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Any help appreciated in getting a much loved 996 back on the road.


delboy

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Hi Unfortunately my 1998 Porsche Carrerra had an engine fail last week.  I've been told by Porsche that it either has a head gasket failure, or damage to the head, lining or cylinder.  Estimates for repairs have been between $10k and $33k depending on the damage and location of the repair.  

 

I can't really afford the repairs and don't know what other options I have.  Does anyone have any ideas on how I can extract some value from the car, where can I sell it as a rolling chassis?  are there any cheaper options I haven't thought of.  Body and interior are in great condition, it seems a shame to scrap it for next to nothing, but that seems the only option I can find so far.  I'm Melbourne based.

 

Any help would be much appreciated, I'm devastated to be out of the porsche community, hopefully there's some way back.

 

 

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Hi Unfortunately my 1998 Porsche Carrerra had an engine fail last week.  I've been told by Porsche that it either has a head gasket failure, or damage to the head, lining or cylinder.  Estimates for repairs have been between $10k and $33k depending on the damage and location of the repair.  

 

I can't really afford the repairs and don't know what other options I have.  Does anyone have any ideas on how I can extract some value from the car, where can I sell it as a rolling chassis?  are there any cheaper options I haven't thought of.  Body and interior are in great condition, it seems a shame to scrap it for next to nothing, but that seems the only option I can find so far.  I'm Melbourne based.

 

Any help would be much appreciated, I'm devastated to be out of the porsche community, hopefully there's some way back.

 

Unless a HGF led to some serious secondary damage, I can't see how head gasket replacement would run to $10k.

 

I'd be talking to a trusted independent Porsche specialist with a view to getting a diagnosis of exactly what the problem is and work from there.  Reading between the lines, it looks like absence of compression on one or more cylinders has led to a speculative diagnosis.

 

If you've got no compression on two adjacent cylinders, that would point towards HGF.  A single cylinder without compression may be something more serious.

 

(None of the above should be mis-construed as a pop at the OP or the Porsche dealership.)

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Ouch. How many km were on the engine when it decided to kick the bucket?

 

I would definitely go for a replacement from the US or if your lucky find one from a write off over here.

It's been well used around 188k on the clock and a few recent track days might have helped speed things along - but worth it - kind of :)

Looks like I've found someone who will diagnose it properly, will repair it cheaper and will take it of my hands for a fair price if I can't afford the fix, so it looks like I've found the best solution I can.  Thanks all for your help!  Here's hoping I get it back on the road where it belongs!

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As has been said , get a proper diagnosis.

This company  http://www.flat6innovations.com/index.php/engines/stock-parts-a-services have the right idea - fix the faults and supply "bulletproof" motors. Hopefully get at least 188k out of a rebuild.

 

 

 

Utilizing the LN Engineering "Nickies" cyinders coupled to forged pistons, the common "D chunk" failure can be either repaired or it's chances of future occurence totally eliminated. Many other failures that have plagued the 986 and 996 engines have been identified by our team and have been addressed in ALL our engine reconstructions as standard procedure with other issues being offered as options in our performance reconstructions. Please see our 986/996 engine reliability page to see examples of other common engine failures that we have documented through our many engine tear downs & reconstructions over the years.
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have you talked to anyone apart from Porsche?

 

Have you talked to Autoart?

 

http://www.autoartaustralia.com/

 

Give them a call, shouldn't be that hard.

 

Head gasket failure... shouldn't be that expensive! 

 

When you say engine failure, what exactly were the symptoms? 

Thanks, yes I've spoken with Jacarro and they agree The quotes seem way off.  He'll have a look at it in the new year and we'll see how we go.  Symptoms were a very sudden overheating of the engine, I was waiting at the lights and in the time it took to go from red to green the engine had gone from normal running temp to boiling over.  I stopped it then and there, and later checked the coolant with had frothy brown stuff at the top, and then checked the oil and it had coolant in the oil.  Engine had been running great prior to that, no prior warnings of a failure at all.  Temp and oil pressure normal, starting fine and running fine.  It was serviced 3 weeks prior and given a clean bill of health.

 

We'll see what the others guys think when they get a proper look at it.  Hopefully it is just a gasket, but everyone I spoken too seems to think that's the least likely scenario so it seems odd porsche suggested it, maybe they were just trying to ease the pain, or thought I'm too ignorant to understand more complicated head issues so just explained it that way.

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Sounds like it might have something to do with cylinder liner cracks according to Pelican parts 996 engine knowledge base
 

Cylinder Liner Cracks: In an effort to reduce costs during production, Porsche utilized a type of insert-mold casting process to directly incorporate Lokasil cylinder liners into the case. While this is a neat way to reduce the total number of parts used in the engine, this design basically casts a wearable part into the engine case. There is no factory replacement for the liners—when they wear, the factory expects you to buy a new engine case. In addition, the design of the cylinder liners allows them to “float” within an area filled with coolant.

Excess vibration and twisting from the normal operation of the engine appears to be causing some cracking in these liners, resulting in a small chunk of the liner breaking off. This “D-chunk” problem seems ironically to occur mostly in gently driven cars. 911 Carreras that are driven hard at the track or on the street do not tend to see this type of damage. At least with respect to the track cars, one theory is that these cars tend to have their oil changed much more often. The problem affects mostly the 2.5 Boxster and Carrera 3.4 engines. When this failure happens, you will see oil and coolant begin to mix together or a slight unexplained coolant loss.

If your engine experiences this failure, it can be rebuilt using LN EngineeringÂ’s Nickasil liners installed. They take your old case, machine out the cracked or damaged Lokasil liners, and install an aluminum Nickies insert, which is stronger and more reliable than the factory cast-in liner. In addition, with the installation of the liners itÂ’s fairly easy to increase the bore of the cylinders, which translates into increased displacement and more horsepower. If you go this route, you will also need to use some aftermarket pistons and perhaps update the software in your DME to accommodate the larger displacement.

Taken from http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Porsche-996-997-Carrera/13-ENGINE-Common_Engine_Carrera_Problems/13-ENGINE-Common_Engine_Carrera_Problems.htm

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Sounds like it might have something to do with cylinder liner cracks according to Pelican parts 996 engine knowledge base

All that cost saving might have made them the most profitable car company on the the planet, but it sure has given their reputation for solid engineering a kicking.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Harold

I would say they have factored the worst case scenario into their quote and simply said it is a head gasket. Replacing liners is not a small task particularly if they need to be honed in situ.

Good luck with it mate, let's us know how it unravels.

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