Thank you DogWood.

It wasn’t very long ago that I changed the oil. Supposedly the seller had the oil changed. I believe the computer wasn’t reset, but I was happy to change the oil again making sure I put in the proper A40 oil. I did use some older Mobil 1 (3 qts I believe), 5 qts of the new FS formula, and half a qt of Pennzoil Platinum Euro. (I then added the remaining half qt after replacing the AOS). Maybe I should not have done that mixing... I’m somewhat reluctant to drain it out. I’m guessing less than 1000 miles since I changed it. I put one of those oil change stickers on the windshield so I can check exactly in the morning...

I found maybe less than a teaspoon full of oil in the MAP. About the same amount as last time when I opened to see the old one. It looks like the new AOS has failed. I have somewhat high confidence in saying so. I did not clean up the oil yet. I can take a picture/pictures, tomorrow in daylight. I forgot I had cleared the codes after arriving home yesterday. My wife wanted to drive it to the local post office roughly 1.6 mi away. The check engine light did not come on for her. (I wonder if she believes me. But my son did see it as we were driving yesterday)....

 

So I was mistaken, It's been 1298 miles since the oil change. Here's a pic of the amount of oil.

Looks like last time AOS failed...

 

bit hard to tell, but it does look like there is a bit much oil in there

 

JZCHEN, I gotta tell you, I highly recommend you not driving the car at all until you get all the parts you need in. The Air-oil seperator is fine, it is your leaking valve cover gasket, and spark plug seals, and/or as well as other potential vacuum leaks. Whenever your seals are going bad, particularly in the valve cover and/or oil pan gasket, that is indicative of of high temps and/or increased persistent crankcase pressure. In your case, it is both. and you are running an extremely high risk of getting the car catching on fire from so much exposed oil and high heat do to your coolant vent lines being broken. Old oil is not good, as well as mixing oils together, particularly in the GTS. You will get interactions between the oils, causing the oil to not flow correctly, typically resulting in spun rod bearing, crank bearing(all extremely expensive fixes), cylinder wall gouging. So, you'll definitely need to do an engine oil flush cleaner prior to doing your oil change to clear out all the oil ports and pump and this time, with the correct oil.

The oil you see pooled up is actually on the crankcase heater element and not the MAP/MAF sensor... Hence, you do not want a lot of oil sitting here as the heating element works as an igniter once you have enough oil in there.

 

Thanks for this information!

I borrowed my wife's Clarity on Saturday, then she called me saying she was going to the post office, roughly 1.6 miles away. (She even had to close the hood to drive it. She noted she could not disconnect the hood shocks, and I told her that she should not and just pull down the hood to close it)! It did not "Check Engine" on her. But anyways, car has been sitting there since. I actually started tinkering with my old 190E as I'm not fond of driving my iQ around much, (besides having an issue opening the hood due to stretched release cable).

I noticed the valve covers are made of magnesium, so everything attached should be aluminum screws, including the screws on the "oil mist separator" as Porsche instructions call it. I dug through what I was able to download in one hour and luckily I got the spec:

Oil mist separator to valve cover (should be Al) M6- 10 Nm (7.5 ft-lb).

FCP Euro shows the intake manifold gaskets packaged with replacement bolts, but it's a little pricey at $210 and change. Are those Al bolts? Gonna have to check in daylight. Do all aluminum bolts Porsche parts come with "RIBE" (manufacturer) and "AL9" (grade) on them?...

Wife sounds like she's ready to throw in the towel so to speak. I'm going to try to get a more detailed estimate of the parts compiling all you've noted and try to pitch it to her.

Thank you both for the advice!

(BTW- Links finally work on the Porsche tech info site, or whatever they name it. It made it 10 x easier to pull documents vs the old way which was extremely tedious!)

 

You absolutely do not need to get new intake manifold bolts... You also have to consider that although the fastners are aluminum in this location, it is being torqued down onto plastic of the intake manifold. That $200 is much better spent elsewhere in the engine. Also, you are definitely due for the entire 50k mile servicing package which is critical... Transmission fluid, rear and front diff fluid, and in your case, I can also predict with 90% certainty that your oil pan gasket is also on its way out, or already has. You have a great car, however, you just simply have to take care of all of these items at once and to make sure not to cut corners here.

 

Thank you for looking. I am sorry it wasn't a great picture.

