patrickkirby

I have an eye on a good donor car whose engine is toast. Trying to determine what the 3.4L swap will cost, parts and labor (P-Indy) to target a price for the donor which is at auction. Looks like 3.4L on ebay go for $8-10K delivered. Any help is much appreciated

mikefocke

Depends on what you will do to make the 3.4 reliable before it is installed. I'm thinking IMS, RMS, AOS, water pump, hoses, belt, plugs, coils, valve train, intake cleaning and that doesn't even get to any serious internals. Also depends on the local labor rate. And would assume the engine was good when you got it (not pulled from a flood car or one with metal bits in the sump) and not some FUBAR someone was trying to unload on you. At the price 986s are going for, I'd rather buy a car from someone who had a record of fanatic maintenance and who had done many of these things over the years. Would also assume the mechanic was willing to give you a flat rate based on a list of things you were going to do to the engine. And his willingness to take the engine that was removed and do something to give it some value to him.

I'll give you an idea of how things can add up. I bought a '01S with 30 some k miles on it. $1200 is miscellaneous services (I did a 90k so I knew where everything was), $1,200 in tires, $150 in alignment, $1,000 in brakes and I had the car I drove for the next 5 years with nothing but oil and fluids changes. I started with a car that was a daily driver and driving fine. I ended up with a fantastically reliable car.

patrickkirby

Thanks Mike. I probably should have provided more context. The car will be for Track/DE, autocross and mountain drives for my son and I. I previously had an '04 550S Boxster that suffered and IMS shaft issue (not bearing) that I dumped in favor of a Jeep. Looking to getting back into a older Boxster, also considering '09-'11 Cayman and BRZ. I'd like to cap the budget at $15K, Cayman would be 2x that I know. The boxster in question is from an insurance auction, I looked it over today and it seems okay body wise (no damage or flood, clean title), new bilsteins and brakes ok. Car would not turn over (dead battery) and auction house confirmed they could not get it to start even with a booster. So I'm assuming engine is toast. Could go with a 2.5l but for similar labor (I'm guessing) why not a 3.4l. Rebuilt engines are an option to avert the problems you raised and give some sense of reliability guarantee. The key question will be how cheap can I get it at auction, plus fees/shipping to worthy of the additional investment vs buy one in good nick.

insite

i put a 3.4L in my '99. here is my list of parts & equipment i used to do the swap. i did the labor. basically, if you do the IMS & replace the correct pults, o-rings, seals, etc, you are looking at about $3,300 more than the price of the engine (in 2010 dollars).

mikefocke

Any labor hours estimate insite? How long did it take and how much was waiting for parts? I don't notice any tools expenses either like an IMS tool kit rental, bleeders, etc etc.

insite

getting the engine out was cake; probably around six hours. i spent a couple of days doing the IMS & replacing various seals on the engine for good measure. re-installation took a little bit longer since the intake has to be fabricated, MAF replaced, engine lowered, fuel rails re-mounted, and VarioRAM flap wired up. i would say 3-4 full days, but taking my time. as for tools, i bought the IMS tool & it's on the list i posted. so is the engine hoist, engine support bar, motorcycle jack & TALL floor jacks.

as for waiting? not much. the longest waits were for the ECU reprogram (tholyoak on this board did it for me) which took about two days, the clutch disk from spec which took a week, and the secondary air delete plates. FYI i removed the entire secondary air system, including the pump. i have the RoW ECU software which omits the system. it passes emissions in Georgia.

i noticed in my file that i didn't mention where i sourced some of the parts. here is a short list of the harder to find items:

Misc tools: harbor freight
MAF Housing: Bimmerforums.com; it's from a 550 i think. was $40
Sprung Clutch Disk: Spec Clutch (FYI this isn't required, but i added an AASCO aluminum flywheel at the same time)
I did also replace the exhaust manifolds with some cheapo eBay headers. they're ok, but i think there is a lot more power to be had with some real headers

making the intake & tubing is sort of a pain. also, there are some easy problems to solve like extending the brake booster vacuum tube (the engine is flipped around backward).

this is a great project; the difference is incredible.

harryrcb

If I may interject. Insite you did a great job but I just did a 03 3.6 into an 02 base model Boxster a couple of years ago and struggled with the exhaust and intake as well. I did no less than 3 version of each until I got the perfect combination. First I tried an older boxter intake tube to fit , many leakage problesm, then I tried the silicone tube as you did and although it seemd to work it still did not feel like I was getting a good power curve, I found out that these tubes are really made for pressure not vacuum and they were collapsing in midrange rpm and killed power, so I decided to make my own out of aluminum including the maf sensor holder and used a gt3 throttle body. As for the exhaust a later model boxster has larger pipes and with slight mods you can fit it to the older 986. Now it has lots of power and you can feel it through the whole rpm range.


this was the final finished intake system

harryrcb

And yes for those that noticed, I did say base Boxster. I did upgrade the brakes and suspension to and "S" and changed all the cooling ducts to S size with the third radiator. I did retain the 5 speed and its been holding up well. The only stipulation I gave my customer is to not dump the clutch or he will be spending more money

Marc Jannone

Hi Patrick, I have recently done this and I spent over $30K including the donor car. The car is incredible, but I have spent waaaayyyyy too much. I am going to list my 1999 3.4L conversion for sale this week and reset my brain after nearly 6 months of research & work on it.

Please email me at mjannone AT hotmail DOT com if you are interested in discussing the potential purchase of it for about half of what I have spent. If you want to go down that road yourself, I am happy to help answer any questions you may have. There is not a single definitive thread or instruction manual and I spent dozens and dozens of hours on the web researching until I pieced it all together.

All the best,

Marc

insite

harry, thanks for posting!