993 Jacking points and jack stand placement
 

If the jacking points on the 993 are the only place I can put my jack stands how can I jack up the 993 and place my jack stand in the same location? From what I've read I have to place the jack under the engine. My lower engine cover is on and I don't want to have to remove it. Is there another way of accomplishing this or do I have to remove the engine cover? http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1325107297.jpg

I place the rear stand under the rear suspension mounting point.

But you should remove the rear sound tray anyway.

I have a flat top jackstand and the rears go on "#6" below:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205957037.jpg

Remove the engine tray! It serves no purpose other than hiding a leak. First thing I did on all 3 993s I've owned.

And unnecessarily increase engine heat...

How is the tray removed? Is it best to jack up one side to get access to the tray?

Yes, it' easy to get to the tray....You can almost remove it without jacking the car up....there's 4 screws that hold it in place. It's basically worthless even after you remove it. You would have a hard time giving it away for free!

I am also interested in an answer. The jack supplied with my 993 is downright dangerous. While attempting to jack up my car the jack would snap/slip out sideways.

To date what I have been able to figure out is this. Dispite the owners manual stating that you may only raise the car at the jacking points (front of rear wheels and behind front wheels) proceed as follows. For the rear position a proper hydrolic floor jack with a block of wood in position directly under the engine at the oil drain plug location and raise the vehicle. Once high enough place jack stands under the jacking points.

Up front it is still unclear to me what can be done. What I did was use 2 2x6's about 5' long screwed together long enough to span the front jacking points. Then I added a block of wood the size of the jacking point ontop of the 2x6 at the jacking point on each side so that the car jacking points supported the weight. I then positioned my hydrolic floor jack in the centre of the 2x6 beam and raised the car high enough to remove the wheels. I then placed wood blocks under the 2x6 beam to maintain the height I needed.

I have a drive on car lift in my garage so when my 993 is on the lift ramps it adds about 4"-6" of clearance so I can get the jack and wood underneath. Without the lift you may get the 2x6 under the car in position but I doubt if you will get a jack under that.

What servicing are you performing that you need to place it on jack stands.

Just wondering because I've done quite a bit of work and have never used a jack stand, yet.

I have a 964. I start by jacking from the rear jack points and the front will lift. Put stands under there and go to the engine. You can also go in the order you stated but put a 2X6 under the front pan behind the bumper and jack from there. The front doesn't weigh very much (relative). There are some posts on this with pics. Actually I think Cactus wrote something up for that on Rennlist in the 993 area.

I've had these for a few years.
Safe T Jack Heavy-Duty Hydraulic Lifting System — 2-Ton Capacity, Model# 38052 | Jacks | Northern Tool + Equipment
Allows you to jack up the car, leaving the jackstand, remove the jack, and go over to the other side and repeat. Also serves as a regular jack. You may need to get the car on 11/2" block for clearance.

This is the procedure I use every time I change the oil:
1 Jack drivers side up (on jack point in front of rear tire). Remove engine tray. This step is dangerous because only the jack is supporting vehicle.
2 After the engine tray is removed, go back to drivers side of vehicle and place jack stand on front mounting point.
3 Remove jack. At this point in time, your Porsche is teetering in the air sideways with only 1 jack stand under the drivers front.
4 Go around to the passengers side and place the jack under the jacking point in front of the rear wheel and jack up. Place a jack stand under the front mounting point and remove the jack. At this point in time, you will have both jack stands under the front mounting points and the front of the car will be up in the air.
5 Go to the back of the vehicle and slip the jack under the engine. There will be a seam where the engine case is bolted together. Place the jack on the seam and jack up. Then place both jack stands in front of the rear wheels under the jack stand mounts. Remove the jack and your Porsche will be suspended on all 4 jack stands. It sounds more complicated than it really is. You will need a very low profile jack to make this work. This is because the vehicle has both front jack stands installed and the vehicle is tilted in such a way that the rear of the vehicle is very low to the floor.

I remember seeing these on a RL thread. They are not height adjustable, but they do address the issue.

Jackpoint Jackstands

I use the same method as rbi450sl. (But in the future I plan to remember to slip a hockey puck or at least a folded newspaper between the jack and the engine when lifting it up, although my memory is far from perfect.) I use the Esco flat-top jack stands that I purchased from our host, and a Harbor Freight low-profile jack (which also reaches almost 24" after slipping under something about 2-1/2" off the ground). Every one of those items was worth every penny, and really not all that expensive compared to the headache you get worrying about how to jack your car up.

