Metal debris in the oil
 

Hey, guys!

Just found out this while making regular maintenance:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1467169382.jpg

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1467169476.jpg

The car was running smoothly with steady idling and with no problems whatsoever.

My Boxster had a cam guide worn 12K miles ago, and I've had substituted pads and cams from 1-3 bank, AOS and RMS at a local Porsche specialist. I've asked also to change pads from banks 4-6 but I'm not sure if the workshop did that.
The car has 38500 miles.

Camshafts from bank 4-6 are looking good, Thursday I'll get to open the valve cover of 1-3 to check if those camsahfts are ok too.

Going to check it with a durametric cable asap (I've just ordered one).

Ouch! That's going to leave a mark.

Sorry to hear of this. With that much metal, its a total teardown.

Do not run that engine again until you find the source of that metal! You may have gotten lucky and caught a major failure before you grenaded the motor.

Does anyone have a guess of where should I look next?

Well, the typical suspect would be the IMSB. But to me it doesn't look like typical IMSB parts. Hard to say.

How is your oil filter looking?

Best would be to tear down the engne to find the fault. If you have these big metal part in your oil system that will harm the engine pretty soon if it isn't harmed yet.

Regards, Markus

D-Chunck? What year is the car?

That's what it looked like to me based on pics I've seen posted by Jake Raby.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

The car is a 98 model, built in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen.

D chunk...gulp!!!
 

A compression check would be telling.

http://www.flat6innovations.com/cyli...996_34_004.JPG

Engine Failures Illustrated

It's difficult to be that because the car is running ok with no failures nor rough idling, but I'll check it next. I was hoping to find what happened before taking the engine out :(

Regardless of how the engine is still running, that is on Hell of a lot of ferrous metal from a mostly alloy engine. Something is seriously wrong, and continuing to run it is likely to make it even worse. Shut it off, hide the key, and take the engine out before something bad becomes disastrous.

JFP is right, something like an exploding engine on a high speed highway ... :eek:

Remove the oil filter & stick your longest finger into the hole where the filter mounts. Feel for metal shavings inside. If you find metal there it has circulated thruout the engine & you need to find another one.

Don't start that car!!!!!
 

Metal debris has already circulated throughout the engine. There is no "saving" this engine. Its done. Even if you can repair whatever failed, its a total teardown and a complete rebuild.

I'd tear it down just to see what failed and in parallel start looking for a replacement engine to swap in.

IMHO, if it still runs well, ignore JFP.
Get a friend to record the video and go have some fun with what's left of it:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aDwpuWcXzTw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

...and maybe another friend with a fire extinguisher. :cheers:

I'm going with IMS bearing. Don't run the car. Turn it over to TDC by hand. Lock it there. Remove tranny and follow the procedure to remove the IMSB cover. That means loosening tensioners etc. I'll bet the bearing is missing the bearing cage and a side shield. I'm way less squeamish about metal in the oil than most forum members. If it is the bearing there's a good chance you caught it in time and can just slap another $10.00 fully sealed greased bearing in its place. I know heresy, but more likely than not you'll fix the problem. If you put an open bearing in, the metal debris will kill it in short order. You need a fully sealed bearing.

One other note is the chain ramps should be replaced as they have metal embedded into them.

Oh the humanity...

That is terrifying.

I wish you and your machine all the best.