Meridian Boxster Rebuild Project '24

[Homeoboxter]

Well, here we go again, probably the last thing I needed now was to get another Boxster, especially one that needs a new motor. I tried really hard to swipe away on fb marketplace but this thing kept coming back and finally I couldn't resist and went to see it. Not that I wanted to buy it at that point, I was just curious to see a 22 year old Boxster with only 22,000 miles on it and it was nearby. The car was in pristine condition, my daily driver Boxster S Tip seemed like a real s**tbox next to it, even though I put quite a lot of work into that in the past two years. The owner tells me the car was a garage queen in the family throughout its whole life, meticulously maintained with all the receipts and everything since day one. The only tiny blemish is, khm, the engine, which one day, after a loud bang, stopped working. At the shop the owner had been told the engine probably suffered a catastrophic engine failure and needs replacing. Since I have a complete S engine in bits stored in boxes in the shed, I quickly convinced myself (and my wife) that I should not pass on this.. The owner was also super nice and we made a deal.


Not sure at this point how long it is going to take to get it back on the road again, hopefully not as long as the Blue Boxster took http://https://986forum.com/forums/show-tell-gallery/73917-blue-boxster-resurrection-project-10.html, but I thought I'd start a thread about it just to document the progress. Here's a few pictures as a start:







Looks like now that I own another wrecked Porsche I will have to change my lifestyle accordingly.







Yep, that's the correct reading.



Tip got company.





Oil's clean, that's a good sign. All fluids were replaced shortly before the big bang.

[78F350]

Awesome . I'm really curious to see what you find with the engine. Most 'big bang' failures I've seen make chunks and metal in the oil. Does it turn by hand?

[Smallblock454]

Hopefully you can bring it back to life with manageable effort. Fingers crossed.

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by 78F350

Awesome . I'm really curious to see what you find with the engine. Most 'big bang' failures I've seen make chunks and metal in the oil. Does it turn by hand?

Yeah! That's the whole point, curiosity! What an earth could go wrong in a well-maintained Porsche at such low mileage?

The crank moves, but I didn't try turning it a whole revolution just to avoid messing things up even more. Not that it matters, of course.

Also, I got this code below, indicating the cams at one bank are not in sync with the crankshaft.



Even though the oil was clean, I dropped the sump and found these tiny steel goodies:



They seem chain roller pieces to me. Luckily, this is a 5-chain engine, so there's 4 more if one's shot.

The internals otherwise are looking great.

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

Hopefully you can bring it back to life with manageable effort. Fingers crossed.

Thanks!!

[Homeoboxter]

I jacked up the car and fixed the top in service mode.



Subwoofer. This was an expensive feature back in 2002.



Lots of dust on the engine, otherwise everything looks great.



Nice front view also. I haven's seen such a clean head in a long time.





This mess on the underside is unexpected at this mileage. Looks like a Toyota at 500.000 miles, lol. Most likely we have an RMS leak that has not started recently...



This is also something you wouldn't want to see when pulling the plugs..



I wondered a bit what to do at this point. Shall I pull the head cover with the motor in the car on that side where I have the error code and see what's going on with the timing, or just pull the engine and inspect things on the engine stand which is a lot more convenient? I opted for the latter.

I took these guys off just in case someone gets tempted to take a peek under the jacked up car at night. My neighbor's cats got stolen on the driveway last year.



Two shots of the engine from underneath without cats and driveshafts.

[old911doc]

I see that the engine still has the plastic-cup oil filter thingy. Those sometimes become extremely tight, requiring, I estimate, 250+ ft-lbs to remove. I suggest you remove that from the engine before you remove the engine or transmission from the chassis. Exerting that much force on an engine on a stand only serves to move the stand across your shop. IMHO that plastic cup is the second-worse thing Porsche ever did, after locating the immobilizer module under the driver’s seat.
Oh, also: to remove the oil filter cup, use the aluminum filter wrench branded as Craftsman and sold through Lowe’s, but be aware that you likely won’t be able to remove the cap wrench from the plastic cup once you get it off.
Good luck with project!

[Smallblock454]

The spark plug doesn't look good.

Fingers still crossed.

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

The spark plug doesn't look good.

Fingers still crossed.

Yeah, it certainly does not. I don't really get what that spider web-looking dirt might be. Even if the valves stayed open for months no animals should get in there because both the intake and exhaust side is closed.

Anyways, upon closer inspection through the spark plug hole with a borescope, this is what I can see:



That curvy line on the piston top looks like a valve-contact.

