Hi All,
I bought Boxster (2000 base) from my neighbor for $50. He reported that the car overheated about 18 months ago and he parked it and abandoned it. He denied that the car was showing performance problems when he parked it in his driveway, other than overheating and smoke coming from the engine compartment. I have no reason not to believe him, as he wasn't trying to make money on the sale (he sold me the car for $50) and seems like a pretty reasonable guy. I decided to take on the project to see if I could get the car working again. Here is what I have done and here are the new problems:
I drained and replaced the oil and filter. I did not see any coolant in the oil (or metal).
I put in a new battery.
I drained the gas tank and put in ~5 gallons of high octane gas.
I changed the fuel filter.
I did not find any obvious coolant leaks (the coolant volume was still ok) except there was some corrosion around the water pump, apparently coming out of the bearing seal, and some corrosion on the engine block where the coolant appeared to have been spraying/leaking. I thus changed the water pump and put a new low temp thermostat. The water pump was otherwise intact. However, when I replaced the thermostat there was a piece of plastic that matched the impeller blade of the intact old and new water pumps, indicating a previous water pump failure with impeller breakage. I added new coolant. I did not see any oil in the drained coolant, or in the coolant reservoir.
Once I did all that, I left the serpentine belt off, removed the coils and spark plugs and turned the engine over by hand, clockwise. I then re-assembled everything and started the engine. There was some light smoking on startup, which went away. I ran the engine for a while to get it hot and to see if it would overheat. The engine ran fine and did not overheat, and I checked the coolant level and added coolant at times with the breather valve open. The engine did put out some white smoke occasionally as I ran it for a while a various rpm. Since the engine seemed to run fine, with some light occasional smoking, I decided to move forward and I bought 4 new Michelin Pilot sport tires, and an aftermarket air oil separator. I installed the AOS today, hoping that this would solve the smoking issue, and hoping that I could try out the new Michelins.
First problem: when I jacked the car up oil drained out of the airbox. This was the first time that I noticed this issue (the rear of the car was jacked up several times while I was working on it and no oil came out of the airbox.
Second problem: at startup with the new AOS, a VERY LARGE amount of white smoke came out of the car (like I have never seen). I turned the car off and got out of my garage before I suffocated. Neighbors came out to see what was going on a passers by looked concerned. I waited a while for the smoke to clear, checked the 2 snap connections to the AOS to make sure that they were secure, then I started the car again.
There was a large amount of white smoke again, and this time I heard funny sounds, possibly coming from the secondary air pump, but I am not sure. I turned the car off quickly out of concern for the engine and also my breathing.
So, I am confused... Why did the car run mostly good before I changed the AOS. I may have filled the oil too quickly when I changed it, but the car sat for a few weeks from the time that I changed the oil and when I first started it after doing all the other work? Why did oil come out of the air filter after first startup? I checked the airbox after second start up and there is some residual oil there, but nothing like what poured out after first startup. The engine is very dirty with oil on the intake and heads, etc. etc. My neighbor denied that the car had performance problems before it overheated. There was a fair amount of oil in some of the spark plug tubes, so I bought new tubes/seals, and was hoping that alot of the oil on the engine was coming from the leaky spark plug tube seals.
I am now afraid to start the car again. I had never planned on taking this car to the shop, as paying someone to work on my car is not in my budget (my wife and I work in the public schools here in New Mexico :ah
. I have about $1700 in the car now. Cosmetically it has seen better days. I was planning on driving it after I got is running, and didn't want to put much money in trying to get it going.
Admitting that I can't affort a Porsche may not be too popular on this forum, but I enjoy problem-solving and working on cars. I know that there is always a risk of these engines failing, but other than a non-preventable failure, I was thinking that I could work on the car myself and maybe keep it going with proper maintenance.
Please let me know if you have any ideas why the car is smoking so badly compared to first start up and after I replaced the AOS. I had a hell of a time getting the new AOS in, but I think that I got is right (
)
Thanks in advance for your insights.
Scott
bagpiperse 
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