Boxster rescue problems

[Stl-986]

Agree with Blue. The plastic impellers on any car are known to break/wear down. BWM & Jeeps use these and they all fail. AOS is the most likely issue and the car sitting for so long.

Best thing to do is to just replace the AOS, clean out everything, drain the oil, replace the filter and fill to the correct amount. Would really replace that new WP with one with a metal impeller, then drain & fill the coolant.

All in all should be under $300 in parts plus a day in the garage to do everything.

[blue62]

In 50+ years of dicking with cars I have never seen a head crack from over heating.
Warp yes.
Burn hell out of the valves yes.
When I have seen cracked heads it is from freezing.
Over doing it when Porting.
Or just a bad castings.
I have seen a few engines get so hot they seized up, but the heads were rebuildable.

[bagpiperse]

Thanks again for the responses. The smoke is bluish and is oil. In regards to the spark plug check: yes the plugs do look rather fouled. I plan on replacing those when I do the spark plug tubes seals. So, the plan right now is to order an OEM air oil separator, install that, clean out the intake system and give it another go. Thanks again. Your comments and suggestions have been super-helpful. I think the old AOS was failing. I think the brand new aftermarket one failed completely!

Scott

[husker boxster]

Originally Posted by Stl-986

Would really replace that new WP with one with a metal impeller, then drain & fill the coolant.

While I generally agree with STl's advice 99% of the time, this will be the 1 time I disagree. If you have a metal impeller WP, as it ages and the shaft begins to wobble, the metal impeller will grind out the cavity as it will be the stronger metal in the equation. That will cause a sealing problem with the next WP and the reason why they come with plastic impellers - when the wobble begins, the plastic is the softer material and loses the rubbing battle. If it goes on for long, a chunk of the impeller breaks off.

It's considered a joke about the "lifetime" antifreeze in these cars because the WP fails before you have a chance to wear out the "lifetime" antifreeze. Water pumps are considered a consumable that should be replaced after a certain # of miles or yrs.

Blue's suggestion of a coolant pressure testing kit is a good one regardless if the smoke is from the AOS or not. Since there was a chunk lost on the wp, you need to test whether that caused an overheating issue.