jasper

Yeah - ummm - as I understand it, the "dry sump" tank is integral to the crankcase. The oil is still in the engine, but the crank doesn't splash around in the oil resevoir. Also, the used oil goes through a oil/air seperator before being returned to the "tank".

It's kind of a hybrid. Not a true dry sump, but not a wet sump either. In any case, the oil pick up at the bottom of the "tank" can be starved during high cornering. In the old 911, the tank was external and it gravity fed the pump pickup, which was in the engine. It would be difficult if not impossible to starve the pickup of oil, not with proper oil levels anyway.

My way of thinking is that maintaining an oil level near the top of the "tank" in the 996 would go some way to avoiding starvation. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

RS 197

Sorry your engine blew

2000wrx

wow, I thought I was on a Honda board for a second with all the playground antics. Then again with all the blown engine talk I should have known better :O J/King

BruceP

Post was resurrected by our very own cyber-terrorist, RS 197. Undeterred by facts or decency, and apparently undistracted by a job or responsibilities, he has done his best to keep things nasty around here for the last few days.

Benjamin Choi

I like that denis guy. I think he brings some real points and can point to salient faults of the engine design without having it affect his ego. We need more of that here instead of all this posturing and cheerleading on behalf of a freeqin' hunk of metal and plastic bits.

Porsche made some mistakes and some owners are paying for it. That sucks, but it happens to all cars, even very nice ones.

BruceP

If any such discussion can bring something new to the table, or offer concrete ways to prevent or fix the problems, I'm all for that. But this is trolling. Remind me how chilled you are about the whole thing when you find out how much your car has depreciated because of this crap.

Benjamin Choi

i bought mine used sir bruce

BruceP

Uh-huh. Me too. But, um, I hate to break it to you... depreciation doesn't stop with the first owner. And pissing and moaning on the internet now has the power to make the curve a lot less predictable.

Ask the man who drives an immaculate, exclusively dealer serviced, absolutely reliable, never breaks, nothing-but-oil-changes Land Rover that's now worth less than he spent on his last bicycle.

Benjamin Choi

but depreciation isn't a surprise right sir bruce? we all know cars, mass produced ones like the 911s... fall in value so it's not a big deal to me. it's a toy. it's an expense. so long as it's running, clean, reliable, does it what it was designed to do i'm happy.

rennlist is way too niche/small/nil to make an impact.

BruceP

Re your first point, no, I'd have to say that the extent of depreciation is widely variable. I've owned a few Toyotas, for example. Different story, there, in terms of the percentage of original value lost in depreciation. My daughter's used Echo, for example, lost $700 in value in two years of driving. In the case of the Rover, there was a predictable inflection when the last of the series came off warranty, but then another one as the older trucks started to fall into the hands of people who really couldn't afford to maintain them and kicked up an almighty stink online because they aren't mindless appliances like their mom's Civic. You have to take care of them.

I'm happy for you that you can shrug off the cost. I, alas, am not a dotcom billionaire, so I actually try to avoid getting spanked by capital depreciation wherever I can.

Which brings me to your second point. Sorry, old friend, but the mighty internets knows all. Search is so good, now, that you don't even have to try and you can get page one hits from blogs and web forums when you search things like 'reliability + whatevermobile'. The consumer has a lot of power. The risk in this is that only the vocal ones use it, and only the unhappy are vocal. Here's the top page of a "Porsche 996 reliability" search from a couple of minutes ago. Check the first hit.

Benjamin Choi

is your daughter 5'5" w/ dimples wife potential? j/k

my reality here in MS/Boeing/Amazon $ infused seattle is... no one cares that i drive a 5 year old car. all they hear is the bass, the big wheels and the huge spoiler and know it's a porsche.

Dr_KarlB

Im sure they are thinking something that begins with P, but it ait Porsche

Tippy

My Gawd Bruce, is that a 32" MAC? That screeen is huge!

Sorry, back to the reason why our cars are depreciating.

Benjamin Choi

lol

StephenB

I don't rely on internet statisticians and don't agree with most of the bs spread about the net. I would agree with some that no manufacturer is infallible (especially toyota). Strange how post 21 indicates only a 1 year warranty on a rebuilt engine...must not have been from Porsche since they have 2 year unlimited mileage on their rebuilds.