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Journey of an Engine Replacement on 2002 996 w/Tiptronic
I have a 2002 996 Cabriolet that I love and drive almost every day. I do the majority all of the routine maintenance for all of my vehicles. Craigslist is a drug to me...I just can't stay away, and at times, I find myself drawn to a project that I just can't say "NO" to. This is one of those projects.....
I purchased a 2002 996 Coupe w/Tiptronic with 117k miles on the odometer. The existing engine had white smoke that exited both exhausts when it was running. There was no oil in the coolant, but it was discovered that there was coolant in the oil, along with metal particles when a Blackstone Oil analysis was done. It wasn't the AOS, as many have suggested.
The car came with a replacement engine, that the PO had purchased to replace the problematic 3.6L that was in the 996. It was purchased from a Porsche dismantler in Los Angeles, and supposedly only had 70,000 miles on it. The PO could not find any paperwork on the purchase of the engine, as it had been sitting in his garage for a couple of years, while the car sat, waiting for the car project to start. He said he saw a video of it running, before it was pulled. The whole package (car and replacement engine) was less than $10,000. Like I said...I couldn't pass it up.
I wanted to document the pulling of the engine and transmission, replacement of key components, and reinstallation of the engine and transmission, for anyone that cares, in the hopes of giving the DIY guy a little more confidence to take on projects like this. I am not a mechanic, and never really got into working on cars until my 40's. I am using Wayne Dempsey's book as a reference. However, his book references a manual transmission, and not a Tiptronic. Not a lot of info on removing a Tip, but I will try to fill in the gaps and answer any questions. I am not saying that everything I did was in the right order, or maybe necessary and might have missed some shortcuts.
Here we go:
Here is the car, as I saw it the day I bought it. 2002 996 Tiptronic with 117,000 miles. Yep, that is my DD 2002 996 Cabriolet in the background
The paint is good, tires are good, and the interior is almost perfect.
Here is the replacement engine. Came from a 2003 with 70,000 miles on it. Or so they say....
One of the items I was going to replace, is the IMSB. However.....well, more on that project later.
Owing a 996 there is always the thought in the back of my mind... Will I need to replace my engine one day? The more info I gather the better I feel
Looking forward to your write up!
Engine looks like it was from a tiptronic with the additional breather line and AOS hose that doesn't attach directly to the bank 1 intake runners. Would be interesting to see what needs to be done for an auto to manual (and vice versa) engine swap.
Guess you'd have your own manual or auto engine as a reference if you needed to do that swap.
I'm very happy with the tiptronic trans I got from LA Dismantler. All of life is a crap shoot so just have fun. And I love the look of your new car. What are you going to do with the cab? Keep them both I hope. I keep looking for a coupe but it will mean giving up my cab and I've grown to really like it. And give us lots of pictures.
Great Find Falcon! Worst case, you'll break north of even. Best case, you'll have $12.5k (plus your time)in a great car, plus the value of a repairable engine. Hope it works out that way! The engine and tip had to be removed from my car ('04 coupe) for an AOS replacement. There's no one doing Porsche work nearby so I turned it over to a friend who has a great shop, top notch mechanics, latest in everything, etc.. but zero Porsche experience. I delivered the car with the factory manual & engine R&R instructions from various other sources. They said they would do it slow & deliberately between other work and let me know if they encountered problems or had questions. When it was finished they reported that it was pretty straightforward, intuitive and interesting. Best of all the work turned out great. The point is I think you'll have no problems with the swap. The Mk II tip has a special service valve setup to fill the transmission. Let me know when you get to that point & I'll be happy to lend it to you. Congratulations and good luck!
P.S. - some while you're at it suggestions. Change out the AOS, not doable with engine/tip-trans in the car. Change the trans cooling line O-rings at the cooler; also can't be done otherwise. Update trans mount to the 997 type. Yours will likely have separations or cracks where the openings in the rubber are, but difficult to see without taking it out and inspecting closely. Alternatively, save 300 scoots and do the window weld mod. I can't tell from the photos of the replacement engine, but if it has the old style snout and upper coolant hose on the oil pump housing, change it to the 997 parts (slip fitting, no clamps) - I don't think you can get the old type hose any longer. By all means, do the water pump, plugs and check the coils. Have a close look at the oil filler tube.
