Advice needed on 4s

Ok Folks, I need some advice. I'm over from the 964 forum. Don't daily drive mine but looking to replace my daily driver (Range Rover). Love the 996 turbo and 4s. Found a potential 4s. 19k US with 90 k miles. New engine 25 k miles ago. One minor accident of record. I am not looking for an investment but something I can drive year around with rough winters in mind. Love the 964 but want to preserve it. Of course I have my homework cut out for me so I know what needs to be done there. Any things I should know going into this? Canadian car but I did the US math for your convenience. Open to all advice and I don't care about the headlights. Thoughts? Many thanks.

You're going to get the same advice pretty much from everyone. Get a PPI and if IMS hasn't been done have it done ASAP. $19k USD sounds very good for a 4S.

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year, color, condition, service history, mods, IMS upgrade, clutch done, etc etc etc etc - get some info to us and we'll help

I recommend an invasive PPI which should check for cylinder scoring since this is a Canadian car. You're going to get various opinions on here whether you should drive the car year round, especially since you have harsher winters than US generally. You're also going to get various opinions on how the C4S really does in deeper snow from various owners. Other than that I'll sit back and watch the drama unfold.

Couple of thoughts from a 5 year 996 4S owner. I live in the Pacific NW, we get occasional snow in winter, but overall pretty minor. I have driven it in the snow, but that has usually been coming back from somewhere when it has started to snow and usually less than 2 inches on the road. I would not recommend taking it out in snowy weather when there is going to be a larger accumulation of snow, not just because of ground clearance, but also because some knucklehead (lots of them seem to come out with the snow) may lose it and slide in to you. I prefer to drive one of my other vehicles in snowy weather. Question about the engine replacement, and it will depend on when it was done and maybe what the engine code is. Mine had a factory exchange engine installed several owners prior to my ownership, and other than the coding on the engine I had no documentation. The code showed it as a 2005 engine, but since that was a transition year from the removable to none removable IMSB, it can be a crap shoot as to which version you have. In my case, I had planned to replace the clutch anyway soon after buying the car, and had my specialty indy shop get a new LN bearing on hand. Turns out once the clutch and flywheel came off, it was the none removable IMSB. Good and bad news here depending on your point of view and who you choose to listen to. The bad is, your stuck with that bearing unless you want to spent major $$ pulling the case apart (don't suggest this). The good is the failure rate on the none removable bearing is pretty darn low (again depending on where you can find responsible, none emotional data), so you likely will never have a problem with it. Good luck in your search and possible purchase, the C4S is a beautifully balanced car.

Seattle, if you can, provide your engine S/N. It is not clear when Porsche made the changeover to the big IMS, other than sometime in 05. There have been a few posts on this in the past and yours would be a good datapoint. I also have a factory exchange engine from 05 but have not to date pulled the trans to see what is in there.

That's the kind of advice I was looking for. Thanks for getting to the point and not telling me to do my homework

If you want to get a better idea of what kind of engine you're dealing with, get a pic of the serial number of the new engine. This could tell us a couple things.

Thanks. When I see the car I will do just that. That was my biggest concern. Cylinder scoring mentioned above due to cold weather?

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There's several discussions on it here if you search. My logic is if you're not that risk adversed to leave the IMS alone, you should also check for scored cylinder walls too. Many get a false security blanket with just replacing the IMS bearing or buying a car with the retrofit already done, thinking nothing else can really go wrong.

Is it this one at AutoselectAl in Quebec? http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Porsche/9...O&orup=7_15_34 I pinged them on it and have some details, let me know if you want them. It was an engine rebuild not a replacement, the accident was a $9K hit in the rear. Overall the comments from people on the Canadian forum were to avoid vehicles being sold in Quebec, too many shady characters. I googled the dealer and the street view pic of the dealership didn't look like the kind of place one would want to buy a C4S from. As has been mentioned here, with the benefit of a VERY comprehensive PPI, you might discover that it's a good deal. If the car is sound and you threw a few grand at it right away (it's right around the age and mileage that it's going to need a suspension refresh $3K-$5K) you still might come out ahead. I've decided to cough up a little more dough and am looking for a nicer example. The challenge I'm facing is that there are ZERO cars coming on the market in western Canada right now and the few that are available are at dealers with jacked up prices.

don't walk, run away and don't look back

I am in Quebec and was going to check it out. Agree that it might be sketchy. Let you know. Still appreciate the advice. Agree that cars in this province are doubtful.

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Here is the engine serial number from mine: M96/03AT 66565812 As stated in my earlier response, this was confirmed as a none removable bearing replacement engine. The "AT" = Austausch which translates to Exchange. It is my understanding that any factory exchange engine has the AT in the serial number.

Thanks Seattle. My engine # is the same as yours except the last 4 are 5912. There is an old thread here that tried to pin the big bearing changeover to a serial number, I need to find it and update it.