Time to revisit and breath new life

rustyh · 05-19-2013, 10:36 AM

Thanks for having me in the Forum everyone, hope all is well.

Rather than right out a long story, I will summerise my current position. I have a Boxster S 986 sitting in on the drive. It suffered an engine failure around 2 years ago, and due to my circumstances at the time, It has be sat there ever since. I had however dropped the engine out which is sat in the garage.

Anyway, my circumstances have allowed me to revisit this, and hopefully get it all back up and running. Albeit there are probably more parts seized that will need to work also now.

From what I can tell, the common fault of the IMS bearing failed (symptoms back then were loud knocking / screeching and sometime the engine would struggle and try and stall.
With the engine out, gear box off, and a good study, it seems to be the IMS bearing, found that the outer shell of the bearing seems to moves within its engine mounting.

So I plan to purchase the pelican parts retro replacement.

The reason for this thread is to ask if, while the engine is out the car, should I look to do anything else? Like pop the heads off and clean the piston tops and chamber heads down ect?

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

The car is at 120k miles (193k km) by the way

dad911 · 05-21-2013, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rustyh

.....
With the engine out, gear box off, and a good study, it seems to be the IMS bearing, found that the outer shell of the bearing seems to moves within its engine mounting.

So I plan to purchase the pelican parts retro replacement.

The reason for this thread is to ask if, while the engine is out the car, should I look to do anything else? Like pop the heads off and clean the piston tops and chamber heads down ect?

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

The car is at 120k miles (193k km) by the way

I'd be concerned how much metal from the bearing contaminated the oil, etc. Don't see a reason to open the top end, but I'd cut open the oil filter.

Did you follow the recommended procedures (find TDC, lock engine & cams, remove chain tensioners, etc) for your year engine?

rustyh · 05-21-2013, 08:00 AM

Hi,

The engine is currently locked in TDC. Not sure on locking the engine and cams??

This is a picture of the IMS I took today.

BYprodriver · BYprodriver's Garage

Rusty, 1st thing I would do is remove the oil filter housing & inspect the filter for any metal particles especially magnetic particles. If the filter is not too metallic see if you can turn the engine over CLOCKWISE ONLY 360 degrees around to TDC. At the mileage & age you have on the car & engine, everything that shows wear or aging should be replaced while the engine is out. What year is the car?

rustyh · 05-21-2013, 10:18 AM

Thanks for the replies

Unfortunately, I had taken the oil filter off a while ago with out thinking to check for debris.

However, I have just whipped off the sump cover, got overly excited as all seems quite clean and didn't see any debris. Then got embarrassed that my eyes had missed the debris gathered on the bottom of the cover and around the oil feed pipe.

Below are some images in full size, followed by some further images as thumbnails (to save post size)

dad911 · 05-21-2013, 12:10 PM

Wayne has an article of the procedure here: Pelican Technical Article: Boxster Intermediate Shaft Bearing Replacement and Upgrade (IMS) - 986 Boxster (1997-04) - 987 Boxster (2005-06)

LN Engineering has their procedure here: http://www.imsretrofit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/imsretrofit.pdf

I believe your bearing is not centered because of the chain tensioners. I also don't know if you have a 3 or 5 chain engine. Hopefully someone with more knowledge/experience will chime in.

derfo · derfo's Garage

[QUOTE=rustyh;7453413]Hi,

The engine is currently locked in TDC. Not sure on locking the engine and cams??

This is a picture of the IMS I took today

The cover plate holds the IMS shaft central. Once you take that off there will be play as you put it. Cam chain tensioners need to be freed off.
The IMS bearing looks ok to me, it hasn't broken up. The debris is from somewhere else in the engine.

rustyh · 05-22-2013, 03:28 AM

UPDATE:

Summary: Im none the wiser!!

1) Took the Cam Cover off Bank 2. Everything looked fine. Very clean and little signs of wear.

2) Removed Water Pump, etc. Found no metal fragments. System looked clean, and water pump felt in good condition

3) Removed Oil Filter (thought I had removed this before!! doh!!). Found no large metal fragments, but could see a metallic look to the oil in the bottom on the filter housing. Maybe Metallic dust?

4) Removed Spark Plugs, and poked a magnet in to each cylinder bored to see if any metal fragments come out. All looked ok, and the little I could see of the piston heads seemed sound.

So, I think I've scratched most of the surface now. Not really sure where to go next, and await advice?

Cheers

Russ

rustyh · 05-22-2013, 07:14 AM

Another update: Looking for some clarity if this test (and its results) would be reliable

I was trying to think of someway to test for connecting rod movement while the engine is still together, so came up with an idea of pushing a rod down the spark plug holes, against the piston tops, and seeing if they were solid. I went trough each one, piston 1 - solid, piston 2 - solid, piston 3 - solid, piston 4 - solid, piston 5 - solid, then guess what......piston 6 moved. I wiggled the crank pulley around slightly just to reset piston 6, and tried again, and yup movement again.

As I said, Im not sure on the reliability of this test, could there be movement regardless of an issue? I doubt it there should be any movement in the piston connections

BYprodriver · BYprodriver's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by BYprodriver

Rusty, 1st thing I would do is remove the oil filter housing & inspect the filter for any metal particles especially magnetic particles. If the filter is not too metallic see if you can turn the engine over CLOCKWISE ONLY 360 degrees around to TDC. At the mileage & age you have on the car & engine, everything that shows wear or aging should be replaced while the engine is out. What year is the car?

OK, so next you should use a magnet to see how much of the debris you found is magnetic. Your 3rd pic, the last full size pic, are those long strips magnetic? What year is the car & engine?

rustyh · 05-22-2013, 11:17 AM

Ive gone a little further down the road today. and think I have narrowed it down to a big end on cylinder 6.

First the positives - Cylinder liners look lovely, now scoring in slightest, very very smooth, and not even a noticeable lip. I'm impressed for an engine of 120k miles. Piston tops look in good condition, other than carbon layer. Cylinder head looking ok, filthy though!!

So, focusing on piston 6, I done a little video per this link.

Code:

http://www.youtube.c...eature=youtu.be

So now what?