Hi everyone, first time poster here. I have been reading and thinking about getting a boxster. I plan to use it as a daily driver, to/from work, grocery, weekend get-away, etc., not a racing machine. As such, I think a base model (2.5 or 2.7) will be suitable for me.
Having read a lot about the M96 engine problems, in particular IMS, RMS, cracked cylinders heads, water pump, oil system issues, etc, I'm a bit scared about buying a used boxster and then have the engine suddenly die on me. See the following:
Pelican Technical Article: Common Boxster Engine Problems and Failures - 986 / 987
https://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/problemareas
Pre-failure Directives
So, my thinking currently is to get a boxster, assume the worst (which is probably a logical choice no matter how nice the car is) and head directly to flatsix in Georgia to get their IMS retrofit package (which is based on LN engineering IMS parts). In addition to IMS, that service package includes a new clutch assembly, RMS and an oil change for $3.5k.
Then, I plan to get the water pump and thermostat ($450) and possibly the cooler tank ($350) replaced. Ditto the AOS ($110), replacing the belts and variocam wear pads and solenoids and chain tensioners ($100-$2500), and engine ($185) and transmission $300) mounts. I'm a bit hands on myself, so I can do the easy ones (belts $30, spark plugs and coils $20, filters $40, even oil change $80) to save some dough, but I know my limits and have to leave the hard ones to pros. My guesstimate is that replacing these will cost around $2k-$3k, with the main uncertainty coming from the variocam/chain-tensioner part.
My budget is below $15K, which allows a pre-2003 base model or a 2000 S if lucky. But since I'll be blowing $5k-$7k on all these preventive replacement/repairs, it pushes me down to pre 2000 models territory.
Note that there is no guarantee that even a 2005-2008 model won't need all of these repairs to not blow the engine. And my current thinking is that once I spend this much on replacing components, it wouldn't matter whether I started from a 1998 or a 2005, the end product is the same. So I might as well start with a much cheaper pre-2000 model.
I can see two unknowns about this plan:
1. the "porous engine problem" which supposedly was present in pre-2000 models. All I can find about this is "Porsche fixed these under warranty, and if the car had this issue it should have showed itself by now". Do you agree with this?
2. What about the cylinder liner or head cracks, otherwise known as the D-chunk problem? I can't seem to find any reliable information about this, other than "If your engine experiences this failure, it can be rebuilt using LN Engineering's Nickasil liners installed". But is there any preventive maintenace for these?
Any word of advise? What do you think about this plan?
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