Boxter S 6 spd gearbox

[Erik Johnson]

Well, take this with a grain of salt here as you know what they say about opinions, but in mine, I like the Porsche boxes a bit more for the strength factor and overall quality of the internals.

That being said, there is a cost issue to consider as well. G86 gearboxes used will run in the neighborhood of $3500 to $4500 depending on year and model. It really does not take much to damage the first and second gear, so figure that if you want to be sure that this is going to not fail, on spending another $2500 to $3500 on a full rebuild.

When you consider this into your pricing, now all of the sudden these might not look as good as they once did. Again though if you were able to find one for say $1200 then it make more sence to me as they are in my opinion stronger then the Audi gearboxes.

Hope that this helps at least a little.

Erik Johnson
Carquip Sales
(303) 443-1343 ext 2 work
(720) 980-9407 cell

 

[Doug Clark]

Hi Erik,

I think your prices are a little off...

Looking at eBay right now there are 9 G86 5 speeds with a buy now price of $1500 or less, $1500 seems to be the max to pay for a G86 right now.
There are also 2 G96's 6 speeds one for $2000 and the other for $2500.

The G50's definately a better unit I don't think anyone will argue that but they are out of my price range at the moment so the G86 made good sense to me.
Mine cost me ~US$1500 landed in Australia a locally sourced 20+ yo UN1 will cost that over here.

 

[Adam Hennessy]

Adam,

I have a reasonable amount of laser welding experience, but I have no experience with laser peening parts or components. How do they stage the parts for laser peening? Multi axis programming required? How does the cost compare to say shot peeing? Just curious.

Andy

The process itself is actually quite simple when broken down in view. Obviously the complexity of the part is a big factor(say a hypoid gear vs a flat machined part). How they would do things like gears and similar parts I'm not sure. The only parts I've ever had laser peened were machined round couplers to mate two Mazda 13b rotary eccentric shafts into one to make a knock off 787b R26b 4 rotor engine for a customer. Was super expensive at the time, not sure how pricing has inflated in todays market

The part is submerged in a fluid medium(typically water) and subjected to repeated laser pulses in varying patterns. It's the actual compression of the fluid medium that delivers the "force" of the laser into the part structure. Compression forces are claimed to be upwards of a million PSI or more at the point of impact(for lack of a better term) which yields a greater and deeper layer of compression in the part.

I know that those couplers I made were mounted in a turntable, like a lathe chuck, underwater and was computer controlled. Rotated the part while the laser fires.

There's some videos online, it's pretty trick stuff and is far superior to shot peening however many times the cost. Best saved for those really special parts. I have a piece in my Subaru Sti 6speed that I machined which replaces the center differential and locks the AWD transmission so it can be used in a RWD application. If I decide to go above my estimate 450whp mark I'd probably consider sending the part to be laser peened. Don't know what it's going to cost me these days.

The one thing where it is VERY beneficial is on a pre-machined part with close machining tolerances. the laser can be directed within some couple thousandths from a machined surface w/o imparting surface imperfections. It's used extensively in the gas turbine industry, and jet engine components.

 

[Erik Johnson]

There is another consideration here in regard to the G86 gearbox. Not everyone can rebuild one of these. They have what are called interference cut gears, rather then splined gears that are common on G50 and Audi gearboxes.

You need a pretty strong press and some special tooling to work on these, so be careful who you trust in regard to working on these, or it can get really expensive really quickly.

We have seen some nightmares here.

As to the cost, it is good to see that these have come down some here now. But I still warn that there might be more to this then just the price. If these have been damaged in some way, you will end up spending quite a bit more the the original $1500 or 2 K for the gearbox.

Still, having said all of this I really like the option and look forward to seeing how it all turns out for people here.

Erik Johnson
Carquip Sales
(303) 443-1343 ext 2 work
(720) 980-9407 cell