M96 "200K Mile Club"

Just curious how many here have 200K miles on their 996's .. Sally is a 1999 .3.4 with 193K , I put the 93K on it ......it would be well over 200K if I hadn't had a heart attack ( and subsequent Triple C oronary Artery Bypass Graft ) and Retired 10 years ago....It's still my daily driver but I don't drive to work daily anymore....lol

My 2002 C2 had 200,028 on it when I bought it but it was missing the engine. I think the engine was removed and put into a lower mileage car that had an engine failure. i put a FSI 3.8l Stage I motor in the car. It is a nice car, very clean, straight body and drives nicely.

@Porschetech3 is that on her original motor??

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Well, yes and no...Here is Sally's History.. I bought Sally back 17 years ago in 2007 as a roller> She was high optioned with Polar Silver/Metropol Blue full leather in very nice condition and her engine was in a basket ...I paid top dollar for her at that time... The only thing wrong with the engine was a hair-line crack in one head from a failed water pump.... Sent the block to my buddy I had known for decades who owns Speed Engineering , a small local shop that I had used for machine work on my race cars before . Had him custom make me some cylinders....While the block was with him another friend in a shop in Atlanta sold me a 3.4 core engine from an insurance job with 50K miles it was complete and IT only had a small hair-line crack in one head ( from a failed water pump also) . but no coolant had gotten into the oil....just oil in the coolant...So I took Sally's heads to another buddy who owns Cylinder Head Service, in Fairfield, and he repaired the crack and freshened up the heads...So the heads and all the whole top end is original to Sally with 193K miles on them, the used short block now has 143k Miles on it ( I did upgrade the IMS/RMS/all vario-cam pads 4-5 timing chains...UAOS/UIDS ect...)....The original short block that came in Sally was rebuilt with the Custom sleeves, upgraded IMS/RMS all new bearings ect and is still sitting on the engine stand for 17 years just waiting to go back in...( it has the original matching serial numbers) So basically half the engine has 193K just like the car, and half has 143K . and the original short block is 0K miles just still sitting on the engine stand for 17 years... Like I mentioned if had not had my heart attack and surgery 10 years ago ,she would have WAY over 200k miles...

I have a 2003 C2 with 215,807 miles. Original engine and transmission. Clutch replaced at 207k and supposedly the IMSB was changed then too. I bought it cheap out of California with 209k miles as a cheap fun car and just save my pennies for an invevitable rebuild. Still runs good, drive it hard and take care of it - monitor AOS health and blowby once a year per Skip's instructions. Change oil 2x per year with Driven FR50 and just fix little things myself as they crop up: Complete suspension refresh, SAI valves and vacuum lines, chain tensioners, upgraded oil pump spring/valve, alternator, heater core. It's boring Arctic Silver but dressed it up with some Apex 10 wheels. Interior and paint are in great shape despite the miles.

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Cool. Nice strategy. Like it.

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Skip, I'm glad you are looking after your health. Keep moving and keep driving! My Savannah only has 105k,. I've put 10k on since taking possession in Feb '22, but since retiring to Canada in Aug 2023, I am garaging her for the salty months. I just can't bring myself to subject all the fittings, hardware, and the entire 'stainless steel' aftermarket exhaust to the ravages of saline. I've already been through the headaches of replacing all the old suspension and exhaust bolts that were seized, the header bolts that were broken off in the block, and more. And that was a southern car, that never saw salt or snow. Unless Georgia salted roads which I doubt? I can only imagine how much destruction the liquid salt that gets sprayed on the roads here could wreak on my poor old girl. Nuh uh, not gonna happen. I estimate I will put about 5k a year on each summer. Some years much more. I plan on road trips to some southern historic Motorsport and museum's, concours events or just driving around. For now, I'm mostly tied to the house for a while what with my elderly mom and the dog. The roads here are absolutely glorious for a stock height 996. Twisty, hilly, and unpopulated, just watch out for deer. The locals complain about the roads, but I think non car people look at roads differently from us 😁. This fall has been great, the leaves were very colorful. I've been getting drives in. So 200k miles is doable, but it'll take a few years. I hope I get those years... And I hope you do as well.

