Broken Boxster Battle Part 16!
In this video I break down what went wrong with this engine and why it failed.
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Will at Rennthusiast has a mechanic in Greensboro—just in case.
Despite what happens to the engine, great content for learning and so well put together step by step. Also, interesting to hear from the oracle himself!
Good Stuff, looks like this engine is salvageable. This will be a good series can't wait to see the first start.
I have a 2001 2.7l Boxster, i have no issues as of now but i am wondering if at what mileage would this issue with the camshaft occur if it was going to happen, or if there are any early signs to look for? I currently have 68,000 miles on the vehicle
So the bent valves in the first bank indicate they were slapped by their respective pistons. (Two cylinder #6 valves also look suspicious.) The tops of the pistons did not look bad, but I would want to magnaflux the rods and also check their straightness. One could also fluorescent penetrant inspect the pistons after cleaning to look for cracking. The nondestructive testing mentioned could be done by qualified aero shop. Frankly, I believe you may be $ ahead by buying a salvaged engine. You can make that decision yourself once you put together a parts list. I've built a few engines complete before, but following along on your vids, it seems to me the Porsche engine has way more parts and way more opportunities to make an assembly error for someone doing it (unassisted) the first time. Thanks for the vids. Good luck friend.
Nice post mortem on the failure! Interesting stuff!
I think those pistons are still good… just buff off the carbon. I’m no expert though.
I may have missed it but what is the mileage on this engine? Did Jake mention if there is a direct correlation between mileage and this failure? Thanks for producing this content it is incredibly helpful!
Interesting, with the heads off, all the valves should be shut. The ones that are open must be bent as a result of the chain breaking. The valve with the lifter failure, is closed and not bent, as it stayed closed from the moment the lifter failed and stopped opening it. In my case my engine just suffered the lifter failure and the scavenge pump Fabre, looks like I was lucky that none of the bits jammed the chain, causing the cam to stop turning and valves to hit pistons.
What is Jake Ruby’s solution the the cylinder 1 inlet valve cam profile problem, I wonder? Will it need a specially re-ground cam?
Are you going to do a cheap junk rebuild of that engine, like a guy on TheType4Forum did with a 1.8 liter Type 4 engine a while back? You might be able to get by with reusing the pistons if they measure OK and the piston crowns can be cleaned up. Just rebuild the rods with new small and big end bearings, new piston rings, replace the bad camshaft(s) on the one side; replace all the chains and chain guides; update the IMS bearing assembly; replace all valves and guides on that one head or replce head if its too far gone, replace the oil pump(s) if they are damaged or out of spec, etc. The head might be OK; so all you need to do is new valves and valve guides on that one head.
Great videos and a very interesting explanation of the root problem. What engines are affected by the cam lobe machining error? I have 5 chain engines so hope they are not in danger of this happening. Do you have to machine the camshafts to correct the original problem? And why do the intake cam lobes look rusted?
My tendency, in your place, would be a rebuild using as many of the original parts as possible. By doing this you know what you have. Of course you replace many of the parts that one could worry about on an unknown used engine (chain guides, IMSB, chains, rod big-end bolts, etc.)
Not to be a nit picker, but you made a couple of slips of the tongue in the heat of the moment… you called the camshaft a crankshaft (2:39) when you were talking about the pin and you said the cam lobes press on the pistons rather than the lifters (5:30).
Another possibility is if the previous driver over speed the engine. You should be able to check it in the engine history if there was any over speed event, and for how long. It will help to calculate how long each cylinder was exposed. As I could see too, most of the valves need to be replaced because of blended shaft. The valve guides could be damaged too.
Is that cam problem only on the 2.7 and not the 3.2?
Thanks great stuff!!
Lots of destruction here. It looks like it might be rather expensive to replace those damaged parts; IMS, pistons, valves, tappets, chains, etc. Also, I would want to find a reputable machine shop experienced with Porsche engines to examine the block, heads, rods and anything else deemed "reusable." I'm curious if there are aftermarket cams that are machined correctly to prevent this from happening again? I have a 1999 2.5 Tiptronic with 27,000 miles. Two owners prior to me. The second owner unfortunately ran it without sufficient oil, so the engine had to be replaced. No records are available indicating what the mileage was when it was replaced, but I suspect it was around 15 to 20 thousand miles. I do know that it was replaced with a Porsche remanufactured unit at a Porsche dealer though. I wonder if the 2.5 is susceptible to the same fate. But this also shows how critical it is to keep up on oil changes using the correct oil.
Did Jake happen to mention how likely this is to happen? Just wondering if this is something I need to worry about failing on mine.
Very interesting viewing, thanks for sharing. If my 986 3.2 died I would likely start with sourcing a decent used unit and take plenty of time overhauling it before installing back in the car, but I hope it never does pop!