Boxster does its best Exxon Valdez imitation
 

Drove to lunch today, got out of the car and smelled burning oil, Saw a trail of oil behind going thru Subway's parking lot then looked underneath to see oil pouring out. Had it towed to garage and was told by the indie that there is a wire screen on the left cylinder head that can get blocked. In turn, this builds up pressure and blows out some rubber plugs under the camshaft. He said he spoke with some dude at Pelican and was told this is a normal occurrence. Sound familiar to anybody? I just hope I didn't damage the engine. The trail is about 300' and was laid at a low speed.

Wow...I hope it's ok. I can't give any help but good luck. Any weird noises or loss of power or anything noticeable before you parked?

That's the first I've heard of this one. Hopefully some peeps familiar with it will post.

JFP, you know anything about this? Is it preventable?

No definitely not familiar with this theory. If by chance oil is pouring from the area where the engine & trans meet it's usually caused by the IMSB failing.

What year is it? That sounds like an RMS leak to me (oil drip is normally a precursor to a failure), I have never heard of what your mechanic described.

The beast is a 1998. Just spoke to the mechanic and he said the freeze plug popped out of the hollow camshaft. Porsche won't sell just the plug, you have to buy the whole cam so he is looking for one that fits, a $3.00 part

I've read of folks experience excess pressure buildup in the oiling system and it was theorised that it was due to breather valves on the aos getting stuck (but other theories were blockages as noted). in the two cases I read it manifested itself in a continuously failing aos, however (the pressure was blowing oil through the unit). there was a guy 'hospital services' or somesuch that was working it through on this forum (or pelican? can't recall).

To insure the problem doesn't reoccur tap the end of the camshaft & seal with a pipe plug. I believe 3/8" pipe thread is best. This requires the camshafts be removed from the head. I'm sure the varioCam wear pads need replacing anyway. We're talking $50 parts but $800+ labor & maybe + tools cost also.

I don't think I'd do that. Isn't the whole purpose of a frost plug is to pop before something else does?

Tap a hardened surface with a hardened tap? I don't think that'll work.

Not in the oil system.

Standard procedure on all JR flat6 engine builds. I believe only the camshaft lobes are hardened chilled iron.

Other than making sure the engine was not contaminated with chips from cutting the threads, it seems like a threaded plug could be installed with the camshaft in the engine, and perhaps with the engine in the car depending on clearance. The trick would be to make sure none of the chips generated by cutting threads into the camshaft remained in the engine. Capturing them in thick grease during cutting, and then using a wet dry vac with a vacuum hose to remove the grease and chips might do the trick. It would be very bad for the engine to leave any chips behind, but from where you are now it might be worth a shot to see if it is feasible. Worst case you're back to taking the cams out.

OWhat should I expect as a cost to pull the camshafts doctored them up and replace using an Indies garage in the Midwest?

Have you recently had the cam covers resealed?

This is common but has things that lead to it.. We can repair the camshafts for you.

Yes, it was done about a month ago. Is that the reason the plug blew?

Someone used too much sealant on the cam covers. This blocks a critical "drain" in the cam cover/ cylinder head and elevates the oil pressure inside the camshafts. The cams are hollow and "oil" the journals. When the waste oil from the camshafts can't be expelled in high enough volumes, the pressure inside the cam increases and this is what forces the expansion plug from the camshaft.

Contrary to popular belief, this engine isn't like everything else's. These complications prove that and my ability to forecast the cam covers being resealed in the recent past proves just how much we see this, and how the constants are always there over and over again.

The person who sealed those cam covers should hear about this, or he'll keep doing this in the future.

Can you post a picture of the "drain" location?

Sorry, I couldn't get a picture of the screen. This whole thing has been a disaster and I still don't have my car back after three weeks. A delay in getting a tool from Penquin put it behind almost a week and then it turns out it is the wrong tool for working on the engine in the car. So I had to buy another tool at almost 3 times the price of the first one. The mechanic is pissy because I'm putting the blame on him for causing it in the first place. On top of all this I have 3 weeks of car rental charges.:barf: There is no substitute for the pains of ownership sometimes but I still love the car.