AndreSantos

So, after a long time searching and planning I got my first Porsche

I informed myself as best as I could, and I knowingly purchased a car in need of some work, I used the findings from a pre-purchase checkup to lower the price as much as I could.

Long version short, I had a supposedly Porsche Specialist do a check-up to the car before I went there in personally. On the day of the pickup, before signing the contract or paying for the car I arranged to take the car to the Porsche Center there to have them do their 111-point check on the car.
So, double checked, double safe?

I was under the impression that 987.2 with the updated engines didn't suffer from bore scoring issues so I relaxed a bit. I also put my trust in the mechanic I hired and in the Porsche center themselves.
Only later on did I learn that although rare, ma1.21 engines can also suffer from scored bores and realized that actually neither Porsche nor the independent mechanic did a compression check or a visual inspection of the cylinders...

So here's the thing, the car has 2-3 noises in particular that have my attention.
1. is a whine, that is not related to any of the belt driven accessories (the alternator was making a bit of noise and I replaced it) and I've also ran the engine for a few seconds without belt to check for the noise and it's still there;
2. a "tick tick tick" noise only present at low rpm that from investigating online I believe it's a valve lifter;
3. an "uneven" , "chuck... chuck... chuck" sound present from idle to any rpm, and that increases frequency with rpm.

This is my first Boxer engine and I have no points of comparison. I've seen plenty of videos online of motors with scored bores and they sound way worse than mine, but it's also the sound that closer resembles the sound I have...

Would you guys mind having a look/listen and share your thoughts/expertise ?


Also, I'm on the hunt for the origin of a "small" oil leak.
It's somewhere around the intake port of the furthermost cylinder on the right-side of the car, cylinder 3 I believe?
I replaced the air-oil separator, as it was bad, probably for a long time. There was plenty of fresh oil in the tube that goes from the separator to the intake plenum. Also I've noticed some oil under the rubber sleeve that connects the intake plenum to the intake distributor.
There's also a tiny oil-leak on one of the actuators/valves on the intake plenum.
Then there's the oil pooling around the intake port of the previously mentioned cylinder. I've marked up some diagrams to go with the bad explanation.




As far as I can tell the engine runs fine. It pulls cleanly at any rpm, there's no hesitation, no rough idle, nada. Also, as far as I can tell there's no abnormal oil consumption, but I'll have to keep an eye on it for a bit longer before I draw conclusions
But the oil pools quite fast on top of the engine head as I've cleaned it as best as I could, and I week later there was again a small pool of fresh oil waiting for me.
On the diagram I've marked in Purple the parts that either have tons of oil around them or that I highly suspect they're the leaky ones, light blue for noticing small amounts of oil, and blue lines for the zone where the oil is pooling on the engine.

hueyhoolihan

i've got a 2007 2.7l and your engine sounds pretty much the same as mine. minor noises seem to come and go...

318touring

It's a different engine ....

hueyhoolihan

that's why i specified the year and displacement.

A432

Normal on the noise.
Oil could be one of the seals from your diagram, leaking cooler or oil running down from the AOS replaced

Vilshofen

My 987.2 sounds exactly the same. The ticking is fairly common as this was the same was my 987.1 2.7 that Huey referenced. Most of my friends who also have Caymans and Boxster have the asme sound!

MrMoose

If you get oil in the intake it'll leak from the seal (5) and pool on top of the head. That's probably what you're seeing. To fix this:

- Keep the oil filled to only one bar below full. If you fill it to the full mark it tends to dump oil into the intake system
- Torque the metal clamp around the (5) seal to spec (3.5 ft-lb on the screw) as it's likely loose

If you get oil in the intake you'll also likely find it dripping from the MAF sensor. That can be unclipped and cleaned out, though it's a bit of a squeeze to work on it in the car (and you can't easily pull it out of the engine bay).

AndreSantos

Thank you so much for all your replies guys!
Mega.

Regarding the engine idle sound, this gives me a bit of peace of mind.

I'll follow-through with the oil-leak fix, thank you for the insight!
I was searching through old posts and I found some post where someone tracked an oil-leak very similar to my own down to the power steering tank.
Some sealant between the tank and the compressor was bad and leaking. I don't think that is it for me, however what I also found is that the measurement stick on the power steering tank shouldn't be read as "min - max" (even though that's what it say on the stick) but as "cold - hot", and if this is the case then I've overfilled mine! I'll get a syringe to remove the excess. Could this then overflow on top of the engine/intake ?

MrMoose

That can overflow, yes, but I think it would come out of the cap? Anyway, only fill that to the bottom line cold.

I made the same mistake when I got my Cayman, it's really not clear, lol.

AndreSantos

I saw online it was cold - hot.
I even think I saw a photo that showed cold - hot. But when I got around to doing mine and saw min - max, I thought perhaps it was different for the 987.2 or something and just filled it to max.

Now another question, is the coolant filling also cold - hot ?
Cuz that would explain why I filled it to Max and then it was down to Min :P

MrMoose

I've found that if I fill the coolant to max it tends to drop a bit over time. I'm convinced some of it is evaporation via the cap venting, as I'm not leaking any.

Double check your caps for leaks: there's the fill cap, and then also the pressure cap on the tank (I think it's the same on the Boxster as the Cayman). Both have seals that can fail over time and leak a bit.

AndreSantos

Thank you, will do!

I saw the tank while working inside the engine bay, didn't see any visual signs of leaking. But I didn't open it.

Ubermensch

I'll take a guess based on past experience on 996 and 987. I would guess your AOS is on its last legs and allowing abnormal amounts of oil to be pulled into the intake tract. Ideally your intake tract wouldn't leak air (or oil). In the case of my 996 it would just "sweat" a bit of oil at the plenum right up until the AOS failed and pulled ton of oil and stalled the engine. I'd take the intact tract apart and see how much oil is in there. If it's pooling up, then you've to an AOS issue. If it's clean you can look for other sources.

AndreSantos

I suspected the AOS so I replaced it already. My mistake was that I didn’t clean the oil before replacing the AOS.

I did it in this order:
- while replacing the alternator I cleaned up most of the oil;
- ran the car;
- replaced the AOS;
- had to remove the alternator again - saw there was fresh oil.

but the fresh oil can very well be from before I replaced the AOS. So I’m going to clean up the oil as best as I can, check that the plenum to intake manifolds is properly tightened. Run it for a few days then check for oil again.

AndreSantos

Came across this on YouTube. Sounds very similar to mine.


I noticed the other day that one of the ticking noises actually seems to be there at higher revs, it’s just more difficult to track as it’s much faster.

From what I had read, stuck valve lifters were only a problem at idle where the oil pressure is low?
what else can it be, what should I be looking out for?