sightlinereaders

2005 Boxster base. 70K miles. Clang, Clang, revs drop, motor catches, I drive 500 feet pull into a lot and dump all the oil onto the blacktop. Tow to shop. We'll see what the diagnosis is.

Meantime, fearing the worst I start looking for used motors and my question is: Will a 2.9 from a 2009 987.2 drop right in? I'd spend the additional $ to leave behind the IMS scaring (I mean bearing) issues.

Any help would be appreciated.

Spokayman

Truly sorry to hear about this.
Remember there are several other mechanical failure modes that can cause catastrophic damage to our engines, not just the IMSB. But no matter what it was, it sounds bad if the motor lost it's oil.

I doubt you can put a 987.2 engine directly into a 987.1 chassis without modifications.
Besides possible mechanical differences, you may face electrical interface and ECU differences.
I think I would talk to a known engine tuner/rebuild shop for info on what is possible.

sightlinereaders

Car is at the shop. Does not look promising. Found out 987.2 motor will not fit. Would need trans, shafts..... the list is long.

So now I face some decisions:
Sell as a roller
Tear down and maybe rebuild.
Update to a 3.4 or 3.6 996 motor - pretty well understood upgrade.
What I know is- I won't be installing a new Porsche motor as it cost way more than the car is worth.

I also know I won't be buying another 911 or 987 any earlier than 2009, unless it is air cooled (but I have one of those), or a turbo. I rolled the dice when I bought the car - and lost. It really is a a shame on Porsche for not addressing these failures with recalls in the early days. My mechanic says he is seeing more and more of these go bye-bye and therefore sourcing a used motor at a reasonable price is pretty hard.

Right now I am drafting the eBay roller listing pending the final news from the shop.

Marine Blue

Did you see this! https://rennlist.com/forums/parts-ma...and-trans.html

sightlinereaders

Thanks for the link

sightlinereaders

Motor is toast. I was looking at the LN engineering Web site and it looks like they are seeing a 8% failure rate on these motors if I am reading it right. Roller is for sale. I just don't have it in me to take on a swap project. But for someone it will be a great chassis to work on. Frankly, I'd do a 3.4 upgrade. That would be fun and seems to be a pretty well understood proceedure.

Spokayman

Did you get a definitive diagnosis on what failed in the engine?
This usually requires a partial teardown of the engine, and at least separation of the trans from the engine to be able to see the IMSB.
Dropping the oil pan can show whether there is metal debris throughout the engine, etc.

sightlinereaders

Car sold in one day on Craigslist

DBH

Wow, must have been a give-away.


The 3.4 transplant sounded like an interesting project. Better luck going forward.

sightlinereaders

I did not get a definitive examination done. Once the oil pan was dropped we found a lot of metal and a large chunk of what appeared to be a cast piece. The magnetic drain plug was like a chia pet. I gave up and took the loss.