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997.2 water pump question -- do you need to remove part of the exhaust?
Hi all,
I'm currently changing my water pump and thermostat on my 997.2 C2S. I've seen write ups for the 997.1's but not the 997.2's (for the water pump specifically, I have seen a thermostat write up for the 997.2). One of the steps is to loosen the engine carrier from the motor and slide it out a bit to give you more clearance to remove the water pump. This doesn't seem possible on the 997.2, the center muffler seems to sit right up against the engine carrier.
Do I actually need to loosen the engine carrier on the 997.2? If so, do I need to remove the center muffler or is there an easier way?
Instructions are somewhat similar to 997.1 with some differences for me at least.
1. I couldn't get to all of the bolts on the water pump with the engine bracket installed (the bracket that connects the engine to the motor mounts). I ended up completely removing this which made access to the water pump substantially easier. To remove it you'll need to remove the center muffler. It looked extremely difficult and/or impossible to remove the center muffler with the headers still installed so I ended up removing the headers. You'll need to remember to order new header gaskets and new gaskets where the headers connect to the rest of the exhaust system. I didn't remove the headers all the way, I was able to leave the O2 sensors still installed. I unbolted the headers, moved the headers towards the front of the car a few inches such that I could separate the header from the rest of the exhaust system, and then I very loosely bolted the headers back to the engine. Note: I did this without removing the back of the car (body work), if you did that maybe you wouldn't need to remove the headers? But it's not a big deal to remove the headers, super easy bolt access.
2. Once you have the center muffler removed, you have access to the 3 remaining bolts connecting the engine bracket to the engine. (Note there are 4 total bolts but I had removed one of them earlier, following 997.1 instructions, such that I could remove the engine belt). The 3 remaining bolts are actually 2 nuts and one bolt. To remove the bolt, you need to drop the engine as low as it'll go (without unbolting the transmission) so that it will clear. Even with the engine lowered, you need to pry at this bolt a little bit since it doesn't perfectly clear the metal beam that blocks it from being removed. Note that the bolt is 16mm and I cannot fit a ratchet on it since there's very little clearance so you need a wrench, preferably with a ratcheting head. I didn't have a 16mm wrench and didn't want to use an adjustable wrench on it so I ordered one and waited.
3. Worth calling out that the E15 Torx that people complain about on the 997.1 doesn't appear to be present here. I ordered one off Amazon (only place I could find it) just in case but it wasn't needed.
4. To remove the thermostat housing there is a torx bolt (E12 I think?) near the top of the housing. I could not get to this with a ratchet due to clearance so I ended up needing to order a torx ratcheting wrench to remove it. If all you have are torx sockets like me you'll need something else.
5. Per someone else's advice on the forum, I didn't end up replacing the thermostat bearing seal since it looked like a major PITA to remove. Wish I didn't order the bearing, oh well. The 2 rubber thermostat seals I did replace.
6. Porsche recommends using some sort of lubricant on some of the seals. I ended up ordering this since it wasn't very much $$ and they suggest it. Buy it ahead of time if you want to use it.
7. I didn't realize that there are o-rings in the coolant pipes that run down the length of the car (you disconnect the soft pipe from hard pipe as part of draining coolant). I ended up ordering new ones since mine have almost 75k miles on them and they are cheap. Once again, Porsche recommends using their lubricant on these o-rings. You'll probably want to replace these while you're in there.
8. The timing belt tensioner is 30mm, I didn't have a wrench this big and couldn't get a socket on it (clearance). Suggest buying a 30mm wrench so you don't need to use an adjustable one.
9. If you don't have a 13mm ratcheting wrench it will be an EXTREME nightmare to remove the driver-side bolts connecting the header to the rest of the exhaust system.
Maybe I'll remember some other things but those are the things that immediately come to mind about the job. Most of my time was spent figuring out the easiest way to get to the water pump and waiting for tools to be delivered. I have a fairly complete tool set but some of the bolts/nuts on the engine have extremely little clearance to get to so I couldn't use a ratchet and didn't have a wrench for the particular size/type.
Note that I didn't actually have a water pump failure. The car is 10 years old and has around 75k miles. The PPI I got on the car in October from a very respected shop in LA said this should be done. They said that catastrophic water pump failures on 997.2's are rare but if the water pump self destructs and plastic gets in the coolant channels you have a high chance of the engine block cracking at some point. Also, I'm quarantined anyways so better to have the car out of commission now than when I really need it. Due to waiting for more parts to come that I didn't realize I needed plus waiting for tools, and COVID delaying shipping on everything, this has taken about a month to complete. I only work on it during weekends and am not done yet, everything is put back together but I need to put coolant back in. The old pump had a super super tiny amount of play in it. I didn't remember to check the new one to see if the new one had the same amount of play. Maybe the water pump was in the very earlier stages of dying, maybe it wasn't, but either way I don't need to worry about it now.
Here's a couple pictures to illustrate the issue getting to the water pump a little:
Top-right bolt is the one that is blocked by the engine bracket. This bulky metal bracket blocks access to the top-right of the water pump. I needed to fully remove it to have enough room to get a ratchet in there. I didn't need to remove this metal piece, I just pulled it away a bit once the main engine bracket was removed and the center muffler was removed.
04-19-2020, 10:05 PM
997.2 water pump question -- do you need to remove part of the exhaust?
