So, I used the hottest afternoon of the year to take the engine out of my 997 turbo yesterday. I had already disconnected everything and worked out how I would do the job, so all that was left was to go for it and take the mezger out.
If it is of interest to anyone I can post up more pictures and do a summary guide. Here is a few pictures of the removal.
I would say compared to other engine removal/repairs I have done this would be 'easier' if you have access to a 2 post lift . When doing it with axle stands only, on a gradiented garage floor (it slopes downwards and from left to right slightly) I would say it makes it a lot harder, but still clearly do-able with a bit of prior planning and some decent safety measures. I would personally rate it a solid 8/10 for one handed DIYing off axle stands as a first time.
Repeat removals would be easier as I know how to do it and have a good system now.
You can see in the last picture the way I got the car up at the front, using ramps as someone else on here (infrasilver I believe **thanks mate) used. Because of the slight gradient from front down to back, I bought some car transporter tie straps and clamped both front wheels to the stands. So that was the front end dealt with. At the rear, I had already removed the rear bumper and intercoolers etc in my attempt to free the turbos. Unfortunately as the coolant lines were totally heat/rust welded into the old turbos I had to remove the engine to replace with the new turbos I fortuitously aquired for a great price from a guy in Florida.
So at the rear, I jacked the car up in stages using the rear jacking point to lift the rear, put a stand under one side, then moved to the rear crossmember and put it to a height that made the car perfectly horizontal (there is very little room on the turbo between the rear engine plate and the chassis rail so it need to be horizontal to come out smoothly (or so it seemed at the time)
Here is a few pictures of the removal.
I used an engine crane and two old seat belts to lower the engine, and will reuse them to lift it back in after. There is no room for chains. The seatbelts fit through the available space ok though.
**disconnect everything** this would be in a photo guide if there is a demand for it..
then I used a gearbox jack under the gearbox and undid the tiptronic mount nuts and the rear engine mount nuts, a staged lowering process was initiated... It was nice and controlled, but tedious doing it alone.
I then discovered I had not removed the coolant pipe that goes from the bottom of the expansion tank to the engine, but it was nicely revealed when the engine had dropped a couple of inches so I undid and removed it (this is why I did a staged lowering, so I could catch anything I had missed)
I knew when the engine got down to the bottom of the gearbox jack, it would be too high for the engine to sit on the engine trolley (a cunningly reused machine mart wheel dolly rated at 500kg each so used one for the gearbox) .
So I raised the gearbox off the gearbox jack (it worked well) and used my small trolley jack to relower it down.
I then continued the lowering in one go pretty much so that gearbox and engine were resting on their padded trolly dollies.
The only issue I had, due to the mildly gradiented concrete garage floor, was that the output side (off side) of the diff was very close to a lug on the suspension framework when I lowered the engine in the lower stages, so I did a bit of yoga between the engine crane and using a bar and some cardboard to keep the diff from damaging the suspension and vice versa.
Once the engine was landed on the trolley, I didnt have enough height on the jackstands to remove it....
With the oil filter removed, I was about 1 inch missing height wise, so after some messing about, I managed to get my big trolley jack under the OS rear jacking point, and raised the car a few inches higher, the engine then slid out nicely and I lowered the car back on to the stands.
You will note several other sets of axle stands... The front ones are just in place under the jacking points in case of failure of the ramps... (unlikely I know but you can never be too sure). The red ones are just placed as catching stands for the main blue stands at the back that are holding the car up.
The other ramps ended up not being used for anything. But for any jobs that involve wheels on work underneath I always prefer ramps where possible.
So that's where I am up to. I will post up a few before and after pictures when I have the old turbos off and new ones on.
I also am planning some other jobs while its out. Namely sorting a small oil leak on a timing chain guide bolt.
Turbo pipe replacment where needed + new orings for the others.
All sealing washers.
Rear coolant manifold thing, new orings and protector seals for the ones underneath (and o rings)
New coolant pipes where needed (engine bay ones look like new)
Propshaft guibo being replaced
new accessory belt
new coils and plugs
turbo check valves
new oil filter and engine oil
new porsche coolant (I need to buy a vacuum bleed kit to hook up to my compressor)
oil pressure sensor (mine works but I think its meant to be worth doing?)
I will assess the coolant pipes in the engine, I spoke to a few specialists in the UK that say they havent had coolant pipe failures in very often, yet in America it seems high risk. Is it worth removing and resealing these and 'pinning them'? the jury is out on that at present.
** I disconnected the plenum rubbers as I was trying to find if I was missing any electrical connector on top of the tiptronic (I had no documentation on the tiptronic removal). As it turned out there is a load of vacuum piped coming off the back of it AND I couldnt see anything under there!! So I left refitting it until I had the engine out as I was confident I had the right bits disconnected.