[Smallblock454]

Could also be some kind of scratch. But a photo of a not so good screen is often misleading.

Valve seems more likely. Is that the cylinder the spark plug shown above came from?

Well, unfortunately this means engine out - needs to be investigated further.

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

Well, unfortunately this means engine out - needs to be investigated further.

I already passed that point...



Here's a couple pics along the way:











The friction disc is not too bad, but worn asymmetrically, so probably I'll just get a new one. Hopefully it's sold separately.



Leaks..



Look at that mess around the AOS. Probably the O-rings got brittle in the past 22 years. Or it was just a crappy design in the first place.

[Smallblock454]

Crappy design?

Designed for a car lifetime of 10 years - and still kind of functional after 22 years. So what do you mean?

BTW: jealous of your neighbours. My neighbours would kill me if i would do an engine out on the driveway.

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

Crappy design?

Designed for a car lifetime of 10 years - and still kind of functional after 22 years. So what do you mean?

True. A little oil leak won't affect functionality. Also, one bank is still totally fine. Not too bad for a 22 year old car. Downsizing engines to 3 cylinders is kind of popular nowadays anyway.

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

BTW: jealous of your neighbours. My neighbours would kill me if i would do an engine out on the driveway.

Yeah, they don't see much of this, I park the family minivan in between his car and the Porsche (we share the driveway). He's nice, he comes by every now and then just to express his genuine surprise of seeing what's going on there. Once he even offered his help . I don't make a mess that would affect them anyhow.

[Homeoboxter]

Further insights into the engine.



Stripping the top.



Something seems off here.



Yep.



Everything looks clean and nice inside though, no sludge, deposit. etc. This was indeed a well maintained car.



Ouch...

[Smallblock454]

Originally Posted by Homeoboxter

Ouch...

Well, i think you found the problem.

Hope there is no excessive damage to the engine casing. Sometimes these chains can do ugly things

How does the IMS look?

How do pistons, rods and valves look?

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

Well, i think you found the problem.

Hope there is no excessive damage to the engine casing. Sometimes these chains can do ugly things

How does the IMS look?

How do pistons, rods and valves look?

The casings seem fine, I haven't discovered any damage on them so far, which is great.

IMS looks great too. Rods look fine, pistons have slight damage but seem reusable, I'll have to do measurements though. Several valves are bent. I'll upload pictures later.

The question is, why did the chain snap? Tearing a dual row chain apart like this requires quite a bit of force. However, I think I found the answer for that.

Inside the scavanging pump, that's a crack right there:




Yep, the rotor is broken.



It clearly picked up something which seized up the pump and hence the camshaft, that's why the chain snapped. I can make out the piece that's now melted in the pump housing.



But I have no idea what it may have been and where it came from. So far I haven't found anything that came loose, missing bolt, etc. So I'm puzzled. Anyways, the engine obviously needs to be taken apart to the last bolt.

[Smallblock454]

Hm, looks like something hard did get sucked through the scavenger pump. Doesn't look like a normal wear pattern. That could have blocked the pump and things happened. The question is what got sucked into the pump? In my opinion, it must have been something hard like metal.

The IMS bearing is completely intact? No single bearing ball is missing?

Were you able to identify where the metal parts in post #4 came from?

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

Hm, looks like something hard did get sucked through the scavenger pump. Doesn't look like a normal wear pattern. That could have blocked the pump and things happened. The question is what got sucked into the pump? In my opinion, it must have been something hard like metal.

The IMS bearing is completely intact? No single bearing ball is missing?

Were you able to identify where the metal parts in post #4 came from?

Exactly, something got jammed in between the rotor and the pump housing. It's kind of visible if you look at the picture carefully. It's not there anymore. But clearly, that's what seized up the camshaft and consequenly snapped the chain.

IMSB is in perfect condition. A ball couldn't just escape without ripping the whole thing apart. Those metal parts in the sump are remnants of the chain rollers.

[Homeoboxter]

Here's a picture of the IMS bearing. No sign of damage or even wear.



The sprocket also looks fine looking down from the head. The bottom sprocket is the mirror image



Head off.



Tiny marks from the intake valves.



Or, in this cylinder, from the exhaust valves.



All valves should be closed with the camshafts being off. The reason why they are open is they are bent. It's not very much of a damage after a timing chain failure.

[Homeoboxter]

On its way onto the engine stand. The other bank was all right.







The oil pump rotors also have some slight chips..



Further pieces from the chain in the bottom of the case. I'm glad I decided to tear it down totally.







A chain shrapnel melted into the crank-to-IMS chain guide..