Stephen Porter

Hi,

I had a 2002 Boxster S until a few months ago and loved it. I'm in the market for another P-car and lately I've seen 3 different "early" Boxsters (2 '97's and a '99) that have had 3.4-Liter 996 engines transplanted, with ~300 + HP results claimed. This sounds like an awesome combination and with correct suspension, etc. would put an early Boxster into Cayman S performance territory. Assuming that this conversion has been done by a competent shop, are there any real caveat's involved? Would a competent independent mechanic be qualified to perform ongoing maintenance? Any issues with the standard Boxster transmission with this powerplant? And at least on of these cars is available for considerably less than I sold my Boxster S!

TIA for any comments, pointers, etc.

Stephen Porter
LA, CA

rbennett

Just my opinion,

I prefer to keep the MY to the Porsche engineering depts oringinal intention for the car, if they intended on a larger engine they would have installed it. I mean why stop at a 3.4?? why not put a V8 Cosworth in it???

Dont mean to damper your direction its just I am a purist when it come to Porsches and will only go with what the factory offered.

arenared

Who's they? Engineering or marketing? Engineers want to, but marketing won't let them.

rbennett

Point taken

How bout, what shows up in the showroom.

arenared

OK. I'll go with that. Base Boxsters outsell Boxster S'es 2:1. Opposite for 997s where S'es outsell base 2:1. Guess I'm in the minority since I don't want a rear-engine.

vandereydt

RUF carries out these transplants, you can either go for a 3.4 or a 3.6 engine.
The result is a dreamcar superb handling, and the right amount of horses.
I run a 97 2.5 Boxster, have covered 350.000 km so far, one of my options is to carry on till a hit the 400.000km mark and then bring the car to RUF and have them transplant a 3.4 engine in it (and while we are at it also install the RUF supercharger) this configuration has about 365 horses at its disposal.

Have a look at their website, its worth your while

Good luck
Ronny

fast951

Why not go with the 3.8L 997S engine? I drove a Boxster S with it, and it was a pure blast.

Doug&Julie

I looked into this when the motor blew in my '99. The base trans/suspension/brakes can safely handle the 300hp motor for most of your driving needs. But upgrading all that stuff would be wise if you're planning DEs or AutoXs.

I wish I'd done it, but I ended up replacing the original motor (with a Porsche reman motor) for half of what the transplant would have cost me. I went cheap....

Turboflyer

You know some people just think Porsche is some sort of deity. They are in the business to make money and along the way we get some really nice cars. If it was a wise marketing strategy then the Boxster would have 450 HP. Its all a game. We decide to play where and when we can afford to. If you want 300HP in a conversion then go for it. Or maybe we should all have smaller engines since that is how they were originally designed. Come on.

Stephen Porter

Thanks for all the feedback. My original interest in this was because there is/was a car available that had already had it done...a new crated 996 motor replaced the original. Car also has other niceties like upgrades to complete M030 specs, 18" RH 3-piece wheels, Quaife LSD, carbon fiber, etc., etc. All for $24K--which is about $5K LESS than what I sold my 2002 Boxster S for!!! It's almost a no-brainer, except I've now been told that it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that such a conversion would pass smog in our beloved California..... Grrr....

I would consider such a transplant if I had one a Boxster with a blown engine (that would NEVER happen, right? :-)) but I've been more on the lookout for one that's already done.

Another option I've seen around is supercharging, but I haven't much data on that either. The straight engine swap seems like such a *sensible* way to inject another 50HP into a Boxster.

