# 2004 Porsche Boxster conversion



## PorscheFan5 (Mar 24, 2015)

I have finally started my dream project recently...

Have procured a low miles Boxster with busted engine and am in process of dropping the engine this or next weekend...Have already procured the Netgain Warp 9, Controller, Elcon charger, DC-DC converter, electric vacuum pump, power steering pump, and heater assy etc. etc. from a fellow who converted his '94 911 and retired and dismantled his conversion. Got lucky to get most of the 'electric' parts in one shot.

Lots of things to calculate and design...

Quick questions:

The 2004 Bosxter has the Drive By Wire (DBW) type of throttle and not the traditional cable type (they switched in 1999 I think). I have the Throttle 'Pot Box' (see pic attached) to use but am wondering how to mate the existing DBW system with this Pot Box? If mine was a cable system it would be piece of cake.

Have some people converted a newer vehicle with DBW type of throttle? How did you do it?

Also what do people do with their ECU's (Porsche calls it a DME)? There is no Engine so we don't need to see any engine codes, but how does the DME deal with the lack of signals coming from engine sensors? We could use the DME for all the rest of the things left in the car...

Sorry if some of the above are dumb questions...sometimes the engineer in me over thinks things...or at least that is what my wife says...

Thanks,


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## eldis (Sep 3, 2013)

Keep the drive by wire system. It is much more superior to a pot box 
Usually it will give you two independent readings from hall-effect sensors, linearly scaling as you push the pedal.

ECU - in older cars you can safely get rid of it. The more advanced the car is, more interconnections between systems. You might have to keep it to get even basic systems operational. You will fight with some things other people don't have to deal with here - namely CAN bus. Your steering assists, speedometer and many others rely on a constant CAN communication. You will have to fake these packets just like other people have to fake the RPM sensor to get the reading. This of course depends what quality do you expect from your conversion, but power steering is nice 

So before you strip down your car, make sure you know what packets which peripheral needs (by scanning your data port and making many captures). It will save you tons of work and headaches in the future.

Read some conversion threads of newer cars here, to get the feeling for it.


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## PorscheFan5 (Mar 24, 2015)

Thanks Eldis. I am reading as much as I can get my hands on.

How do I keep and use the DFW? the signal from the DFW goes to the butterfly in the MAF and twists the wane. Any info on how I use that will be appreciated. Photos would be great.

I have to also decide on what to keep from the engine and current setup...

Yes, I need to understand what part of the current DME and wiring and sensors to keep. The engine wiring harness will come out with the engine. I need to understand what f anything to keep.

I think I cannot use the current RPM indicator setup as the Hall effect transducer mounts on the engine(see pic). Even though it uses the signal from the flywheel pegs and the flywheel stays, I don't have the engine housing anymore to mount the sensor. Thoughts?

Thanks for all your continued help as I progress on the project!


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## PorscheFan5 (Mar 24, 2015)

Eldis,

I would also like to understand more on what you meant by:

"So before you strip down your car, make sure you know what packets which peripheral needs (by scanning your data port and making many captures). It will save you tons of work and headaches in the future."

I am an electronics engineer. I promise I will catch up fast. But need to understand the terms you used - scanning the data port, making captures, packets and faking packets are some of those...

By packets I think you mean the signals that are coming on certain points/ports...how do you fake the packets? Sorry for the basic questions...bear with me for some time...


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## eldis (Sep 3, 2013)

Okay, so the throttle in drive by wire systems works exactly as your potbox. There is a connector plugged into it, probably carrying signals:
5V power
GND
OUT1
OUT2

Where OUT1/2 goes let's say between 1-4V as you press the pedal. You can probe these wires, and get a wiring repair manual for your car.

Check your Mira's thread on Mazda RX8, around here:
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/czech-mazda-rx-8-dc-conversion-88587p18.html

Google "car CAN bus hacking" to get to know the terminology and the approach. Basically you need to tap into your car's CAN bus (located on the OBD connector). This network is very much like the ethernet - you have many devices on the net, each one has several addresses used to communicate with others. So for example when you're driving, some unit will be sending the speed and RPMs of your car in a packet every few ms. Many devices will listen to this and use this information - for example adaptive power steering (lower assist at higher speeds), your instrumentation cluster to show you the speed, etc.

Now you always have several options. Either you go the computer engineer way - emulating these packets (as the unit that originally produced it doesn't exist in the car anymore), or you go the car guy way - trying to emulate all the physical sensors (for example the RPM sensor is just a hall effect sensor could be giving something like 58 pulses + 2 spaces). 

Both ways have their pros and cons. I would go as high level as possible (that means faking the CAN bus packets). There are also packets like "engine running status", that might be used by some car subsystems as a soft enable (so you get no assist at all unless you convince the car that the engine is running).

That being said, I never took a Porsche apart. I did sit in it twice.


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## PorscheFan5 (Mar 24, 2015)

Thanks Eldis. Mira's thread is very informative. Albeit, it is for a RX-8.

I am hoping to find people on this forum who have done a Boxster conversion and a 2000+ model Boxster conversion so I can learn from their experience!


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## PorscheFan5 (Mar 24, 2015)

Charles,

'Renegades kit'...? I cannot find any posts from 'Renegade'. Was that a typo (cell phone correction) or is there such a member/company? Or did you mean RPG kit? I cannot get a response from RPG folks. I have no information on what all they can provide and pricing...even after messaging them...perhaps they have too much business to bother responding to emails...

Thanks.


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

He's a spammer. It's a copy/paste of a block of text from another post on a car forum:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/pors...751305-boxster-ls-conversion.html#post7565885


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## PorscheFan5 (Mar 24, 2015)

PorscheFan5 said:


> Charles,
> 
> 'Renegades kit'...? I cannot find any posts from 'Renegade'. Was that a typo (cell phone correction) or is there such a member/company? Or did you mean RPG kit? I cannot get a response from RPG folks. I have no information on what all they can provide and pricing...even after messaging them...perhaps they have too much business to bother responding to emails...
> 
> Thanks.


Correction: I did get a response from them saying they have a kit for $4500 but I have not gotten a response after I asked "what is included in that kit'...yet.


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## PorscheFan5 (Mar 24, 2015)

Followup question: Does anyone know what Bus Speeds does the 2004 Boxster uses for the CAN Bus signaling. the speeds that most autos use are 125kbps, 250 kbps, 500kbps and 1Mbps. Of which 250 and 500 kbps are commonly used.

I am planning to use an EVIC Display along with a Orion BMS and will need to set the BMS and the EVIC to the CAN Bus speed of the Boxster as I am guessing I cannot change the same on the Boxster...

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!


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