Head crack & value of nearly blown 2001 S engine?
 

My 2001 Boxster S has already 191kkm's on it.
A few weeks ago the coolant light started to blink.
I added up water as directed by the local OPC.
The situation got worse and suddenly there was coolant all over the place, in the trunk and pouring out to ground.
It was then diagnosed that the coolant tank was cracked.
So in went a new coolant tank.
Unfortunately that was not the cause just the symptom.
The cooling system, water pump etc. all checked out so the obvious reason was the engine. It might have a blown head gasket but it also turned out that there are scratches or cracks in cylinder 4... it might be though that the head has cracked and bits have then created scratches to the cylinder (cannot be 100% sure without taking the engine into pieces). This was detected by looking into the engine with a boroscope. There are excessive bubles in the coolant tank when the engine heats up.

Anyway, as the mileage is already rather high and cost of even a head gasket change is enormous, not to mention what a complete rebuild would cost, I've opted for a guranteed replacement engine.

And then finally to the question. The shop doing the engine swap might consider buying my "not so perfect" engine. Anyway I get to keep the engine or get compensated for it. The question is what is the "going rate" that I should expect to get for a rebuildable 986 S M96.21 engine?

I'd say you're pretty much looking at scrap value.

Cannot imagine anyone being interested in an M96 motor in the state you describe. As used engines, these are very 'iffy', and that's w/o known or possible issues.

I mean, you had the engine for free but still opted for a replacement rather than rebuild this one.

So, not to be glib, but to answer your question as to what it may be worth? Anything you can get for it, and consider yourself lucky to get anything at all, imho.

Cheers!

Might help to contact Autofarm UK to see if they want it. Or get a core exchange discount if you buy their motor.

http://www.autofarm.co.uk

+1 on this go to their website, read & learn all you can & also flat6innovations.com then choose which company to work with. They can make this experience a positive upgrade rather than a expensive negative repair. Although nothing worth having will be inexpensive.

Thanks for the heads up!

Autofarm charges £1.800 + VAT for a core engine ("Surcharge for supply of engine with no exchange"), so I guess a rebuildable core is not completely worthless. Again as Lil bastard pointed out, it is not a gold mine by any means as the rebuild is rather costly. Anyway, I'm hoping to get a few quid for my old engine :rolleyes:

Autofarm's prices are rather reasonable compared to many others. However, at this point I prefer a quick fix and I'll get a good guarantee for a used engine from a local specialist shop. I'm actually in the process of selling my Boxster and waiting for the arrival of a 996 Carrera 4 Cabrio ;)

191,000 KM...bless you...118,000 miles. I see you love driving your Boxster. :cheers:

Yep, having browsed through the forums it seems rather unbelieveable that the engine lasted so long... I also managed to agree on a decent core refund for my old engine. Not quite what Autofarm is asking, but I'm not selling to make a profit, I'm selling to cut my losses :D

"Yep, having browsed through the forums it seems rather unbelieveable that the engine lasted so long... "

While there are some engines which suffer what appears to be a premature death, there are others that seem to keep going forever. One guy that I met at a local car meet had 230,000 miles and his original M96 engine was still running fine.