911 sc died on freeway and now wont turn over :(

[supercarrera82]

I was driving my Porsche today on the freeway and everything was fine, after like 10 miles i exited and the car just died when i put it in neutral. Naturally I thought it would be in air leak but when i turned it on a weird repeating clunking noise was coming from the back end and it kept dying on me, the rpm didnt stay up...so i kept my foot on the gas and pulled over. As i drove it the cluncking noise was loud at about 1500 rpm then would quiet down at 2000 and get worse after 2000 rpm. No smoke at all...so i let the car sit a bit then turned it on and it stayed on idling normall but with a minor clunking noise. I proceeded to drive back at a low speed without the car turning off and the clunking got worse and the car went from 3000 rpm to completly off. I turned it back in to get it somewhere to park it safe and it hesitated a bit to turn on but stayed on and idled fine...got up half a block to park it and it died again immediately ...now the car doesnt turn over at all. It idled fine the whole time no sputtering...only died when i went above 4k rpm...now it doesnt even turn over...kinda like when a battery is dead. The only thing that has not been changed on this car is the clutch...please dont tell me its symptoms of a cracked head... weird thing is ive been hearing very low key clicking noises when the car was warm at times over the last couple months but that went away...and it was driving percect this morning. The car never smoked...never sputtered and the temperature was low the whole time. If the clutch or tranny gives out or is about to...could this be happen? To a point where it wont allow it to turn over? Any ideas on where i should start searching... I had the car flat beded to my house today thanks

[silverc4s]

Chain Tensioner failure?? i.e. one chain jumped a tooth or more...

[silverc4s]

Guess it could also be your clutch has disintegrated and jammed up in there somehow. Not that I have ever heard of this happening except with the rubber centered discs..

[silverc4s]

PS... Nice looking SC you have there...

[gsxrken]

Alternator on its last legs can make some sounds and kill your battery. That kind of rings with your no crank symptoms.
Chain tensioner failures is a good guess too, but typically don't result in dead batteries/no starts.
Do let us know what it was..l

[supercarrera82]

good ideas...the battery is still good...don't think its the alternator because the engine was starting and I checked the battery and its still good on the charge

[boyt911sc]

Could you turn the crankshaft manually? The first thing I would do is inspect if the engine is seized. If the crankshaft turns freely for several revolutions during your inspection, that would be good news!!!! If it does not, then, there are few things to inspect further to diagnose the main problem. Keep us posted.

Tony

[NeedSpace]

Does the starter click when you try to turn it over? If not, could be the starter.

I agree, try to turn the engine manually.

[supercarrera82]

update: so I went to drain the oil and believe it or not between both reservoirs only a little over a quart of oil only came out! No metal pieces came out with the oil thank god but only 1 quart..really? I did an oil change like you months ago since I only drive the car once a week, oil gauge always said it was ok, never over heated. Checked the entire motor and no signs of oil being leaked anywhere, was thinking something came loose and the oil spilled out. No oil anywhere under the engine. So then I checked both left and right chain tensioners and they were both ok, then I took off the lower left and right valve covers and everything looked good. Now I've taken one spark plug out #4 and tried to crank the engine manually by turning the alternator fan but belt keeps sliding and the actual engine crank isn't rotating because it looks like the belt is a bit loose. I'm going to remove both top valve covers also just In Case to check. As for the starter, no it does not make a click when I turn it over, it does nothing.well the starter was working the second to last time I started the car but then stopped even attempting to turn over. Let me know what you guys think I'll keep you posted. Thanks for the replies.

[KNS]

Doesn't sound good about the oil...

Pinch the fan belt while you're trying to turn it - a little bit loose is not unsual.

[emac]

One qt of oil?!! I am starting to get very sick for you. I hope I am wrong
Ernie 81 sc

[86 911 Targa]

10 quarts of oil gone????

Where could it go if not outside????

[naples911]

Just a wild guess but could the oil be in the lines going to the front radiator? And somehow got stuck there if the line got plugged? Feeling your pain but if it was a rod that let go, it may have pierced the case and drained your oil. I had a rod put a sunroof in my case brought on by low oil but that was on the top of the engine. Anyway, best of luck and sounds like you did what you could!

[Raceboy]

Unfortunately this sounds like a seized engine due to oiling problem (either because of low oil level as the cause or as the symptom after oil has drained out).

[mreid]

I hate to say this, but the clunking noise is the death rattle of an engine starved of its life blood, oil. The reason the temperature never came up it that the probe needs oil to register (low temp over time is just as bad as high temp). With no other explanation as to where the oil went, I suspect gremlins or the meth addict down the street took it. I don't mean to make jokes, but there has to be a reasonable explanation as to where the oil went and if you know it was in there and there are no signs of leaks, I have no other explanation.

[j911brick]

Doesn't look good. Oil must have gone somewhere? If you were running on only one quart you might as well pull the motor now.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by naples911

Just a wild guess but could the oil be in the lines going to the front radiator? And somehow got stuck there if the line got plugged? Feeling your pain but if it was a rod that let go, it may have pierced the case and drained your oil. I had a rod put a sunroof in my case brought on by low oil but that was on the top of the engine. Anyway, best of luck and sounds like you did what you could!

It is impossible to compress 10 qts of oil into a space that holds 2 qts max. The oil lines would have to look like a cartoon party balloon.

[Quicksilver]

Yeah, game over. That is just a sick feeling.

Cheapest fix is a serviceable used engine. The other items that need to be hit are:
- Find the leak
- Clean or replace all of the oil lines.


Just keep thinking maybe he pulled the wrong plugs but wishful thinking doesn't get you anything...

[GaryR]

No oil in the car and the Temp gauge didn't max out along with the Pressure gauge bottoming out??

[Quicksilver]

Originally Posted by GaryR

No oil in the car and the Temp gauge didn't max out along with the Pressure gauge bottoming out??

No oil going to the temp sender so no high temperature.