Engine looks like it was from a tiptronic with the additional breather line and AOS hose that doesn't attach directly to the bank 1 intake runners. Would be interesting to see what needs to be done for an auto to manual (and vice versa) engine swap.
Guess you'd have your own manual or auto engine as a reference if you needed to do that swap.
I have to admit, I don't know what extra is required to hook up a Tip. I will compare the engines to each other and see if anything is missing or suspicious. Because my project car is a Tip and the engine you see appears to have come from a Tip, I hope I don't have any issues. There is not manual to Tip swap, so I doubt I will be able to provide any information, unless I can see the differences between this engine and my 6 speed Cab.
I'm very happy with the tiptronic trans I got from LA Dismantler. All of life is a crap shoot so just have fun. And I love the look of your new car. What are you going to do with the cab? Keep them both I hope. I keep looking for a coupe but it will mean giving up my cab and I've grown to really like it. And give us lots of pictures.
My philosophy is that for XX amount of dollars, I can have someone fix my screw-ups, if I want. If the engine is toast, then I have done something very few folks have done on their own...replace a Porsche engine!! I will sell the roller and the original engine and make back most of my money. If all goes well, I might make this my DD OR....sell it. Figure I can get $16k-$17k. My 2002 Cab has a replacement engine from Porsche...has about 20k miles on the new engine and 72K over all. IMSB failure with the PO. Covered under Class Action Lawsuit.
P.S. - some while you're at it suggestions. Change out the AOS, not doable with engine/tip-trans in the car. Change the trans cooling line O-rings at the cooler; also can't be done otherwise. Update trans mount to the 997 type. Yours will likely have separations or cracks where the openings in the rubber are, but difficult to see without taking it out and inspecting closely. Alternatively, save 300 scoots and do the window weld mod. I can't tell from the photos of the replacement engine, but if it has the old style snout and upper coolant hose on the oil pump housing, change it to the 997 parts (slip fitting, no clamps) - I don't think you can get the old type hose any longer. By all means, do the water pump, plugs and check the coils. Have a close look at the oil filler tube.
Thanks...I like all the suggestions and information, and will cover the items I replace, when I get to that point. Some of the items you mentioned, I will have to research. I might PM you for further details.
I have to admit, I don't know what extra is required to hook up a Tip. I will compare the engines to each other and see if anything is missing or suspicious. Because my project car is a Tip and the engine you see appears to have come from a Tip, I hope I don't have any issues. There is not manual to Tip swap, so I doubt I will be able to provide any information, unless I can see the differences between this engine and my 6 speed Cab.
I'm no engine builder but from my own visual observations the differences I see are:
- Additional bell housing adaptor
- Additional breather hose to intake boot
- Additional line/hose running along the top on the left side of the engine
- Breather hose from AOS appears to connect to a line that runs under the intake plenum rather than directly onto the bank 1-3 intake
This is by no means anything that should be followed! I'm sure someone with engine building experience would be able to better explain.
Getting ready to disconnect airbox off throttle body.
Airbox completely removed. Lots more room to work.
Second major step...removing throttle body. This is an electronic one. Previous years were cable operated I believe. Not real difficult to remove Four bolts hold it in. Note...every time I take something off, I either replace the bolts where they came from, OR...put them in a small baggie and label them with a note card inside the bag.
Need a big wrench to rotate the tensioner and taking off the serp belt.
About to disconnect the O2 Sensors. Two banks of connectors. On the rear panel of the trunk and on the passenger side.
I forgot which goes pre Cat..the black or the blue. The Dempsey book has that information. I will refer back when I hook everything back up.
Small screwdriver lifts the tab, then slide apart.
Ooops. Out of order picture. Four bolts holding the throttle body on.
Getting ready to remove the upper part of the Power Steering Pump. Make sure you suck out all the fluid. I ordered a BIG A$$ syringe off of EBay and got some vinyl hose to suck it out. Get as much as possible out.
Take off the screw and get ready to pull off the upper part of the reservoir.
Upper reservoir coming off. Lower part stays attached to the PSP, both which will be removed later and put on the replacement engine. The pump on my replacement engine appears to be leaking, given the large amount of black, think, sticky goop on top of the engine.
Its fascinating how many other marques part stamps are on some of the plugs/connectors. Could see an MB one on the throttle plug and i've seen a BMW one on the windscreen washer nozzle as well.
04-05-2017, 08:03 PM
Journey of an Engine Replacement on 2002 996 w/Tiptronic
