Lightning MO

Contemplating a 3.4L swap for my '01S. Anyone done it in California and managed to still keep it smog legal? (Any details would be appreciated).

Macster

Never done it but the word is the best engine swap candidate is an engine - it can be a larger engine -- from a donor car that is the same year as the car you want to swap the donor engine into.

IOWs, putting a 3.4l from a '99 Carrera into a '99 Boxster is ok. Putting a 2003 3.6l Carrera engine into a '99 Boxster may not (may not) be ok, as easy anyhow.

There's a company, a lab, that works with various engine swappers and customizers in CA to test and certify emissions compliance for some pretty wild cars (Porsche 959s for instance). You might give the lab a virtual visit and see what its web site has to offer on this subject.

Name of lab:

Northern California Diagnostic Laboratory in Napa

Here's the web site:

http://www.ncdlinc.com/NCDLINC/HOME.html

Sincerely,
Macster.

budmanv24

I've heard that as long as its from the same year of car your golden. In reality I have no clue how they would even know based on their OBDII scanning equipment. I would think that if the motor passed emissions in the original car it should be good in yours as long as you are running the proper programming. You may want to do some digging on renntech to see if you can find any answers over there. Hopefully I'll be taking my 99 Boxster 3.4L to get inspected for the first time later this week (fingers are crossed that she starts tomorrow). But, I'm in Texas so it's not that big of a deal.

RollingArt

Here's my understanding of the way the engine swap issue works in regards to CA smog testing.

If you have an '01 car and install a '04 engine, your car has to meet the smog requirements of the '04 car.

Technically, that's the way it works. If they'll know that it's a '04 motor when they see it,, I don't know.



Phil

springgeyser

If a smog tech was looking thoroughly, it would not pass visual...not that they look that close anyways.

The engine has to come from the same model If you install a same or newer year Boxster engine it is a nonissue.

The worse case is, you can go to a referee to get it to pass smog.

Macster

The serial number of the engine includes its year.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Macster

The problem can arise if the engine came with features that were not available in the earlier car.

For instance putting a 3.6l Carrera engine in '99 Boxster. If the 3.6l engine has VarioCam Plus the engine controller of the '99 Boxster won't be VarioCam Plus aware and this mechanism will not function correctly, maybe to the point the car will not pass emissions testing because of at least several reasons: The engine controller can't complete continuous readiness monitors cause the new engine's behavior without proper VarioCam Plus control is causing the sensors the engine controller relies up to deliver confusing or erroneous values and with too many of these set to imcomplete the engine can't pass emissions testing; The new engine has different fueling/ignition requirements that the engine controller for the 2.5l engine can't properly satisfy; As a result the engine emits too much of the gases that are measured and fails the sniffter test.

The issues with installing various engines into older cars have been solved but anyone going this route of course needs to know how to solve them or to whom to take the car to have the issues solved.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Lightning MO

I am thinking about putting a '00-'01 DME ME7.2 VarioCam 3.4l engine in an '01 Boxster S (which is also a DME ME7.2 VarioCam engine) and retaining the Boxster's ECU.

Also, any guys out there who have tried this WITHOUT re-flashing the ECU? If that didn't work, what ECU shops have a program that doesn't require a MAF piggy-back box?

Macster

Send me your email address via private email and I can send you a couple of engine swap articles (in PDF format) that I think you'd find interesting reading.

Be sure your email in box can accept at least 2 large (880K bytes) PDF files.

Sincerely,

Macster.

PaulStewart

A PST-2 is all you need.

RollingArt

A 2ppssytyy whoossy?

Can you elaborate a little bit. What the heck is a pst2?



Phil

PaulStewart

Porsche System Tester Two the device dealers used to use to test and program Porsches.

Macster

PST2 = Porsche System Tester 2. It is Porsche's special vehicle diagnostics computer system that the techs use to help them id problems with engine controllers, sensors, and all other car electro-mechanical systems like ABS, A/C, security, etc.

These are not cheap ($10K IIRC and you need to buy a yearly subscription for updates (another $5K IIRC and IIRC is just that cause I remember the price so high as to simply be out of my comfort zone way out).

I tried to find and buy a surplus one but when I approached Porsche dealer service departments about this I was told the newer PWIS (I have no idea what this stands for...) is not backward compatible with the older cars and dealer service departments would not be getting rid of any PST2s anytime soon. Thus no surplus PST2s available.

Sincerely,

Macster.

PaulStewart

PST-2s have been known to be purchased for $1100. They are usable up to 2005 so no new updates are available. So buy and enjoy.

The PIWIS replaced the PST-2 and is backward compatible. The PST-2 uses DOS for an operating system....

Lightning MO

O.K., given that there are several mechanisms to re-flash the ECU, can anybody recommend a good source of the actual ECU programming (fuel maps, etc.) for the car, as it would have pretty much all of the 3.4 engine components, but be using a smaller diameter (3" vs. 3.5") Boxster MAF housing (which according to the Excellence April 2010 article can confuse a 3.4L program into running too rich), as well as aftermarket Boxster S exhaust plumbing? Or are you saying that I should tweak the map myself with the PST-2? (I've seen too many 944 Turbo guys blow head gaskets [and other things] by not taking their finger off of the ECU programming button...).

On a somewhat related note, my car is E-gas, ME7.2. Are there any issues using a '99 3.4L engine with this setup?