986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post - Cylinder head plug (camshaft end plug) pushing out

jbm911 · 04-19-2015, 06:07 PM

Last Sunday I spent the day doing the car control clinic and autocross tuneup Peachstate PCA held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in my 99 Boxster. A couple of days later i noticed smoke under throttle while driving home from work, and when I got it on jackstands determined that the lower camshaft end plug on the passenger side had pushed out some. I pushed it back into place, verified the oil level was acceptable, started it up and looked for leaks. No issues at idle, but when I had my helper rev it to 2500 rpm it started pushing out. Note the smoke was from oil hitting the headers, and was not coming out of the exhaust.

Got a new plug and replaced it this afternoon, and it looked fine until I had my helper hold 3000 rpm, at that point it started pushing out again.

When I pulled the old plug out, I noticed that someone (previous owner's mechanic?) had used a sealer on the plug. The outside had sealer covering it, and there was sealer on the "threads" of the plug, too. It looked the same as the sealer that was used on the cylinder head, based on what I could see at the seams of the head and cover.

I've looked into what could cause this and found the excessive sealant on the head covers could restrict oil flow in the channels. I've had the car over a year and put about 4,000 miles on it, and this is the first time I've had a leak at this location (or any other, for that matter). Last weekend is the hardest I've run the car, with a lot of runs into the 5000+ rpm range. but I've done a few interstate trips over the past year with extended periods of time between 3500 and 4000 rpm, and it seems to me if it was an oil channel blocked by someone using too much sealant on the head covers that this problem would have presented itself earlier.

This makes my wonder if either something may have dislodged, like the sealant used on the plug, and is now blocking one of these channels, or if there is some other item I need to be looking at. I see a head cover removal in my near future, and want to make sure I check all the possibilities while I'm at it. Any thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks
Brian
99 Boxster
89 Carrera

04-19-2015, 06:07 PM	#1
jbm911 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Martinez, ga Posts: 6	Cylinder head plug (camshaft end plug) pushing out Last Sunday I spent the day doing the car control clinic and autocross tuneup Peachstate PCA held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in my 99 Boxster. A couple of days later i noticed smoke under throttle while driving home from work, and when I got it on jackstands determined that the lower camshaft end plug on the passenger side had pushed out some. I pushed it back into place, verified the oil level was acceptable, started it up and looked for leaks. No issues at idle, but when I had my helper rev it to 2500 rpm it started pushing out. Note the smoke was from oil hitting the headers, and was not coming out of the exhaust. Got a new plug and replaced it this afternoon, and it looked fine until I had my helper hold 3000 rpm, at that point it started pushing out again. When I pulled the old plug out, I noticed that someone (previous owner's mechanic?) had used a sealer on the plug. The outside had sealer covering it, and there was sealer on the "threads" of the plug, too. It looked the same as the sealer that was used on the cylinder head, based on what I could see at the seams of the head and cover. I've looked into what could cause this and found the excessive sealant on the head covers could restrict oil flow in the channels. I've had the car over a year and put about 4,000 miles on it, and this is the first time I've had a leak at this location (or any other, for that matter). Last weekend is the hardest I've run the car, with a lot of runs into the 5000+ rpm range. but I've done a few interstate trips over the past year with extended periods of time between 3500 and 4000 rpm, and it seems to me if it was an oil channel blocked by someone using too much sealant on the head covers that this problem would have presented itself earlier. This makes my wonder if either something may have dislodged, like the sealant used on the plug, and is now blocking one of these channels, or if there is some other item I need to be looking at. I see a head cover removal in my near future, and want to make sure I check all the possibilities while I'm at it. Any thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks Brian 99 Boxster 89 Carrera Last edited by jbm911; 04-19-2015 at 06:27 PM.