Hi everyone. ive been searching far and wide for a cayman that in my price range. i finally found one (2007) that has good records, decent mods and is kinda local.
The owner only drives it at track days and on weekends. He's from the next state over so he trailers it down to my home track to race. as such, he always has it serviced at the on track Porsche indie. they have a pretty long history of porsche service and racing air cooled cars.
when going through his service history, i saw he got his AOS replaced twice but both times with the factory 987 one and not the motorsports AOS. when i asked him about it, he said after the second replacement didnt fix the occasional smoking, the guys at the shop recomended he run his car short one quart. Now, he does have the mantis deep sump +2 quart, so hes running 1 quart more than factory. He said it solved his smoking issue.
if i buy this car im going to get a motorsports aos for my own peace of mind. and im still going to get a ppi done at my own preferred indie. but im wondering if anyone has every heard of this as a solution to the occasional smoking issue on track?
Several things to cover...
I checked into doing the motorsports AOS and decided against it because of price. I could buy 13 factory AOSs for the price of a motorsports AOS - didn't make sense. I just bought a factory AOS and keep it on hand as a spare so I'm ready when the current one fails. I always take it with me to a DE.
I would recommend spending those $$$ on the IPD plenum & GT3 throttle body. One of the advantages of going this route is 1 less vacuum line into the AOS. I haven't had to replace the current AOS in my CSS that I use for DEs since I went IPD / GT3. The thing that is tough on AOSs is sustained high RPMs, which occur at the track. 1 less vacuum line into the AOS seems to prolong its life.
Low oil. If you run your oil level at the very top, then yes, running at a lower level will benefit you. Not sure you need to be a qt lower, however. Here's where you should run your level.
By running at this level, you ensure that you're not over-full. Running at the top level and the imprecision of the gauge, you could actually be over-full. An over-full situation will result in smoke as the engine purges the excess oil.
Yes. I just had my 2005 BS professionally rebuilt, and the guy (who's had about 20 years basically working only on Porsche engines) said exactly this. Run it a little short on oil (as in, not full) and it will help ensure the AOS doesn't fail.
I would be cautious about buying a tracked car. The M97 engine is famous for blowing up. Listen to the engine for a loud tapping like a lifter. If you hear it, I would run away.
FYI, I blew my engine a few years ago, they are very expensive to replace.
