard to follow as the image and write up quality deminished towards the end, which is where you really need it. I found the bolt sizes on the ******** post to be very helpful, and will be quoting them here as well. (Credit for this to them, I did not record bolt sizes) I was very fortunate to have a garage help me with this, along with letting me use a hoist and gearbox jack. You may ask how I'll get the torque specs for this when putting it back in. I'm honestly not sure yet and will cross that bridge when I get there. I have had luck with the local Porsche Dealership giving me torque specs in the past, so I will try my luck with that again. Note that I removed the catback exhaust last, as I had to grind the nuts off. Removing this as one of the first steps would likely make the job a whole lot easier with the increased access. Firstly, you may be interested as to what fault codes having the wrong oil in brought up. The only fault relating to the transmission was '0734 Gear implausable or transmission slipping (4th gear)' as well as a handful of unrelated communication faults in other control modules. On to removing the transmission.

STEP 1 - Removing undertray and V braces Remove the V braces first (4 nuts, 1 bolt, 2 screws), and be careful how you position the hoist/jacks as to not cover these bolts. Then remove the transmission undertray (2 nuts and 2 bolts) Nuts and bolts are 15mm, screws are torx T25

STEP 2 - Drain the transmission oil. This step technically isnt nessisary, but it will lighten the transmission when pulling it out, as well as both myself and the shop wanted to see the oil and how much clutch was in it (a lot). Crack the transmission fill plug and then remove the drain plug . About 3.5L is held in the sump. The fill and drain plugs are allen/hex 17mm and 8mm

STEP 3 - Remove the sway/anti-roll bar This is a big bar going right under the transmission so will oviously need to be removed. Unbolt it from the transmission mounts first, then the sway bar links. (The sway bar links swivel so it may not matter if you do the transmission mount bolts first) (2 16mm nuts, 4 13mm bolts)

STEP 4 - Remove the CV axles from the transmission There is a small hemisphere that sticks into the transmission on the end of the CV axle. This end can move forward and back, giving you enough room to pull them out and down. (6 6mm hex/alen keys either side)

STEP 5 - Remove the gear selector cable on the gearbox This just pops off. I used a trim removal tool to lever it. It feels like the plastic is about to break but it just pulls off. Pull the cable out of the clip a little futher up the wire too. Move this out of the way so that it wont snag on the transmission on its way out.

STEP 6 - Remove gearbox wiring Disconnect the battery before unplugging anything Just two things on there. One 10 pin connector under the left inner CV joint, and one round plug to the bottom right of the flywheel. These are both on the same harness, so I pulled the round plug over the top of the transmission and clipped both wires up and out of the way.

STEP 7 - Open up the engine bay Use a trim tool to pry up and remove the foam/carpet panel above the engine. Remove the metal engine cover (5 T30 torx screws). Fold down both seats and slide them as far forward as possible. Use the trim tool again to pry out the foam/carper cover behind the seats, and remove the metal engine cover there as well (5 12mm bolts, 2 12mm nuts)

STEP 8 - Remove the intake plenum Now we need to remove the starter to unbolt the torque converter. Stick lint free paper towels in any intake openings as you go. This is to stop things getting in while the intake is off, and (at least in theory) the towel will burn and hopefully not sieze your engine if you forget to take them out. Unclip the 2 breather tubes either side and the other end to remove it. These clips are very hard to undo and may require heat. Unbolt the plenum (1 10mm bolt). Unscrew the 4 hose clamps on either side, and the hose clamp on the throttle body. Wiggle the plenum side to side until you get it out of the 2 rubber hoses either side. Lift the plenum out a little and remove the hose clamp on the bottom side I couldn't figure out how to detach the last wire (air volume damper???) so I ended up sitting the plenum on top of the engine rather than removing it. Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18 Show Content

STEP 9 - Removing the starter motor Unbolt the wires on the back of the starter motor (14mm if I remember correctly) and then unbolt the starter motor from the transmision (2 E14 inverted torx). You will not be able to see the flywheel and the bolts that attach it and the torque converter.

