Noise from 987 S engine at high rpm

Hello! My 2006 Cayman S with 150000 km is still running strong. No noise on cold starts, no noise at idle and no noises while normal driving. When i run the enige at high revs i get a ticking/tapping noise. Sometimes it starts at 5500 rpm and some times it starts at 7000 rpm. Yesterday i noticed that the noise disappeared after several hard/high rpm accelerations. Went on the highway in 100 km/h fore about 10 minutes, then floored the pedal and the noise was back again. Watch the video (sometimes it is louder than this). Any ideas? Video: Noise high rev

I have a 2006 Cayman S with exactly the same issue. It’s at the dealer now but they haven’t been able to replicate the problem. I’m going to send them the link to your video. I will let you know if they are able to diagnose what’s causing the noise.

Thanks, keep me posted please ?

Sounds like a loose baffle in the exhaust - unless the car has had any exhaust modifications - then..

Change your motor oil to a 5W-50 brand, like Castrol Edge 5W-50 or Mobil 1 FS 5W-50. If the noise is a rod bearing, you can prolong your pain with this motor oil. I would also use some Prolong or Extreme oil concentrate just to be sure you are not scaring a rod bearing. This a a $10 k issue, so change the oil and cut open the paper filter to see if you have piston flakes or metal of some sort in the filter billows. You can also get an oil analysis done by either blackstone or LN/BRS who will send you a kit.

If i use a hammer and tip gently on the exhaust I would find out if something is loose?

Hope you are wrong but yes i found some smal metal flakes in the Oil filter.

Any News on from your deler about the noise?

They were unable to definitively diagnose the cause of the noise. They adjusted a heat shield on the exhaust and it does seem to have helped.

rogerbjerk- Some of those flakes could be piston coating, not metal shaving. If you have a magnet on the drain plug, and have a lot of tiny thread type filaments around the magnet, then you could be seeing some metal breakdown on the timing chains. LN or Blackstone oil analysis could help you determine where the metal is coming from. The other noise could be in your induction system. You have a resonance valve that controls the harmonic pressure wave which usually has no sound, but it may have broken. Not sure, but it does not sound like a rod bearing or piston wrist pin at least to me.

Got my scope camera in to the cylinder through the drain plug. Engine going out i gues Could this make the high rev noise?

Ouch, sorry yes this engine is done. Classic case of bore scoring.

Yikes, that looks pretty bad! Is it using oil or smoking? You say power is still good and its a 150,000 km motor, so Im wondering if you shouldn't just use a thicker oil and keep driving it for now if you aren't having to constantly put oil in it and its running fine? Squeeze every bit you can out of it if you plan to keep it and invest in a rebuild anyway. Maybe it last a week or it could last another year or more since you dont really know how long the scoring has already been there. The end result will be the same either way

The cheapest fix is a junkyard motor. I'm not an expert on these motors, maybe someone who races in Spec Cayman can give the OP some ideas on how and what to look for to get the best motor off the rack. Most of the time, they are stored on a floor or in a rack, so no idea about how they were cared for or how many miles are on them. But the Spec Cayman group says these engines are good for about 80 hours of flat out racing. So for $5000 you may score a 3.4 or even better a 2.9 that will fit and even have a few extra parts between motors to put together the best clutch package and water pump before installing. The 2.9 still uses the Bosch ECU and is better able to withstand the bore scoring issues. Hope you are good with wrenches and have a place to replace the motor. Rebuilds start well above this price. Good luck. Run some 10W-50 oil that will stick to your scored walls. the idea is to keep the piston and cylinder walls separated. Most likely if you do run your motor, you will need to change the oil often. There is an oil blog called RAT/540 looking at these issues, so an hour or so of oil research may pay off and allow you some flexibility as to when you need the next motor.

Hello, Folks, I have the same noise coming from my 2007 2.7L base model. Here is the break down. I took it to the shop and the mechanic suggested it was the heads had floating valve. The engine was torn down and sure enough one valve failed a pressure test. Long story short, the car has a third-party warranty and I had the heads rebuilt and replacement short block from Porsche. It is currently has a new engine from Porsche with less than 1,500 miles. I took it easy for the first 1,000 miles and these week I got on the car to see if the noise was still there. Guess what, it's still there. How many f-bombs did I drop?! The shop, "a German specialist" misdiagnosed it. I since moved from the city where the work was done. I cannot expressed how upset I am at the timing. I now live hours away from the shop who did the work. A. In short, this sound was/is not coming from the engine. B. I also took the entire interior apart on my Cayman added foam and sound deadening to every possible area in the hopes of addressing the issue. C. Since it wasn't the f***ing engine, interior rattle, nor suspension (also had the shop LCA and coilovers) it must be components around the engine . That sound, for me, only comes out once in a while and after really bad roads, so I suspect the culprit is the exhaust system. From a very desperate Porsche owner, any help would be appreciated.

During the rebuild I did not see any thing obvious. The noise was gone after the rebuild. A guy on a Facebook page suggested the motor mount. I thought it sounded strange. He had the same noise and he claimed that it disappeared after replacing the front engine mount. I replaced mine during the rebuild to be on the safe side.

I can see where an engine mount could be a noisy critter on a Cayman / Boxster for sure.

What sound are you talking about? Is it a clunk when turning side to side or exhaust pipe rubbing. I changed my motor mount because I was upgrading to Function first insert, but found the motor mount completely shot. So, with the motor supported, my shop was able to get a new OEM mount within an hour, and put it back into with the Function First Insert. What a difference, I also changed my transaxle mounts, to Function First Orange mounts. But they did cause more NHV, mostly noticeable on start up.