Let's not forget the Cobra. Some of the Mustangs are serious performance cars, while others are just your basic transportation in a fancy box.

 

I trieded to stay out of commenting on another "Bob" post but I just can't leave this one alone. Bob do you know what throwing a rod is? While I don't doubt you went through two motors, how could you possibly throw a rod threw the block of the engine and not feel or hear any immediate difference in the engine.

quoting Bob
"no error messages, no problems, car was driving fine.. had to look in my rearview mirror to even notice it... i immediately pulled over.. the smoking continued rampantly for a few minutes, then subsided.. someone called the fire department and they put out the small remaining smoke that had subsided when i parked on the side of the road..

they tested it at the dealership and the car did start and appeared fine, but of course i didn't want to risk driving it around...."


A "rod" is a connecting rod it "connects" the piston to the crank. Putting one through the block is a pretty traumatic event for the motor. The rod end still connected to the cranck is now thrashing about, oil is gushing out the hole in the block and you are at best running on 5 cylinders, throwing the balance of the motor way off. How this could possibly have happened to your engine without you noticing anything but smoke is bizarre. Rant over, I apologize, won't happen again.

 

i didn't understand it either.. that's what the dealer told me, and there was a huge hole in the core of the engine.. maybe they just told me that, because they didn't really know about happened? they didn't exactly have access to the internals... either way there was a huge plume of smoke and when the engine was taken out there was a hole in the core.. what would cause the hole besides a thrown rod? not that i can do anything about it now, but would be nice to know :>

 

I'm not sure I know what you mean by "core". Usually a core is the outer case of whatever part is being returned in exchange for a manufactured part. My engine experience is fron drag racing V-8s. When we threw a rod it went threw the block. You could see externally a hole in the block of the engine. Even more fun was doing it a high RPM and having it go threw the hood always a fun sight especially if you doing over 100 with a guard rail or another car 5 feet away going the same speed. The diagnosis of a thrown rod in you car smells like bs to me. How did they know there was a hole in the "core" if it was not externally visible? Did they open the motor up? If you threw a rod at 65 mph your were probably turning around 3k rpm. Not exactly high rpm, but there would have been more indications of trouble then just smoke. What happened to your old engine? Does your indy have it?

 

Hi Bob,

I completely agree with JB, you can't drive the car with a hole in the block... when a car throws a rod it's a catastrophic experience. The dealership may have meant a spun rod bearing or something else... honestly, I've read repair invoices that lead me to believe that the people who write them have no idea how an engine operates... they should at least be proof read by tech's to avoid embarrasing themselves.

On another note... white smoke... I'd check my coolant first... check for oil contamination. How about smell? Did it smell "sweet' by any chance? Did you notice your oil or water gauges? Do you have a check engine light on?

I just read a post about someone with a hydrolocked engine with coolant in the cylinders... coolant will burn white...

 

there was an actual "hole" in the core of the engine.. i'm not a mechanic, but that's what they diagnosed it is.. i saw the core, the entire engine was a mess on the outside, covered in oil and coolant and burned..

 

OMG !
i just had my car for full major service (oil,filter bleeding coolant etc..) also
i just just replaced the water pump while servcing it(drove only 300km since that) which means coolant level should be 100% fine

however, i just did what "airbarrel" told me .. i checked the coolant tank and it was almost empty .. only few drops left !!!!!!!!!!

also i checked the oil to see if it was mixed with coolant i really was not able to notice the diffrence if it was pure oil or mixed with coolant however when i start the car i do smell something !!!! ....... something that is oil or coolant burning

so now ........ what ? ...............

 

Don't bother trying to reason with him. Reminds me of the famous line in Macbeth "All sound and fury, signifying nothing" Also Bob likes to use all the anecdotes of other members here. I would direct him to the RMS poll recently conducted here:

'RMS requiring engine replacement 2.87%'

WOW! 2.87%, not 28%, 2.87% and this is not even a proper sample
What was a recent Bob comment 'many 996 owners bet get used to this inevitability (read catastrophic failure)' Many mmmmm...

Bob your using your own forum to peddle your arrant, baseless nonsense.Look at the facts man! Are you saying the poll is wrong? Your own fellow Rennlisters? And something else to consider, but by know means offered as definitive proof. Have you considered that even those 2.87% may have been abused? I'm not saying they were, but how do we know? It is entirely possible that some of them may not be absolutely truthful about driving and maintenance habits. So maybe, I stress maybe, the real amount is say 1%
1% !!!! Lets stick with the facts ( or a close educated guesstimate) and stop all this alarmist blather. I realise this will only get a view of both of Bob's ears, but for the rest of us we've got a greater chance of being hit by a bus!

 

munro,

feel free to read my latest post with the countless engine failuires not caused by rms at under 30,000 miles if you don't wish to believe anything i have to say... the engine replacements "not" related to rms speak for themselves..

 

when this happened to me, my entire coolant tank had emptied as well.. when i was on the side of the road, there was maybe 1/4 a mile of coolant on the freeway behind me, following me until i pulled over to the side of the road, where it continued to leak, all over the ground, onto the flat bed, eventually emptying until there was none left..

when your car broke down, and you looked around the vehicle did you notice something similar?

 

Bob - It's obvious that you are bitter, and who wouldn't if they had similar experiences to yours. However, it's statements like the ones above that cause you to lose credibility. Do you have any evidence to support your claim about these countless engine failures? Keep in mind that all of the national quality publications give the 996 an outstanding quality grade. There are many members of this forum who have spent a considerable amount of money on their 996s, and they don't need anyone making baseless accusations about their car's reliability.

 

fast1,

read my post of my copy/paste of statements from other forum members about their 84 engine faluires i counted... that post has nothing to do with credability.. they are cold/hard facts...

 

Sorry, your hard cold facts are merely an observation, a completely unscientific excercise. Only PAG knows the real numbers of RMS problems and catastrophic failures. I suspect the numbers are very low or there would have been a major design change by now.

 

the numbers are high for rms failures (40% in the online poll alone) and they brought that faulty rms designed engine with faulty rms right into the 997 without making a major design change.. ?? as we know, that's not simply an observation.. there's a new rms posting every day on this forum..

 

Correction: I didn’t notice the coolant level well while car was cold .. I opened the tank cap and due to cold engine coolant was down instead i saw very shiny white tank because of sun light and the water coolant was down … so now Coolant seems to be fine …. I apologies for my mistake ..

Meanwhile, let me talk about the …

Un-stable oil pressure gauge, usually when driving and the accelerating the gauge raise smoothly up to the 5 (maybe littlie bit under the 5 indication line)

When the car is cold the gauge raise fast but the sooner the engine heats up the gauge become heavy and so smooth …. Some thing I noticed before this incident happened and maybe long time back that the gauge is unstable.. it doesn’t raise smoothly but while rising (accelerating & engine rpm going up) it suddenly keep vibrating up-down-up-down equally while raising. Once you step on it the gauge sticks on the 5

Did anybody notice the un-stable oil pressure gauge scenario?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still didn’t take the car yet … I was just doing and checking it up myself

- opened the water coolant cap
- turned on the car (oil level was fine, no smoke came out this time …v.normal startup)
- waited for the car to heat up
- observe any changed in the coolant tank (water started rising as car is heating up i.e. due to cold startup)
- checked for any overheating
- the car was absolutely fine

However, I am going to take the car to the workshop early in the morning..
I cant wait .. I don’t want to pay extra $$ on this car .. I am saving for a 996TT (the carrera owner dream )