Blown Engine

[Paul]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

http://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/sowhatcanyoudoiftheengineblows%3F

And the short answer $4k-20k depending...

Excellent article, thanks!

Another thing I've noticed about owners that I have replaced motors for:

Almost all of them sell the car within a year. When I ask why, they usually say: "It was running fine, but I can't trust the car anymore so I sold it while it was still in good shape."

[tony0214]

Based on the article the failure happens more on stick shift cars than tiptronic cars, the oil change is expensive but if you change the oil every 5000 miles and add a PROLONG bottle to it every time you change oil it should be maybe the only way to fight this problem. The key is maintaining the bearings lubricated to the max. anybody know for 80000 miles the oil that I should put???

[Paul]

The IMS bearing that fails is not lubricated by engine oil.

[gschotland]

Plenty of debate here on oils and no one right answer or even much consensus besides many thumbs down on Mobil 1, with "it's not what it used to be" being the common refrain. Look em up and read to your heart's content. Everyone's got their pet brands for varying reasons. There seem to be a number of good choices available. Some use 0W40, others 5 or 10, and some W50. I don't recall seeing anyone recommending a different oil based on mileage. If you're changing often enough, it seems this shouldn't be an issue.

My car's a little over 70k and I've been using Mobil 1 0W40 since 43k. Seems fine. When Jake did my IMS retrofit recently, we spoke at length about oils and he never said to start using a different weight at a certain mileage, just be diligent about changing it every 5k. He was referring to general engine health, not the IMS bearing which, as the last poster said, is sealed.

Based on the fact that the M1 0W40 can be a PITA to get around here (gotta order it by the case a week in advance) and LN Engineering, developer of the IMS retrofit bearing, sells 5 liter bottles of Motul 8100 5W50 for not much more, I'm going to buy a case of 4 - 5l bottles and give that a spin.

[mikefocke]

I buy my filter and crush ring mail order, but the oil at a discount store. And for $32 my local fast-lube place puts it in (I'm lazy and old). Total around $60. So it comes out maybe $25 more than for my Honda. And a little more work to assemble the parts but not much..I buy in quantity. Heck I even hand them a freshly cleaned oil filler plug just because I have an extra one.

The IMS bearing is designed to not be lubed by oil (sealed grease) but, when the inner seal fails and the oil penetrates to the bearing, the oil is all the lubrication it gets. So the condition of the oil does matter to the life of the bearing.

The LNengineering replacement bearing is designed to be oil-lubed.

Every 5k or sooner. Good quality oil. No additives.

[Paul]

I've heard a rumor that Porsche is having a sale on Cayman S 3.4 factory rebuilt motors for $7000 with no core charge and a 2 year warranty.

[tony0214]

Are all your Boxters stick shifts?????

[Paul]

Yes, both are 5 speeds.

[tony0214]

Originally Posted by tony0214

Are all your Boxters stick shifts?????

for some reason most IMS problems happen on stick shift cars before 50000 miles
why????

[Jake Raby]

That was 7 over the entire period of our Christmas shut down.. Thats not very bad at all, we've had 5 in one day before!