Engine troubles at ButtonWillow

I took #3076 to my first PCA Drivers Ed event at ButtonWillow this weekend and experienced my first problem with the car. On the 2nd lap of my first run coming out of 13 onto pit straight, it blew a big cloud of blue smoke. I slowed and the smoking stopped, and both the instructor and I thought it was the oil seepage problem that's been mentioned on this forum before. I brought it back up to speed and there was no further smoking or any other apparent problem. That is until I accelerated out of the buttonhook hairpin in 2nd. As the RPM just passed 6K, the engine cut out and coughed & spluttered until I dropped it below 6K. From then on, it wouldn't go above 6K without the same rough coughing & spluttering, but up to 6K, it pulls and sings like it always did. Engine temp was fine, just nudging about 175, though the track temp was about 110(!!). The oil level was one segment below full. No obvious fluid leeks, no engine check lights, just won't go about 6K. Discussions with the local wrenches suggested nothing and one even had an OBD diagnostic unit which we connected up and found no warning or error codes. I drove the rest of my runs keeping below 6K and even then was close to the fastest in my run-group and then back again to the Bay Area. Has anyone experienced this? Any suggestions? Obviously, it's going into the dealer as soon as I can get it in. BTW, I took a bunch of HD video in and out of the car and will post a short edit in the next few days.

Sounds like the oil in the intake problem but I'd never heard of it causing an issue beyond a certain RPM range. Hopefully the dealer can spot the exact cause and then let us know what they found out.

John - probably Ken's de-snork... nah, just kidding. Was it only sputtering and not being able to go over 6k coming out of the turns? Or, was the 6k limit happening on the straights, too?... I'm sure you had the Sport Chrono in 'sport', but did you also have PSM turned off? My theory - in coming out of sharp turns, I wonder if your PSM was kicking in not only braking the wheels, but in certain instances it wil also limit the revs or starve some cylinders of fuel to keep you 'on the road.' Even if you have it turned off, it will still engage in certain 'extreme' circumstances. brad

Yeah, I was thinking it might be the de-snork, <g>, but no I'm sure the de-snork is what helped me get past the 993TT and a couple of C2Ses in my group so easily, even keeping it below 6K!! As to the PSM, I tried both with it on and off, and with SC on and off, with no change. The cut-out happened going both going in a straight line and out of corners. In fact, I warmed it up in the driveway just now and it coughs and splutters over 6K, while sitting still! Bit of a pain, hope I can get it sorted in time for the next GGTR AX.

Your dealer will resolve quickly, I'm sure. It almost sounds like a cat problem to me. Paul

Because of the correlation with the higher RPMs, I wonder about the VarioCam +.

<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;" /> Bit of a pain, hope I can get it sorted in time for the next GGTR AX. <hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;" />I hope so, too. I'll be up for the AX on July 8 and hope to see you. Some sort of electronic gremlin, it sounds like... brad

Have you been in rain since the de-snork? Porsche cautions that the deflector is there in part to protect the hot film mass air flow sensor. This sensor sends information to the computer about the amount of air geing ingested by the engine and its temp. as I understand it. If damaged it could be sending incorrect info.

Santa Fe, Let me discount that speculation, I've taken apart the airbox and there is no way, even with the deflector plate removed, that enough water is going to get into the airbox, let alone up to the filter and past it to saturate the mass air flow sensor. What little water had made its way around the corner and into my airbox drained out of the drain hole in the bottom of the airbox before ever getting through the filter.

Ken, o.k. just quoting Porsche (page 2.10 of the Porsche Technik Introduction for the Cayman S).

Santa Fe, is there any way you could upload a pdf of that Technik to the site? It would be a fine addition to the articles database.

P-Nut, It really is too large. It has nine chapters of good info. You can buy a copy from site sponsor EBS. This gets us off topic since this is probably unrelated to the current problem but here is what it reads. 'Left Air Intake' 'The air inlets integrated in the rear side panels differ from those on the Boxster (987) in that they incorporate verrtical vanes. The intake air for the engine is drawn in via the opening on the driver's side. The positioning and the opening cross-section of the air inlet have been carefully optimized to ensure the maxium possible increase in air flow rate combined with the minimum possible effects on lift and resistance. In addition, an effective labyrinth system which is isolated from the body has been located behind the left air inlet. The engine intake air is forced to flow around a deflecting distance plate, as a result of whichwater and partilces are largely drawn off via the water drain at the bottom. This air routing results in a marked improvement in the level of water separation up-line of the air cleaner (when driving on surfaces which throw up a lot of spray), thereby protecting the hot-film air flow sensor from failures resulting from the intake of ultra-fine water droplets.' Please don't shoot <u>at </u>the messenger. I'm just guessing.