Best regards,
stp

Stephen Porter

For those interested, here's the ad for the car that got me hot and bothered:
"Artic Silver with 49K pampered miles and over 40K in upgrades. Garaged vehicle with NO dents, dings or scratches. Immaculate inside and out! This will outrun and outperform the new Cayman. Drive it and see for yourself!!! Why pay $23,000+ for a regular, standard plain looking Boxster when you can buy this low mileage, immaculately upgraded one with all the upgrades listed below for $26K. Mid-engine, 300 HP Porsche 5-speed convertible with Sports Package and many value added performance options. Performance options include M030 sport suspension with H&R springs B&B header and dual-tip sports exhaust, $8,000 18” 3-piece RH P-3.6 wheel with new Bridgestone S-02 225/40-18 and 285/30-18 tires ($8k value), Quaife limited-slip differential for traction control, front strut bar, aluminum flywheel, dual disk clutch, short shift kit, and rear cross-drilled brake rotors. Exterior options include Litronic Xenon headlights, clear marker lights, 3M Premium Clear Bra package, retractable rear spoiler and Anti-lock brakes. Interior options include sports seats with power seat back and full leather, single disk premium sound CD radio, REAL full carbon fiber trim pieces including 3-spoke leather steering wheel, shift know, door trim, center console, vents, and more, aluminum face gauges, cruise control, trip computer, rear stereo speakers, wind deflector, AC, power door locks, PS, front and side airbags, alarm and ignition immobilizer, lighted vanity mirrors, key remote that operates door locks, alarm and controls windows, 4-disk CD holder, . Owner’s manual and all service records available. Car always garaged and maintained at notable local Porsche shop with oil change and service completed in March 2006. All upgrades are Porsche parts and installed by Porsche authorized shop."

All for $23,900..... I've seen plenty of '99 Boxsters advertised for close to this price. Maybe I'll move out of Cali.... ;-).

Best,
stp

arenared

Actually, you have a much better chance of passing the 3.4L than supercharging or any other mod. In CA, you can legally change the motor as long as it is in the same class of vehicle (i.e. passenger), the engine design is of the same year as the host car or newer, and all emissions-related equipment is intact. Obviously, not everything could be intact since the engine is facing backwards, but pretty close, and I think that's where the gray area is. For example, the 3.4L headers point the wrong way and can't be used, but would 2.5L headers count or some other of similar design? I believe you have to go through an "engine change" process to get the correct engine and the "newer" emissions requirements registered. Search the DMV website for more information. I found this a couple of years ago since that is a serious option I would consider that one day when my engine goes and Porsche is too stingy to offer what I want. At the same time, I doubt any smog guys (or even most Porsche guys) could tell a 2.5L from a 3.4L if they even saw them side by side.

Jay Laifman

I hate to say this, but my experience with smogging the Boxster is that they never even look at the engine (even though they are supposed to look for cats and other equipment). So, as long as the output of the 3.4 isn't worse than the limits allowed for the Boxster it's in, you should be fine. And, at my last test, my Boxster was sooo much cleaner than the limit, that I have to believe there is room to play. That said, I'd still check out the actual legal requirements before investing to make sure you don't get a newbie smog guy who wants to check out everything and is going to notice differences - but, I'm not sure what he'd notice other than not finding the right number of cats - which would only be missing if they were not added, which has nothing to do with the size of the engine installed.

Stephen Porter

I did some preliminary research today and found out that there is a procedure for getting a car like this smogged and registered in California. Car MUST have a US emissions sticker so the Califorinia Air Resources Board won't get involved. After that car needs to be taken to a specialized Bureau of Automotive Repair station where a smog "referee" will check the car's emissions. If it passes his inspection it gets a sticker on the engine that allows it to be registered from then on--as long as it passes smog tests. I believe there is a requirement that the replacement engine comes from a model year equal to or newer than the engine being replaced. Of course the devil's in the details and I would need to find out more before investing $25K in a car on the hope that it would be OK. I don't think the owner of this particular car is interested in the extra hassle, but it's something to keep in mind....

If anyone has more experience or pointers on this topic, I'm all ears.

AlpharettaRK

I had mine 3.4 installed almost 3 years and 20k+ miles ago. I drive it hard and before getting a race car I tracked it frequently. It really has been as good as if it came from the factory. I referred to it as a "'99 Cayman convertible" recetly, to the confusion of who I was talking to. Make sure the ECU was reprogrammed properly so you get the higher, 7200 RPM redline. The 5-spd is up to the task as is the cooling system. WIth the ECU, headers, sport cats and a cold air intake it registered 265HP at the rear wheels that's 302HP with a 12% loss factor. I had bigger brakes all around as well as some suspension work done, but unless you're going to the track those aren't really necessary. Good luck!