[66sprint6]

My brother in law has a 2002 Porsche Boxter S. He purchased it from my brother about 10 years ago. My BIL is a bit of a character. I'll never understand why he bought that car. He immediately parked it and never drove it. It's been sitting in his parents garage and hasn't been started in years. The value went down, but now it's going up again as these cars are desirable. It has less than 20,000 miles on it.

He's asked me to go grab it, fix it up and get it running. He'll probably never come to get it so I'll be able to drive it. I've never woken a Porsche up from the dead. I had my 911 until a couple of years ago and maintained it religiously. Obviously I can't pull the dizzy and spin the oil pump like our Pontiacs. So I'm thinking that after all of the fluid changes and such, that I'll just crank the engine over and over with the coil unplugged to build the oil pressure. I know that this isn't a Porsche forum. I never joined one, because they can be the worst snobs. But is there anything else that I should look at? One of the issues with this year of Boxter is that it has a central bearing (IMS bearing) that fails easily and causes the valves to smack the pistons.

[keith k]

Every model of enthusiast car has its own group of "snobs" ... and also those that are down to earth and helpful.

If you haven't tried the Rennlist forums, you might do that. They break them down by model, as PY does. 20 year old Boxsters aren't likely to be owned by the "snobs" at this point, and I suspect you'll find a lot of helpful people who do their own work on their cars.

When I start up my cars that haven't been run in a long time, I do what you've suggested ... crank the engine with the ignition disconnected so it won't fire, and wait for the oil pressure to come up. But yes, your generation of Boxster is known for having both IMS bearing issues, and bore scoring issues. I'm not that familiar with either, but I would ask an expert before starting one up.

[Radman]

Probably would not hurt to pull the plugs and squirt a little oil in each piston before cranking. Leave the plugs out for a few seconds of cranking after putting the oil in the cylinders.

[burd]

I just watched an episode of Wheeler dealers where they fixed a bore score Porsche engine. It’s the latest mechanic in the show, he machined the block himself at the place that does them.
Episode below

https://youtu.be/14kJRa1QaMg