Yes, but quite some time ago. No rain here in CA in the last month or so and the car has been fine, reving happily to redline all the while. I can't say for sure it was connected with the blue smoke, but the reving problem began just after it. Again, the air temp was very high (around 110) and a lot of cars were having overtemp problems, but I rarely saw the gauge over 180. I'm a little uncertain about what to say to the dealer, whether I should mention the tracking or just say I was out for some spirited driving. Unfortunately, I bought the car from a dealer over an hour away and I'd like to use the local dealer's service dept.

Yes, I was wondering what effect a big blast of oily smoke would have on the cats or the O2 sensors.

John, I have found in life that the truth is the best option but I've also found that you don't always volunteer all the truth until asked. In deal making you tend to hold back a bit until you understand the lay of the land. Don'tput yourself into a position that you cannot get out of. Try to be fair to others and expect the same from them. That gives you the high ground when needed.

Truth is good in small measures, I agree. I suspect the first question will be, 'what were you doing when this happened?' and I suppose I could say 'going along a windy road quite fast', but it may be hard to dodge the follow-ups. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

John - In theory, all dealers are supposed to treat you the same when it comes to service whether you bought the car there or not - that said, sometimes if there's a sticky situation, it might be best to go where you spent the money... Which dealership did you buy the car from? I think I remember you saying you lived in Los Gatos? brad

Santa Fe - very well said... brad

Brad, I bought it at Oakland Porsche, my local dealer would be Stevens Creek Porsche.

Brad, can you recommend any dealers with good service who are track-friendly in the Bay Area. As I said, I bought it at Oakland Audi/Porsche but I didn't get a good feeling about the service there, it was mainly an Audi shop. Dave Modderman, the local Porsche mechanic who looked after my 79 911SC back in the days and did a 3K oil change on the CS recommended Carslen.

I think Carlsen would be good - they never had any problems with me tracking or autocrossing my cars, but if something really serious happens to your car on the track, the decision as to warranty coverage would really be up to PCNA and PAG, not necessarily the dealership, although the dealership would probably make a recommendation... Stevens Creek, I'm told has a good service department, too - but I have never had work done on my cars there... brad

Thanks! I'll give Carlsen a call. BTW, my 17 year-old son Sam will be with me at the July 8 AX, sharing the CS. This will be his first AX, and he's also signed up for the GGR July 22-23 school. I don't know how the instructors are allocated, but if you are instructing July 8, maybe you can take him around.

It probably won't matter to them if it was on the track or not. The key is what they find when they download with the PIWIS. If it wasn't over-reved or run despite a warning light or high temp, or some other issue related to driver error, then I don't think there will be a warranty question, regardless of where it happened. If you did any mods that could be related to the problem, you could have difficulty with coverage. If you de-snorked, you might want to resnork before taking it in. From my experience (see 'engine blown' thread), a good relationship with the dealer helps. I had a frank and humble discussion with the guy who sold me mycar before taking it in for service. He briefed the service manager in advance. Probably that strategy saved me. Your situation doesn't sound anywhere near as serious or questionable though.

'frank and humble'Nice advice. For this and the rest of our days. Edited by - Santa Fe on 06/26/2006 6:36:10 PM

Thanks for the advice chaps. I decided to tell the service rep at Carlsen about tracking it, not least because Carlsen are a big sponsor of the local PCA track & AX events, and he was very helpful and also perplexed. As far as I know, I haven't over-reved or over-temped it; the quick look we had with the OBD diagnostic box at the track showed no alerts. Anyway, I have it in for a look Wednesday AM, will report back fully. I also contemplated re-snorking, scopacetic , I kept the deflector in a safe place. Still deciding if I should be fully frank, in case the de-snork is a contributing factor that should be known about.

FYI, here's a quick edit of some of the out-of-car HD footage my son shot: ButtonWillow-from-grandstand.wmv . It's encoded half-size (960x540) at 2.5mb/s. I think this is the third run of the day, I'm chasing a C4S which is chasing a 993TT at the start. We both get by the TT, but I can't quite run down the C4S, I'm worrying about the engine and short-shifting quite a bit. I'll post some streamable 640x360 and 720p HD WMV and QT encodings of this and a few laps in-car soon, along with a little report.