Finally got car on lift and found out "what I have" (X51 surprise, PICS)

I finally made some small ramps and picked up some aluminum jacking pucks from Ebay and got her on the lift for the first time post purchase. I wanted to check the condition and see what all was under there. To my surprise, the oil pan has already been upgraded to X51, so I'm not going to change that. Here are some pics of what I found. Doing an oil change from break-in to regular street oil, changing to street brake pads, and just generally checking things out.

Thats the first thing I did as well. Mine had no mods. Your mods could be good and bad news. The pan and suspension mods are great but does that mean the PO tracked the sh#$ out of the car? Its nice to see a clean underside of the 996. Really like your garage / shop setup. What is the ceiling height if you dont mind?? It looks vaulted. Was wondering the height needed to clear the lift.

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The PO tracked it for a few K miles but then had the valve seat crack. Raby took the engine completely apart, fixed valve seat with a better one and replaced them all at the same time as well as put in new timing chains, rod bearings, a new AOS, new main and rod bearings, thrust washers, and a brand new IMS (LN). The heads were torn down, rebuilt, pressure tested, cleaned, had the decks diamond milled, and were re-assembled with stem seals and new springs. I feel confident that the engine is in good condition and plan to change the diff/trans oil soon too. The clutch is pretty new, I think 8K miles on it or so. Garage ceiling height is 13 feet in the middle. The sides are 10.5' feet and then vault up from there. I have the lift set up in the widest and tallest configuration it will go - 12.5 feet or so is what it needs. You can also get away with around 12.0 feet if you have a lower ceiling.

Lucky find! I'm planning on upgrading to X-51 Pan, and the .5 qt spacer before autocross for a little more ease of mind. (No track in Hawaii, and I'll be living here for 4-5 more years so no need for acusump just yet)

I don't think you'd really need any upgrades for autocross. I think really only track and even then there's a question of whether the failures we've been led to believe are a normal thing really are that normal.

Nice car and nice garage setup!

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I don't think that just because you have tracked your car, that would make it any less valuable Although, I have not tracked this car, all my previous P-cars were tracked at least twice a year. The maintenance was always up to date and I practice preventative maintenance religiously. Just a thought

If JR did the work, Im sure its right. I hope your putting DT40 back in the crankcase.

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Does anything else exist?

Nice garage biker. Interesting, my motor quit due to a valve seat failing as well. You never hear of this problem only the stupid xxx grenades. I dont like when posters immediately assume if a car has mods it was tracked to "death". Do we know if the previous owner ever drove on track? Maybe the guy/lady was 20 seconds off pace and just coasting around trying to learn the car's abilities. Most track guys maintain thier cars far beyond what a street only driver will do. We go through mechanical inspections before each and every event to confirm the car is sorted and safe. But beyond that we replace items like pads, rotors, fluids, bushings, control arms, tires, brake lines, coolant lines, etc well before they expire. Most track cars are religiously maintained by thier owners. Anyone else agree?

I'd say that people who track their car, usually have the mean to maintain it. The more track it sees, usually the more OCD the driver...and well financed as well. Finding someone with the time and money to track the car is a good thing if you ask me. Lack of care and maintenance is the real trouble, add to it the short daily commute and long winter storage and here you have a very nice low mileage grenade

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I agree on all these points but as you've pointed out "most" cars doesn't mean there aren't some bad apples out there. It's all up to the potential buyer to make sure these kinds of things were taken care of. RDUBiker, do you hang out at the Garage Journal Forums? If not, you should introduce yourself there too.

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+1 Absolutely!

Not here.. ALL 3 chain engines get new intake valve seats (at minimum) as we are finding that every pair of heads has issues in some way with at least a few seats in every pair of heads and this failure is not new to us. I identified it mid-way through our development as "mode of failure #15". We now have a total of 24 documented modes of failure that we've seen more than once. We've seen the frequency of this MOF increase over time, but not over mileage. Time in service and dynamics within the valve train of certain engines catalyzes it. We have not seen these issues with 5 chain engines and we know why.

I have serious garage envy.

"3 chain versus 5 chain" motor? Have not heard that term. Can someone explain?

track people take better care of their cars than normal people I would buy a tracked car over a non-tracked car for this reason alone - spare bits installed...a plus!! RE autoX - the "trouble" modding an autoX car is you can be forced into a higher class - but with only a couple mods you wont be competitive - so knowing the rules and choosing the mods to stay within the rules in the class you are trying to drive in is very important

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Yes Jake, when i was getting my engine torn down I mentioned the valve guide cause and of course you knew about the potential for failure. But, you were the only person who commented and advised that all guides be replaced.

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3.4 motors have an extra set of chains between the cams the 3 chain (3.6) motors dont have

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So having a 3.4 motor is finally an advantage?

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I've posted there quite a bit during the build of the garage itself and all the work I put into it including the epoxy floor and all the rest. Indeed, I found the previous owners of this car (2 of them) to be highly OCD about it's care and maintenance. It was well taken care of and I'm lucky to have found it. The bonus for me is the fresh engine right out of Jake's shop refreshed with all the newer parts. It's truly like a new car to me except a tear in the driver's bolster and carpet near the dead pedal. My neighbors (who obviously don't know models) thought I bought it new because the body is damn near perfect.

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more great parts - same low price

The 3.4 version covers more drive surface (teeth) for each cam but maybe Porsche thought it was overkill. In this case, there is no advantage to less CI's, less HP, and older technology.

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In context of this thread, I took it to mean that valve seats were less of a problem than the newer 3 chain motors. Am I misreading this?

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Yes, older 5 chain engines do not have seat issues. We've never seen one fail. The newer engines with 3 chains have the issues and just last week we were processing a pair of 2008 cylinder heads and 3 of the valve seats dislodged while in the ultrasonic cleaner. That was just from gravity. That engine had 27K miles on it. Our competitors are killing their reputations because they don't know, what they don't know. They also don't learn, because they don't develop, nor do they pay attention and allow the engine to teach them.

Nice find! I am jealous both of your car and garage

I'll add my two cents to the tracked-vs-not subplot. It is my opinion that a lot of track work is hard on reciprocating parts and some fasteners (rod bolts, for one). And on wear parts. But occasional track use, to me, is better for the M96 than grocery-getting and other short trip, stop-and-go driving. I am much more skeptical of the engine in a pampered garage queen, twelve years old with 18,000 miles or some-such, been sitting around with its gas gumming up and its seals drying out (including that IMS bearing seal). They've likely never had their brakes flushed, or coolant, and, as many have pointed out, guys who take their car to the track tend to be car guys. They tend to change their oil WAY too often. Their rotors, suspension parts, etc. are looked over every so often. Their trannies probably have had at least one oil change. A car with 80,000 miles that's been tracked like, say, my Boxster? That car's engine is in need of freshening up. (Mine just returned from the full Monte at Jake's House of Horsepower.) But gimme an M96 with a few track floggings and 50,000 miles vs. a car treated like a delicate flower. Any day. Oh, and, beautiful car and great garage!