New engine or quit? Existential questions ahead.
 

My Porsche journey is becoming very painful.

In 2009 I bought a 944 turbo which blew up after one week of ownership. A loose washer went through the turbo end engine. This car is still not up and running.

In 2016 I bought a 2.5 Boxster, thinking this would become the next cheap racing class in Norway. This has not happened and nobody runs Boxsters over here. I lost some motivation and the build dragged out, but finally finished the car this year (2023) only for the engine to blow up after three laps. When I decided to go the 2.5 Boxster route engines were readily available. I was shocked to see what they go for today, and that's for engines in unknown condition.

At this point I need to weigh my options. I'm too old to spend all my time alone in the garage and not be driving:

1. Find a reliable way to go from 90/10 wrenching to 90/10 driving :D
2. Find another, cheaper car to run on track with cheaper more available engines. That way a failure won't lead to an existential crisis.
3. Begin with skydiving to get my fix of adrenalin. And sell the car in bits and buy another more reliable car/ one with more available and more reasonable spare engines. Difficult sell, since no one races Boxsters here.

#1 is my preferred option:
How do you guys achieve something closer to this. I'm sick of having to worry all the time, is this even remotely possible? I'm willing to spend money on a solution if it gives me peace of mind, but at this point I feel like achieving good reliability with the m96 is impossible. Do you guys who race these see engine blow-ups regularly?

As I was told on this very forum, racing, Porsche and cheap do not go together. I would look for a Miata/MX-5 as a track car in your situation, and keep the Boxster to enjoy on the street.

Thanks for your input. I'm take all advice to heart.

To me the engine is the weak point. The rest is quite affordable.

How often do racers recon they'll need to replace a blown engine when racing?
My car is fully built and is super nice. It's exactly as I wanted it and I physically fit and am comfortable in it, if it only had an engine.

I have a Spec Boxster -- I've raced it ~dozen weekends with no engine issues.

I race a 99 Boxster in ChampCar -- that engine has at least 250 hours on the engine, knock on wood, no engine issues.

I drove a 100K mile Boxster S and put at least 10K miles on CoTA alone with no engine issues.

I drove a 987 S for a couple years on track with no engine issues.

The common thread is each of those cars had the following modifications:
Larger Oil/Water Heat Exchanger, Under drive Pully, deep sump (sometimes 2", sometime 1/2") with oil pan baffle. Regular oil changes of course.

Thanks. Good to know should I decide to buy a new engine.
My car had all those mods as well.

Unfortunately they don't help when the owner is an idiot and forgets to fasten the coolant cap.

For option 1, maybe consider a Honda S2000 if prices aren’t too crazy over there. After fixing many deferred maintenance items on my “bargain” Boxster, I’m starting to wish I had gone that route instead. The Porsche tax is steep!

Thanks. I just had a look for an S2000. There are two for sale in the country at the moment. cheapest is 35K. Looked nice though, but too pricey to risk crashing on track.

I guess I was hoping for a rush of people telling me not to worry and to buy a new engine and that these engines rarely fail in spec Boxsters :) Oh well!

You chose to race with what has to be the most problematic engine, the 2.5L. There are several reasons why Porsche quickly stopped making these engines, such as slipped liners, d chunking, etc.; all of which were fatal. But if you looked for a decent 2.7L from, say a 2001 car, you would have a solid basic engine that can be quickly made even more dependable than when it left the factory, and give you a lot of seat time for limited $. But need to also remember there are no dirt cheap quality engines, and ALL race cars break or require maintenance, even the almighty Porsche Mezgers, which sold as short blocks for north of $50K when they were still available.

Just a thought....................

I actually didn't know that the 2.7 is more reliable. I thought the 2.5 was the most reliable engine of them all due to having the dual row bearing and thicker cylinder walls.

