Die Welt ist Flach - My Porsche Cayman adventures

Spent a leisurely Saturday removing the old transaxle.

The bottom left M10 triple square is indeed difficult to remove.  I was able to access it without modifying any tools by slipping a 10mm box end wrench over the bit.  To remove it, we had to undo it last and pull the transaxle away from the engine as it ran out of clearance.

The rest of it was pretty straightforward.  We had it out in about 4 hours, and could probably do it in less time if we hustled and had all of the socket / extension combinations figured out. 

The friction material looked good on the clutch, but the flywheel and pressure plate surfaces seem like theyare pretty bad and will need replacement:

All in all it was a pretty successful day.  I haven't quite decided on what I'm going to replace, feel free to post suggestions.  I've been considering an AASCO lightweight flywheel since I'm not commuting with the car anymore.  Also, the Porsche fluid is unobtanium (only sold in $1000 bulk). It seems like the Redline (75w90NS) was a bad idea based on my current results so I'm kinda wary of fluid spec now. I'm thinking of using the Audi G052911A2 fluid as it is specified for a cousin of my gearbox that shares synchro part numbers with the Porsche version. Good idea? Bad idea?

In reply to red_stapler :

If you're going to replace anything related to the clutch, you might as well just do it all. Resurface the flywheel (if it's possible), replace the pilot bearing, throwout bearing, and clutch. You're already in there, might as well just get it done. 
 

On the oils front, see if you can get in touch with a distributor that deals in oil. Often times they can match a fluid spec with a different brand that has the same specs. 
 

(Edit- like these folks out of Nashville- https://www.cishosting.net/seayoil/oils-lubricants/)

In reply to Recon1342 :

Agreed. The only part in there that's actually expensive is the flywheel. The clutch kit (clutch, PP, both bearings) is like $400 or less and basically a no-brainer. I would also replace all the clutch/PP bolts. I think they're technically one time use anyway and should be like $20 or less of cheap insurance.

I decided to splurge a bit and get a light flywheel for the car:

And we're topping that off with a Spec stage 1.  

The clutch disc uses a conventional sprung hub instead of the fixed one used with the OE dual-mass flywheel.  The factory assembly weighs right about 40lbs, while this setup weighs 27.  I'm excited to see what it drives like now, but I have to wait for a friend to lend me their 3/4" torque wrench so that I can crank down the 340 ft/lbs that the axle nut calls for.   Hopefully we can finish it up next weekend!

Hearing conflicting things about the flywheels, some say that the flywheel has an eccentric weight to counter balance the crank, others disagree with this. Those in the former camp use a Tiptronic flex plate as a flywheel and drill it for the appropriate clutch so I'm assuming you're in the latter?

Dammit said:

Hearing conflicting things about the flywheels, some say that the flywheel has an eccentric weight to counter balance the crank, others disagree with this. Those in the former camp use a Tiptronic flex plate as a flywheel and drill it for the appropriate clutch so I'm assuming you're in the latter?

I don't think there is any counterweight to the factory flywheel, but it does act as a damper.  It's not clear if it serves the function of preventing wear or just cleaning up NVH.  3.8L versions of this engine have a crankshaft damper.  I'm adding an underdriven damper to replace the factory non-damped crank pulley.  That should take care of any crank harmonics and also hopefully lower power steering temperatures so that it doesn't melt the rack fittings again.

Things have been coming along at a leisurely pace.  I've got the new gearbox in place, the shifter and axles installed, and the rear swaybar and chassis bracket are back on:

Bleeding the clutch slave was a bit of a challenge because the system started out totally empty, and I ran the reservoir down the first attempt.  No air was seen on the next go-around, and the pedal feels correct now.  We'll see how the test drive goes in a few days.

Check out Swepco 201 for the trans fluid. I posted in this thread a while back and since then have found this fluid is well liked in the P car community. Pedros board (986 stuff) recommends it. I think I'm going to try it since it's only $75 on Amazon. 

The OEM fluid can be found at suncoast I believe but there are two OEM fluids and they don't specify which is which. 

So I've had the car back together for a week or so and haven't had the chance to update the post.  I didn't take a whole lot of photos as I was in "just get it finished" mode.  Installing the crank pulley required a bit of grinding on the engine block, so that was fun - not at all nerve-wracking to chop up an engine worth as much as the car.  The install went smoothly though, and it's wearing a new belt in the correct length for the ~20% underdrive.  

In the end I decided to just stick with the Redline 75w90NS.  The new gearbox shifts so much better, but one of the first issues that I had to deal with was the shifter linkage not quite aligning right.  I had no reverse gear for the test drive, so I missed out on cars & coffee.

Doing that required a $3 tool from Porsche and disassembly of the center console:

You basically lock the shifter in the center position, detach the cables from the shifter, and then reattach them with the slack removed.  Super easy aside from the very fiddly interior disassembly.

While I had the dashboard apart, I cleaned up the temperature and fan switches, then coated them with plastidip.  They don't light up anymore, but they look less awful at least.  Perhaps down the road we'll try a more creative fix.

Not pictured, but I also found that the old NAV-TV ipod interface also has an Aux input.  Switching from the 30 pin to the aux has really transformed how much I enjoy the stereo. 

