pszikla

check out this online petition that Cayman owners are accumulating signatures for!
I guess every car has it's issues!
http://www.petitiononline.com/Porsche1/petition.html

Pete

Ray S

Interesting.

From the open letter it does not appear that the engines are failing, rather just smoking in some situations. I wonder if a baffle revision would help.

It would be interesting to hear if Mooty ever had this problem in his Cayman. I have never experienced anything like this in my Boxster which is now in it's 8th year of mixed use (street/track).

redridge

that sucks.... I guess better after them now, rather than out off warranty.

Tippy

I like the hydro-lock part of it, that would never happen.

MechanicalEng

That is funny, that just happened to me this Sunday at the track, my car is an 02 996 with a "new" engine and it smoked really badly after soming out of a corner, the car keep smoking for like 3mins and then she stopped, there was no CEL or any leak or anything wrong with the car, my mechanic said that it was some oil that made it into the intake thru the Oil separator.. he said it was common on 996-997-986-987 engines..

cs jeff

Actually, it could. Oil is a non-compressible, so if you got enough oil in the combustion chamber during the compression stroke, it could cause engine damage. I've had this conversation with a certified Porsche mechanic and he supports the possibility of this very thing happening with the oil ingestion problem that is being experienced.

Ray S

Any more details? What track/corner? What was your oil level?

MechanicalEng

oil level was 1 level below full according to the electronic read and according to the stick it was full, it was at a PCA Autox and it happened after a hard right turn. The car started to smoke really badly it was like a small house size cloud, then it smoked just a bit for like 3 mins and the it was normal again.. the car had no cel, no oil press loss, no noises.. I was very worried, but all the guys at the event said that it was normal.. I have seen 996 doing it at summit point too, but it has never happened to me... my P-mechanic said it was the Oil separator..

Jon996

Some Cayman owners are going to the "Sport" AOS "2 chamber Porsche Motor Sport oil separator. (p/n 996 107 926 00) List price: $518"

One reported that he did not have a problem until changing suspension to PSS10s (?) the new AOS fixed the problem.

http://www.caymanclub.net/reviews/sh...3&limit=recent

MechanicalEng

Thats great news, I guess I will have to look into that...

smackboy1

Similar thing happened with my 996. Took it to a DE for the first time in May. After completing my run, I would shut down the engine, and when I would restart it later I would notice that the car would spew white/gray smoke out the exhaust. It continued to spew smoke on startup for a few days after the DE. More experienced Porsche owners told me it was normal and not to worry. I noticed that no other 996s had the same problem. Never figured out what caused it.

Tippy

I am not saying it can't happen, but I seriously doubt it.

I have a hard time believing oil could flow through the tiny, tiny valves that fast to fill the combustion chamber 1 cc or more over the combustion chamber size to hydor-lock the cylinder while a motor revs.

Lets take the average 4000RPM on the track. That equates to 2000 compression strokes per minute, or 33 compression strokes a second per piston, and 200 compression strokes per second for all the pistons.

I would think the oil would be spread somewhat to different cylinders so rapidly, it could not single out one cylinder in a split second much less fill that chamber so rapidly.

Hey, but I have been wrong before.

ArneeA

Interesting. Thanks for the info. I'm going to look into this also.

M Fig

What a bunch of wusses...crying over a little smoke. Our fricken engines explode and do you hear us crying over it...or...um...I mean...well, ok we do cry over it but still, those caymen guys have nothing on us

rideau

smackboy1
Saw a 996 with engine smoke on start-up at a DE when I first purchased my car. The Porsche dealer service mgr was there and told me to always let the car idle for a few minutes after a session. He also said that it isn't anything to worry about (easy for him to say!). It's been 8 track seasons with the 996 for me and I've never had any hint of smoke.