Sorry dude, I'm not tryin to drag you down. I just don't want you doing all this only to find more issues after you put it back together.

At this point I think you're at the limit of what you can do from a diagnostics standpoint. I would call the dealer and ask them for the leak down numbers. If cylinder 1 had less than 10-15% loss of pressure, replace the springs and then put it all back together and see how she does. If they come back with some bull**************** though and say "oh we forgot to tell you that the compression on that one only held 15%" then you have a choice - put it back together and see what happens, hoping that there was a spring issue there as well that's now fixed, or drop the motor and dive into the block.

Unfortunately, with the piston at tdc, boreoscoping won't show you anything. Wall scoring happens at the bottom of the cylinder, and even it can be hard to see from the cylinder side with the piston in bdc because the piston covers it up. I remember reading that it's possible to scope it from the crank case side, but I don't know any details. Maybe someone can help out here.

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I gave them a call. went to voicemail and i haven’t heard back. i’m not too worried about bore scoring, i just want it to run, and then drive it till it eats itself one day. maybe it would take a month, maybe it would last a little longer, who knows. I might just bite the bullet and do the springs. I have all of next week off work, so plenty of time to re work things if the springs weren’t the solution.

Just put in new springs, slap it back together, get it in time and then see what happens.

At least we can rule out that this was fuel related.

No no i swear it was the fuel!
jokes aside, that’s my plan. i feel cautiously optimistic that it’ll turn out alright. I’ll post an update probably some time this weekend when i can get to it.

I got the new springs and retainers in right before the rain started.

Any tips for setting the cam timing on a 3 chain? i marked the sprockets, chains and have an alignment tool, but want to make sure i’m not gonna blow it on start up.
I was planning on getting it all re aligned with the markings and tool and rotating it over by hand a bunch of times and re check the alignments but if i’m missing something feel free to chime in

Believe I put a link in earlier for doing timing.

I found something odd about a lifter on cylinder one. the part that touches the valve i can push in by hand, but the other ones i can not. is this normal? or should i replace this lifter. or maybe it’s just like that when oil drains out of it?

most likely drained down.

to be honest you should just replace all the springs & lifters. But...doing this on a budget like you are just means if there is an issue you will have to tear into it again. At a minimum I would stock up on cam plugs so you have them if you do need to take the head off again. If it were me I would of just had all the springs & lifters replaced and a shop go through the head to make sure the valves are good.

I did all the springs, might do all the lifters too. i put them in an oil bath and they’re not pumping up at all, just more and more air bubbles. By they i mean both of the exhaust lifters on cyl one.
I’m wondering if the cyl one lifters contributed to it, there’s always been a noise from this bank.
i keep a bunch of cam plugs around, the always come in handy!

It wont hurt to replace them all. At least you will know they are all replaced anyway.

Car fired right up, time to enjoy the new suspension!

That's great, you got very lucky there.
I am surprised there was no other damage.
Drive it for a few days or weeks and give us an update.

There’s still a slight tick on bank one. could just be bore scoring, or an exhaust leak. i’ll just enjoy it while i can and deal with it when i need to. who knows how long it’ll last!! I’m just glad it didn’t blow up on the first start up:D

I don't think bore scoring is going to cause a ticking sound.
Here is an old shade tree mechanics trick;);
Get a section of garden hose,Use it like a stethoscope.
Hold one end to your ear then move the other end around the engine tell you pinpoint where the tick is coming from.
Works very well.

Put that in your mental toolbox, you can use it in the future;)

It was an exhaust leak! the HOA decided to harass me about it right before i got it on the ground. drove it around the block and it feels nice and smooth. time for a real test drive

First drive was a success. The engine runs smoother and sounds happier. Thanks for all the tips and advice from everyone. Hopefully i won’t have to post a bad update but in a couple weeks i’ll post something to share how it’s doing.

Very pleased!!!!

Congratulations!! I hope you can get out and enjoy your car.

Update
 

Car is still running strong. The only issue I have run into was having to replace my aftermarket bremi MAF back to the original Bosch. Reason being after a week or so, I noticed the fuel trims started going too far into the negatives (-25 at idle). Put the original back in after cleaning, fuel trims look normal, and engine runs much better.
Since I have a bigger throttle body, k&n orion filter, full “race” exhaust, I’m sure it needs at least a little more fuel than a stock motor.
And yes I know some people have MAF Issues from the k&n, but I’ve taken my intake apart and the inside is squeaky clean, so I’m not too concerned about contamination being the issue. If it becomes a reoccurring thing though, I’ll have to think more about it. Trust me, the intake noise is much better than the desnorkel, and to me at least, just fitting the new system felt like when I replaced the original fried clutch (110k), and new exhaust. There was that much more of a punch to it.
New suspension feels great, but stiff. The old stuff was completely shot. I could push the old shocks down all the way by hand. Current setup is bilstein b6 with blue H&r springs. Ride height looks great, but it is stiff. Handles fantastically though. If You are thinking about lowering springs be advised that you’ll ned rear adjustable toe links to get the rear toe in spec. Mines pigeon toed in the rear and sometimes when I go over bumps or uneven roads, the car gets upset in the rear, so I have those ordered to get it fixed.

Thank you again to everyone who helped me stay sane during this, and im glad to have my car back!!!
Also, I got a citation in the mail. One of my neighbors claimed I was running an unlicensed business for repairing my car. I had a good laugh at that. If I was running a business, I would have filed for bankruptcy by now. :D

Good to hear from you.
great that the car has come out so well.
I feel you really dodged a bullet with just valve springs being the issue.
You should play the lottory
Have fun, enjoy, be safe;)

I am getting the same all of a sudden too - flashing CEL out of nowhere and misfires on 4,5,6 - HUGE plume of white smoke out of the exhaust... wonderful. engine started up really rough and lumpy - the white smoke seems bad - ecl did you have this symptom too?

