Oh, sorry, I typed that fast and didn`t look back on what I wrote. I meant the original color was not BAD either, to me the blue paint looks by far the best out of all the original colors of the boxster. But that`s me.
As for the other quesition, I think I meant both: it`s hard to believe that there was no any other circumstance that caused oil starvation. But, if it`s indeed just due to racetrack conditions, then it`s CRAZY, and that reflects a huge failure in the engine design.
It`s true that when there`s a drop in oil pressure at high engine speed the first thing that will go is the rod bearing. But, if the entire oil mass in the sump moved to the side so the oil pickup strainer could not pick up oil, then you should see the oil pressure warning light blinking and probably there`s some beeping alarm from the computer I assume (I don`t know, I`ve never driven a Boxster). I`m not sure though if you can pay attention to these warnings when you are racing. Any report about this from the racers?
Another possibility that i can think of, is that the reason for this failure is that too much oil flows to one side toward the head and the scavange pump can`t deliver that back to the sump in time. In an engine the hottest part by far is the cylinder head, thus the oil circulation is designed such that not too much oil flows to the head to avoid rising oil temperature too high. Now, if your oil flows toward the heads because you are bending corners like crazy on a racetrack for hours, the oil carried back from the heads might become too hot and may start forming bubbles. The oil can be further aerated by the chains that whip the oil into a froth. Perhaps these together may cause oil starvation and the rod bearing that takes up the highest load eventually fails.
Just a theory, I like to think outside the box.
Quote:
Originally Posted by maytag
I'm trying to understand what this means? haha. No clue
I dissassembled the motor far enough to confirm a few things: A) the IMS was intact and fine. B) There was more than one rod bearing rattling-around in there.
I'm not sure if your comment was a "man, it's CRAZY that you can drive them so hard that they fail to oil adequately", or if it was more of a "Sorry, I'm not buying it. You can't drive these things hard enough that they fail to oil adequately".
Regardless, let me assure you that this, not the IMS, is the "Achilles heel" of the M96 motor. A flat, boxer motor with very little sump, really should've been a dry-sump if it was gong to pretend to be a track-oriented motor. There are some bandaids, and hopefully the ones I've implemented this year will do the trick. But talking to others and reading up on the M96 failures at the racetrack, most are oil-supply related.
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