Pelican Technical Article: Common Boxster Engine Problems and Failures. This article is one in a series that have been released in conjunction with Wayne's new book, 1. Performance Projects for Your Porsche Boxster. The book contains 3. With more than 9. Boxster owner's collection. The book is currently available and in stock now. See The Official Book Website for more details. CLICK HERE FOR PARTS FOR THIS ARTICLEUsing the expertise gained from years of designing and building engines, Porsche developed what is known as the M9. Boxster in 1. 99. The horizontally opposed engine was developed with a throwback to the traditionally air cooled motors, having kept the opposing cylinder or boxer layout. The engine was designed from the outset with the goal of providing a common platform for both the Boxster and the upcoming Porsche Carrera. The motor was indeed scalable, encompassing a displacement that ranged from 2. The M9. 6 (and subsequent similar M9. Porsche over the 1. EHow Auto gets you on the fast track with repair, maintenance, and shopping advice. Whether you're jump starting a battery or insuring a new car, we can help. MARINE ENGINES & PROPULSION. Ranger Hope © 2015. The Boxster and 996 engines are not necessarily known for being bulletproof. Wayne goes over in detail all of the weak areas prone to failure in these engines. It's not uncommon to find a car listed for sale with "new factory engine recently installed" in the advertisement. No one but Porsche knows exactly how many engines were replaced under its recently discontinued engine exchange program. However, simply swapping out a broken engine for another one does not address known weaknesses in the engine due to design deficiencies. The purpose of this project is to identify some of the problem areas of the engine and offer up solutions on how to fix and/or prevent any damage from happening to your engine. Rear Main Seal Leaks: When the M9. RMS) leaks. While some of the RMS problems were probably actually intermediate shaft cover leaks (see next section), there were definitely some problems with the seals on the early cars. For the most part this was a "cosmetic" issue, as the leaks did not tend to affect performance, unless they became so severe that they began to affect the proper operation of the clutch. But many engines were torn apart and/or replaced by Porsche under warranty due to this problem because when you pay $7. It's not really 1. One cause may possibly be the fact that the crankshaft has insufficient support on the rear end. It also may be caused by the fact that the crankshaft carrier support is only pinned minimally in one plane to the outer case. This can lead to shuffling of the carrier: shuffle pinning the crankshaft carrier as is commonly done when prepping an early 9. ![]() ![]() The seal has been updated to a 9. Cayenne- style" part number since the engine was originally introduced, and for the most part the engines no longer leak from this area when this new and improved seal is installed. If you find that your engine is leaking from the rear main seal (also known as the flywheel seal), then simply install a new one while adding a little bit of Curil- T sealant to help keep it dry (see Photo 1. Pelican Technical Article: Clutch Replacement). Intermediate Shaft Bearing Failures: The intermediate shaft bearing is probably the most troublesome of all of the M9. M9. 7 engine problems. The intermediate shaft bearing (IMS bearing), supports the intermediate shaft on the flywheel end of the motor. Porsche designed these motors using a sealed ball bearing that is pressed into the intermediate shaft. These types of bearings are typically used in devices like copy machines and other machinery used in dry conditions. In theory, the area where Porsche designed the bearing to sit is supposed to be dry. However, after years of use within the engine, it would appear that oil and contaminants from the engine seep past the bearing seal, wash out the original lubricant and become trapped inside. The result is that the bearing now operates in a less- than- ideal environment and begins to wear prematurely. When the bearing wears out, the timing chains on the engine may disengage, and the engine will quickly self- destruct. When the bearing does fail, foreign object debris from the bearing circulates throughout the engine, causing further damage to other areas in the engine. On the early cars, Porsche also used a center bolt to secure the IMS bearing that was too weak and sometimes snapped. If this bolt breaks, then the intermediate shaft begins to float around in the bottom of the engine, and you can soon experience catastrophic engine failure. This area is also highly prone to leaks. The seal around the intermediate shaft cover can leak, and it has since been updated and redesigned to prevent leakage. In addition, the three bolts that hold the intermediate shaft cover are through holes which exit into the cavity of the engine case. You must coat these bolts when reinstalling them in order to prevent oil from leaking out through the bolt holes. In general, if this area is leaking, it may indeed be a sign that your intermediate shaft is failing and you should inspect it immediately. The good news is that the IMS bearing problems are all fixable, thanks in part to a retrofit kit that can be installed with the engine still in the car. See Project 1. 4 for full instructions on how to update your engine. Cylinder Liner Cracks: In an effort to reduce costs during production, Porsche utilized a type of insert- mold casting process to directly incorporate Lokasil cylinder liners into the case. While this is a neat way to reduce the total number of parts used in the engine, this design basically casts a wearable part into the engine case. There is no factory replacement for the liners: when they wear, the factory expects you to buy a new engine case. In addition, the design of the cylinder liners allows them to "float" within an area filled with coolant. Excess vibration and twisting from the normal operation of the engine appears to be causing some cracking in these liners, resulting in a small chunk of the liner breaking off. This "D- chunk" problem seems to ironically occur mostly in gently driven cars. Boxsters that are driven hard at the track or on the street do not tend to see this type of damage. At least with respect to the track cars, one theory is that these cars tend to have their oil changed much more often. The problem affects mostly the 2. Carrera 3. 4 engines: the 3. Boxster S engine appears to be unaffected because it has thicker cylinder walls than the 3. When this failure happens, you will see oil and coolant begin to mix together, or a slight unexplained coolant loss. If your engine experiences this failure, it can be rebuilt using LN Engineering's Nickasil liners installed. They take your old case, machine out the cracked or damaged Lokasil liners and install an aluminum Nickies insert which is stronger and more reliable than the factory cast- in liner. In addition, with the installation of the liners it's fairly easy to increase the bore of the cylinders which translates into increased displacement and more horsepower. If you go this route, you will also need to use some aftermarket pistons and perhaps update the software in your DME to accommodate the larger displacement. Engine Casting Porosity: As mentioned in the previous section, Porsche used a new cost- effective method to cast in most of the oil and water cooling passages directly into the engine case. This reduced the total part count for the engine, and also helped to reduce assembly time and production cost. Unfortunately, the advanced casting technique seems to have led to a number of engine cases experiencing what has been called "engine porosity." There is not a lot of information available on this problem, but it seems to be related to problems with the initial casting process. In some cases, there appeared to have been a leak through the internal crank case walls. The process of pouring the molten aluminum must be tightly controlled, otherwise pockets of air forming in the aluminum may result. Most of the time, post- casting inspections will reveal these flaws, but apparently some were still manufactured into running engines. The result is that oil and water became mixed within these engines. This resulted in coolant being found within the oil (turning it a milky brown color), or oil being found inside the coolant tank. The expansion and contraction of the engine due to the heat of normal operation can expose this problem as well. I have also heard of engines that simply weeped a slow bead of oil right through the walls of the engine case when running. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done to fix this problem, short of scraping the engine. A place to go for all the Questions and Answers you can handle.
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