Silber’s 2002 Boxster S Engine Build

[Silber]

All,

Figured I would start a thread to document my project.

Was autocrossing, sudden loss of power. Still ran, but very poorly. Flatbed home. Drained the oil at home, most of the coolant came out the oil drain hole too. Drained the coolant, only coolant came out, so my water hoses are still good.

So, decision time, used motor or rebuild. Can’t find any good low mileage used motors below $5-6,000. Still don’t know exactly what you are getting. Decided to do a hybrid rebuild, steel parts from my engine all “new” low mileage alloy parts. Since I probably have head and/or cylinder damage causing intermix I have bought the following from reputable eBay sellers:

Pair of heads, 29,000 miles, undamaged donor engine.
Set of pistons 37,000 miles, undamaged donor engine.
Engine case, replacement part number, out of 64,000 mile car, assuming lower mileage, no scoring or cylinder damage whatsoever.

New engine parts include but not limited to:
All bolts
Piston Rings
Oil pump
Head gaskets
Rod/main bearings
All new rails
All new injectors
New chain tensioners

Basically building a frankenmotor from low mileage alloy parts, and 116,000 mile steel parts That’s my way of getting a low mileage motor where I know what’s in it. Total cost for all engine parts was right at $5K but I think I’ll end up better off than spending that on a used motor.

I’ve built a few air cooled vw boxers so have some experience going into this, looking forward to getting my car back on the road and hopefully back to autocross.

Where things sit now:

The transaxle is out, engine should come out tomorrow, engine tear down will start after that. I am going to take my time and enjoy the process and make sure I get it right. This thread may not have terribly regular updates, or may have daily updates, just depends on how much free time I can string together, but I will update as I make progress.

Regards,

Silber