A souce once said the engines have

Perhaps some of you will remember that last year, in the distant past, my car's engine died in the wilds of New Jersey and after working with a mechanic I know up there, I had it towed down here to D.C., where an Indy I trust decided to take a look. He scouted out engines and found them pricey and said he wanted to look at the engine and see what he could find.

Oh, I know, IMS failure some said. No it couldn't be others said. And the (newly hired, thank god) service manager at Arlington Porsche suggested it must be something else when I stopped in before Christmas to buy a coffee mug as a Christmas present and described what had happened.. Well, I stopped by the mechanic's today to put a new registration sticker on the car. The car, by the way, looks great, I think they've been washing it. Who knows, maybe they've been racing it.

Anyway, he plans to look at it next week and let me know.

Watch this space.

For those of you who think I've been a chump, I haven't paid a nickel since the car broke down -- AAA took care of the tows, the mechanic in Jersey didn't charge anything, and Peter, the guy down here hasn't charged me anything and he's kept the car on his lot for like 10 months now.

thinks you'r were or are a chump.

What you experienced is most unpleasant and those who've (thankfully) not experienced it can only imagine.

IMS. Not IMS. Who knows? Always, it comes down to someone at the car determining what the problem is and what the extent of the damage (if any) is. All we distant people can do is offer ideas, suggestions, that hopefully prove of some help in getting the car back on the road.

Hope it turns out to be nothing super serious.

Please be sure to post an update when you know something.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

This reply is more difficult to write than I thought - I REALLY don't want to offend in any way, but I can't figure out a way to put my question without sounding like a jerk. (but that is what I do best)

I would very much like to know of a good indy in the area. But can you share why 3 months have gone by and not much has happened... is it just the "Bull of Winter", and since you don't want to drive it in the salt, you have not pursued the issue, or has it been a very hard diagnosis problem, or are you dissatisfied with the analysis of your indy, or have I missed something. I can imagine all of the above happening to me.

You don't sound like a jerk.

First, the indy in the area is Euro Motorcars in Arlington/Alexandria. Very good, I've used him for years, he has always done good work and saved me a lot of money.

The wait is because he wanted to take the time to take the engine apart and, as I was able to do without the car for a while, he had other things to do, and I was at the time not working and couldn't have paid for a new engine or repair, the car has been sitting in his lot. I was gratified when I was over there to see that it is sparkling clean and looks like its ready for a drive on through the mountains.

21 modes of failure that have already been identified. So there is now way but the examination of an expert to even guess what caused your problem.

Hope you are now gainfully employed and I also hope for the least $ diagnosis and cure.

which are both new to me. We'll see. IMS failure is of course possible, but as there was no oil discharge involved, that may not have been the case.

Yeah, cam shift or lifter are possible.

I seem to remember from your last post that the engine died on the NJ turnpike with smoke? Could be catastrophic AOS failure with oil dumped into the intake.

Have you tried to start the motor? Read the OBDII codes (even though they are probably gone by now).

Looking forward to hearing what Euro has to say.

1998 986 Turbo-Look Cab
172,000 Miles
Dilithium Crystal Supercharger

No, there was no smoke. I had catastrophic AOS already on the BW Parkway. I try to have a different problem for different highways, that way I can tell engaging stories at the local bar.

the motor won't start at all.

to just stop.

I have encountered a Boxster with a broken valve spring, and 911 with a collapsed lifter and a motorcycle, my Honda CB750 with what proved to be a flattened camshaft lobe, but all the engines ran. In both the case of the Boxster and the 911 the owner drove the car to the dealer's service department to have a noise (tick tick tick) looked into. In the case of the Honda, the engine continued to run pretty good. I had the Honda engine looked at not because of the engine's performance but because of the noise. It wasn't bad but being an air-cooled engine right underneath one one can hear every little sound.

Also, you may have missed it but recently my 02 Boxster had the passenger side VarioCam solenoid and actuator fail and while the engine developed a heck of a rough idle once above idle and as high as I dared rev the engine (which was probably not much over 4K) the engine ran just fine. Above idle the only clue that something had gone wrong was a check engine light and my observation of some fairly out of character fuel trims on the passenger side cylinder bank.

If there were no noises or other symptoms upon loss of engine power and if the engine turns over ok by hand, then a camchain doesn't even sound like a probable cause.

Sudden loss of engine power can be fuel problem -- my Boxster had its fuel pump quit and when the fuel pump quit the engine quit just like someone flipping a switch. Had I been driving down the road instead of just backing out of my parking space at home.... the engine's sudden quitting could be the twin of your engine's behavior.

Or the problem could be due to a critical sensor failure like a crankshaft position sensor. There can be electrical/DME related reasons too.

My point is the engine may not be toast, may not even been that sick, may not even be sick at all if the fuel pump or fuel delivery system proves to be at fault.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

Thanks for that. We'll see what the guy says. There was a clicking or rattling just before the engine went but no oil or other discharge. The battery did completely discharge on the tow down from Jersey, but that may have been the tow guy's fault.

because that means I can say without risk of defamation that I know who you're talking about and that they are full of it. That's not to say that they don't have valuable information but that they deliberately distort the truth.