997.2 3.8 Engine Failure
 

Hi Everyone,

This is a thread i was hoping to never start, but i think the unexpected has happened. Last night, i was driving the car home and all of the sudden i noticed that the car was making a weird noise at certain RPMs. At first i just thought it was the Christmas presents i had in my backseat shaking and making some noise as the car felt fine - no faults on the screen, and felt just as powerful as always. about 5-7 mins later i got off the highway and stopped at the light, roll down my window and hear a terrible engine knock. At this point i was about a minute away from my home so slowly drove home and parked the car in the garage and filmed the following video.

From the research ive done so far and the other videos ive watched, the sound resembles the symptoms of slapping pistons/scored cylinders. I have not found any 997.2 with this issue so far so im really puzzled, but im expecting the worst at this point.

Since i took ownership of this car over a year ago and 11k miles, ive done oil changes every 3k miles. The car was burning about 1qt of oil per 3k miles. I was using Castrol Edge in the beginning and ive done 2 blackstone oil analysis, which came back excellent. On the last oil change, i decided to use Motul and ive put maybe 1500-2000 miles on the oil since.

I checked the oil level and its perfect, not overfilled nor was it too low. The car developed the sound after it was up to operating temperatures - oil and coolant. I dont think it happened when i started the car or at least i didnt notice it. We did have cold temperatures last night about 28degrees,

The car currently has 76k miles.

What are my options? What kind of diagnosis can i do at home? Drain oil and look for shavings? The car doesnt have any faults or check engine on the dash.

What is the cost of new engine? Rebuild? 4.0 build?

Any suggestions on the shop around Chicago area?

Any advice is appreciated.

video:

For the simple, pull the multi belt and check all associated parts.

Petza went to the Raby school and was told the 9A1 cam chain tensioners can go bad.

Cold start seize up can occur if you get rev happy before warming up the motor, but this doesn't sound like that.

Keep us posted. Good luck.

Merry xmas and im sorry to hear that. Im hopeful its something less dramatic than scored bores so dont get too bummed out!

My bet is a bad water pump or stuck lifter. Scored cylinders are rare on the .2 and I cant believe symptoms would develop so rapidly. Its also my understanding that scored cylinders on a .2 lead to complete cylinder seizure vs the .1 "slap".

Unfortunately im less knowledgable on the .2 but im sure the guys will jump in. One thing I would recommend is getting a $3 mechanic stethoscope from Harbor Freight and trying to isolate the sound a bit more. Then get it over to your indy after xmas.

+2, water pump or belt tensioner / idler pulley.

waterpump my guess

Hopefully you may not have as big a problem as you fear. Don't walk the plank with a full engine rebuild until you do some more diagnosis. I'm a Porsche newbie, but here's the steps I'd take, in this order:

1. Put car up on stands or lift so you can comfortably get under engine.
2. Get a mechanic's stethoscope, and with engine running use it carefully to try to isolate where the noise is coming from. Pay close attention to HPFP (runs off driver's side exhaust camshaft), water pump and the vacuum pump (driven by pass side exhaust cam).
3. Take out the oil filter, cut the ends off and separate element folds. Examine element for any pieces of metal. If you find any, put the used element in a zip-lock baggie and set aside. Install a new filter; you will not have lost any oil to speak of.
4. Hopefully you found nothing in the filter. So far you're out only $20 or so for a new filter. Stop here and come back to the forum and tell us the results.

That's my two cents. Hopefully the noise you're hearing is a component problem and not internal engine damage.

Thank you for the advice guys, ill keep you updated as i find out more.

That does not sound like an engine destroying itself yet. Remove the belt, spin by hand all the pulleys. It's one of those.

I may be alone in this but don't start the engine. If something is wrong and you aren't the one who's able and willing to fix it why
risk further damage? If it is something internal you're chewing up the case with every revolution.
Have the car towed to the shop and have the mechanic look at it. regardless of weather it's piston slap, timing chain, a rod bearing or a water pump. Why run the risk
of something breaking loose and punching a hole in the case.

Removed oil filter. METAL SHAVINGS CONFIRMED

Pictures?

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...e70c3dada0.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...b832abba21.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...d44aa40273.jpg