dgreen78

Looking to purchase a Boxster S and came across a car that has had a 02' 996 3.6L motor swapped in. The car has 60k and unsure of mileage of the motor. Car is a 1-owner, nice condition and has a few extras such as suspension and upgraded seats. The car books at 12k. I'm having a hard time pricing the car as I am not sure if the motor upgrade takes away the value or adds? What would be a good price to offer on such a car?

ryanjboutin

Those engines alone are for sale starting around $7k.

Not sure what they're actually selling for.

Do you have a picture of it and/or the engine bay?

dgreen78

No pics of engine bay. I did check the ecu and it is from a 02' 911. Check engine light is on, ran the code at AutoZone while on test drive P0430. Not sure if it has a bad cat or just needs an O2 sensor. Looked to have an aftermarket exhaust "Phoenix" stamped on the cats.

ryanjboutin

Did the seller provide any insight on the exhaust or cat issue?

dgreen78

Car is on consignment. Dealership selling it is clueless. No paper trail at all on the car.

ryanjboutin

I dunno man, seems a bit iffy, can't pass smog with the CEL.
Are they even allowed to sell vehicles with a lit CEL?
Maybe you can whittle them down on price due to the CEL and zero history available.

What is your intention with the vehicle? Daily driver, track car, autocross?
I assume this Boxster isn't at a Porsche stealership.

Macster

The Porsche guidelines for P0430 (and P0420) is if the P0430 error code is accompanied by aging O2 sensor errors to replace the indicated sensors clear the codes road test the car. If the P0430 error comes back to replace the indicated converter.

If no aging O2 sensor error codes are present to replace the converter.

In this car's case the presence of aftermarket converters has to be considered. Either the converters are insufficiently effiicient or one has suffered some degradation over time or perhaps just suffered a loose converter brick. (It was a loose converter brick in a converter in my Boxster that gave me the opportunity to become quite familiar with the details of P0430/P0420 error codes.)

With the CEL and the very likely possibilty it will require at least one new converter from the aftermarket exhaust company -- and this assumes the other side doesn't trip an error code after you address the currently misbehaving converter -- or perhaps going back to a factory exhaust -- albeit with some customization to deal with the fact there is a 3.6l engine in the car vs. the 3.2l engine -- I would apply a discount to the car.

Ignoring the CEL and the exhaust issue, at best -- and I'm not sure this applies there but, at best -- the car has neither gained nor lost any value from the presence of the 3.6l engine. This assumes the car/engine runs ok in an extensive 15 mile test ride then followed by a 15 mile test drive and afterwards during a PPI shows no signs of any leaks or other issues and all car systems check out.

You will need the expertise of a PPI to know if the engine swap is "factory". By this I mean all electrical wiring, hoses, tubes, fuel lines, etc. are routed/secured properly and the installation looks "factory". No duct tape on the intake piping, no zip tied wiring harness lines, no weirdly routed hoses or fuel lines, et al.

To offer a conservative course of action, unless you are the type of used car buyer that has been involved in similar purchases like this one in the past and come out ok my advice is to keep looking.

There are plenty of used Boxsters for sale. Most have the engine they left the factory with and at least the issue of a Frankenstein engine swap is absent which makes evaluating the car a bit easier.

Schnell Gelb

Last summer ,on EBay there was a car like this. The conversion used LN 3.6 conversion parts and was done by a very competent Porsche Indie near Boulder Co. The car was a no expense spared car. It eventually sold on EBay for little more than a stock Boxster S. I think around $14,000 at the time.
Such an actual sale of a similar car is the best indicator of Market Value. Adding up the cost of the conversion parts & labor is a sad exercise in futility it seems.
I lost interest in the car because I could not be certain it would pass Smog in Ca. even though the mechanic confirmed no CEL. The problem is that the new BAR-OIS dtects all kinds of changes that do not trigger a CEL. So unless you get the car tested in Ca before you buy, you take a huge risk when you know the car is not stock. And even if you do pass the current BAR-OIS ,you have no idea what is coming next from BAR !
If you think this is alarmist just watch the BAR OIS video and at 5 minutes you'll see they have the option of testing hybrid cars in future.They actually "finger print" your car !
http://stop-the-star-program.3084.x6...td5020899.html

tcsracing1

A gen I Boxster with a 996 3.6L in it. How interesting!

I have no idea what is involved swapping 2001-2004 996 3.6L in the 1997-2004 Boxster...

One owner is nice.
If the car was running 100% and clean, id pay fair market price for a stock 2001 boxster. No more however.

The car is a hot rod now. And the trouble with hot rods is that they come with hot rod problems. Not worth paying a premium.

SuperPenguin

Yeah, and that's the problem, the owner likely paid at least $20k if that swap was done right, and usually they want to recoup some of that cost, but unless someone is in the market for that exact thing, if anything they've reduced the value of the car by performing such a modification.

Schnell Gelb

That is why a really active EBay,no reserve auction is a good data point. And that is why the Boxster S i mentioned sold for so little relative to the conversion cost. But wait, was it so little? You take the risk of having to part it out if it gets tagged as an illegally modified car by BAR. And that assumes they don't specify it has to be crushed. It is a whole new world here in S. California.

ryanjboutin

Did they ever pass the legislation about forbidding cars with VINs to become race vehicles?

Schnell Gelb

Not yet but wait a while....

Disaster

OP is in Seattle...maybe not so bad as California. I would be very excited about this hotrod, but not pay more than a stock car either.

Schnell Gelb

Applus supplies both Washington and California with Smog test equipment.
How long before Applus convince Washington to use the California software? The day they do, you no longer have a car, you have a roller