You mention that jacking it up from the engine is "recommended". By whom? Porsche specifically states not to use the engine for jacking. You increase the risk of rupturing your motor mounts doing so. Cross member is safer.

http://www.hts-direct.co.uk/

I'm not saying it is or isn't recommended, but forums being jam packed with misinformation, I wonder where that info is stated.

Is that stated in the Porsche Owner's Manual or Porsche Repair Manual. I never came across that bit of info, but then I've never considered using the engine as a jack point.

Who said that? Yours is the first post on this thread using the word "recommended."

How To Jack Up A 993 - Rennlist Discussion Forums
I use this method. its quick, and i found it to be stable.
It seems common place for 993 owners to jack by means of wood (or hockey puck) under the engine block. If the cars couldnt handle it, im sure they wouldnt be doing it. There'd be threads ad nauseum about how bad it is, and things being damaged.
Also this same method is described in two very acclaimed books, "The essential guide to 993" and "911 performance handbook" .

Curious minds wanted to know.

Right out of my 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera 911 Turbo Owner's Manual...

• The vehicle must be lifted only at the indicated jacking points.
• The car must not, under any circumstance, be jacked up by the engine, transmission or front/rear axles. This can cause serious damage to the engine on the vehicle.

That puts that to rest and if you don't agree, take it up with the designers...Porsche AG. BTW, its also in their 2009 Owner's Manual.

ok.
do you feel better?
i will, as will many others and prob 90% of forum users, continue to use the engine...

747, i would def remove the lower engine cover regardless.

Owners are free to do as they please. After all, it is their car.

But just because 90% of forums users agree upon something, doesn't mean that 90% of forum users thought it through. Its usually someone that initiates a recommendation, and the rest just follow....just like those T38s (or F16s) that followed their Thunderbird leader...right into the ground. Sort of like that billet valve cover solution to leaking valve covers. :rolleyes:

definitely agree Traveller, good points...
and the poster above even mentioned the motor mounts as the stress points. things to ponder. This brings us to the suspension mounting point mentioned in post #3, i hadnt seen that one before.

theres no doubt that when i lift the back of my 993, on the block, my brain is telling me "somethings wrong with this" but i do it because I have not had an issue, and i have not read of others having issues either...

Our engine hangs from those motor mounts, I believe. So they are basically holding up a part of what is a 550 pound motor (and a part of it being held by the transmission mount). Its another thing to use the motor and its mounts to hold up roughly 2/3 of our 3000+ pound cars (65% weight bias). Whether that will do any damage to the frame rails that the mounts attach to, I highly doubt it. Whether it might do any damage to the engine mounts...maybe.

Some might point out the location of the engine mount at the rear of the engine. Once again, that was designed to hold up an engine...not the other way around...to hold up a car.

What Porsche may be concerned with is the point contact area against the engine case and with a surface that uneven, how does one distribute the load?. And from what I can tell, many if not all owners using the engine to jack up their car are using the joint at the case halves. That may be thick, but the adjacent case is thin in comparison.

Once again, owners can do as they please and they may never have a problem that they will attribute to their jacking technique.

Someone kept stressing one of the training aircraft I used to instruct on. Every time I would come out of an up-to-five-turn spin and pull out with a couple of Gs, I'd hear a thud coming from the back. I brought it up a few times to the AME who joked about getting some thud remover from the local auto supply. At one of the upcoming inspections, they found a crack in the horizontal stabilizer spar. How nice...no stab...it pitches nose down. Bye-bye! Thats what happens when things are overstressed slowly but surely in time.

So Alex, how do you jack up your 993 for an oil change, etc?

I use the right rear jack pad. I only need so much clearance. Once the majority has drained, I use shallow pans and lower the car to get those last few drops.

I've done all of my maintenance and underside detailing shown on my site using a single hydraulic jack and a piece of 6 x 6 lumber. The MaxJax will be coming...soon hopefully.

Thats pretty damn impressive. Im a slim guy but I need the car up high especially when trying to replace the small filter.

This is the first I've heard that jacking it up like this may be bad for it. Not sure how else I would do it other then the procedure with a block under the front spare tire area. I'm not too keen on that idea, however. I would love to just use one jack point, but I do not see how I would replace the center oil filter as someone else have mentioned.