M96 Porsche factory short engines, price reduction

I spotted a tiny little article in this months Total 911 magazine that might be of interest to anyone considering an engine build on their 996. The article at the foot of page 10 suggests that Porsche have reduced the price of short motors by almost 50% :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: They are now available, according to the article, for £3,500 direct from Porsche. At first glance this looks like a sea change in not only the cost of a rebuild but also a welcome boost for the future values of 996 cars as the spectre of failed engines making the car itself valueless is significantly lessened. Thought it was a nice bit of news for 996 owners.

Does this cover 3.4 and 3.6? At that price, it's almost worth buying one as a spare! Certainly gives a cost effective option to the Hartech solution if you need a rebuild. Apparently the short motors have revised water pumps and therefore, probably, revised cooling too.

The article is a little light on specifics. Referring to "M96 generation flat sixes" rather than any particular capacity :dont know:

Don't forget that's exchange though, so it's not that easy to just get one and stick it on a shelf. Otherwise loads of us would be snapping them up.

plus VAT

I bet you could buy a scrap unit from somewhere like Douglas valley for reasonable money depending on the surcharge for no exchange unit?

there are always some condition requirements in the exchange

I would think that as long as the engine was complete and there were no holes in the crankcases then you should be good to go

Looks like a good reason to put my duff bottom end back together. MC

short engine cost I had one from Porsche at the start of the year and that was £5788 plus vat(retail) exchange for a m96/03 (3.6 variocam F1) the old core surcharge was £4300 plus vat if you didn't have an identical engine to give back in exchange. This is about half of a 3.4 cayman short exchange motor when I enquired in Feb. which if I recall was £10193 plus vat. clearly in Porsche mind the 987/997 owner has more money to spend! as the cost to produce what are essentially similar short engines must be equal.NB at the time feb 2018 a bare 3.4 cayman crankcase set was 5k plus vat(no pistons!) Christian..............

...what parts do you get with a short block, exactly? I phoned Porsche last week and was quoted £4700 plus vat for a 3.6. My engine is being rebuilt and I was wondering if this would have been cheaper than having my bottom end rebuilt? The specialist doing the rebuild wasn't keen on buying a short block from Porsche? Thanks

It is always welcome when Porsche reduce parts prices and this is no exception, but you must remember that you still have to remove and reinstate the engine and transmission, strip of all the auxiliaries and heads and probably recondition them, supply and fit all the new gaskets and seals, oils coolant etc, probably repair rusty or broken exhaust parts etc and at the end you have the same piston coating and bore finish that required a rebuild anyway. So while this may very well help out those that can do work themselves it may be no less expensive if you have to rely on a specialist to rebuild it all and do not end up with a superior specification. Furthermore although we have previously rebuilt engines using the Porsche bottom end - we have had a few problems with them (yes really - honestly - just don't want to go into details here). On those occasions it was difficult to deal with since we didn't build the bottom end and we realised that if there is a subsequent problem with the engine - it is very difficult to deal with who is responsible to strip it, find out what the fault is and agree who pay for everything and to to rebuild it afterwards. If it did turn out to be the new bottom end had a fault Porsche would be unlikely to pay for the specialist to do all that work (if you could ever get them to agree responsibility) whereas with a Hartech full rebuild there would be no problem as the whole process is subject to our guarantee (not that we ever need to invoke it). Where it could be worth considering is particularly where your own bottom end has crankshaft damage since the cost of a new crankshaft etc would probably make a Porsche bottom end a cheaper alternative. By all means we support anyone finding a better way to repair their engines (they should never have had all these problems in the first place), but although I anticipate that this post will receive critical responses - I cannot shy away from making sure owners do not get swept up in a euphoria that prevents them from looking critically at all the issues and alternatives and costing them out thoroughly while also considering the warranty issues. Baz

...helpful advice Baz, the specialist doing my rebuild (ex Porsche Foreman) was not keen to use a Porsche block; however he was very comfortable offering a 2 year, 20k mile transferable warranty (like you offer Barry) on the block being re- engineered with Westwood liners installed by Thurston Engineering because having used them and this solution on dozens of rebuilds he has never had any issues... As always you pays your money...

I spoke with OPC Nottingham today and was quoted about £5.2k +vat for a 3.4l MC

...what parts do you get with a short block, exactly? You get , a complete bottom end , crankcases pistons, rods , crank. oil pump ,water pump , timing chains ,revised intermediate shaft with the big bearing and revised chain drive, oil level sensor,all the cylinder head timing chains and the guides, sump pan.knock sensors. just put your heads on and the major ancillaries and your on your way.