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Sorry to hear about the health scare, even if it was a decade ago. Hope you are doing well. Always find your posts helpful.

Georgia, especially around the Atlanta area, does salt the roads in preparation for icy weather. -Tom

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Right , Sally has lived her whole life in Bama right around the B'ham area. Cars just don't rust around here. They last forever or at least 50-60 years even parked out side... B'ham and surrounding Cities don't put out salt until after a few crashes...lol .... If the PD tells them the Street Dept. will get out before rush hour and salt the bridges but not the whole roads , just bridges and steep hills. If the whole road is bad they will just shut down the whole road and wait...it doesn't usually last very long ...They will shut down the whole Interstate for a day or two.. I have a 1989 F-250 FI 460ci heavy duty manual Farm Truck with 80K miles all still original that has lived outside here since new for 35 years and no rust just a little"petina" showing through on the center of the hood ( surface rust).. I am just going to wet sand it and clear coat over the "patina" , it adds charickter...lol...the seats are still pristine and everything works even the old cassette player....

Hey… Pt3…good morning.Could you tell me / us more about your sleeved short blocks construction,if you care to share?

Had over 204k in mine before i granaded it at Watkins.

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Sure.....When I bought Sally 17 years ago in 2007 she had 100k miles and the engine was totally disassembled all the way down to crankshaft in a basket .. It was in very very good and clean condition with just a hair-line crack in one head....But I wasn't going to put the engine back together without doing any upgrades I could think of.. I chose GJV-500 Vermicular Graphite Iron material for the cylinders....nowadays more commonly known as CGI or Compacted Graphite Iron as is used nowadays in casting Diesel Engine blocks and Ford and BMW turbocharged engine blocks as well as exhaust manifolds, heads, and Nascar Blocks.....CGI transfers heat better than all other Irons,is ductle, it has 400% high fatigue resistance than aluminum and 200% more than gray iron...It can be machined to be lighter than aluminum at the same strength but normally is kept thicker for the high strength.. There are numerous materials that can be used for cylinders and it all depends on the application and other considerations.... On the block we cut the top inch and a quarter off the cylinders ( the part that ovals and cracks) and then bored the bottom part of the cylinders .200 so the sleeve will sit "on top and inside" of the short stubby Aluminum cylinder so its not possible to drop or to crack....Also machined a locking notch on top of the short stuby cylinder and the bottom of the Custom sleeve to index the cylinder so it can't rotate... I wanted to use the Factory Mahle Forged Hypo-eutectic ($600 each) pistons that were in excellent condition but we had to glass blast the factory Ferrostan (iron) plating off....Iron sliding on Iron is not desirable. The factory materials were Iron plating ( pistons) sliding on Hypo-eutectic Aluminum/Silicone ( Lokasil) , so the inverse ie Iron cylinder sliding directly on Hypo-eutectic Aluminum/Slicone Pistons will work nicely... The displacement was kept at 3.4 liters and I had no desire for more displacement, just a rock solid short block... Again this was done 17 years ago...

Thanks

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Your welcome ...One day it may get reunited back to Sally... PS : thank you all for the kind words and support on my Heart/Health issue ......

Yes, Skip, health issues are limiting; I hope yours are better..... ... and that was seventeen years ago! Look, I am not opposed to planning ahead. I purchased De Jeepers heads and have been slowly gathering parts for an upgrade build with another engine as I am looking for more bottom end, but what made you direct your energies to use CGI since everyone else seemed to be going into using aluminum?