So I had to put 500 miles on the car to break in the clutch.  So saturday I hopped in and started on this route:

A bit of V-Power, and we were off!

The trip out to the park was uneventful.  I was elated to have the car back on the road though.  For once I didn't care if it got dirty, etc.

The scenic loop was flooded in one place, but we forded it no problem, that and a bit of soft-roading on the way to the trailhead wasn't going to stop us!

The hike was long and challenging, with a lot of elevation changes, rocky terrain, tree roots, etc.  I got a real workout, but some of the views were spectacular.

Abrams falls is the most voluminous waterfall in the Smoky Mountains state park.  After a month of rain, it was very impressive:

Back to the Cayman, we continued around the scenic loop

It was dark by the time we got to Tail of the Dragon.  I really appreciate the headlights on this car, we were able to go through at a pretty brisk pace similar to my other videos.  I didn't have the gopro with me this time to film any shenanigans that might have happened with the Toguefest kids that were there.

I went with Ferodo DS2500 for the street / autocross, with plans to swap them out to the ST-43s for trackdays.  They're bedded in nicely now:

We'll see what the future holds.  I'm currently furloughed for 90 days, but there's not much going on at the moment.  I was considering switching off the almost worn-out R-S4s for something with a bit better street manners, as I don't see myself doing any time trials or competitive autocross for the rest of the year.  

I keep clicking on this thread - to see if car is for sale! 

Following, I love the color combination. 

Now that the car/gen is 15ish years old, how do you feel the interior is holding up? 

Have you seen the Function-First transmission bushing inserts?  http://www.function-first.com/products/engine-trans/shifter-cable-ends

On my old Cayman 5 speed it made the shifting much more precise without extra NVH or added effort. The shop who did the PPI when I was selling the car even added an extra positive comment about the shifter feel. 

neverendingprojectgarage said:

 

Following, I love the color combination. 

Now that the car/gen is 15ish years old, how do you feel the interior is holding up? 

Thanks!  The interior shows a lot of wear & tear from the previous owner using it as a daily driver, mostly on the various soft touch surfaces like the driver's door panel, and portions of the hatchback area.  The AC control switches I already covered.  The carpet over the engine is a bit sun-faded. The headliner had to be re-covered at some point in the car's past, so I'm hoping that holds up better than the factory job.  So it's not all that great really, but at least I don't have to obsess over caring for it.

newold_m said:

Have you seen the Function-First transmission bushing inserts?  http://www.function-first.com/products/engine-trans/shifter-cable-ends

On my old Cayman 5 speed it made the shifting much more precise without extra NVH or added effort. The shop who did the PPI when I was selling the car even added an extra positive comment about the shifter feel. 

I've eyed those a few times, perhaps in the future we'll work on improving the shifter.

red_stapler said:

While I had the dashboard apart, I cleaned up the temperature and fan switches, then coated them with plastidip.  They don't light up anymore, but they look less awful at least.  Perhaps down the road we'll try a more creative fix.

having freshened those, how feasible would it be to dip these without removing them from the dash?

In reply to nderwater :

It seems like it would be pretty challenging since you'd want to clean all of the old coating off first.  Probably just as much work in masking as removing the panel in the first place.

Cayman's lookin good!  I took a miata up to the Dragon from FL last year and had more fun there than I thought I would.  Its a cool place!

beautiful car, and you're definitely using it right!

neverendingprojectgarage said:

Now that the car/gen is 15ish years old, how do you feel the interior is holding up? 

My 2006 has an irritating amount of degradation -- like in red_stapler's car many of the soft-touch surfaces in my Boxster show scratches, wear or peeling. The HVAC routinely spits out sticky chunks of foam and the foam moisture seals have failed inside both doors, so rain soaks through the doors into the interior and floods the floorpans when it rains.  Taking the interior apart to make repairs is problematic because many of the tabs and catches are brittle and prone to breaking. 

By now nearly every 987 Boxster/Cayman and 997 911 has crappy looking climate control rocker buttons. They look hideous and are always in view in the middle of the dash:

In reply to nderwater :

I'm not sure that I'd want the climate control repair pictured if it means losing the heated seats!  

Well, I haven't been able to take the Cayman out since that getaway weekend, but I've been keeping busy with another Cayman.  We finished P2 in Two Drink Tuesday's Super Cereal Sunday this week:

Sadly it's July and I've barely driven the car since I've been furloughed all this time.  We can at least go to the grocery store once in a while:

It's time for that ugly clear bra to come off.  This is going to take a long time to complete.

Depending on how much paint is pulled off, I may add a GT3 vent and center radiator when it gets resprayed.

red_stapler said:

This is going to take a long time to complete.

I wasn't kidding!  It took me until Christmas to finish this up!

Somewhere around September I took the headlights out:

The old headlight covers were in pretty sad shape, but the lenses were almost perfect underneath.  They look a lot better now with new film:

The fog/parking lamps got new film as well:

I'd say I had at least 30 hours of nibbling away at the film one little piece at a time:

At one point the front fell off:

The hood took a really long time as well, probably 12 hours of work just by itself:

Hours and hours of nibbling away at it, and we finally got to the end: