Boxster 2.5 white sludge at water pipe connection

[Martin-dt986]

Hi, I am trying to bring a 99 Boxster (2.5 Tiptronic RHD) back from the dead. I am in the process of removing the engine and gearbox and noticed some white sludge at one of the water pipe connections.

I am not expecting too much from this motor as it had no oil in when I took delivery of it but I was wondering if this could be an indication of where things started to go wrong?

The car also only had about 2 liters of clean water in the coolant circuit (no antifreeze). Quite sad considering it only has 126k Kms on it...

[JFP in PA]

1 hour ago, Martin-dt986 said:

Hi, I am trying to bring a 99 Boxster (2.5 Tiptronic RHD) back from the dead. I am in the process of removing the engine and gearbox and noticed some white sludge at one of the water pipe connections.

I am not expecting too much from this motor as it had no oil in when I took delivery of it but I was wondering if this could be an indication of where things started to go wrong?

The car also only had about 2 liters of clean water in the coolant circuit (no antifreeze). Quite sad considering it only has 126k Kms on it...

 

Bigger question is where did it come from?  In good health, these engines do not do that...………...

[Martin-dt986]

An update on the project so far... The engine and gearbox removed and the heads are taken off. The inside of the engine actually looks a lot better that the outside (guessing the disintegrated oil-breather bellow had something to do with it).  I did see that the Cylinder 456 head was missing a water channel plug which was lying next to the inlet cam...

Is this a common occurrence?

Also I would have expected to see a lot more water in and around the cams of this head but I could not see any?

 

Any suggestions on a engine rebuild manual? The Bentley Service manual does not really cover any specific engine repairs...

[JFP in PA]

1 hour ago, Martin-dt986 said:

An update on the project so far... The engine and gearbox removed and the heads are taken off. The inside of the engine actually looks a lot better that the outside (guessing the disintegrated oil-breather bellow had something to do with it).  I did see that the Cylinder 456 head was missing a water channel plug which was lying next to the inlet cam...

Is this a common occurrence?

Also I would have expected to see a lot more water in and around the cams of this head but I could not see any?

 

Any suggestions on a engine rebuild manual? The Bentley Service manual does not really cover any specific engine repairs...

 

 

Porsche never published any information about rebuilding these engines as they did not want that done in the field.  Jake Raby runs online and in person schools on the subject, and is the only source for printed material on the required torque specs, etc.

[Martin-dt986]

When rebuilding the Crank-shaft Carrier, can I re-use the bolts or do these need to be replaced?

Similarly are the con-rod bolts re-usable or do they also need to be replaced.

[JFP in PA]

4 hours ago, Martin-dt986 said:

When rebuilding the Crank-shaft Carrier, can I re-use the bolts or do these need to be replaced?

Similarly are the con-rod bolts re-usable or do they also need to be replaced.

 

They, and the con rod bolts should both be replaced.

[Martin-dt986]

Back on the road again. Now to get the suspension and other wear items sorted

[Martin-dt986]

Some after photos... Definitely took more time cleaning than building this motor....

[Silver_TT]

And you did clean that indeed, looks like a new engine, great job. I just cleaned my engine two weeks ago and it looks great but doesn't look anywhere near as good as that lump does.  I used rubber gloves and no-scratch pads too.....but I did not get anywhere near that level of clean, wow.

 

Always makes me happy to see a car brought back to life like this.....I'll never understand how someone let their car get to that state in the first place.  I would only run water (the purest I could find) in my coolant system in a pinch, like if I had a coolant loss on the side of a highway and only had water but no coolant.  As soon as I got home I would flush and refill.

 

Suspension and other wear items should be a walk in the park at this point.......clearly you've put in some hard work.  Great thread, thanks for sharing.