I understand all race cars and engines die. I factored it in when I bought my Boxster, but back then prices for used engines were more affordable and that made me take the plunge. I did not think far enough ahead and realize these engines would also become more expensive as supply dries up. I also did not consider that the engine is more complex than an inline engine and therefore more costly to overhaul.

The early 2000's 2.7L engine is one of the most trouble free water cooled engine Porsche ever produced. And many were also dual row engines, but if you use an IMS Solution to replace even the single row IMS bearings, you will still be bullet proof.

Very interesting.
Do you have more information as to why this is more reliable?

do you need a new engine or a new head?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166129680547?hash=item26ae19c0a3:g:YeUAAOSwzX1kco5 n&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwIygdkUOBWX2qT6ro8iOGwU0ieS 0MO8EQHAZTRLKzMEXbgjk4KsMpoH82tM3oC%2Bm%2BrYkj5vv9 MuvURvhMSMoPOG1zPpd%2FIsEweM%2BdAknvZUhWbi5%2Bditz j%2F7FQYKRou7OwnFL7upCZpSsESaPFNTqOlrTCnyq%2FVv7M5 GruSy56Wdvg%2FQuMEtMe564l7Qm07yjzTN3yflQKhsJX6BjSw Vb9N4Zmm71Sdwo%2F9DQEe62ANDM%2BM4FDhifNgmdVOw%2B%2 FtU4w%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-DQg-vJYg

Thanks. I hope it's only one or both heads, but certain things point to a new engine or at least a full rebuild.

If I recall correctly Mr. Raby considers all overheated engines unsuited for a rebuild. I understand why he would take that stance, but it's all risk vs. reward. I lost 80% of the coolant during the warm-up laps though, so the engine would have been really hot. It may not be worth the risk. Adding to that is that the P.O. has had the oil pump off and that one of the heads was shiny clean and the other not. I also found water pump debris in the hoses when I changed the water pump way back. I understand that this could have gotten stuck inside the heads and contributed to the engine overheating.

Given all this, is it even worth it dismantling it for a rebuild or would you go straight to a replacement engine?

Currently the engine is on the ground but not dismantled. Hopefully I can find out over the weekend, but if there is a small crack it may be more challenging to find and determine the cause.

Miata (MX-5) is always the answer.

Do you know why your 2.5 failed? Were you running a deep sump? Often it's oiling or cylinder metallurgy.

Many say accusumps don't make a difference on these motors.

i think you have to get used to having a race engine apart. you break it, you fix it. you hope it lasts the season so you can do your fixing in the winter and your racing in the summer.

while overheating obviously obviously stressed the entire engine, i think you can presume just one head has failed. replace it and carry on.

if engine is dead then pull it apart and see what you broke. then fix what you broke. depending on how much of the work you do yourself it will be less $ than a new engine.

mx5 is always a good suggestion for race car. small, light. easy on consumables. lots of cheap replacement parts, strong aftermarket support.

the brz et al are showing up at a lot of tracks now. before that it was the wrx sti and mitsubishi equivalent. a civic with a k20 swap is a beast.

if engine is out, what side exhaust is the coolant coming out - that is your cracked head. must be head otherwise coolant would be in oil as well. lots online about how to find the crack and repair/replace.

The “whys” I do not have, but both the published service history and our own records say the 2.7L engine seem to have way fewer issues than any other version………

A friend of mine who ran a Boxster racing program with several cars says the 2.7 engine was more reliable than the 2.5, but the 2.7 transmission had more problems. Granted they were running all their cars in endurance racing, much harder on the car than sprint racing.

Sorry for reviving this. I lost all motivation and put the car in storage...hence the long absence.

I'm considering getting a 2.7l, but the law states I must use the original ECU for the engine.
How time consuming would it be to swap over looms from a 2.7 donor car?

I suspect that the most difficult part will be installing the e-gas throttle pedal and wiring - working under the dash. With all the trim pieces removed, running wires from the front to the rear isn't too bad. I'll try to get a side by side look at the connections in the trunk later this week