All (and especially Pedro -
Long story short, my 2002 Boxster S has an intermix issue. No water at all in the oil, and it runs really, REALLY well. However, I have plenty of oil in the water. I changed the oil cooler as a cheap easy stab at solving the issue, and no change. It's still happening. I'm losing about a quart of oil every 500 miles into the water. Of course I can always buy a used engine and toss it in, but I may very well be changing a known issue for an unknown one. Buying a rebuilt engine is out of the question, as the engine will cost double to triple what the car is worth.
Rather than buying a used engine that may have more problems than this one, I was thinking to take my engine out, and send the heads off to be checked and welded where needed. While the engine is out, I would change the rear main seal, IMS bearing, plugs, plug tubes and IOS, and completely clean up the engine, etc. The water pump and belt was just recently changed.
Given this plan, here are my questions:
-Since it's not the oil cooler causing the intermix, is there any other common cause of intermix besides the heads that I should look at first?
- I can't really find a nice complete write up on what the procedure is to remover and replace the heads while keeping everything in time. I have a LN Engineering IMS tool kit here, is the use of that kit enough to keep everything in time or do I need to purchase other special tools?
-Can anyone direct me to a good write up on this job?
- If anyone has any other input on this I would be very grateful to hear it.
Thanks,
Doug