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Huge thanks to the folks that reached out to me via DMs and offered help and guidance! Much appreciate it!
I'll start with photos (because these threads are useless without them) and a bit of a timeline of the trip.
The car was purchased at a small local 2 man operation of a dealer that also does consignment work and that's how this 911 was acquired. This was super easy and I didn't have to deal with any of the dealer fees and other BS associated with the purchase at a traditional big lot dealer. I'm not making the final call just yet but so far this experience is a step closer in restoring my faith in that you can have a positive experience at a dealership. PPI was completed and included a check for bore scoring. This being a FL car all it's life I was optimistic and the images came back clean. Some very minor scuffs on #4 but nothing that had me worried. I had a chance to speak and work with Bob at Vortex Motorsports and that proved to be a great experience as well. He gave me a tour of the shop which gave me additional confidence seeing what was inside and that these guys know their stuff:
Fully track set up with a $50k built motor!
2 GT3 getting some work done as well as a beautiful air cooled C4S
Some more track toys as well as a 996 with about 15k miles in for some maintenance
But let's get to the main event.... the PPI came back with a few things. I had a set of new tires put on, 235/40/18 and 295/30/18 and loving the set up. Turn in is perfection. Also, a new oil cooler needed to be installed due to a leak as well as oil pump gasket and a new clutch slave as the clutch was super stiff before. I picked up the car from the shop as they needed to re-bleed the system as the temp would wonder a bit. Appreciated the attention to detail. I took it for a bit of a rip after and temperature stayed solid. Overall, the experience with Vortex was very good. Bob made himself available via cell and spoke with me a bunch and I never felt like he was trying to upsell me on work that needed to be done.
First impressions of the car were good but not perfect and I prepared myself for that knowing it's a 16yo car. Visually, interior was in mint condition and the hard back sport seats had very little wear. For the age of the car I'd give the interior an 8-9 probably. Exterior maybe closer to 6-7. Small scuff on driver side mirror, very small ding on top of driver side fender (not sure how that got there), plastic lip had some scaring but intact and the original polished BBS wheels had some early stages of corrosion in a few small spots, mainly around the center caps. Headlights will also need to be redone. I do car detailing for fun and paint was original and in decent shape but it will be getting a full correction and ceramic coating. I might play with PPF and maybe do the front bumper. None of this was a deal breaker but it is what it is. Mechanically things looked good and I have some investigating to do which honestly I'm looking forward to. Engine dry and no leaks. Coolant reservoir was off white (not the faded yellow you see sometimes) and didn't show and cracks but I think I might need to update the cap to the newest revision. One of the previous owners had to install some sort of short throw shifter. It was pretty notchy and race car like but in a good way. Very positive feedback but requires a bit of effort. I kind of like it and will probably pull the center console to investigate. After replacing the clutch slave I was told the clutch felt much better but to me still pretty stiff and springy. Kind of like a stage 1 clutch with a stiffer plate. Given the work done to the shifter someone might have put in a more aggressive clutch. Required more effort for sure but felt great when driving more aggressively and shifting quickly. On my trip back to DC over 2 days I drove a bit over 1400 miles and the engine didn't miss a beat. No check engine lights or other funny business. Early in it's life, mid 20k miles, the car suffered an engine failure, most likely the IMS and received a new motor from Porsche. The engine code didn't point to the motor being an X51 but visually it does have the all aluminum intake manifold and the X51 exhaust manifold. I highly doubt there were parts swapped from the old motor to the new one so my guess is that the code might be wrong. Who knows. When doing oil change soon I'll take a peek with a scope inside the oil pan to look at the oil baffles that the X51 had. Either way, I doubt my butt dyno could tell the 20hp difference and the engine ran so well it wouldn't bother me if it wasn't. Records with the car were few but flipping through the car booklet I saw several service records and shop stamps, with one of them having a written note saying that LN IMS was installed! It was a while ago but that's definitely great news. That along with the cam deviations being .48 and .51 made me feel good. With all this, the car ran great and still returned around 26mpg cruising around 80mph most of the time. I was quite surprised with how comfortable the ride was in the sport seats....comfortable to the point where my girlfriend was out cold sleeping several times during the trip!
