While inspecting the BMW for a bushing upgrade, we notice the common cracks in the body around the subframe studs. The extent of the damage was pretty serious; I think we counted over 20 cracks in total.  It took us a full week to change all the bushings, weld the cracks, and upgrade his headers. The 2005 320 now has a 330 engine, M3 rear subframe and diff, poly bushings, M3 rear brakes, 330 front brakes, headers, and soon to  come euro tune.

E46 Cracked Subframe

Welded in E46 rear subframe reinforcement plates

E46 poly bushings

Hey guys,

once again, I apologise for the lack of updates recently, I’ve just been really busy trying to get this thing finished. On Friday I started the motor for the first time with no major issues. The starter and fuel relays had to be jumped, which is something that I still need to figure out. I have to spend the next few days cleaning up the wiring, making hard brake lines, and mounting the hand brake. There will be much more detailed updates in the next week or so. I apologise for the bad video, but I honestly wasn’t expecting it to start the first time. I shut the engine off quickly because I thought I heard some noise and then my phone died.
 

First start up #porscheV8 #boxsterV8 #rollingshell #boxster #garagebuiltcars #porsche

A video posted by Boxster LS (@porschelsx) on Aug 14, 2015 at 3:23pm PDT

Many people will tell you that the stock throttle pedal/cable will not work for the V8 swap, but what most of these people don’t know is that the early Boxsters came with a full cable setup (no drive by wire). I purchased mine from a 986Forum member with a pedal for $50. The cable length is great and the TB travel is spot on. Today I made a custom bracket to hold the cable in place. The clamp that comes with the wire can be attached to one of the intake manifold bolts to hold it in place. The end of the cable has a metal sleeve that flares out at the end towards the TB. I used small metal plate to wedge the flare to the bracket (you can see it below held by two stainless machine screws).

Renegade recommends using the Meziere water pump with their kit, but I decided to go with a local manufacturer called CVR. Their pumps are a little cheaper, but the build quality is still there. I’ve seen this pump used on other 911 swaps as well. The inlet/outlet orientation of this pump is not ideal for the Boxster, and given another chance, I’d probably go with the Meziere setup. I got an extra engine mount bracket with my Renegade kit (no surprises there…), which works out great as a pump mount. Below are some pictures of the bracket. Once I have the complete cooling system figured out, I will post more pictures of the pump location and hose routing.

CVR Remote Electric Water Pump

Bottom of the bracket. I’ve seen welded the seam.