Unknown part in oil pan

Frank A · 07-16-2011, 03:10 PM

I pulled my oil pan on my 2000 Boxster S today and found a small freeze plug about the size of a nickle, any idea where it may have come from, and how important it is?

turboflyer · turboflyer's Garage

Frank I am not sure but I would spend some time looking for sure. Be sure to post what you find.

EBS_Don · 07-16-2011, 07:50 PM

There are two of these and I'm sure that it is for an oil galley otherwise you would have a big gooey mess in there. I'll have to grab a case tomorrow and find out where it may have come from. I have seen this happen before...

Frank A · 07-17-2011, 05:24 AM

I assumed it would be oil passage related, there is no sign of intermix. The only issue that the car exhibits is if I make a high G sharp left hand turn I get a cloud of smoke, AOS is OK. As you can see by the additional photos the plug seems to not have been pressed in very hard or at all, and there is no sign of any sort of sealant. I don't know if the black coating is factory but it is only slightly marred, I'm not sure if it is from being pressed into a galley or from movement in the oil pan. Luck was with this motor, the timing chains did not get to it, crank did not eat it, and the clearance between the oil pick up is too narrow for it to block the pickup. I am guessing it came from somewhere in the area of the head in the timing chain passage.

turboflyer · turboflyer's Garage

OK well if it is an oil galley plug that engine should be running, oh at about zero PSI don't you think?

Frank A · 07-17-2011, 07:39 PM

The oil does not have coolant in it so it is not the cooling system, which leaves what?

Dale_K · 07-18-2011, 05:01 AM

I'm never going to drop my oil pan. I'd rather not know if there's junk inside as long as the motor runs OK.

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

Is that black stuff paint? There should never be anything painted or coated inside the engine. Looks semi-foreign to me if that is the case (I don't recognize it off the top of my head either).

-Wayne

Frank A · 07-18-2011, 10:02 AM

It looks like paint, I am letting the oil drip from the motor for now. I can not see how it got into motor, but who knows what mobile one is using for additives these days.
As it was sitting in the center of the sump it could have only come from so many places.

poured in with oil

left in motor at manufacturer

possibly from the return path from the head, I am not familiar with the inside of the block, got any pictures that are more detailed than your Boxster Motor tear down?

Dale_K · 07-18-2011, 10:11 AM

Maybe one of those plugs where the oil pump shafts seat?

Frank A · 07-18-2011, 12:13 PM

Is the back of the oil pump open to the sump?

Dale_K · 07-18-2011, 12:24 PM

I don't know. I happened to run across that picture and thought it might be a possibility. Could be a false alarm on my part.

dad911 · 07-18-2011, 12:45 PM

Is that a plug? Looks more like bushings for the shafts to ride in.

Frank A · 07-20-2011, 01:33 PM

Completed my work on my boxster today.
Sealed oil sump, without mystery part, (extra pieces make me nervous)
Oil change
Changed trans fluid
And many small fixes left to me by the PO

Car runs great, one thought that I had while the car was on stands and I had dissected my car just to get at the trans drain, it sure would have been nice to have the PP IMS kit at this point. My car has 113,000 miles and I cant see installing the gold plated LN kit just now. I will use LN parts when I do a total rebuild but that is at least two years off and I want the piece of mind that I have reset the ticking IMS time bomb.

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

I checked the back of a spare, old oil pump we had here. That's not it. I have an engine here that I'm putting into storage, I'll take a closer look at it tomorrow...

-Wayne

NOTASIX · 07-22-2011, 07:15 AM

Mike Focke sent us a link to this thread. I know exactly what that is and where it came from.. We sent Mike some reference pictures of it compared to a Nickel..

Mike can post them :-)

This leaves lots of unanswered questions about some other things that **SHOULD** be occurring.

dad911 · 07-22-2011, 08:11 AM

Well Jake, now that you've built up the suspense, how about filling us in .....

Or is it a super-secret performance upgrade?

NOTASIX · 07-22-2011, 08:15 AM

Mike has the photos in his email..
Nothing secret about it, I just can't post the photos from the device that I am using to write these posts as I am away from my desk.

The conversation was leading in the right direction concerning the determination of what this is.. I pictured it perfectly.

mikefocke · 07-22-2011, 08:18 AM

Pictures

NOTASIX · 07-22-2011, 08:27 AM

There ya have it.. When these are removed, they are black on the under side from corrosion.

When these plugs pop out they can easily be taken back to the sump by the timing chains that act like a conveyor.. They can also wash back to the sump in turbulant oil with the help of G forces. It would take a number of miles for this to occur and get all the way back to the sump, maybe hundreds or thousands of miles.

Under these passages lies coolant and in EVERY INSTANCE I have seen these dislodge there has been intermix. Why not now?

Here is my Hypothesis:
This car HAD intermix on a previous occasion and the engine was repaired. The plug had become dislodged and created the intermix occurrence, but the shop that did the repairs was not comprehensive enough to find the plug upon repairing the problem. Perhaps the plug was hidden and had not washed back into the sump until after the head repair was made?

Thats probably the reason the car was sold. Lets hops that it didn't experience collateral damage from the intermix occurrence if this is the case.

Thats my bet, because IF that plug dislodges you end up with intermix, absolutely, 100% without a doubt. Coolant rushes into the engine like a Geyser-

We remove these and machine the heads for threaded plugs in 100% of our engine update procedures, this eliminates the possibility of the plugs dislodging.