gotta fix your sig soon - not Morte much longer *NM*

As many of you know, i bought a very lovingly maintained, but high mileage (~197k) Boxster S that had an IMS failure.

As of today i have a very low-mileage donor 3.2L motor (27k miles) that runs smoothly. I plan to replace the IMS with an LN version; do a complete clutch/PP/TOB, use the newer car's flywheel, and do a few odds and ends (AOS, belt, plugs etc). I'll probably do a 1000 mile interval with "joe oil" and some rislone too, since anything that accumulated only 27k in 12 years sat around a lot with its fluids idle. And, i doubt got proper exercize.

There's always some risk with used motors, but this seems good. And i'm fairly confident that the main fault in post '99 boxsters is the IMS - otherwise the M96 is a very good motor. So with low miles, and a new over-built IMS, i have high hopes for a long life.

Then on to eval the suspension> At minimum i plan to lower it a bit - many of the parts are fairly new, so likely just springs (maybe H&R sport - any BTDT?)

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Grant--can you get at the oil pump drive piece while the motor is out?
I think LN sells a piece that replaces the stock drive hex made out more robust materials than stock.

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

According to Jake it was another failure point, but I don't see it on his website anymore.

These are actually very good motors overall. They have extremely low-wear nikasil liners. The rings/liners almost never wear. The valves go *forever* (the ones in Bruce's motor look to be ok, i look forward to taking them out if i get a chance).

There were some issues:
- leaky RMS (so what?)
- early liner failures
- early D-chunk failures
- oil scavenging failures on track with slicks and a very good driver (like this is the car's fault?)

and, drum roll please, the IMS.

The IMS seems to be the real McCoy. So i'll always do that.

I was actually wondering about the chain tensioners. Good for life of motor? (aside from the morbid "by definition")

I'll ask Gene

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I really want to know what the guts of that engine looks like regarding wear. I took care of the car and kept to the maintenance schedule without fail. I think it will be a good example of what these engineers came up with (even though they were drinking beer the day they approved the IMS design).

Bruce

First, this sucker is almost 600 lbs. I'm not taking it home!

I will have a chance to pull the IMS cover off and do a bit of poking around later this week.

Right now i know this. The motor has jumped time. Bank one (right facing IMS) has its two cams in alignment. On bank two, one cam has visibly jumped time vs the other cam. It appears that 3 of 4 cams are in alignment (left and right have not lost time) but i can;t be sure. I'll look at the oil filter; and take the IMS cover off later this week i hope. Maybe pull a cam cover and look, but those are buried under *so* much stuff.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

This is what I was speaking of :
[www.lnengineering.com]

My indie and I were discussing this point just last week. He's never seen a tensioner related failure in a 986, but the variocam pads and chain rails can wear and lead to a catastrophic failure. This would seem likely in really high mileage engines. At 27K, I wouldn't think its a problem or a concern.

Good luck. My replacement engine in my 2001 seems to be holding up well a month or so after transplant. After various minor related fixes, I'm planning on two replacement front tires and hope that will be it for a while.