Another one bites the dust - value??

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Here's my opinion for whatever it's worth.

If you are addicted to the badge and the particular car you bought and planned to keep it for 10 years or indefinitely, then replace the motor with a 3.4. You will have a wicked-fast boxster, especially if you keep the 5 speed tranny. You lose some top end (which you'll rarely enjoy anyway) and add a lot of low rpm grunt that the 6 speed trannies do not possess.

If you are not smack dab in love with your car and don't plan to keep it forever, then you would be throwing good money after bad because you'll lose your shirt in two years when you tire of the car.

I bought my 97 for $15,500. I've put $8000 into it with a salvage transmission, lots of repairs to the cooling system, suspension and emissions, and the balance on new rims, skirts, humps, xenons, salvaged seats out of a 2002 carrera, etc. If my engine blew tomorrow, I'd put a 3.4 or a 3.6 in it as soon as I saved up the cash to do it.

Why dump even more money into a car worth $12k?

1. I can't afford a newer 3.4 boxster at $40k (I pay cash for cars).

2. I am happy to keep my car for the next 10+ years and a new motor would serve me well and the cost would be amortized over many years.

I hope my thinking process on your sad situation helps you decide what to do.

I understand you logic and why you love the car. It would worry me that the used 3.4 engine could let go too. This does happen in the other motor sizes I understand.

Just a thought, albiet a discomforting one.

[AddictionRacing]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

I understand you logic and why you love the car. It would worry me that the used 3.4 engine could let go too. This does happen in the other motor sizes I understand.

Just a thought, albiet a discomforting one.

For $15k I can have them put in a brand new Porsche factory 3.4. My mechanic has flat-out refused to install a used 2.5 or 3.4, which I agree with. I have already ruled out the possibility of a new 2.5 because $11k for essentially what I originally had is just plain silly.

Probably the only two realistic options are:

1. Sell the car for whatever I can get for it as a roller (Any ideas what $$ that might be??)

2. My mechanic recently put a new 3.4 in a 996 race car that was then wrecked on the track. He is looking in to how much it would cost to acquire and install that motor for me.

If I can get that "new" 3.4 in the car for under $13K I'll probably do it and then keep the car indefinitely. If that's not possible I'll likely dump it. I paid cash for the car, but I'd have to beg my dad to loan me the money for the new motor. I bought a condo 3 months ago and am out of cash after the 986 purchase and repairs.

[Quickurt]

How about 2.7 or 3.2 motors? I would think they are somewhere between the 11k and 15k figures?

Just more options.

The car is probably worth, as a roller.....hold onto your ass... what you paid, minus what it will cost to fix it, divided by two. The mechanic is not going to buy it for the difference in what it's worth and what the motor costs him. Why invest the money to risk just getting what he would get if you pay him to fix it?
So, if you paid 20 and it will cost 11k (and it's always more) you're looking at probably four grand for the car, as is.

I was looking the same route, but spent my cash as a down payment and financed 20k to get an '06, certified car, warranteed out to 5/2012 and another 89k miles.

Speaking of warrantees, what is the deal if an indy puts in a new motor and what is the deal if the dealer does it? You will at least get some kind of warrantee on the new motor from the factory and it may be quite alot more difference from the dealer than the extra cost.

decisions, descisions.....

[AddictionRacing]

I appreciate the help you've all provided and figured I'd let you know where I stand right now. I'm not replacing the motor with either a 2.5 or 3.4 because I just don't believe in the motors anymore. I am going to look a bit in to the Chevy conversion, but will likely just dump the car. The highest bid right now is $6500. Anything over that will be entertained. It's a shame my 20 year love affair with Porsche had to end this way.

[rick3000]

I have never heard of anyone putting a Chevy engine in a Boxster, this isn't a 914. Will anyone even do it?
You might also consider the Subaru boxer engine.

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by AddictionRacing

I appreciate the help you've all provided and figured I'd let you know where I stand right now. I'm not replacing the motor with either a 2.5 or 3.4 because I just don't believe in the motors anymore. I am going to look a bit in to the Chevy conversion, but will likely just dump the car. The highest bid right now is $6500. Anything over that will be entertained. It's a shame my 20 year love affair with Porsche had to end this way.

I know this is an emotional time, right now, but I think in a few years you'll look back and see it was also an emotional decision.
You talk like every Boxster motor is going to fail, it's only a matter of time, while not seeing that the vast majority of them don't fail.
Bad luck is bad luck and I'm sorry your luck was that.
It's also a bad decision for Porsche to have a replacement as the only option on the Boxster engine , when parts availability would make them as rebuildable as every other engine on earth. That one is a mystery to me. They would make money on parts, also.

[AddictionRacing]

Originally Posted by Quickurt

I know this is an emotional time, right now, but I think in a few years you'll look back and see it was also an emotional decision.
You talk like every Boxster motor is going to fail, it's only a matter of time, while not seeing that the vast majority of them don't fail.
Bad luck is bad luck and I'm sorry your luck was that.
It's also a bad decision for Porsche to have a replacement as the only option on the Boxster engine , when parts availability would make them as rebuildable as every other engine on earth. That one is a mystery to me. They would make money on parts, also.

Renagade Hybrids has been doing Chevy conversions on 944s, 911s, and 914s and I'm just going to check with them to see if they are in development of a Boxster kit. It could be cool and is the only way I may be comfortable keeping the car. I loved driving it, but I just wouldn't trust it anymore with a Porsche power plant.

I know not every Boxster motor is going to fail, but based on the limited information available it appears that somewhere between 10 and 25% of them fail due to RMS, IMS, or a slipped sleeve. I'll call it a 10% failure rate and in my opinion half of that would still be way too high for any reputable manufacturer of "durable" goods. Hyundai stands behind their cheap North Korean econo-boxes with a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty. Why doesn't Porsche, a company with a (recently underserved in my mind) reputation for longevity have a similar policy? I no longer believe in German engineering and as has been suggested so many times on this board, I will not own a Porsche without a warranty because it's just too risky.

