986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post - Lessons learned: Buying a "used low mileage engine"(must read)

Jake Raby · 09-30-2009, 11:18 AM

It continues to unfold:

Further "warm" pressure testing of the cylinder heads this morning showed a crack in one of the cylinder head castings.. Whether or not this crack can be repaired with our casting repair processes is still not clear.

At temperature the crack revelead fluid loss at as little as 5 PSI pressure..

Its now clear that this was the root of the issue that took this engine off the road and put it into the hands of the "Phantom"... Since this person didn't know any better and since the symptoms appeared to be just like a head gasket failure the "Phantom" had the heads resurfaced then simply threw on some new head gaskets. He then barely torqued the heads back in place and screwed up the cam timing.

Then sold it.

Needless to say, we are more furious than can be imagined.

09-30-2009, 11:18 AM	#17
Jake Raby Engine Surgeon Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Cleveland GA USA Posts: 2,425	It continues to unfold: Further "warm" pressure testing of the cylinder heads this morning showed a crack in one of the cylinder head castings.. Whether or not this crack can be repaired with our casting repair processes is still not clear. At temperature the crack revelead fluid loss at as little as 5 PSI pressure.. Its now clear that this was the root of the issue that took this engine off the road and put it into the hands of the "Phantom"... Since this person didn't know any better and since the symptoms appeared to be just like a head gasket failure the "Phantom" had the heads resurfaced then simply threw on some new head gaskets. He then barely torqued the heads back in place and screwed up the cam timing. Then sold it. Needless to say, we are more furious than can be imagined.