Lost my engine- another one gone. - Page 2 - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

fivepointnine · 11-07-2011, 10:08 AM

gotta watch those new BMW's and the fuel pump failures!!!!
BTW I spend MUCH more time wrenching on my BMW X3 with 68k miles on it than I do my Boxster with 65k.....and ironically spend almost 0 time wrenching on the Saab 9-3 with 112k on it

landrovered · 11-08-2011, 06:45 PM

Jake,

Thanks for the post mortem pictures...

So school me on what is the "classic soon to fail "in the picture of the sparkplug/head. I am honest enough to admit I don't know what you are pointing to.

Is that a crack half way around the spark plug ?

thstone · 11-08-2011, 07:56 PM

"So school me on what is the "classic soon to fail "in the picture of the sparkplug/head. I am honest enough to admit I don't know what you are pointing to."

Landrovered, yes, you are correct. The head is cracked at the bottom of the channel around the spark plug (where the aluminum is darkly discolored). The crack appears to go from about the 3 or 4 o'clock position to the 7 or 8 o'clock position.

Perfectlap · 11-09-2011, 06:02 AM

You mean some JB weld isn't going to plug that crack?

I wonder about that digital oil gauge on the dash. I'm always getting weird read outs. Sometimes it says four ticks too low and and on the next start up it will say one tick too low.
Is that thing reliable at all at warning of a leak somewhere?

Perfectlap · 11-09-2011, 08:41 AM

Jhandy,
I'm curious to know how much oil was missing. After watching those silly late night infomericals about how magical engine oil additives could keep an engine running for a few seconds I would have thought that even half full would have prevented total disaster for a few miles.

landrovered · 11-09-2011, 08:56 AM

With 10 quarts of oil in the system, you cannot tell me that being only a quart down is going to make a hill of beans difference and cause you to blow an engine while driving ON THE ROAD. Now the windage tray design and other extenuating circumstances on a track I can see but on DOT tires on a public street, I don't buy it as the root cause of the failure.

The Radium King · 11-09-2011, 09:29 AM

i change my oil at 8k intervals and lose about a litre between changes. this is normal, and can be due to cylinders going off-round, failing aos, etc. this does not mean your engine is going to grenade and does not warrant a trip to the shop on it's own.

the dash inidcatior is a little over a litre from top to bottom, so you were down a bit over 1/2 quart. this will not kill an engine on it's own. further, you went to a heavier cold weight oil, so you can anticipate it to take longer to run back down to the sump and the indicator not measuring all the oil actually in the engine (this is the variation the previous poster referred to). whether your car is level or not also drastically affects this reading.

so, you don't 'own' this; you maintained the car above and beyond what was required by the manufacturer (ie, ims replacement) and operated it as one could expect to operate any vehicle. to suggest that you are somehow responsible for a $15k engine failure is ignorant, but i commend your good spirit about it.

Perfectlap · 11-09-2011, 09:14 AM

p.s.
I find it odd that I had the flashing dash light when all of the coolant leaked out of my car but the same wouldn't happen when oil reaches dangerously low levels? These cars aren't that old to not have some manner of simple dashboard alert.
Seriously..this seems like a very basic feature in a high end modern sports car.

ekam · 11-09-2011, 10:23 AM

Sorry to hear about your loss, but I'd like to hear what Jake's findings are after the tear down. Losing 1 quart of oil seem a bit of a stretch to blow the engine.

Jake Raby · 11-09-2011, 11:06 AM

The engine was so bad that I can't tell really what happened first. I pulled the trophies out of it to be inducted as offerings to the Gods of Speed and the rest is already at the scrap yard.

pothole · 11-10-2011, 06:25 PM

I agree. Seems highly implausible that an oil level half way up the gauge in the safe zone is going to kill an engine in the course of street driving.

MileHighBoxster · 11-10-2011, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pothole

I agree. Seems highly implausible that an oil level half way up the gauge in the safe zone is going to kill an engine in the course of street driving.

If you read his post he was in a tight turn accelerating with low engine oil. That could have done it.

Flavor 987S · 11-11-2011, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MileHighBoxster

If you read his post he was in a tight turn accelerating with low engine oil. That could have done it.

And it was poorly maintained, burning oil, and his "solution" was to routinely top off the oil level before spirited drives with a non Porsche approved oil viscosity, hoping the 10W40 would leak out a little slower than a 0W40, 5W40 or a 5W50. He admits it, owns it, and we respect that. Live & learn.

fivepointnine · 11-10-2011, 08:34 PM

oil pump failure?

Jake Raby · 11-11-2011, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fivepointnine

oil pump failure?

Oil pump had no failure, it was still functional. I "Featured" this failure in my latest Flat 6 Innovations newsletter.

Jim Miller · 11-11-2011, 12:52 PM

Can we get some more clarification/discussion on the oil level? I would be shocked if the design of the oil system didn't have excess capacity built in. It is hard for me to believe 1 qt out of 10 would impact lubrication. The oil might not last as long but one qt low starting to stave parts of oil....? I could be wrong and will be shocked.
At the moment my oil is at the top cold but drops a few ticks after running. Having excess oil I assume is bad also.:dance:

Jim Miller · 11-14-2011, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

Oil pump had no failure, it was still functional. I "Featured" this failure in my latest Flat 6 Innovations newsletter.

So what do we think caused the failure. It looks like parts were starved for oil and they got real hot. Was it a defective part issue? Lubrication issue caused by some piece of debris floating around in the engine?

What would of been the best course of action once the high oil consumption was observed, break down the engine?

Jake Raby · 11-14-2011, 05:44 AM

Oil consumption came from a degradation of the cylinder walls which was very clear post-mortem. Thats nothing new, I have seen these engines lose their cylinders at 27K miles.

The rest of the failure was so shocking that I can't make any conclusive statements about what happened. It was so destroyed over so many different spectrums of the failure that it would be a pure guess to know which mode of failure started first.

The rod bearings were hurt much worse than the mains and that does tell me something.

Jim Miller · 11-14-2011, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

Oil consumption came from a degradation of the cylinder walls which was very clear post-mortem. Thats nothing new, I have seen these engines lose their cylinders at 27K miles.

Jake, in your opinion is this problem a cylinder wall quality problem or lubricant issue?

Topless · 11-14-2011, 07:10 AM

Ouch! The pics are pretty revealing. Sorry for your loss Jhandy and good luck with your new ride.

In my non-professional opinion just looking at the parts I would guess this motor got really hot at some point in it's life causing the shellacked oil deposits, cracked head and rapid excessive wear to the motor. Running these things with superheated oil is almost like running them with no oil. After the overheat problem the car probably started burning oil regularly and it was only a matter of time before she died. I am sure Jake or someone with more knowledge can fill in the blanks.

Even a Toyota will die if you get it hot enough.