Have a look at my engine

[stargate823]

I decided to replace my belt yesterday on my '03 Boxster. This was my first time lifting the lid so I snapped a picture of what I found. There appears to be a little bit of oily mess on the top as you see in the picture. Is this normal for a car with 67k on the clock? How should I go about cleaning this and fixing the problem. Would there be any negative effects if I hit the engine with a degreaser and a hose? Judging by the way this looks I have a feeling that cleaning the throttle body is also in order.

[wvicary]

It looks normal to me and I wouldn't bother cleaning it. It's a good idea to clean the throttle body well you have everything open and have a look at the air filter and P/S fluid level also. Has the AOS ever been updated to the newer part?

[HairyPotter]

I decided to replace my belt yesterday on my '03 Boxster. This was my first time lifting the lid so I snapped a picture of what I found. There appears to be a little bit of oily mess on the top as you see in the picture. Is this normal for a car with 67k on the clock? How should I go about cleaning this and fixing the problem. Would there be any negative effects if I hit the engine with a degreaser and a hose? Judging by the way this looks I have a feeling that cleaning the throttle body is also in order.

The engine itself is treated/coated to prevent corrosion of the aluminium (sic - British spelling) and shouldn't be cleaned if I remember correctly; might be a good idea to inspect inside the tube from the AOS (air/oil separator) where it joins the air intake system and check for oil deposits, the oily marks could be an AOS failing

[flyingpenguin]

I decided to replace my belt yesterday on my '03 Boxster. This was my first time lifting the lid so I snapped a picture of what I found. There appears to be a little bit of oily mess on the top as you see in the picture. Is this normal for a car with 67k on the clock? How should I go about cleaning this and fixing the problem. Would there be any negative effects if I hit the engine with a degreaser and a hose? Judging by the way this looks I have a feeling that cleaning the throttle body is also in order.

The engine itself is treated/coated to prevent corrosion of the aluminium (sic - British spelling) and shouldn't be cleaned if I remember correctly; might be a good idea to inspect inside the tube from the AOS (air/oil separator) where it joins the air intake system and check for oil deposits, the oily marks could be an AOS failing

There's an easy check for a failing Air/Oil Separator: try removing the oil filler cap with the engine running. If the AOS is bad, the vaccum is so strong that it will make removal very difficult if not impossible...

Joost

[Bill_SoCal]

I decided to replace my belt yesterday on my '03 Boxster. This was my first time lifting the lid so I snapped a picture of what I found. There appears to be a little bit of oily mess on the top as you see in the picture. Is this normal for a car with 67k on the clock? How should I go about cleaning this and fixing the problem. Would there be any negative effects if I hit the engine with a degreaser and a hose? Judging by the way this looks I have a feeling that cleaning the throttle body is also in order.

I have an '03 as well. Great car. How did the engine look when you removed the firewall to replace the drive belt? I imagine pretty clean in that area. Water pump and everything look good? The top of my engine looks very similar to yours at 139,000 miles. I've never cleaned it and never had any sensor or engine related issues...just change the oil, oil filter and air filter every 15K along with regular scheduled maintenance (such as the belt you're doing at 60K and 120K).

All the best,

Bill B)

[stargate823]

I decided to replace my belt yesterday on my '03 Boxster. This was my first time lifting the lid so I snapped a picture of what I found. There appears to be a little bit of oily mess on the top as you see in the picture. Is this normal for a car with 67k on the clock? How should I go about cleaning this and fixing the problem. Would there be any negative effects if I hit the engine with a degreaser and a hose? Judging by the way this looks I have a feeling that cleaning the throttle body is also in order.

I have an '03 as well. Great car. How did the engine look when you removed the firewall to replace the drive belt? I imagine pretty clean in that area. Water pump and everything look good? The top of my engine looks very similar to yours at 139,000 miles. I've never cleaned it and never had any sensor or engine related issues...just change the oil, oil filter and air filter every 15K along with regular scheduled maintenance (such as the belt you're doing at 60K and 120K).

All the best,

Bill B)

Bill,

It really has been a great car so far. I've had it two weeks tomorrow and I am finally starting to get used to the shift ranges and such. This car can really run!

It was pretty clean indeed. Everything seemed dry and leak free. It has a coating of dirty dusty "stuff" but no grease or oil to speak of sans the top of the engine in the pic. I still think that thhere should not be all that blow by mess on the top. I need to find the source. Unfortunately it was snowing today in Baltimore so I will have to tend to those issues when the weather breaks. The water pump pulley did not wiggle much at all when I took the belt off. The car hasn;t leaked a drop of anythign on the driveway so far so i am assuming that all is well. The air filter looked good although I would prefer to look into aftermarket options. No oil type air filters from what I have seen though. I plan on an oil change as soon as the weather is nice enough to allow. I would like to really go over everything once it gets nicer out. Cleaning the throttle body and changing the plugs are high on that list.

I suppose keeping the engine "eat off it" clean really isn't all that important since you rarely see it huh?

Matt

[Jay H]

This winter while changing my air filter and topping up the power steering, I took my shop vac with the duster attachment (the brush) and vac'd off the top of the motor. It got a lot of the dirt off and I didn't disturb the coating on the motor from the factory. A damp rag (just water) touched up a few of the other areas and then I treated some of the plastics and hoses with Vinylex to help preserve those rubber/plastic components.