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posting about my Boxster here because this forum gets a lot more traffic than the Boxster forum...
was on the track with my 99 Boxster yesterday; base engine has 125k miles; no mods except exhaust, deep sump with baffles, and underdrive pulley. Mobil1 10W40 oil, running about 1-2 lines below max on the dash gauge. OEM Porsche AOS done about 4k ago.
after a sweeping left hander, i saw a large billow of white smoke from rear of the car going down the straight. Lasted 1-2 seconds. No CEL, and never happened again the rest of the day.
any thoughts? did I just blow a little extra oil through the intake?
Not to put fear in your heart....I had a similar issue a few years back generally at the end of a long sweeping right on the track....every now and then a puff... everyone at the track said it's AOS, which was just put in....my mechanics said it's AOS and that likely oil level was too high. Was told to keep oil at half full mark. So I sucked out some oil to get to half full. So on my next track day I went out and saw a puff of smoke on the first lap after sweeping right then on the second lap on that same turn the engine blew...oil starvation on the crankshaft. Catastrophic failure....I would do an oil analysis to see if a crank bearing has worn.
Not to put fear in your heart....I had a similar issue a few years back generally at the end of a long sweeping right on the track....every now and then a puff... everyone at the track said it's AOS, which was just put in....my mechanics said it's AOS and that likely oil level was too high. Was told to keep oil at half full mark. So I sucked out some oil to get to half full. So on my next track day I went out and saw a puff of smoke on the first lap after sweeping right then on the second lap on that same turn the engine blew...oil starvation on the crankshaft. Catastrophic failure....I would do an oil analysis to see if a crank bearing has worn.
Very likely you had an AOS problem, and could have been intensified by increased blow-by. That's why I have suggested a blow-by test for anyone who drives these engines hard, especially on the track.
Lowering the oil level to stop oil ingestion is what caused the oil starvation/bearing failure.
Very likely you had an AOS problem, and could have been intensified by increased blow-by. That's why I have suggested a blow-by test for anyone who drives these engines hard, especially on the track.
Lowering the oil level to stop oil ingestion is what caused the oil starvation/bearing failure.
Probably true....but I only ran 2 laps with the oil level at 1/2 full. Can imagine that much damage to a crank bearing with just a couple of sweeping turns. On top of that why would the guys from one of the premier race shops here recommend to lower oil level. The fact that there are so many different viewpoints tells me the lubrication for these cars is still a black magic. Either way, I would still analyze the oil.
Probably true....but I only ran 2 laps with the oil level at 1/2 full. Can imagine that much damage to a crank bearing with just a couple of sweeping turns. On top of that why would the guys from one of the premier race shops here recommend to lower oil level. The fact that there are so many different viewpoints tells me the lubrication for these cars is still a black magic. Either way, I would still analyze the oil.
Two laps is absolutely enough to ruin an engine that's low on oil.
I recently saw a video of a kid who let someone drive his car one lap at an autoX. Spun the bearing.
Why they gave you that recommendation is anyone's guess. It's like asking a doctor to tell you why you have an ache while standing in line at the grocery store. Until they actually dive in to diagnose, any advice they give is just a guess. Can even be bad advice.
Last edited by Prelude Guy; 04-19-2020 at 06:06 PM.
Probably true....but I only ran 2 laps with the oil level at 1/2 full. Can imagine that much damage to a crank bearing with just a couple of sweeping turns. On top of that why would the guys from one of the premier race shops here recommend to lower oil level. The fact that there are so many different viewpoints tells me the lubrication for these cars is still a black magic. Either way, I would still analyze the oil.
Originally Posted by Prelude Guy
Two laps is absolutely enough to ruin an engine that's low on oil.
I recently saw a video of a kid who let someone drive his car one lap in his car at an autoX. Spun the bearing.
I locked up a race engine in the early 80's in 1.5 seconds from low oil pressure.
I had change the oil and filter the night before and didn't notice the oil filter o-ring/gasket had stuck to the block. Ran about 8 passes and was in the final round, the double o-ring/gaskets failed on the starting line just before the green light.(trail of oil for about 60 feet) Engine locked up in second gear at 8k rpm. Didn't spin the bearing or break the rod ( very strong rods), it actually bent the crankshaft !!!
If an engine can fail in 4.5 miles with oil at the halfway mark vs full mark does that not indicate bad engineering? Supposedly it should be good anywhere in the recommended range...no?
Anyway I am pretty convinced it was due to a high percentage of the 57k miles being track time....now I have 3.8 and I came out ahead on fun though maybe not in the wallet 😃
If an engine can fail in 4.5 miles with oil at the halfway mark vs full mark does that not indicate bad engineering? Supposedly it should be good anywhere in the recommended range...no?
Anyway I am pretty convinced it was due to a high percentage of the 57k miles being track time....now I have 3.8 and I came out ahead on fun though maybe not in the wallet 😃
I don't know if I can call "bad engineering"on this , but I definitely call if "complicated engineering". Running it almost a quart low on a track is very risky, I think you paid the price.
And yes, 57K of hard miles is definitely a factor and why I keep insisting people check their blow-by/engine health. Just think, 57k miles is almost equivalent to running the Daytona 500 about 114 times !!
I don't know if I can call "bad engineering"on this , but I definitely call if "complicated engineering". Running it almost a quart low on a track is very risky, I think you paid the price.
And yes, 57K of hard miles is definitely a factor and why I keep insisting people check their blow-by/engine health. Just think, 57k miles is almost equivalent to running the Daytona 500 about 114 times !!
Sweepers are often nasty to Boxsters (and 996s). I've had smoke bombs at the track. Running the oil lower tends to mitigate this problem but, as others have mentioned, can cause other problems. I would strongly suggest a deep sump made by Mantis Sport here in Canada, or by LN and others in the US. I use the Mantis Sport 2 litre sump kit and then run with 1 or 2 bars below full. This means that there is still lots of oil being fed into the engine but there's no oil being sloshed into the AOS to cause problems. My opinion based on my experience.
04-19-2020, 12:04 PM
puff of smoke on the track - from what?