Here are several photos from the FL Polytechnic and the Tail of the Dragon:
As for what's next? I'm letting my car detailing nerd run wild to get the car looking the best it can. I've also already ordered an oil service kit from LN that will be getting done soon. DT40, magnetic drain plug, filter and the injector defender. Because I can do the work myself I'll also replace the plugs and coils as I don't know when they were done last. Cheap insurance to me. New cabin and engine air filter as well. If there is anything else that I should keep an eye on in terms of preventative maintenance please let me know! I have plenty of experience of working on my own cars but will seek out a decent local shop for the bigger stuff. Might do a test run with transmission fluid service and see how that goes.
Thanks again to those who have helped through this search and look forward to contributing to this community and driving the wheels off this car!
I've had a few folks reach out to me for an update since I've had the car for a week now so short story long, here we go....
As agreed with Brandon, I was planning to fly out to OKC on Friday, May 11th to collect the car. The plan was to drive the car back to DC, which I was assured wouldn't be a problem. Because life has been known to throw me some curveballs, what's another one as I embark on this trip. As I put my head down to sleep, since I needed to be up before 4am for an early flight, I heard a ding on my phone. Reluctantly, I looked thinking maybe it's a "u up" from some pretty lady....but it was not....it was Delta telling me that my flight has been cancelled and moved to Saturday. Great, it's not even Friday yet and something went wrong already. I frantically grabbed my laptop to see if there are any other flight options. Original plan was to arrive in OKC by 11am but my only other option that would get me there on Friday put me in OKC at 5:30pm via a 4 and half hour layover in Salt Lake City. But wait, there's more! Upon arriving in Utah, I learned that I did not have a seat for my second flight as the flight was overbooked. Luckily some folks with flexible schedules gave up the seats for some money and I was the last person to board the flight to OKC. Whew, that was close. Brandon was a complete legend accommodating this and staying longer on a Friday until I arrived. Between travel, temps all over the place, 3 time zones, 2 airports and the stress I managed to pick up a cold. Wonderful. Once I landed my buddy, that also flew in, and I made our way over to Slakker to collect the car.
What a sight for sore eyes (and throat at that point)!
Brandon provided me with a bit of a tour of the facility which was very cool to see for me. I enjoy seeing how the sausage (or my engine in this case) is made so seeing all the machines, engine dyno, and all the other parts laid out was a very cool experience. Also, how often do you get to meet the guy who built your engine!? One of the big reasons why I chose to work with Slakker was that everything is done in-house. I think this really contributed to a relatively speedy turn-around and all the control over the process you can ask for. There is no waiting for someone to finish your case halves with new sleeves or waiting on the heads to be refinished, which are in their own separate queue. I think it's a huge benefit that's not often talked about. The whole operation is still relatively young but you could see some great work being done as well as constant improvement to the process.
I know some folks had some concerns about driving the car half way across the country and the break in. The engine has gone through a pretty rigorous break-in process on the dyno where it was pushed hard for about 30 minutes, harder than what I'd probably throw at it. Also, the engine saw about 10 heat cycles and through some procedures that verify blow-by and other things that confirm if the rings are seated nicely I was able to just drive off and enjoy the car. All I needed to do is change the oil when I got home. Heck, I didn't even have any break-in oil in the sump and was able to run Driven synthetic, I think it was DT50. Brandon and I went over the car and I was ready to hit the road! I requested that he save the problem child that was piston #4 which I took back with me as a souvenir. I might get a gold chain and wear it around my neck when I go to C&C or a track day
After departing Slakker, my buddy and I hit a Whataburger and hit the road for Dallas, 217 miles.
