Molly

From all that I've gathered over a few years it seems that overall 993s don't really have catastrophic engine failures to speak of. The typical issues with 993 motors seem to be ones that can be found early and you can see them coming, prepare for them, etc. In contrast, 986 and 996 motors seem to just outright fail a lot more often. I know it's also because when they have an issue it's more common to replace the whole motor without even knowing the extent of the internal failure. But I just don't seem to see ppl talking much about their 993s blowing chunks on them, and I don't recall seeing anyone have to replace the motor or rebuild it completely. Am I right?

Kika

993s have a rev limiter, it will simply cut out. I occasionally bounce of the rev limiter, personally I think it is actually good for the motor to be run hard...Give er the ole Italian Tune Up!

Mike J

Like any engine, you can over-rev a 993 by missing a shift. The rod bolts do not like that and can fail over time if that event happens. If they fail bad bad things can happen (like putting rods through the side of the block). Typically if you want to make a 993 engine more fail-proof then you put in ARP rod bolts and change the valve springs to higher strength springs. Under normal conditions you have nothing to worry about.

You are right though, it seems from observation that the 996 engines either run fine (with perhaps leak from a RMS failure) or blow up. I know of one guy who blew one up driving normally over a bridge , he was fine starting on the bridge, but in the middle he lost power and he got off the end of the bridge with an assistance of a tow truck. Total engine failure which Porsche fixed under warranty. If I have to have a 996 I would not have it without a warranty.

Of course I doubt if Porsche would ever publish any warranty numbers so we will never really know.

Cheers,

Mike

Mark in Baltimore

Kika,

Many mechanics will disagree with this statement. It's probably best to shift just before the rev limiter kicks in and try to avoid banging it. Steve Weiner, among quite a few other mechanics I've talked to, recommends not using the rev limiter as a substitute for your eyes and ears.