As for being emotional about it, yes, I most certainly am. I have been obsessed with these cars for 20 years and feel betrayed by them. A reputable company claiming that "The most valuable capital this company has is its loyal customers with their sense of Porsche responsibility." (taken from the PCNA web-site http://www.porsche.com/usa/aboutporsche/porschecarsnorthamerica/n432/ ) should stand behind the product they build, fix the engineering flaws that become aparent, and take care of their customers so that we, as my father did, instill the love of Porsche in our kids and grandchildren that made the company successful. Failure to stand behind your products and take care of loyal customers is asking for failure.

[Boxtaboy]

Originally Posted by AddictionRacing

Renagade Hybrids has been doing Chevy conversions on 944s, 911s, and 914s and I'm just going to check with them to see if they are in development of a Boxster kit. It could be cool and is the only way I may be comfortable keeping the car. I loved driving it, but I just wouldn't trust it anymore with a Porsche power plant.

I know not every Boxster motor is going to fail, but based on the limited information available it appears that somewhere between 10 and 25% of them fail due to RMS, IMS, or a slipped sleeve. I'll call it a 10% failure rate and in my opinion half of that would still be way too high for any reputable manufacturer of "durable" goods. Hyundai stands behind their cheap North Korean econo-boxes with a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty. Why doesn't Porsche, a company with a (recently underserved in my mind) reputation for longevity have a similar policy? I no longer believe in German engineering and as has been suggested so many times on this board, I will not own a Porsche without a warranty because it's just too risky.

As for being emotional about it, yes, I most certainly am. I have been obsessed with these cars for 20 years and feel betrayed by them. A reputable company claiming that "The most valuable capital this company has is its loyal customers with their sense of Porsche responsibility." (taken from the PCNA web-site http://www.porsche.com/usa/aboutporsche/porschecarsnorthamerica/n432/ ) should stand behind the product they build, fix the engineering flaws that become aparent, and take care of their customers so that we, as my father did, instill the love of Porsche in our kids and grandchildren that made the company successful. Failure to stand behind your products and take care of loyal customers is asking for failure.

Man, I'm sorry to hear about your engine blowup. It would be nice if Porsche offers a 10 yr. / 100K mile powertrain warranty just like Hyundai, but they probably will never do so. Hyundai does it cause simply like you said, the powertrain would be cheap to replace in a Hyundai, but not in a Porsche. That being said, with all the stuff you read on Porsche boards about engine failures, I believe Porsche should step up and goodwill replace any failed engines due to RMS, IMS, or slipped sleeve issues. It would go a long way in restoring confidence in the Pcar community.

FWIW, however, as much as I've heard about these issues for all these years I've been on these boards, the only problems I've ever personally had on my 2001 Boxster were a cracked coolant tank and peeling radio knobs/door pocket lids, which were all replaced under warranty. I think now with the modern Porsches (the 987/997 line), you see even less stories about blown engines, so it may not even be much of an issue these days, but it would be nice if Porsche took care of the folks who have issues like you, to restore their reputation, and insure that they don't lose any more future customers due to this known issue. Good luck with your situation.

[Tool Pants]

Who is the mechanic. How was he able to determine it was the intermediate shaft. What month and year was your 1999 made - need to look at the black sticker on the drivers door.

[rick3000]

IMS is very rare on pre-'01 Boxster's, I would get a second opinion about it. Has he dropped the engine and checked the bearings?

[AddictionRacing]

Originally Posted by Tool Pants

Who is the mechanic. How was he able to determine it was the intermediate shaft. What month and year was your 1999 made - need to look at the black sticker on the drivers door.

The mechanic is Dan Jacobs LLC (Hairy Dog Grrrage). He's a very well-known indy in the area with a great reputation.

He was able to determine the failure from the noise it was making as well as all the metal in my 1200 mile old oil and filter. He says that the outer coating comes off the ball-bearings and ends up throughout the engine, resulting in failure and the wonderful sound of metal shards destroying expensive (poorly designed) machinery.

I obviously don't have the car handy, but if I recall correctly it was made in May of 1998. Does that sound right?

My current line of thought is to dump it for whatever I can get for it and go for an older, reliable, air-cooled, brutal 911.

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by AddictionRacing

The mechanic is Dan Jacobs LLC (Hairy Dog Grrrage). He's a very well-known indy in the area with a great reputation.

He was able to determine the failure from the noise it was making as well as all the metal in my 1200 mile old oil and filter. He says that the outer coating comes off the ball-bearings and ends up throughout the engine, resulting in failure and the wonderful sound of metal shards destroying expensive (poorly designed) machinery.

I obviously don't have the car handy, but if I recall correctly it was made in May of 1998. Does that sound right?

My current line of thought is to dump it for whatever I can get for it and go for an older, reliable, air-cooled, brutal 911.

Don't think those older 911s are all that much more reliable.
Say this over, several times - Cam chain tensioner, cam chain tensioner, cam chain tensioner....
Then check out the maintenance schedules and see how much they cost. Say - valve adjustment, valve cover gaskets, warped valve covers, cooling fans, etc., etc.

[blinkwatt]

$11k for a 2.5L replacement? That's nuts.

Get on renntech.org and talk to member 'tholyoak'. He has redone a lot of Boxster's engines.

[Tool Pants]

Metal in the oil filter is not good. You first said you had a 1999. Some 1999 engines were sleeved. The engines were made late 1998 (but sold as model year 1999) to early 1999. I think you have a typo in your second message where you say May 1998.