The car did not skip a beat and boy, that torque was a pleasant surprise. In most cases 6th gear can work as a passing gear and the car gets up to speed north of 80mph with little effort. Driving in Texas was an experience. We were booking it at about 90mph and still getting passed by pick up trucks. One thing that was a big surprise, however, was the fuel economy. Over the 217 mile trip to Dallas, with steady speeds of 80-90mph with a few pulls into the triple digits the car returned 31.6mpg! Bigger displacement, more power and torque and better fuel economy? What else could I want! Speaking of power, the engine dynoed at 371HP and 325TQ. This is with a stock plenum and TB. I do plan to add a GT3 TB and plenum from the guys at Spyder Performance at some point which will gain me another 10HP and some torque. Looking at the 996.2 GT3, which was rated at 381HP and 284TQ (although we know Porsche was probably sandbagging with those numbers) and this puts me pretty pretty much near those power levels with more and earlier torque. With this car quickly becoming my version of "what if Porsche made a 996 GT3 Touring" I'm pretty happy with the outcome. My goal was never to squeeze out every possible HP so to end up where I have, I'm quite happy. As stated originally, the goal was a more powerful motor with which I can have a good time on the track 2-3 times a year and then hop in and do a long road trip. The primary goal was dependability and addressing all the shortcomings of the M96. With the nikasil plated cylinders and matching pistons from Capricorn, larger motorsports main and rod bearings, larger IMS, UAOS and UIDS I've pretty much addressed everything that you could. We even are running 997 injectors that were a bit better suited for the larger displacement.
Saturday was spent in Dallas visiting a good friend of mine. Bike riding, soccer match and a late night at a Korean bar all contributed to me feeling like total poop the next day. Still worth it. Brandon checked in via text to see how the initial drive went, which was nice of him.
Sunday I hit the road with Memphis being the destination. Just under 450 miles. Kind of a boring drive with mostly rainy weather so just wanted to cover the distance. More trucks passing you while going 90 but still awesome fuel economy! Didn't get crazy with the driving given the cold and basically running on cold medicine, Pedialyte and a bottle of 5 hour energy. Don't remember the last time I took that stuff but it really wakes you up! So far no light of any kind, loads of power on tap and didn't look like any oil was consumed. So far so good!
I decided to sleep in a little bit and hit the road to Chattanooga in the late morning - about 340 miles. Somewhat uneventful but as I got closer to central TN the roads began to have turns and there was finally hills and elevation change! I've never been but Chattanooga seemed like a cool little town.
Found a cool spot for dinner called State of Confusion, which felt very appropriate with a cool bakery near by where I got breakfast and some other snacks before hitting the road towards the Tail of the Dragon.
After a good night's sleep and a solid breakfast I headed out towards the Smoky Mountains and the Tail of the Dragon. Thought it would be nice to return there 3 and half years later. Some of the spots of the road were repaved with more pull outs which was great to see. Had a nice opportunity to exercise the engine and get some more spirited driving in. I actually felt pretty rested with more energy so that was great to see.
But wait, there is more! I had a total bonehead moment when while fumbling with my phone, wallet and camera I failed to notice that I never took the key out of the ignition. You can probably imagine what happened next....I came back to a locked car. F*ck. Luckily, I did leave my sunroof cracked open. Several minutes earlier, while picking up a decal at the shop, I overheard the familiar Polish language being spoken and ran into a nice Polish couple with their son who were roundtripping from CT. With their help and some backyard engineering we found a long skinny branch to which we zip tied another stick that resembled a hook and were able to get the key out. A little more excitement than what I was looking for but hey, I was able to get back on the road! Next destination was the Blue Ridge Parkway. I drove to the South Terminus which is the starting point and began to drive. The roads were mostly empty but the weather started to turn for the worse. Light rain and increasing fog made for limited visibility. I did go past the highest point of the parkway, about 6069ft, and past the entrance to Mt. Mitchell. The roads were great and going through a bunch of tunnels was fun. I think the parkway has over 60 of them as a whole. Not wanting any more excitement for the day, I elected to drive to Little Switzerland and get off the parkway after that. It was just too foggy to hold any meaningful pace and do so safely. I had a nice little dinner in Little Switzerland and to my surprise still had some energy in me. Since I needed to get home by end of the next day, I decided to drive towards Winston-Salem and stay in a hotel there. That was only about another hour or so after dinner.