I've been trying to order a bunch of stuff recommended by NormalFellow. I think I've got everything he's recommended except upper control arm bushings. Our left front side is crunching upon medium suspension compression. The right upper arm was replaced by House when they repaired the strut on that side, no sound over there. Hope to get all the items by 1/23, but it may be later.

Interestingly I found Pennzoil Platinum Euro 0W-40 lost it's A40 approval as of November something of last year. Mobil 1 0W-40 (my new old stock) and Mobil 1 FS 0W-40 (new stock) are still A40 approved until some time in 2021.

The car/engine runs fine, just a pain to add coolant after every drive to keep it topped off.

 

I've been researching what tools I need to get at a minimum to try to stop the coolant loss. I realize looking at instructions on how to pull the intake manifold, that surprisingly all this time that what I was looking at is actually the heater element! The "pressure sensor" is actually on the back end of the intake manifold! Why cleaning this off causes the codes to go away I haven't a clue, but the MAP is on the back.

Learning something new every day....

Thanks for pointing this out!!!

 

These two codes keep coming back on varying lengths of heat soak and restart of an already warm/hot engine. I didn't even check the codes this last time, I pulled the intake manifold. My goal is to replace all 8 gaskets under the intake manifold, torque it down (in order) to spec, AND to torque all those upper intake pipes to the 3.5 Nm spec!!!

Got a new GearWrench 85194 from Amazon for the valve/cam covers so I'll try it here also...

 

Still have the "Y" shaped intake pipe out but the two other clamps I tightened with my torque wrench to 3.5 Nm, (actually closest I got was 3.57 Nm). I can confirm this does not crush the pipes as I was nervous of.

I replaced the "y" shaped coolant tube. It may have been leaking from the two front attachments where there are gaskets. Coolant gushed out when I pulled the left front (first) connection. Had to wipe it off.

A good amount of fuel gets in the valley when taking off the fuel distributor. Soaked it up with microfiber towels.

I suspect these two codes keep coming back because I did not torque those large intake clamps to the 3.5 Nm spec. It is bolded in the instructions for the "Y" pipe to torque to 3.5 Nm. It is only after starting the engine hot/warm that they show up.

 

I have to revise my idea that the intake pipe clamps being loose causes any sort of check engine light on the 4.8L NA engine. Upon trying intake valve cleaning with CRC cleaner I've yanked the Y pipe off the throttle body while the engine was running and no error is caused. If the car was able to detect loss of pressure/vacuum due to a loose clamp, it should have definitely noticed the intake being disconnected!

I am now suspecting the Pennzoil Platinum Euro 0W-40 that i mixed in, then topped off with. This morning I topped off 1/2 qt oil Mobil 1 0W-40, and drove the long route to the car wash I take her to. (It's a no-touch spray type). The card reader was down and so I had to go into the convenience store to pay. When I got back to start her again a few minutes later, boy was I nervous about getting a Check Engine light again, I switched to sport plus mode to try to avoid it because I noticed it usually occurs during very mild throttle like in a parking lot, just when starting off. Nothing, no check engine light.

Evidence for my suspicion:
I have done research on A40 approved oils while I had one of the hour long subscriptions on the Porsche Tech site, and Pennzoil Platinum Euro 0W-40, which was on the lengthy list, was set to have it's approval expire last 11/19.
On the way home from a funeral in San Diego, I got a warning that the minimum oil level had been reached. When I opened the oil cap, I notice a significant amount of "steam" coming off. I know the Pennzoil Platinum with Pure Plus is based off synthesis from methane, which makes it very clear, but poorer performing in the NOACK volatility rating.

I connected the dots....

 

WOW, goes to show, Porsche knows what they are talking about when they specify things

 

Yes, very unusual flipping through the list that an oil was going to have the A40 approval rescinded. Even the old Mobil 1 (non-FS) formula has approval until 2024 I believe. Mobil no longer supports/warrants that old formula/all containers of Mobil 1 0W-40 currently sold in stores have "FS" somewhere, and it's been that way for a while now.

​​​​​​​Sigh. This has been a nightmare ownership experience, except for when we got to go into the Porsche Owners' lounge at the LA Auto Show. But unfortunately for me I decided to make the dumb mistake to mix in the Pennzoil when I did an oil change last September I believe.

I may do a drain and fill of just oil to see if that takes care of this for good. (I have severe paranoia of getting a check engine light when stopping the car then starting before at least 2 hours has passed).

 

the paranoia is understandable considering, but I would highly recommend doing a drain and fill