Boxster engine issues
 

A little history as most already know this, but some may not. The #757 Boxster S motor broke at California Speedway during the CFoS Sunday Sprint Race. Coming out of T5 it sputtered, and as I pulled off to the inside of the track it died. Spectators say that was the same point where a little blue puff of smoke appeared from the exhaust.

Since the car only has 47K on the motor (mostly weekend driving mind you) and is less than 4 years old, I figured I would see if Porsche would at least help with a new motor. No such luck. You could probably hear the laughing from Stuttgart if you had listened close on that day. But I figured it was worth a shot.

So, now the car is at Mind Over Motorsports and the engine is out. Attempted to do a leak-down test on #6 cylinder. But that didn't work out because the piston does not move when the crank shaft is turned. It would appear as though the connecting rod has come unconnected. Not much noise coming from the crankcase during this process, so I am holding out hope that the disconnected connecting rod hasn't caused a lot of collateral damage. Also, the center ceramic piece of the spark plug was shattered. Leading us to believe that there was detonation. Which could have also caused the connecting rod to break (possibly??).

My intent is to get another motor and have it installed into the car as soon as I can get it done (few weeks probably). Then keep this motor, rebuild it and hold onto it as a spare. At least that is my current plan. We'll see how that works out in reality.

sorry for your motor trouble. however, if the car is less than 4 years old and 50k miles why is porsche not covering the failure?

i am not familiar with Cal Motor Spdway, i do know it's got banks. so is the loss due to oil starvation?

Did you tell Porsche that it broke during a race?

A friend of mine went through this with his 02 996. They did replace his engine, but barely. First thing they did is download the ECU data and counted the 1000's of P1-P2 rev limits. They of course, knew at that time he was either racing or managing to drive 140mph on the freeway without getting a single ticket. The over-revs from missing proper braking heel-toe are what really set them off. Sorry for your loss.

so sorry.. this type of thing just has me that much happier I never tracked my 02 Boxster S... I only have 9k miles so if my engine suddenly went boom, I'd raise holy hell to get porsche to replace it and they'd find nothing unusual on an ECU download..

For a new engine possibility, Farnbacher-Loles ( www.farnbacherloles.com ) is building a 3.8L X51 Caymen hybrid (GTR) and has a stack of new stock 295HP 3.4L Boxster (Caymen) engines sitting in their shop. I have NO idea if they will sell, if it will fit, or what the cost might be but figured I would toss it out..

Don't ge me wrong. I am not pissed at Porsche. The reason for not covering the engine was "abuse". And in all honesty, I did abuse the car. ECU download revealed 65000+ spark cycles in Range 1, and 251 spark cycles in Range 2. And the last Range 2 was sometime since the last time the car was in for service/repair. I suspect that had I not had another Range 2 since the last one (a year or more ago), it might have been covered.

Which is a little odd, because I remember one or two Range 2's in the early days of this hobby, but have been pretty good about it in the last 2 years. Anyway, that's what the computer says and we all know computers never lie, so there you have it.

DrJuperman: No I did not mention that it happened during a race. The service writer at the dealership is a good man, and wrote it up as best he could in attempt to get Porsche to cover the engine. But on the other hand, I have made no attempt to hide my racing from Porsche. After all, aren't all Porsche's street legal race cars? ;)

mooty: No, I do not believe the failure was due to oil starvation. However, prior to putting the new engine in, we will be adding an extra oil pickup (RR corner of crankcase), and Brey Krause's Deep Sump Oil Pan kit (R-9095): "just to be safe".

Thanks for the tip. Mind Over Motorsports is doing the same thing. In fact the Cayman motor was suppose to be out of the car today.

However, I am hoping to keep the car in D. Upgrading the engine to 3.4 would be fun, but would put me in GT3. Making the upgrade cost $20K, even if the motor is only a tiny bit more than a 3.2.

What is "range 1" vs. "range 2"?

Was the failure from a cyl liner failure? The liner drops down and the piston rings run past the top of the liner and pop open locking the piston crown in place. The piston stops dead but the rest of the motor does not. sometimes the piston splits apart leaving the crown up top and the rest clanging around. Liner failures were due to improper instal IIRC.

Range 1 is "close to redline". Can't remember how close though. Redline is 7200, so I figure that's between 7000 and 7200.

Range 2 is "over redline". With revlimiters, obviously the only way to do this is to mis a shift.

Don't really know yet. Will not be taking this motor apart to inspect that sort of stuff until after the new motor is in ( I soooo miss driving my car :crying: ). That is a possibility though since the piston is close to, if not at TDC and not moving. I will be sure to mention it to the mechanic doing the work.

If that is the case, the rest of the pistion would not really "clang" around though right? It will still be held reasonably straight and true by the skirt and remaing two rings, correct? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

on the positive side, if you did 'beat on' the car its whole life, then 47k is a good life for a 'track' engine ;)

Yes, that is a very good point ceboyd. I have been "performance driving" (AX -> DE/TT -> Club Racing) the car since it was 6 months old (~5K miles). Considering all this car has been through in the last 3 years and 9 months it is a very credible testament to Porsche's and their durability.

Ironicly, The Porsche dealership told me they didn't have problems with 2001 and newer any more when I bought mine brand new in 2002 (my S Boxster that is)..

I didn't totally believe them back then either considering I still heard stories about 996s and other boxster engine problems (just not as much or as often as the 97/98 boxsters or the 99 996)