How to tell if engine was replaced
 

Dear Forum, I bought a 99 Boxster w/ Triptronic. It has over 117,000 miles on it and it runs and drives like a new car. No oil leaks or any engine problems whatsoever. I have heard that early model Boxsters had engine problems and some engines were replaced under warranty. My question is - is there a way to tell if the engine has been replaced? Like maybe by finding the engine numbers or something. I got the original owners manual and service book. It appears that it was regularly serviced by Porsche but no mention of an engine replacement. If you can tell by the engine number - can anyone advise were to find it on the engine.? Thank you very much, Jerry Peterson

The majority of 98's and 99's out there have their original engines, only a percentage have been swapped.

The VIN will be no help as the engine # isn't part of it except that the 5th character denotes engine type, in your case, this will be an 'A' - 2.5 Ltr.

The engine number itself is stamped on the case and will begin with M96/20... This is stamped on the left side just above the oil sump.

A dealer can tell you, but they're often known to be stingy with a car's history. Ask the service manager to give you the engine # on file with the car, if nothing else that can tell you if the engine is a reman (pretty much a new engine) if the final digit of the engine # they have is an 'X'.

If a New engine was put in as opposed to a reman (usually only in the same model year) there will not be an 'X', they'll know if it was the original engine, but they likely won't tell you (privacy act concerns - so they'll claim).

Other than that, the only thing I can think of is to contact PCNA directly, though they'll likely want to sell you a Certificate of Authenticity ($60 last time I checked). Btw, what did you pay for your '99? (neighborhood?)

The guys over at Renntech can tell you a lot about your motor from just the serial number.

www.renntech.org