Cam inner plug fail / sad bearing
 

I have spent the majority of the 8 weeks I have owned this boxster hunting down oil leaks and replacing failing rubber / plastic parts. I noticed some brown plastic bits in the oil filter. Upon some investigation I found the chain pads on the vario cam were severely worn. After reassembly I fired her up. Success .... wait ... no! Oil spewing on the ground. In the puddle of oil I found these:

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1662146735.jpg

After more research I assume I have suffered the same fate as Dharn55 on another forum (engine repair/threaded camshaft plugs). The metal caps on the ends of both exhaust cams blew out and took the rubber plugs too. He assumes that his cam holding tool was to blame ... ? I went back out to the garage and disassembled bank 1 last night. It looks like the bearing closest to the cap that shot out led to was starved of oil. Looks like this:

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1662146761.jpg

I understand this is not something that can be easily repaired. So, what should I do next? Replace the heads? Swap the motor? Push it off the cliff at the end of my block? Thoughts? :(

Sorry for your trouble. Since two plugs blew at the same time I would think your oil line downstream of the camshafts must be blocked somewhere... Another possibility is that the relief valve is stuck allowing for too high pressure build up and those plugs are the weakest links. That bearing may be repairable in a machine shop but it`s much easier to just buy a used head. Good luck!

Sometimes it happened when plugs are pushed in and deformed when using the camshaft lock tool. I can see in photo one of plugs is damaged in the middle. This same situation happened to me on my boxster. Had to new re-plug all camshafts and since then had no problems. Also not a good ideea using to much locktite on assembly it will clog oiling passages.