Strands50

Our 2000 Boxster S has a cracked cylinder head at 109K. Exhaust gas is pushing into the cooling system when hot and displacing coolant. When the car is cool, water can enter a cylinder and temporarily foul the plug until running the car burns it off. Repairs are estimated at $7-8,000 to replace cracked head. Our mechanic thinks it is not economic to repair and we agree. Any suggestions on what to do with the remains? The car has turbo wheels, decent rubber, runs fine (except needs a pint of water in the radiator daily) and no significant damage to outside or inside of the car other than the engine problem. We will drive it home from the repair shop tomorrow and probably use it around town until it is disposed of. I am thinking it is worth $2500 as rolling parts. Anyone else have an experience like this and an idea about what to do next?

Quadcammer

yeah, should be worth $3k as a roller in good condition.

FWIW, a good motor is about $3500 for your car, and install should be no more than $1k, so you could pursue that route if you love the car.

Starter986

I'd go with the motor replacement. There's no way in hell I'd sell my car for $3K as a roller. Surely many of us on this board have very nice exteriors and interiors... and parts alone would be worth more than $3K.
Hell, you could buy a wrecked 986... pull the properly sorted engine... install it into your roller... then selling many parts from the wrecker to cover that purchase.

I'm amazed at the ridiculously low prices for Boxsters. They're not throwaways as much as we believe. Easy to work on... part prices are reasonable.

Macster

Contact Oklahoma Foreign or there are other similar businesses you can find their ads in Excellence, and see if it wants the car. (In Hayward CA there is Parts Heaven which I believe buys rollers.) I almost did a deal with Oklahoma Foreign for the remains of my totaled Cayman S. The only reason I didn't was I managed to get the car into a somewhat local salvage car auction where I managed to sell it at a few thousand dollars over what Oklahoma Foreign offered. This is not necessarily a sign of any funny business by Oklahoma Foreign. It offered me the same amount for the car as the insurance company allowed it was worth.

Or contact your local Porsche dealer. I did and managed to sell my Boxster -- which was practically a roller with a CEL and error code that 2 dealers after 3 attempts (one lasting nearly 30 days) had been unable to even identify the cause -- to the local dealer who then turned around and sold it at a dealer only auction as a roller. I got a couple of thousand dollars out of the car with no hassle of trying to sell a roller car. Actually the engine ran fine but in CA one can't register the car with a CEL and with no registration it can't be insured and is thus can't be driven.

I would not continue to drive the car, run the engine. More use in the engine's condition can only damage the engine. As it is now very likely the engine can be saved with a proper head repair or replacement.

dr914

These engines are becoming less expensive to repair. We just did a 2001 Boxster S with a blown freeze plug and bad oil separator , total rebuild for 5900 included down to the open case with new bearings new clutch new IMS etc. Len Hoffman does great work repairing the cracked heads very reasonably

Ottomotion

Where are you located?

I may have a buyer.

Strands50

car is located in south Orange county California.

Ottomotion

Sent you a message. We are in central cal.

Spyerx

Strands50

didnt get your message. try my cell 951 236 9412

Brian in Tucson

Glad you arent' closer. I would be tempted, and I can't afford another project.

If there's no intermix and the compression is okay, I'd probably put another head on it. That ain't a $7-8000 job For someone like me, it would be a learning experience. I guess in the LA area, I'd be shopping around for someone to do the work reasonably. Here in Tucson there are Hispanics that are highly skilled mechanics rather than parts replacers. My Hispanic nephew (in Reno) can do Tiptronic rebuilds. And almost everything else.

Strands50

I am still looking to move my Boxster "roller". Runs fine except for cracked head symptoms.