Engine trouble!

After 3 years of ownership, I am only now finding out that 996 engines require rebuilding or replacing even with a relatively low mileage. (60,000). Having little or no knowledge in this area clearly doesn't help however water on your dip stick is apparently a very bad (expensive)sign. Anybody have any knowledge \ experience in this area and can advice on a way forward? I will gladly sell the car with a substantial discount to any interested parties. Many thanks :sad:

Hi I had a similar experience along with lots of other people on this site.Its either a cracked liner or cracked cylider head.It may be able to be fixed but unlikely. So a rebuilt or part rebuilt engine will probably be required. I got a silsleeve engine from Auofarm on anexchange basis. These are reengineered to reduce the instance of liner failure and ims bearing failure compared to a Porsche replacement. They offer a 12 month warranty if they fit it too. They are also about £2000 cheaper than a Porsche exchange unit although the latter comes complete with ancilliaries. Mine has now only done 4000 miles and is as you would expect fine. I believe JZ Machteck do something similar and can repair individual liners for a bit less. Sorry to hear of your troubles but its a bit of a fact of life with older 996s

sorry I said JZ Machtek. I meant Hartech as an alternative for the liner repairs

If you have water in the oil, but the engine still runs (not that you should run it), I agree that Hartech is by far your best bet.

Just to anser a specific point - we will consider making an offer to buy a car that has had an engine failure providing it has FSH, hpi clear and was a "good car" before the problem. We then refurbish the whole engine (and transmission if required) and bring the whole car up to our sales standard before offering it for sale in a much better condition than any comparable car still running on the original engine because the insides are mainly new and several other modifications have been carried out to prevent the typical types of failure that probably caused the failure in the first place, plus it is then eligible for our Lifetime Maintenance Plan at costs about 25% less expensive (as a Hartech sales car) than those just put on the plan but previously bought privately or elsewhere. Usually the negotiations take place after we have stripped and inspected the damage and provided quotations for the rebuild costs and alternatives, typically for someone who would sell the car anyway when repaired and can receive the same equivalent value imediately without the delay, cost or hassle trying to sell it - and can move on to cancel insurance etc and get driving their replacement sooner. However we are currently negotiating a price to buy a Boxster before we even start stripping it down (at the owners request). This is more risky for us because it will not run so we do not know how good the transmission is (gearbox/clutch etc) nor what the actual extent of the damage is inside and we have negotiated on a half way risk - if it turns out worse than we expect inside we will lose a bit but if less damaged than we expect the customer might have done better to wait until it was stripped - but that is the nature of such a risk and only time will tell what was the best option. We do this to help the customer because it is less expensive for us to solve a more severe problem that may be uncovered than the customer to do so at full retail price and it seems to work well for those who have taken advantage of this alternative to a rebuild. We must however be able to inspect the car so if it is a long way away it may have to be brought here before we can start the system rolling. Any outstanding finance can be sorted during the deal as with all normal car purchases. In the process of rebuilding countless engines of all capacities (2.5 to 3.6) we investigate any odd discoveries that repeat themselves and try to work out what the cause was. As a result we have deduced several technical issues that are causing some of the failures (not just the ones we already fix like cracked liners and failed IMS bearings) but other perhaps more minor peculiarities but that never the less are influencing failures in some cars - and we are working our several ways to avoid these and modifying other small internal areas as part of a standard rebuild. We have been extremely open (eg in our web site buyers guide) about the causes and solutions to most major original problems (like cracked liners, crankshaft bearing failures, IMS bearing failures etc) which no doubt some competitors have tried to copy - but these smaller issues we regard as our intellectual property and part of our offering - although their significance is becoming more obvious to us as we predict what small problem we will find inside an engine - that started the larger failure - and as we rebuild more and more engines and see and analyse more and more problems - we more often are right at the outset. It doesn't matter how good you are as engineers or how contientious you are - there is no substitute for seeing more of the same thing than anyone else and that increase in numbers not only helps you invest in solutions but also to work out which are just one offs and which result from something you have seen before and can work out why and how to minimise a reoccurence - so whoever is undertaking your rebuild - in my view - they will be better able to build a more reliable engine than anyone trying to get in on the act more recently who is only at the same point the more experienced rebuilders were several years ago and have moved on from since. We already understand two issues that have effected crankshaft bearing failures - but they eminate from the original assembly and so we cannot do anything about them until and unless they fail - but we have noticed that there is - for example - a higher proprtion of engines failing in the crankshaft area that have been serviced by non porsche specialists or have extended service mileage intervals - and we have worked out why - so in the interests of reliability - may I suggest that you keep to the advisory mileage service periods and parts and use people who specialise in Porsches and are reliable. Baz

Hi After having read the post have you had the engine at least inspected by someone who has given you the advise that the engine is broken or are you assuming that because you have seen water droplets on the dip stick you think it has a big problem? If the cars engine sounds ok and you are only doing regular short runs in it then could it be a case of just condensation build up in the crank case? If you are not more than 70% positive that the engine is truley broken then id look at running the engine to see if there is a misfire? or you are getting a pressure build up in the water expansion tank and look at purchasing a tool which messures how much carbon dioxide is in the water system which would tell you if the engine is breathing into the water system.. Hope im not trying to teach people how to suck eggs but thought this might help. Thanks Andrew