A strange case of oil migration..or?...should I worry?
 

Hi. New to the site, but have been lurking for a few weeks.

I recently bought a 2002 Boxster S. It has 67,000 miles on it and I'm currently in the process of installing a new clutch pack. I will be doing all of the 60K mile things, a water pump, and will also be checking the IMSB and the RMS. I know my way around cars pretty well, having owned five different models of mid-engined cars, and restoring a dozen others...and I used to be a mechanic at a private shop that specialized in Ferraris...anyway...

I pulled the oil filter this afternoon, cut the ends off and checked for debris. It actually looked very good. No metal at all, at least nothing above microscopic. There were 4-5 very small black or brown plastic pieces about the size of pinheads...I'm guessing chain tensioners or guides, but will worry about that later.

Anyway, this Boxster, upon immediately looking at the top of the engine, has me wondering WTF?. Some of the plastic intake parts have what looks like oil "bleeding" through the part, and collecting dust, See arrows A, B & C.

If this oil migration from a leak, it is basically only on the plastic tubing. I did notice (Arrow D) that some of this oil migration goes below the drivers side intake, where there may be an oil leak, but whats weird, is that there is no oil below it, and it seems like it migrated up...but only stayed on the plastic parts??? Has me scratching my head!

Tube "C", whatever this is, is very oily as well, but nothing else around it is.

Any suggestions before I start ripping stuff apart are greatly appreciated!


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The filter inspection...

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