From Winston-Salem it was about 340 miles / 5 hours to get back to DC. Had a solid breakfast and hit the road, which was mostly highways. I got back to DC a little before 3pm, having covered 1,787 miles. This car is a road trip monster. It's pretty hard to describe how easily it just ate up the boring miles and felt very at home at about 80-85mph. The engine was super smooth and just hummed along. At those speeds, you're close to 3500rpms so having all the torque on hand made passing super easy and if you wanted more oomph just drop down into 5th and go. The engine is broken in but it will take some time for everything to fully settle in. I did the first oil change now with FR50, since I have 2 cases of it. I plan to run it for 3k miles and then change again. After that I'll probably go back to 5k mile change interval. I need to send out the first sample for UOA and I'm sure it will be pretty ugly. Only at idle, there is some ticking noise that goes away immediately when you tap the accelerator. Brandon said this is common with lifters making some noise with the thicker 50 weight oil at idle and as long as it goes away with revs/oil pressure it's a non issue. It will very possibly go away as the engine further settles in. Now that I think about it, the old motor made a similar noise at idle, albeit more faint. I still haven't driven the car "in anger" but hope to this weekend. With fresh oil, I also finally had a chance to add Skip's baffles for the UIDS. Getting the UIDS to seat was a bit of a PITA with the tight fit but that's a good thing I guess because the baffles are creating a good seal for each chamber.
The car got a much needed wash and now it's time to address few other things:
- front lip needs to be repainted
- polish and redo the ceramic coating since there was some paint work done after the deer run in
- the spoiler decided to stop working and sits a bit crooked
- might do a quality of life upgrade for potential future exhaust manifold removal. While the bolts are not baked into the heads I might convert them to Ti/Al studs with copper nuts. This should make removing things much easier in the future.
Congrats, love the AE cars!
Make sure to check the date of the IMSB replacement as it may be time to do it again. Unless it was the IMS Solution that's the only one and done fix from LN.
I'll say it again - your diligence paid off on this one. Now you've got nothing left to do but drive and smile. (And it reads like clean it twice a day )
808 Bill - Thanks! IMHO I feel like they are the first iteration of a GTS trim with all the goodies thrown at them. i was thinking about the IMS. If I look at it by age, then it's probably due; by mileage then I still have about 20k miles to go. I may reach out to LN to find out if there were revisions and improvements made over time (probably) and replace it when I do the clutch but I don't think it's something I'll rush to do. I think any failures LN had with their bearings happened soon after the install so I'm not sweating it.
Adam - for sure and like I told you I should be buying you a brew! Thanks for your help and looking forward to getting my hands dirty, hopefully on my terms!
85eurocarrera - what a coincidence! Love the aero kit on yours. Bob was great to deal with like I said and I'd recommend Vortex for anyone needing work done or a PPI at a reasonable price.
Prelude Guy - I am! Glover Park. Happy to meet up sometime
Ratchet1025 - thanks and look forward to keeping this thread going as a record of ownership, if anything else.
Early in it's life, mid 20k miles, the car suffered an engine failure, most likely the IMS and received a new motor from Porsche. The engine code didn't point to the motor being an X51 but visually it does have the all aluminum intake manifold and the X51 exhaust manifold. I highly doubt there were parts swapped from the old motor to the new one so my guess is that the code might be wrong. Who knows.
snap a pic of the S / N on the engine, a regular replacement engine from Porsche will have an A / T in the S / N
not certain about a replacement X51
others will chime in
should look like this = the S in the 7th position denotes X51
snap a pic of the S / N on the engine, a regular replacement engine from Porsche will have an A / T in the S / N
not certain about a replacement X51
others will chime in
should look like this = the S in the 7th position denotes X51
Thanks! That's the goal for when I do an oil service Friday morning and hopefully we will know more then. FWIW I did contact the Porsche dealer where the engine replacement was done. They confirmed it was done there but could not tell me anything more as the records were "archived" due to age. Apparently they do that if a car is not serviced there for 5 years or more. They have a one liner that gives some info but no details. I wonder if there is a way of getting more details from the HQ? If this was a warranty replacement I'd imagine it runs through HQ that approves it and issues a replacement engine. That's my guess here.