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I'll walk you through the decision making process in 2007 as best I can recall it....I'll leave out the mountains of details, so it doesn't turn into a 56 page novel on cylinder materials, but just go straight to the meat.....So if I leave out too much and it leaves you with a question, just ask... Basically three categories of material Steel, Iron, Aluminum....each of these has numerous variations of Alloy's ....and Elements....a non exhaustive list of Elements would be Moly, Graphite, Copper, Nickle,Silicon, Sulfur, Carbon, Manganese, Chromium ect... Each of these three base metals can be mixed with small percentages of the Element list to slightly change the properties and have dozens of different final Alloys. Some Cylinder/sleeve makers have there own recipe/secret sauce, and there are numerous common "off-the-shelf" ones... I dismissed the Steel ones because Steel is Primarily for race/competition cars and is difficult to get good ring seal and ring wear is an issue.. IN 2007 we were on the heels of a lot of issues with Nikasil plated aluminum cylinders...A lot of manufacturers were using it BMW, Ferrari,Jaguar,Audi/Posche ect.)and there were numerous failures due to high doses of Sulfur in the gasoline...In the late 90's early 2000's up to 2004 there was 300 ppm of sulfur, but that lowered in 2007 to less than 30 ppm....Interwstingly Porsche engine did not have issues,My opinion is the lower grade lower Tier fuels had the highest Sulfur, and the Porsche Cars got Top Tier...Anyway , Aluminum/Nikasil was not high on the list and Aluminum/Chrome cylinders wee hard to get ring seal .. I like the Iron materiasl due to high strength ,easy to get good ring seal, and the graphite in Iron makes a good sliding surface and is easy on the rings/pistons and needs no piston coating... There are three basic types of Iron...Gray Iron, CGI,and Nodular Iron...The decision was like the " Three Bears".. CGI is "Just Right".....lol Gray Iron has Graphite in "flakes" that help rings slide, is stiff but brittle, is heavy, has the least amount of Nickle in it... Nodular Iron has Graphite in "Sphears" that lubricates the rings and also is very Ductle, has the highest percentage of Nickle and highest tensile strength.. CGI Iron has Graphite in stubby worm-like rounded edge shapes, and is lighter than Gray Iron but higher strength, has better vibration damping and thermal conductivity that Nodular Iron... So that is why I chose GJV-500..... "CGI" .... All that said the Aluminum /Nikasil combo like LN uses is the "cr�me de la cr�me" since the Petroleum Industry has stopped messing around with the Sulfur/Gasoline...

Thanks for the brief lesson. What do you foresee as the lifespan of your engine?

Hoping to drive it enough to hit 250K by next year. Engine has never been opened up, original IMS bearing, original transmission, and runs great!

Awesome! What year car? How's your oil pressure? I hope I can make it to 250k too. Thanks, Steve

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I know how to keep an engine alive.....I expect the CGI one to last 300K before it gets tired ...in a 5 chain it would need maintance vario-cam pads and chains about every 100k miles.. On my present stock short block that now has 143K miles ( 193K on the top end), it got new vario-cam pads and chains at 100K...I know the stock cylinders are going oval over time, but the rings wear in oval also so the blow-by is still very good and possibly can make it 300k before the ovalness reaches .010" a point where it will crack.....But the reality is I probably wont make to see that, I think it will out last me.....

My '99 C2 just passed 180k miles. Still running and driving great.

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As a follow-up to that valuable info, would you be as **** about Variocam maintenance on a 3-chain engine?

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No on the 3 chain engines the vario-cam is a more sophisticated design but the geometry put less load on the plastic chain guides to lessen the wear.. On the 5 chain engines the vario-cam is a clever but simple design and the geometry puts more load on the small cam pads and 4th-5th timing chains so they require service at intervals..

Didn�t quite get there�but I had a 2000 Boxster S with 187k that I just sold! Engine was running well, but it needed a clutch job and several other small things. And I upgraded into a 987.2 Boxster S, so the old one wasn�t getting much use and had to go. But I had a lot of good times in that 986! Original engine (no rebuild) and IMS as far as I know! I�d have no problem getting another 986/996�Take care of the M96 series engines and they will go for a long time!