Cheers
If it is of interest to anyone I can post up more pictures and do a summary guide. Here is a few pictures of the removal.
I would say compared to other engine removal/repairs I have done this would be 'easier' if you have access to a 2 post lift . When doing it with axle stands only, on a gradiented garage floor (it slopes downwards and from left to right slightly) I would say it makes it a lot harder, but still clearly do-able with a bit of prior planning and some decent safety measures. I would personally rate it a solid 8/10 for one handed DIYing off axle stands as a first time.
Repeat removals would be easier as I know how to do it and have a good system now.
You can see in the last picture the way I got the car up at the front, using ramps as someone else on here (infrasilver I believe **thanks mate) used. Because of the slight gradient from front down to back, I bought some car transporter tie straps and clamped both front wheels to the stands. So that was the front end dealt with. At the rear, I had already removed the rear bumper and intercoolers etc in my attempt to free the turbos. Unfortunately as the coolant lines were totally heat/rust welded into the old turbos I had to remove the engine to replace with the new turbos I fortuitously aquired for a great price from a guy in Florida.
So at the rear, I jacked the car up in stages using the rear jacking point to lift the rear, put a stand under one side, then moved to the rear crossmember and put it to a height that made the car perfectly horizontal (there is very little room on the turbo between the rear engine plate and the chassis rail so it need to be horizontal to come out smoothly (or so it seemed at the time)
Here is a few pictures of the removal.
I used an engine crane and two old seat belts to lower the engine, and will reuse them to lift it back in after. There is no room for chains. The seatbelts fit through the available space ok though.
**disconnect everything** this would be in a photo guide if there is a demand for it..
then I used a gearbox jack under the gearbox and undid the tiptronic mount nuts and the rear engine mount nuts, a staged lowering process was initiated... It was nice and controlled, but tedious doing it alone.
I then discovered I had not removed the coolant pipe that goes from the bottom of the expansion tank to the engine, but it was nicely revealed when the engine had dropped a couple of inches so I undid and removed it (this is why I did a staged lowering, so I could catch anything I had missed)
I knew when the engine got down to the bottom of the gearbox jack, it would be too high for the engine to sit on the engine trolley (a cunningly reused machine mart wheel dolly rated at 500kg each so used one for the gearbox) .
So I raised the gearbox off the gearbox jack (it worked well) and used my small trolley jack to relower it down.
I then continued the lowering in one go pretty much so that gearbox and engine were resting on their padded trolly dollies.
The only issue I had, due to the mildly gradiented concrete garage floor, was that the output side (off side) of the diff was very close to a lug on the suspension framework when I lowered the engine in the lower stages, so I did a bit of yoga between the engine crane and using a bar and some cardboard to keep the diff from damaging the suspension and vice versa.
Once the engine was landed on the trolley, I didnt have enough height on the jackstands to remove it....
With the oil filter removed, I was about 1 inch missing height wise, so after some messing about, I managed to get my big trolley jack under the OS rear jacking point, and raised the car a few inches higher, the engine then slid out nicely and I lowered the car back on to the stands.
You will note several other sets of axle stands... The front ones are just in place under the jacking points in case of failure of the ramps... (unlikely I know but you can never be too sure). The red ones are just placed as catching stands for the main blue stands at the back that are holding the car up.
The other ramps ended up not being used for anything. But for any jobs that involve wheels on work underneath I always prefer ramps where possible.
So that's where I am up to. I will post up a few before and after pictures when I have the old turbos off and new ones on.
I also am planning some other jobs while its out. Namely sorting a small oil leak on a timing chain guide bolt.
Turbo pipe replacment where needed + new orings for the others.
All sealing washers.
Rear coolant manifold thing, new orings and protector seals for the ones underneath (and o rings)
New coolant pipes where needed (engine bay ones look like new)
Propshaft guibo being replaced
new accessory belt
new coils and plugs
turbo check valves
new oil filter and engine oil
new porsche coolant (I need to buy a vacuum bleed kit to hook up to my compressor)
oil pressure sensor (mine works but I think its meant to be worth doing?)
I will assess the coolant pipes in the engine, I spoke to a few specialists in the UK that say they havent had coolant pipe failures in very often, yet in America it seems high risk. Is it worth removing and resealing these and 'pinning them'? the jury is out on that at present.
** I disconnected the plenum rubbers as I was trying to find if I was missing any electrical connector on top of the tiptronic (I had no documentation on the tiptronic removal). As it turned out there is a load of vacuum piped coming off the back of it AND I couldnt see anything under there!! So I left refitting it until I had the engine out as I was confident I had the right bits disconnected.
Cheers