Any specific terms that have been eluding you and the non-technical translators so far, feel free to PM me if you want me to take a stab at it.

Reading through the Cartronic Motorsport website/document, and reading some online messages, I'm pretty sure they send their engines (or at least used to send until Brexit) to Hartech in the UK to get the Alu liners installed.
In one of the Google reviews they mention they had issues with the shipping of a customer's engine because of challenges with Brexit and Covid..

That leads me to believe that the german document shared on their website is probably a translation of Hartech's document describing all the challenges with the M96/M97.
I've not requested the document from Hartech, so I can't compare directly. But for those that want to read it in English, and not struggle through a german version, I suggest to reach out to Baz :-)

Happy to be told otherwise if they are not the same document..

Gerrit

Just like LN, Hartech and Cartronic doesn't do their own plating in house. I believe that Hartech and Cartronic are both using Capricorn for their Nikasil plating. If you look at the Capricorn catalog, they show M96 block services including aluminum sleeving of blocks and plating. There was another outfit in Europe, Powerseal, that was offering plating, but I believe they are now defunct like all the smaller platers in the US and Canada. As environmental controls get more stringent, more and more platers are being pushed out of business.

I have read both and can say one is not a translation of the other.

No, the correct answers/translations is already known else there wouldn't be a reason to dispute the translations from Porsche. These mistakes are usually mentioned at Porsche Training Classes and we make the corrections to our Porsche Training Handbooks.

Otherwise we have to assume the translations are correct since they come through Porsche channels.

Apparently there's a lovely little shop in Pfaffenhausen. I believe they're called Ruf. They work on Porsches

I get so excited about what are probably the worst ideas :roflmao:. Best of luck to you OP.

To my knowledge, their engine work consists of building turbo engines and, at least in the past, their own NA V8. Though if anyone knows that they rebuild M96 engines, pls do let the rest of us know!

Do they say anything interesting about avoiding oil starvation (other than the oil-grade recommendations)?

they claim their oil sump system, which is the same as Hartech’s oil sump (developed together with Cartronic), prevents the problem of air being sucked into the system during high forces and turns “with very high probability”. There is quite a few pictures on page 89-91 of their oil sump design and it does look quite different from the usual X51 designs. It also talks about somehow physically or mechanically operated flaps that close during high forces and keep the oil around the snorkel. Lastly, it comes with a 25mm extension of the snorkel itself. There is no mention of “how well” it works, just that it “works.”
Earlier in the document they also talk about having done an experiment together with Hartech where they installed an additional oil injection point & squirter for each cylinder. It caused the engine to run at healthily lower oil temperatures due to less friction as well as higher overall oil pressure. That experiment apparently completely eradicated piston & lokasil issues, however, they say it’s cost prohibitive so they don’t offer it on their builds.

Tidbit of info on their racing sump in this post https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...l#post14568578

The horizontal baffle has horizontal flaps that close off the part of the sump below the plate by means of the oil rushing past below the flap.

Below the horizontal baffle there are cast-in curvy 'ribs' at the forward end of their sump that channel oil under braking and cornering into the central area where the pump pick-up sits.
The pictures in the document don't show it but pictures on Hartech 's Facebook page do.

Nikasil is better, but instead of all the fancy magazine workshops. If I was in Germany I'd go to Jarno. He has specialist M96 repair knowledge over building feature cars. If the result was reliable, which most people believe Jarno's ductile iron sleeves work, so you can finish at the work shop and hit the autobahn.

Rebuld vs. small block?
 

Rebuild vs. small block?

I'm slowly making progress on figuring out what the various engine (re)builders can do for me. At the same time, I'm puzzling over another option. Porsche sells refurbished small blocks, which seems a significantly cheaper way to go than a performance and reliability enhancing rebuild by a top (re)builder. And super tempting though such an engine would be, the extra cost seems hard to justify.

What are everyone's thoughts on this?

So far, my thoughts and questions are ...

• Is Porsche's refurbished small block as good and reliable as a brand new engine? (I suspect the IMS in the small block will be the one used in 2005MY 996s and in 997s (TBC), which would be an improvement.)
• Tempting though the extra performance is, the car was not exactly crying out for a better engine. I love the stock engine. Yes, a higher rev limit (which I'm really not sure I'd choose with a rebuild) and more top end would be nice. A higher top speed would be nice too. (And yes, I know that's kind of silly.) But I'm not sure I'd gain much top speed, as enlarging the engine seems to add a lot more torque at medium revs than at high ones.
• So I'm left with the biggest question: resale value (versus investment today). I don't plan to sell anytime soon, but this still matters.
  • I figure that if I have a no-name shop rebuild the engine and advertise the car with a rebuilt engine, the value will take a big hit and the car will be hard to sell. Make sense?
  • If I go with the small block, then I can advertise it with a new engine from Porsche or something like that. What happens to the resale value then? Better than the first option, yes, but compared to a car with its original engine?
  • And how about with an engine from one of the highly praised builders in this thread, with, say, a 10% boost in hp and a 20% boost in torque?

Any and all thoughts/suggestions/recommendations would be hugely appreciated!

I think the biggest argument against Porsche shortblock (new or refurbished) is that you’re just getting another Lokasil, bore scoring prone engine with same issues as previous one. It’s not even the performance argument but just pure reliability. There are other forum members who were going this route and to my knowledge have been happy with it. It certainly seems the cheapest option next to ductile iron sleeve based rebuild. Both of these options have their own pro’s and con’s with the pros being mostly about cost and the cons mostly about reliability. Also, if you’re thinking -refurbished- short block then you might as well think about buying a used engine, which comes with its own risks.

Either way, I’m in the same boat as you, and the more I spend time thinking about it, the more it seems to me the extra money is worth the extra quality from RND/FSI/EBS type folks… that is if you truly love your car and want to keep it for your kids to inherit it and love it too!

You pretty much hit the big points.

I wouldn't worry about borescoring with the factory small block program. All you gotta do is change your oil at least 2x a year and you will be light years ahead of most early 996 owners who changed it every 15k miles. Wonder why some cars suffered from bore scoring?

Small block is a viable option. Comes down to whether your want enhanced performance and durability beyond factory. I would prefer it. But many don't. Your call.