diff --git a/scripts/frank-primary.service b/scripts/frank-primary.service
index c1f4b1d..10b139c 100644
--- a/scripts/frank-primary.service
+++ b/scripts/frank-primary.service
@@ -53,8 +53,11 @@ TimeoutStartSec=1800
 # stopped), so bench windows and deploys are unaffected.
 Restart=always
 RestartSec=10
-# Do not let the start-rate limiter give up after a crash loop.
-StartLimitIntervalSec=0
+# ExecStop allows the engine 120 s to drain (`podman stop -t 120`); without an
+# explicit TimeoutStopSec systemd's 90 s default cuts the stop short, kills it,
+# and records 'Failed with result timeout' (measured 2026-10-01 13:27:17).
+# Must exceed the podman grace with margin for the engine's own shutdown.
+TimeoutStopSec=180
 # The engine pins tens of GiB of host RAM (expert host slabs); it is the
 # last process on this host that should be chosen by the kernel OOM killer.
 OOMScoreAdjust=-500
diff --git a/tests/frank_primary_unit.bats b/tests/frank_primary_unit.bats
index f0fc669..9f07fdd 100755
--- a/tests/frank_primary_unit.bats
+++ b/tests/frank_primary_unit.bats
@@ -47,6 +47,17 @@ DOWNLOAD="$REPO_ROOT/scripts/download-frank-primary.sh"
     # (measured 2026-10-01 — the endpoint stayed down until a human noticed).
     grep -q '^Restart=always$' "$UNIT"
     ! grep -q '^Restart=on-failure$' "$UNIT"
+    # Exiting the engine takes as long as vLLM's drain: ExecStop runs
+    # `podman stop -t 120`, so the stop timeout MUST exceed 120 s or systemd
+    # kills the stop and records 'Failed with result timeout' (measured
+    # 2026-10-01). Guard the relationship, not just the literal.
+    stop_t=$(awk -F= '/^TimeoutStopSec=/{print $2}' "$UNIT")
+    [ -n "$stop_t" ] && [ "$stop_t" -gt 120 ]
+    grep -q '^ExecStop=.*podman stop -t 120' "$UNIT"
+    # StartLimitIntervalSec belongs to [Unit]; a copy in [Service] is an
+    # 'Unknown key' warning systemd logs on every load.
+    [ "$(grep -c '^StartLimitIntervalSec=' "$UNIT")" = "1" ]
+    awk '/^\[Service\]/{in_svc=1} /^StartLimitIntervalSec=/{if(in_svc) exit 1}' "$UNIT"
     grep -q '^RestartSec=' "$UNIT"
     grep -q '^User=dank$' "$UNIT"
     grep -q '^LimitMEMLOCK=infinity$' "$UNIT"