STEP 10 - Unbolting the torque converter There are 6 torque converter bolts, in pairs of 2, which I believe to be 6mm hex/allen. Make sure yours is the same, because these bolts would not be much fun if you strip them. The flywheel will try spin when you do this, so put a long rachet or breaker bar on the crankshaft bolt (24mm) to hold it in place. also use this to turn the engine over to access the bolts through the starter hole. Only rotate the engine clockwise and be very careful not to damage the inner ring of teeth/slits as I believe this is for the crankshaft speed sensor and the engine will not run if one is bent even slightly.

STEP 11 - Remove the coolant lines going to the transmission cooler I chose to clamp off the hose rather than drain the coolant, which I clamped off above where the right side V frame brace goes. I found this was the easiest length of pipe to access. If you are draining the entire coolant system then you can disconnect the pipes closer to the cooler, which would make it easier, as I had to temporarily remove the transmission front skidplate mount to get the pipes out of the way. Don't disconnect it from the cooler directly, or you will need to replace the O ring. (2 E10? inverted torx) If you end up removing the transmission skidplate as well, note that there is a wheel height sensor attached to the left side. Do not move this past its intended range of motion or it will break. There are also wires on top that can just slide out of their clips. I ended up putting this back on to support the engine in the end

STEP 12 - Remove the exhaust Doing this sooner would likely have made some previous steps easier, however I kept putting it off due to the amount of work involved. The nuts on my exhaust were beyond trying to get a socket on them, so much material had rusted off that they had shrunk 1-3mm each. I tried soaking them in rost-off, heating them with a torch, melting them off, but in the end had to grind them off. In total this step alone took almost 5 hours. Remove the covers in the rear wheel wells (2 10mm and 1 T25 torx) to access the exhaust nuts. Hopefully you have more luck unbolting them than me (13mm). Then unbolt the exhaust braket from the back of the transmission (3 14mm?)

STEP 13 - Support the engine Now the only things holding the transmission in are the transmission mounts and the bell housing bolts. Without the transmission holding it up, the rear of the engine will fall down. There are backup support wires going into the transmission front skid plate mounts mentioned in step 11. I supported this with a few planks of wood and a rachet strap. There is a hook on the engine near the middle that is used in the factory to put the engine in, so it will be adequate for holding up the rear of the engine for a couple weeks while the transmission is off being rebuilt. There is a (coolant?) line clipped onto this so move that out of the way.

STEP 14 - Remove the transmission mounts Left mount came out pretty easy, right mount needed some wiggling to get out. (2 13mm nuts and bolts, 3 15mm bolts)

STEP 15 - Support the transmission I rachet strapped the transmission down to a gearbox jack. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of this, but I passed the stap around the transmission 3 times, being careful to go under any wiring and pipes.

STEP 16 - Remove the bell housing bolts There are 7 bell housing bolts (5 16mm bolts, 1 14mm nut, 1 T14? torx bolt) I labeled each bolt A-G and put them in seperate bags to make sure each one goes in the same hole. I'm not sure if it matters with the 5 bolts that look the same but I'm not taking any chances.

STEP 16.5 - Remove a tube I forgot until I started lowering the transmission There is a small rubber hose clamping around a plastic pipe on top of the transmission. There is nothing securing it on other than friction. Stick a toothpick inbetween to break the seal and sprayed it with rost-off. Slipped off very easily after.

STEP 17 - Remove the transmission! Finally we can remove the transmission. I used a prybar to slowly lever the tranmission off the engine. Opened it up about 5cm until I had enough room to lever off the torque converter. This took quite a lot of effort and required 2 prybars on either side, levering back and forth until it came free. Then pulled it back and down with the transmission. About another litre spilt onto the floor from the torque converter. I had to wiggle it quite a bit, but I don't think there's any way to avoid making a bit of a mess here. This took about 16 hours of labour from start to finish. If you dont have as much trouble with the exhaust then you may be able to get it out in around 12 with the right tools. I have now sent it off to Autotrans in NZ for a rebuild. Getting it back in will be a great deal of its own. For now I'm going to relax a bit and worry about that later.

Great write up! Interesting that the CV bolts were Allan and not Triple Square (XZN).

Yes, that was one of the differences that inspired me to make this write up. Perhaps mine had been replaced or the later model had different bolts (Mine is 2008)

One thing I forgot to mention - there are 2 dowel sleeves either side of the transmission (circled in red) that help align the transmission and engine. Do not loose these and be sure to remember them when it does back in.

My 1973 914 and my 2012 987 both have XZN. Allen head were the "hardware store" solution, back in the day.

