Varia Cam shoe wear

[suburban99]

Here is a picture of the camshaft shoes that I removed from my 1997 Boxster.

The pair on the left were on Bank 1-3 and the air on the right were on Bank 4-6.

The car has about 100,000 miles. I changed the complete Varia cam unit with a used one from Oklahoma foreign last spring.

The car was throwing codes and timing on bank 1-3 had jumped. As you can see the 4-6 bank was no better...I has planned on changing them this winter, and am glad I removed engine to do so.

It is considerably easier to do a good job with engine out of car...

[Dharn55]

Wow, and I thought the ones on my 996 at 50,000 were bad. But why three sets? There are only two in an engine. New sets are only about $15 from Sunset. You should look at your oil change intervals and the type of oil you are using. This can lead to excessive wear if you don't change your oil often enough and use the wrong oil.

[suburban99]

Wow, and I thought the ones on my 996 at 50,000 were bad. But why three sets? There are only two in an engine. New sets are only about $15 from Sunset. You should look at your oil change intervals and the type of oil you are using. This can lead to excessive wear if you don't change your oil often enough and use the wrong oil.

Oil changes at 5000km since I have owned the car...damage was from the Previous owner...three sets because I changed the Varia cam unit and it came with shoes.

I knew I would be tearing into the engine in the winter as car is off road until April...

[yeeha68]

How do plan on setting the timing during reassembly? The manual calls for tool 9612 to attach to the cam, but from what I can tell, it only helps line up the notch in the cam. Something that appears to be completely possible without the tool.

I am also struggling to understand the need for tool 9599; the 3 auxiliary chain tensioners. Do the regular tensioner bolts not preform the necessary task? One of the tool sites I saw them on refers to them as "optional" tools rather then "required"

Are you using both of these tools?

[suburban99]

I have done this 3 times...2x in car...I am not using the camshaft tensioner tools

All I have is a homemade camshaft holding tool for cover removal and re-install.

Scribe lines on the timing gear, oil pump drive, and timing chain.

Wire timing gear to timing chain. Slack off timing chain tensioner. Keep chain tight with rubber strap hooked to gear.

Make sure you see the dots on the cams before removing, and make sure the timing chain bright links are directly above dots.

As long as you do not move the position...you will be good to go.

[Topless]

A fairly common problem on the 986/996. My brothers 99 had guides nearly as bad at 68k miles. A combination of lame materials and long oil change intervals recommended by the factory.