I have an 01 Boxster S 6 speed that I use mostly as a track car for HPDE and Autocross. I drive it on the street every so often, but its mostly run hard on the track, and oil changed immediately after each track day. I know you really can't draw too many conclusions from one UOA, but the elevated copper and lead concern me. I know the silicon is probably from resealing the pan, or at least a large contributor to it. The engine runs strong, doesn't smoke, doesn't really make noise that I can tell. It doesn't use oil. No coolant or fuel mixed in the oil. The oil cooler was bad, and I just replaced that, it was leaking oil from the o-rings, so maybe it's possible to leach some copper, but I don't know. I've been running Mobil 5W50 A40 on the track. I currently have mobil european 5w40 in it, also A40.
This was a UOA after a 2.5 hour track day (five 30 min sessions, and about 350-400 street miles there and back). It was definitely driven hard on the track, 3-6k rpm the whole time. There was some kind of copper or zinc colored sludge on the pan. I didn't really see any metal in filter, I have an LN spin on adapter. I do have a magnetic drain plug as well and there was only just a super light dusting on it, no more than usual. Anyone have any thoughts on what this might be? There wasn't elevated iron in the sample, I have no idea where the lead would come from, I just used regular 93 octane on the track. I've driven it about 200 miles on fresh oil since this and its been fine, but I plan to change the oil again and send it off for another UOA. I hate to be a pessimist, but is this an impending sign of rod or main bearing failure? I want to drive it some more to get a better idea on the next UOA, but I also don't want to drive it further if it will end up toasting the engine more than it already may or may not be. One cam bank has deviation out of spec 7.2degrees, other was close at 5.8. There were a few plastic bits in the pan, so for sure it needs variocam guides.
You can see the sludge in the pic, and also some shiny residue on the bottom end. I dropped the pan prior to the track and day this oil analysis. I would think if that amount of copper was in the pan, and it was bearing related, this engine would have shat itself long ago. If anyone has thoughts or insight, I definitely want to hear! Thanks!
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