My engine blew without warning, white smoke blowing out the back. I read somewhere there might be a design flaw with the 1999 2000 model with regard to the cylinder walls. This 3.4 model was not raced and was the 1st year for Porsche's water cooled engine. Once disassembled there was a cracked cylinder wall. I picked up a used engine for $6000. Question is, will this happen again? Maybe its time to unload. Comments?

UFO
Don't get discouraged! Spring of this year I bought my first Porsche, 02 c4s. Drove home 400mls and fell in love. Got really pissed at Porsche of north America cause they have the worst possible customer relations. It took them 3 weeks to send me a letter of recall for importing into Canada. Finally got the vehicle registered and was able to drive my dream car. Within a couple of months and some excessively hard turns I had gobs of smoke billowing out the tail pipes. My heart sank for I thought I had destroyed my motor.Found rennlist, became a member and realized all was not lost, but really was a common problem. However a moth later I noticed low oil pressure with the car wormed up, straight to rennlist I went only to realize it wasn't a faulty gage or something else someone could shed some light on. Upon parking the vehicle and inspection of the oil I noticed a high concentration of shavings in the oil. Did an oil change, similar results. Figured a spun bearing-oil starvation. My heart sank again after roughly 3 months of ownership. For the following 3 months I was exactly where you are now. Finally realized I had to do something and actively searched for a motor. Found a brand new 3.8l motor sitting at a dealership 2000miles from home. Bought it within a week and had it shipped. Bought a new clutch set and started the transformation. Project was complete and running within two weeks. Purchased conversion software from FVD had it installed and am now in tuning stage to get it to perform optimally. I was in love once again. Project price $ 15000+, end result is a faster more capable car with gobs more torque and a brand new motor.
You're not alone, it's unfortunate and shouldn't have happened, but it did. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully a happy ending much like mine.:)
Edic4s
P.S. I purchased my car though Ebay as well!:icon107:

Ediec4s,

Nice story but many of us do not have the spare 15-20K for new engines, being able to afford the maintenance on these cars is not a problem but losing an engine is way beyond that.
It's really sucks that after many years of ownership I never worried about an engine failures until moving to the "modern" 986S and now the 996.
I think Porsche has really let down its customers big time.

Marc
Trust me when I say I didn't have 15k sitting around, as a matter of fact it's sittin on my credit card. But the alternative would have been for the car to sit without a motor? Now who would want to do that to a Porsche? I was fortunate to have tools, some mechanical ability and a 1800sq' shop in my yard otherwise my bill would have been well over 20k. I guess what I was trying to say in my previous post is that as bad as the situation is for UFO, something really good can come of something really bad.
Edic4s

Sadly the M96 and all derivatives are just not as robust as other Porsche engines. The transmissions are equally concerning, as they are "non-serviceable" with little or no replacement parts available.

Hey UFO, I totally understand your position and know how bad that sucks.

As a cheapskate and bottom-feeder I have never owned a single car with a warranty. But I never really worried about it since most repairs would be a few hundred or at most a couple of thousand dollars. The Porsche is certainly different in that respect. Even at $10-12K for an engine replacement that is NO joke on a car that's only worth $25-35k.

I enjoy the hell out of driving it (daily driver) but when friends ask about buying one I usually try to talk them out of it. It's just not a good car for most people, especially if you're used to Japanese levels of reliability.

I've owned this one almost 4 years now and if the engine goes now it will be just another part of the love-hate nature of Porsche ownership. But if the engine had grenaded within the first 6 months I would have been seriously pissed off and disappointed.

My independent has quoted around $10k for a new/reman engine replacement with install ....and while that's not pocket change I'm confident you can find something better than $15-20k.

Good luck, it's a sucky situation all around.

always look on the bright side of life

They are and have been 100% serviceable. Replacement parts are available from any Porsche dealership! At one time PAG had a warranty agreement with the OEM and so all transmissions were on replacement only basis but when that period ended, parts were made available.

If the oil is clean and coolant clear as you stated this might just be a timing problem. If it tries to start but wont run it sounds like a spark at the inapropriate moment (late/ early) Smoke and fuel smell from unused combustion. Easy to fix even if the timing chain jumped a tooth. My 62' vett did what you discribe and it was the distributor had vibrated loose and turned out of time. re-timed it and was rockin.

Remeber that a timing chain is for timing of the engines valves, not the spark. You have problems if you jumped a tooth.

Exactly. Without a complete teardown we will never know the complete damage but I trust the dealer and the indie I've consulted when they tell me that they have seen this before and that it's not an easy fix. I wish it was a simple spark timing issue.

So far, the cheapest I can get a remanufactured engine for is $10,200 with a $2,055 core credit, so a little over $8K if the engine is good (as in the block or heads aren't cracked) and that includes a 2 year Porsche warranty. If I could find someone to put it in for free then I'd be golden and this would be a done deal....

UFO - I'm glad you are making some headway on this process. Hopefully, you can get a decent price on the engine install. Please keep us posted on the progress.

30K mile 996 motor on Pelican right now for $8000 installed...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=379423

Might be more expense than it is worth. If I remember correctly his car is a 3.4. Refer to this thread http://www.renntech.org/forums/index...howtopic=16945 to see the nightmare that a Renntecher is going through trying to swap a 3.6 into a 3.4 car after his 3.4 engine died.

I didn't have the endurance to read the whole thread but since you bought it at 75k and in the condition you describe, it is unlikely that the owner had the costly 60k service done on it, part of which is changing the timing belt. So you got screwed over because the owner before you was cheap. A word to the wise, if there isn't service documentation, DON'T BUY IT.