Thought I'd make a final post here about putting the transmission back in. It's as simple as reversing the steps listed above. I actually just referenced this post and started at the bottom when putting it back in. MAKE SURE TO REMEMBER THE DOWELS! I realised I had forgotten them just after I finished bolting the bell housing to the block. Wasn't very happy taking it back out. It is good practice is to measure how far the flywheel sticks out, and measure how far inset the torque converter is. I forgot to make note of how much of a gap I had or what is recomended, but an engineer at the shop helping me said the tolerances were good. Torque specs: Use a paint pen to after torquing each bolt so that you know its been done. My local dealer was kind enough to provide some torque specs, didn't want to push my luck so I only confirmed some more major ones that I struggled to find on the internet. The torque specs I found listed are for the Tiptronic 987.1 Cayman S , unless otherwise listed. Bell Housing - Confirmed by Dealer - Nut & Triple Square: 45nm/33ftlbs - All Other Bolts: 85nm/63ftlbs Transmission Mounts - 2x M8: 33nm/24ftlbs - 3x M12: 85nm/63ftlbs Torque Converter - Confirmed by Dealer - 39nm/29ftlbs This surprised me as that sounds looser than it should be. I drowned them in locktite for good measure and I pray I'm not the one that has to remove those bolts if the time comes again. CV Axles - From the 6 speed - 6x Bolts to transmission: 81nm/60ftlbs - I did not remove the wheel side, but if it may help someone: 460nm/340ftlbs Rear Sway bar - To subframe: 23nm/17ftlbs - Sway bar to drop link: 3 Step Precedure - 50nm/37ftlbs - Loosen by 90 Degrees - 65nm/48ftlbs This 3 step felt redunant to me, as when you loosen by 90 degrees, it becomes loose enough to start spinning the ball joint. - I did not remove the drop link to hub bolt, but the spec is: 85nm/63ftlbs Starter Motor - 2x Bolts to Bell Housing: 43nm/32ftlbs Exhaust - From an aftermarket exhaust instruction manual - Headers to Cylinder Head: 23nm/17ftlbs - Catback to Headers : 23nm/17ftlbs - Exhaust support on transmission: 23nm/17ftlbs - Adjustment Plate on Two Rails: 20nm/15ftlbs I had to grind off my catback exhaust , so I removed the heads to drill out the last of the old bolts. I ended up snapping another bolt in the head while doing this. With the help of the fabrication team, we tried welding a nut on the end, heating (Not for long as to not damage the head), but ended up having to drill it out. We found what looks to be the remains of two other bolts that were previously drilled out, so the previous owner must have had a problem with that hole before. Filling the Transmission with Oil You want to make sure the car is level for this. The when getting the level right, make sure the car has dropped to a warm idle rpm (~600rpm) and also not above 40 degrees C either. I found the car only got up to 39 degrees after doing all the below steps (Maybe 20 min run time?) so getting too hot shouldn't be much of an issue. Just make sure its not idling too high. - Fill the sump until it wont take any more and drips out. - Replace the fill plug and run the car for no more than 5 seconds - Repeat the above steps until it starts dripping out after running for 5 seconds - Leave the car running and fill the sump until it drips out. - Replace the fill plug and run the car through the gears (P, R, N, D, M1, M2) for 5 seconds each - Give it a little gas (~50kmh/30mph) and run it through M3 , M4, and M5 for 5 seconds each - Remove the fill plug and top up until fluid runs out. - Replace the fill plug and turn off car When doing up the torque converter, I used a bar on the crank bolt to lock the flywheel in place. In one of the dumbest moments of my life, I left my breaker bar on the crank bolt and started the car to fill it with oil. Fortunately, I only loosened the bolt and didnt snap it off. Unfortunately, I backed out into the frame and sheared off the metal around the pin that stops it from spinning. I managed to find likely one of the only ones in the country a 2 hour drive away at a place called LM Racing that races this generation Caymans and Boxters. For anyone needing it, the torque spec for this is 50nm/37ftlbs + 90 Degrees. The transmission has been in for two weeks now and done 800km, and it's driving perfectly. It shifts significantly smoother and faster. Very happy with how it turned out.

Indeed - an excellent writeup! @TheTheTheTheo - you've just been awarded the Technical Contribution Award!