Rally Guy

Totally agree. Sorry to hear. Another PPI cautionary tale.

RK

Dwane

You have a certain time limit(3 months?) to return the car. My buddy returned a Cayman, after I discovered the rear was repainted and they did not disclose this to him at purchase.
When did you purchase?

Gregster

Those 99-01 cars the oil almost always looks like that... I had a seller bring his car to me for a PPI and he kept insisting I didn't check the oil filter/canister. I replied "Judging by the condition of the rest of the car we both know what it will look it" I don't think I'll ever see such a rattier 996.1

Let guess the Nissan dealer sold it as is? How long ago did you guy it? You could always call the Quebec OPC and find out about "hidden defect"

Montychristo128

I bought it in May and in all honesty don't believe there is any recourse to the dealer. They showed me the repair invoices for the head gaskets at the time (which they paid for), should have been more cautious.

As everyone is keen to mention I should have had a PPI, but I didn't, so I get to suck it up and move on, such is life. What I really need is a lead on a 3.4 engine that is good, or some thoughts on cost effective rebuild.

If as Gregster suggests they all look like that then, maybe it's not a catastrophic failure.

Paseb

3.4 engine are really bad, never good to buy a 996 1999-2001. Sorry for you

I would look at a 3.6engine and do the conversion

Montychristo128

That's an interesting perspective. If you read other parts of the forum, they think the same of the 3.6, Jake Raby of Flat six seems to prefer the 3.4?

Maybe if they are all terrible it's time for an LS or Subaru swap.

Torontoworker

That's not an accurate statement - there are lots of high mileage 3.4's on the road. Many including Raby believe that the 3.6 was 'cheapened up' again after the 3.4.

For every 3.4 story there are as many 3.6 stories. The Porsche IMS lawsuit in the US showed that the 3.6 had more issues actually.

And to the OP: Just drive the car, change the oil more often and if it blows up *then* attempt to find a motor.

jumper5836

My 02 C4S turned 60,000 km running with #4 scored. The tick and oil consumption has remained the same over last 30,000 km. It has 136,000 km on it now.

Drive it till it dies, I believe Porsche now sell the blocks.

Also don't think a PPI would have discovered the problem. Not unless you ask them to borescope the cylinders which is not a that easy to do and would add quite a few hours of labor to the bill.

lowbee

Just curious, what was oil consumption like with a scored #4 ?
a liter every ?? km

jumper5836

1 liter every 800 km

lowbee

Humm.... Top up on every fill up
Have you try different oil ? Motul or Shell Rotella T6 ?

Imo000

Yup! That's exactly what happened here.
The head gaskets on the M96 are pretty much bulletproof. The multi layer steel gaskets only fail if the engine severy overheats and the heads warp.
This engine is slowly chewing itself apart. If you stop driving it now, might be still worth the core charge and that's usually about $1000-$1500 USD. Either way the engine needs to come apart to see what happened.
You could get a hold of Zookie and find out if his rebuilt engine is still holding up OK. Then can contact his rebuilder and work something out. I beleive he is the least expensive on the market.

Turbojamie

zookies motor is still going strong from MB motorsports.

Montychristo128

Thanks Gents. I'm still waiting to get hold of one of the recommended indies to take a look at it before I make the next move.

If its scored bores, I'm probably going to live with it until kaboom, but as you point out Imo000 it has some value to it as it stands.

I did find MB and they are offering a 20% Canadian discount right now too on Ebay. So almost offsets the USD effect.

theiceman

With all that metal in there I'm thinking bearings will be absolutely toast.