The day started out well enough. First track day of the year today at Mosport in clear, dry, but cool conditions. The CS was running great. The winter mods (Cross coilovers, H&R sways, lightweight flywheel and intake Plenum) have really transformed the car.

During a fast afternoon session, between Turn 2 and Turn 3 (about 90 mph)the engine went KABOOM, and immediately cut out. Scared the sh*t out of me. Felt like someone kicked the back of my seat with 100 lb. boots just as I'm entering the braking zone for Turn 3. It was a violent bang (way beyond any kind of backfire) and I felt it through the steering wheel, the pedals and it even caused my rear view mirror to shift. I really thought I would see engine parts on the track behind me...

Managed to coast to a stop a couple of turns later, but the car was dead with all idiot lights glowing. I tried to start the engine, but everytime I would turn the key, all it would do was go KABOOM again like soom kind of nuclear backfire, and die. After about 10 mins, I got the engine to re-start, but it was undrivable. Completely rough, backfiring/booming, heavy metallic (not good) clattering/banging and stalling. Once back in the pits it was 1-800-Porsche time.

It's now been flatbedded to the dealership, and I'll find out tomorrow (hopefully) what the problems is. Did manage to call the dealership and talk to the Service Manager, and he suspects maybe a coil failure that caused unburned fuel to ignite (KABOOM) that caused a cam (or 2) to jump cogs - but he says he's never actually heard of that happening with a Cayman before. Not real comforting ...

Clearly it's engine surgery of some degree (whatever the root cause turns out to be) and a warranty claim. Given that it happened on the track, and the car is significantly modified, I guess this will be a good test case for Porsche's warranty position re modified and track abused cars. Can't hurt me that the track day was organized by a group (Apex) with a close affiliation with the Porsche dealership and their tuning shop.

Sucks to have a good track day end with the CS on a flatbed. At least I know my Rennline tow hook works well.

FYI, its an '06 CS with 33,001 kms and 38.75 track days. Curious (and sympathetic) if anyone else has experienced something similar ?

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06 Cayman S - (almost) pure track car
07 Grand Cherokee SRT8

Wow, sounds kind of serious - I guess it doesn't help to speculate until the service department makes a definite diagnosis, but did you see the thread by JackWood a few weeks back about his Cracked Coil?

Keep us posted on what happens.

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2006 CS Tip (Daily Driver & Part-time Track Toy)
2005 Ford Expedition (to haul the CS)
2006 Lexus RX400h (wifey's)
Gone, but not forgotten: 2002 WRX, 2004 MINI

bad cats maybe? I hope nothing too serious, keep us tuned in.

Sounds too violent to be similar to Ken's pulley pin problem...

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- Suneet


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boinkus44-

Sorry to hear about this. I will be watching for the outcome. Keep us up to speed.

Good Luck!

Dave

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2007 Speed Yellow Cayman GT 2.7 (retired)
2008 Guards Red Cayman GT 3.4
"Carpe Cayman"

I don't think its a cat problem as I had that problem (twice) last year and the symptoms were very different, and much less severe - but I'd be very happy to be proven wrong.

As for JackWoods's coil problem, I had read the thread previously, but didn't really make a connection until KS-CS mentioned it. Coincidence ? Hard to say. Hopefully I'll have a clear prognosis tomorrow.

Keep you posted..

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06 Cayman S - (almost) pure track car
07 Grand Cherokee SRT8

Personally I would have reverted to stock parts and then sent it to porsche. might be too much headache with all the mods. At least the dealer I go through are super anti-mod.

good luck!

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Would've been difficult to revert to stock parts since a good portion of my mods were done by dealership and/or their tuning shop - and the track day was essentially organized by the same group - so they saw first hand what went down.

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06 Cayman S - (almost) pure track car
07 Grand Cherokee SRT8

This is the third engine failure in a CS I've heard about in as many days. It's so hard to figure why some engines go boom and others seem to last forever. I'll be eager to see what the diagnosis is. Good luck!

Well lets don't jump to conculsions about the Cayman engine. We do not yet know if it is an "engine failure" (hopefully not) and we do know that this is a modified car which suggests that this thread might be moved to the Modifications forum when we know the actual problem.

Kudos to the OP for not trying to hide the modifications from Porsche. To do so would have violated a lot of folk's (like me) personal code of ethics. Like everyone else I'm hoping for good news.

What was your build date?

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DISCLAIMER: I'm not an engineer, I just play one on the internet.

BBI Under-Drive Pulley | BBI Roll-Bar
BBI Brake cooling package | GT3 Lower control arms
GT3 Front Sway bar | Tarett Rear Sway bar
Tarett Drop links Front & Rear | Tarett Rear Toe arms
Quaife TBD | Nitto NT-01s | PASM Springs

Just spoke with the service department at the dealership, and it looks like it will be at least a day before they can get to my CS. Given that this is long weekend in Canada, there's a chance it may be next Tuesday before they can get to it. Patience is not my strong suit ..

As for the build date, I'm not really sure, but I'll try to find out. I purchased it in June '06 off the lot and it had been there for a couple of months, so I suspect it was a late '05 or early '06 build.

Keep you posted

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06 Cayman S - (almost) pure track car
07 Grand Cherokee SRT8

When I first read the title I was thinking this was going to be another oil ingestion thread, but man was I surprised. Sorry to hear about this, sounds fairly serious the way you described it. I can't believe they are making you wait that long just to find out what is wrong with it. I would go nuts.

Good luck and I know you will keep us informed...

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Meet my Mistress...
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My Porsche Cars

2007 Cayman S
2006 Cayenne S Titanium Edition
1982 944 (Amoung first shipment to come to US; number 6 off the boat)