When my AOS went, I had lots of oil and smoke. It ran awful. It failed in my neighborhood and ingested so much oil that it fried my cats. I’d check that first. See if you can remove the oil cap with the motor on, but try not to run it much. Let me know how that goes, happy to help.

Another thing to add, my brand new AOS failed after about two months so if it’s relatively new I’d still be curious about it.
What’s the car and mileage?

Could def be AOS, as that can also cause the P0456 error code I was getting intermittently over the past few months. It's smoked occasionally on startup from cold but nothing like this, this was next level. Thankfully I wasn't far from home.

I haven't opened it up to check hose fittings. The last time I had 0456 code one of the hoses was loose so easy enough. But all the misfire codes (for all cylinders) leads me to believe it's not the charcoal canister anymore...but what do I know...

The spark plugs are pretty new (2 years old max) so I'd hope it's not that. AOS seems like a likely culprit, but to your point I don't want to run the engine if I don't have to; probably just have it towed to my indie :(

2004 Boxster S. Mileage is 74K

If you had said there was no smoke I would be leaning towards a vacuum leak, but the smoke to me is either AOS or something more serious. I never got any engine lights when mine went even though it ran horribly. The quickest way to test it though is the oil cap removal. It could offer some peace of mind if it’s very difficult to remove it with the motor on

Keep me posted

Thanks, I don't want to run the engine cause I'm afraid it's going to brick or blow up or fry the cats.

When I first got the P0456 minor evap leak warning, I tried removing the oil cap with the motor running and it seemed to come off pretty easily. So that makes me worried it's beyond AOS, but I just don't know. Going to have it towed to local indy, fingers crossed!

Update - also leaking oil - wonderful

Do you know where it’s leaking from? And how much?

Apparently the rear main seal (not good) and the "intake" according to the mechanic. Not sure what he means by intake. Like air intake? Don't follow that one. Rear main seal alone is bad enough. The bizarre thing is that I just had it up on a rack a month ago, and there was zero leak. The other bizarre thing is the oil was changed 2 months ago.

When the AOS fails it can flood the intake with oil (its job is to keep the oil out).

A leaking RMS is a different story though.

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Rear main seal isn't going to cause flashing CEL. AOS may but that's pretty severe.

Confirmed that the AOS failed and flooded intake with oil. Hopefully RMS isn't also implicated. We'll see what it looks like to fix

The oil leak could be the oil dripping all the way down the drain in your airbox, assuming you still have it. That’s what happened with mine as well. Hopefully it’s not the rms leaking.

Also not to frighten you, but my cats did get fried from the oil consumption and I needed to change my plugs afterwards, but again hopefully that’s not the case for you.

The indy's story keeps changing. They confirmed AOS failed and sent oil all over the place. But they go, "...but [AOS] has not failed externally (???) - the top of the engine is dry so most likely the leak from the bell housing is the rear main seal...

Thoughts on whether they'd both randomly fail at the same time? There was never leaking oil until the other day

Thanks!

Also, ecp - how long were you driving around after your AOS failed? Thanks. Want to know if I should expect cats to be toast, etc.

Do you trust this shop? There’s an internal diaphragm that fails and that’s when it starts shooting oil into the intake. On the outside it’ll look fine. Have you seen the leak from the bell housing with your own eyes? I’ve never heard of them both failing at the same time.

I want to trust shops, but I’ve been burned many times, so I’m wary.

I drove for maybe two minutes after it failed because I was so close to home and didn’t want the tow, or to push it since it was late at night.

I don't trust them that much. First off all, they nickel and dime. I only had it towed there because AAA will tow within 5 mile radius. I didn't go back to them cause I wanted to.

I think I'll just have them handle AOS and then have it inspected elsewhere... just hope I'm right!

Honestly I’d recommend doing the AOS yourself if you’re mechanically inclined. If you don’t trust them, I wouldn’t trust them to clean the oil out of the runners. If they don’t do that it’ll continue to seem like something is wrong, possibly damage the cats more, and keep smoking.

So say they replace the aos and it keeps burning up the oil in there and they say “it’s still not running right we need to keep looking around”, then what?

Ok get this - They said after replacing the AOS there wer still misfire codes, did a smoke test and found smoke coming from the bell housing/RMS. "It would appear that when the AOS failed it caused so much vaccuum in the motor that iit sucked the RMS inward and now you ahve a massive crankcase intake leak."

Like, first of all, I'm going to tell them to park the car until I figure out what's going on but like is that even possible?? I guess it's possible but is it likely? I'm at the point where the car is old, enough money has already been put into it and I don't know if it's worth it to keep putting a couple grand more into it. Saddens me but it's the truth.

I feel like maybe the RMS was the only failure? Canthe AOS fail possibly do that?

I’ve never heard of that happening, but it does sound plausible. Ultimately that would be your choice to make, but if it was my car I’d have it towed back home and start pulling the tranny.

Has the rms ever been replaced?

Jake Raby has said there are two modes of failure of the AOS. One pulls oil into the intake (most common) In the second the diaphragm fails in the opposite manner and pulls up to 24" water vacuum on the crankcase. This is the most severe mode of failure. Can cause low oil pressure and cause main seals failure.

Found the thread: http://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/21752-looks-like-aos-but-engine-woes.html

Thanks for this. Great, so mine is probably the more severe mode of failure. Wonderful. Sounds like pretty much everything can be damaged here.