Originally Posted by
ScotHibb
As far as I know the Subaru 4-cylinder Boxer does not have problems with cylinder liner cracks or the IMS bearing issues that the Porsche 6-cylinder Boxster did for the 986 Boxters from '97-04 and the 987 Boxters from '05-08. From what I remember, Porsche cut costs in those engines by cutting overall parts by a new injection-casting technique. Cool idea but it bit them in the arse on a number of levels. The IMS Bearing issues were due to leakage of oil into the shaft were a bearing that was designed for a "dry" milieu. The oil would leak past the bearing seal and the original "dry" lubricant would be messed up by engine oil and crap it had along with it, getting trapped and causing the bearing to wear until it went, tossing the timing chains like a salad and 'effing up the engine royally (a MUCH more expensive fix than replacing an entire Subaru Boxer engine).
The cylinder cracks caused all kinds of issues in the aforementioned Porsche Boxsters, one was knows as the "Rich Pussy Wannabe" issue (guys with extra money to waste buying a Porsche for use as a commuter car, never driving it as it was meant to be driven) because it really was never seen on the same engines driven hard as hell on the road and on the track. The Rich Pussy Issue was the top of the casing "chunking" off due to normal vibration most gentle drivers driving to work and back experienced. Although this was most likely a misconception as the track-raced engines and those pounding the pavement with their Porsches changed their oil MUCH more often (especially the tr[FONT=arial]ack [/FONT]ones), so less miles and much fresher oil. It also allowed coolant to mix with oil...not cool.
Another issue with those engines was porus issues from the casting technique. But maybe a more relevant surrogate look at Boxster issues would be the inadequate oil system. The air cooled earlier engines had dry sump systems designed to keep a bunch of oil in reserve for long high RPM driving. When the M96 engine came out Porsche ditched the dry sump design because, once again, it was a huge cost savings to not have a separate dry sump system. The M96/M97 engines had a "compromise system" (an oil sump built into the bottom of the engine...kind of a cheap way to make a hybrid wet/dry sump system). But because of the smaller volume of reserve oil, etc, the engines had oil starvation, especially during high RPM driving. THIS may be relevant...I'm not familiar enough with the 9-2x Aero Boxers oil pump systems or use of sump reserve systems.
What's funny is that I've had people (even dealers) say that the 9-2x aero WAS a Porsche Boxster engine! Subaru based the opposing, flat cylinder engines on the same VW design, but totally different engines. BMW and Honda make, believe it or not, the most popular versions of the Boxer engine...BMW folks usually know it, but I never hear a Honda owner saying "I gots me a Porsche engine", and conversely I don't hear many Ferrari owners with the Boxer saying "I have a Porsche engine". But you certainly find a lot of Subaru and 9-2x owners making a distinct connection to the Porsche Boxster and the Subaru Boxer engines. And before you jump on it...the Honda reference was to bikes (Goldwings/Valkyries).
Something tells me that I just spend too much time typing a reply to a post that, looking back, was most likely a bait/trolling post........lol.....