In other news, I just popped off the shifter boot and to my surprise it looks like the car has a 997 short shift kit installed. This explains the very short throws! That's a nice $571 piece of kit.
I'll probably pull the console at some point and apply fresh grease in there and check the cables.
again, I'd be interested in the S / N - did they swap the whole motor or just swap in an M96 block with pistons / rods / crank
as those parts are shared with ' standard engine '
wonderful cars, I'm heading into 7th year of ownership, mine is anything but stock anymore
miles of smiles - see 911user, he's approaching 440,000 miles
Thanks Billup! I tend to go mental with research on just about anything I buy and enjoy the process. I guess this goes double for a german sports car! Looking forward to racking up many fun miles!
parris - I 100% agree! It wasn't a must for me but definitely a huge plus. I didn't come across many examples with those seats and I also don't get it why. They are super comfortable and I had zero complaints during my trip. Surprisingly, lumbar support is very good out of the box with no adjustments. Come to think of it, I don't get the 18 way adjustable seats. I literally hopped in the car, slid the seat forward a bit and slightly adjusted the back forward and haven't touched it since. The driving position is that good!
again, I'd be interested in the S / N - did they swap the whole motor or just swap in an M96 block with pistons / rods / crank
as those parts are shared with ' standard engine '
wonderful cars, I'm heading into 7th year of ownership, mine is anything but stock anymore
miles of smiles - see 911user, he's approaching 440,000 miles
Thanks for that link - good info!
I had to step outside so just grabbed the SN from the engine since it's easy to see. This is what I'm seeing: M96/0366318756. So according to the SN it does not have the X51 pack but the all aluminum intake manifold is there as well as the improved headers. I'll know about the oil baffles Friday when I change the oil and poke a scope camera inside.
So you could derive a few theories from this. It could very well be what you're saying, a short block was swapped in and all other X51 parts were moved over. I don't know if that's the trouble that the dealer would typically go through but if the engine went boom with only 20k some miles and a replacement X51 motor was not available I could see a demand from the owner being made and dealer complying. It does seem to add up. The X51 power pack was also available on motors that went into a standard Carrera although that is not that common. I think the SN would still indicate this. The only other theory I see here is there was a standard M96 put in at the dealer and someone went through the trouble of swapping over the parts from the old motor, which to me seems less likely. When Vortex scanned the computer I was told that the original ECU was still there with the X51 maps. To me the first theory seems most plausible but TBH I'll be enjoying the car regardless!
I did see the high mileage thread and it's definitely a pleasant thing to see amid all the IMS and bore scoring talk! Yeah, it's out there and can happen but you could also rack up some serious miles with proper care. At that point a new motor is a no brainer as you definitely got your moneys worth of driving pleasure!
10-20-2020, 07:17 PM
Search is over - 996 40th Jahre Owner's Log
A little more excitement than what I was looking for but hey, I was able to get back on the road! Next destination was the Blue Ridge Parkway. I drove to the South Terminus which is the starting point and began to drive. The roads were mostly empty but the weather started to turn for the worse. Light rain and increasing fog made for limited visibility. I did go past the highest point of the parkway, about 6069ft, and past the entrance to Mt. Mitchell. The roads were great and going through a bunch of tunnels was fun. I think the parkway has over 60 of them as a whole. Not wanting any more excitement for the day, I elected to drive to Little Switzerland and get off the parkway after that. It was just too foggy to hold any meaningful pace and do so safely. I had a nice little dinner in Little Switzerland and to my surprise still had some energy in me. Since I needed to get home by end of the next day, I decided to drive towards Winston-Salem and stay in a hotel there. That was only about another hour or so after dinner. 
)
