Does my 2000 S have a 2.5L?

[78F350]

I picked up a slightly distressed 2000 S yesterday and started doing my PPI (Post Purchase Insp.) today. After I closed it up for the night I looked up the engine serial number and as far as I can tell, it shows it to be a 1997 engine, which I'm guessing would have to be a 2.5L


My decoding attempt is:
2065 = 2.5L, 6Cyl, Version 5.
V = 1997
The rest is the sequence.

Is there any way this could be a 3.2L with that number?

Here's the engine from the top. AOS looks a bit odd. I'm guessing it's the "motorsports AOS"


I have no idea about it's history yet. The guys I got it from had just taken it in trade and couldn't even spell Porsche.

...and is this intake normal? It looks like a few things aren't lined up quite right: ...tomorrow I'll pop the cover on one of my '99s and compare.

[The Radium King]

yup, a 2.5 - no resonance tube.

[stelan]

but that throttle body and intake tubes are not 2.5 items aren't they?

[Retroman1969]

Gang, it looks like we've got a mystery on our hands!


I'm curious to know what you find out about this car. Uneducated guess: previous owner blew the motor. So they picked up a '97 2.5 engine because it was the cheapest to acquire, and they reused the original intake from the 2000 "S" engine....?

[itsnotanova]

I'm thinking 2.5 also. Measure how tall the oil cooler is

[78F350]

What you have all said makes sense to me. A cheaper replacement for a bad 3.2 using the original intake tubing and throttle body. I'll measure the oil cooler and get a better look this afternoon. The engine looks pretty clean except for where the oil has leaked down near the AOS, so probably a relatively recent swap.





Funny, I've seen lots of base models on Craigslist that were trying to be an S. Now I have the S, trying to be a base.

The good news:


:dance:

[jdraupp]

That's definitely a 2.5. Hope you didn't get screwed on this.

[JFP in PA]

No thinking about it, it is a 2.5L engine from 1997. It is also not the first we have seen like this; we were once tasked to do a PPI on a 996 C4S, and found a 2.7L Boxster engine hiding in it.

This is one of many reasons why you need to do a PPI before reaching for your wallet.

[stelan]

A good link to decode the engine serial numbers?, when measuring rhe oil cooler what are the specs?

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by stelan

A good link to decode the engine serial numbers?, when measuring rhe oil cooler what are the specs?

An S car should have the larger oil cooler than a base 2.5L car:

[stelan]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

An S car should have the larger oil cooler than a base 2.5L car:

Thanks cool info, is the 2.5 oil cooler the same size as the 2.7?

[78F350]

Originally Posted by stelan

Thanks cool info, is the 2.5 oil cooler the same size as the 2.7?

The 2.5 and 2.7 are the same, but the '97s have a different part number. Here's a clip from the Katalog:



The cooler off my scrapped 2.7 is 2-3/4" tall. I can't seem to find a cooler for a 3.2 anywhere around here to measure.

[Nine8Six]

Sure a 2.5L, got the same here (ROW).

According to the legend, mine miraculously made it to the 60k miles range recently and still running strong. In that case they must be quite good engines

Sounds really good at high rpm, lightweight and all that. I'd say keep + install an aftermarket cat/pipes/muffler on it. Fun, loud & fast little thing for sure

Cool find

ps: sad to hear my boxster car worth $4,500 these days lolllll Makes me proud'er to drive a daily Passat

[Perfectlap]

This is like The Crying Game of Porsches.

[CraigM]

Oh no!!! At least it's not your only one!

[78F350]

Originally Posted by stelan

A good link to decode the engine serial numbers?, when measuring rhe oil cooler what are the specs?

I didn't find a good chart for the 986s. I ended up finding two threads on Rennlist and picking a bit of info from each:
Mikefocke posted this:

Back in 2009, Mac posted this

20 is 2.5l engine; 6 is 6 cylinder; 5 is engine version; V is model year; and 00224 is sequential serial number.

Model years: v w x y z

v = 1995
w = 1996
x = 1997
y = 1998
z = 1999
0 = 2000
1 = 2001
2 = 2002

The V-Z didn't quite work for me, so I found this posted by Macster:

The first '6' is the # of cylinders. The 2nd '6' means it is a normally aspirated engine (except for the Carrera 4 model engine in 1999). This '6' could be could be a '3' (GT3 engine), or '4' (turbo-charged 3.6l engine), or '8' (Carrera 4 N/A engine).

The 'Y' is the year of engine manufacture. 'V' is 1997, 'W' is 1998, 'X' is 1999, 'Y' is 2000, then digits are used starting with '1' which is 2001.

My info is the remanufactured engines retain their original serial numbers.

[BYprodriver]

[QUOTE=78F350;482722]I picked up a slightly distressed 2000 S yesterday and started doing my PPI (Post Purchase Insp.) today. After I closed it up for the night I looked up the engine serial number and as far as I can tell, it shows it to be a 1997 engine, which I'm guessing would have to be a 2.5L


My decoding attempt is:
2065 = 2.5L, 6Cyl, Version 5.
V = 1997
The rest is the sequence.

Is there any way this could be a 3.2L with that number?

Here's the engine from the top. AOS looks a bit odd. I'm guessing it's the "motorsports AOS"



M96/20 = 97-99 2.5L AOS may be 1st design used on '97's only

[DWBOX2000]

Is there a chart for decoding. I have m96/2167y01289.

[itsnotanova]

It sucks that it's a 2.5. No way around that, but at least it's not a 2.7. The market demand for 2.5s is probably higher than the 3.2 or 2.7. I say try and sell it and find a 3.4 to replace it with.

[thstone]

Oh man, sorry to hear of this. I'd have a conversation with the seller...