[Walt Fricke]

My guess was correct about this "heat the piston" business. Volumne 1 of the factory manual says use an electric heater (the picture shows something I don't recognize sort of clamped on the piston) to heat the piston to 80 degrees C, then push the pin out with a drift. To install, heat the piston in an oil bath to 80, or use the electric heater, and push the pin in. It says that if you can push the pin in cold you need larger OD pins (which it names). That was for the 2.0 engine. V1 has some info on the 2.2 engines also, but doesn't mention the pin.

Volume 3, which covers through the SCs (at least the one I bought) says nothing about how to remove or install the pins. But as Wayne notes, Porsche changed this from a light interference fit to one where you can push it in or out without needing much force. The rod is plenty stiff enough to withstand some tapping on a drift of some sort. To each his own, but I'd not consider the extra time needed to use a puller.

As to what amounts to a slide hammer, those are only useful where you can't get to the other side of something. Using that technique on the pin is going to impose the same forces as tapping on a drift, plus some extra set-up time.

But I hope all who read this discussion realize heat isn't needed unless working on a 2.0. And maybe by now a new set of Mahle 2.0s have the slightly looser pin bore by now also?