Bought a 2000 Boxster S project.

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by Gilles

I believe that this condition was caused by elongated conrod bolts, result of a Mickey Mouse quality hardware used by the manufacturer..

I don`t think so. If the big end bearing seizes up the rotating journal will spin the inserts in the conrod big end bore, as they are held in place by small notches which are easy to break. Conrod bolts have nothing to do with this. This failure is typically caused by the lack of oil pressure at high rpms, due to partially blocked pick up screen.

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by Homeoboxter

I don`t think so. If the big end bearing seizes up the rotating journal will spin the inserts in the conrod big end bore, as they are held in place by small notches which are easy to break. Conrod bolts have nothing to do with this. This failure is typically caused by the lack of oil pressure at high rpms, due to partially blocked pick up screen.

Sorry, I was assuming that your spun bearing was one of the conrod bearings (caused by bolt stretching)

[elgyqc]

Originally Posted by Gilles

Sorry, I was assuming that your spun bearing was one of the conrod bearings (caused by bolt stretching)

The spun bearing was a con rod big end bearing. The main bearing next to it was also in bad shape, but it did not spin. The crankshaft is now at the shop mentioned by Newart in a previous post and I am waiting to see what they say.
I have no experience with this kind of failure, but at this point I'm thinking that a lack of oil pressure toasted the two bearings (I'm assuming that the oil for piston 2's big end comes from the #3 main bearing).
I bought the car with the engine in this condition so have no idea of what the oil level was at the time of failure. I do know that there was a lot of sealant in the oil pickup screen... see the beginning of this thread.