Benjamin Choi

I'm not going to attempt to answer your questions as much of it will be speculation, but a question I have is this:

I know of an '04 3.6 recenty crippled by the IMS catastrophe. I have an '02 and my motor got replaced in 2003. Logic would tell us that the '04 3.6 has the latest updates and likely has a better chance of having the latest and greatest as compared to my '02-'03 remanufactured motor.

Perhaps the reman motors have been blueprinted or something along those lines, but I would think Porsche would concurrently introduce the updates in the original engines as they are being assembled? So in a sense, this '04 3.6 motor had the latest updates, yet it still blew up.

How many cases do we have on Rennlist where someone's remanufactured motor blew?

I wonder how the 3.6/3.8 997 engines are holdling up.

jury_ca

Just to add to the anecdotal evidence, my car is a garage-queen, an '03 with 16K miles. However, so far no RMS and no coins in the engine!

I think a lot of these 911s are hardly driven. There are lots of low mileage examples around, so even if there are 1% experiencing failures, and no correlation between high-miles/low-mile vehicles, you'd see a good number of low mileage models represented.

jury_ca

I don't think you can draw any conclusions on whether reman engines are holding up better than factory built motors, without any data to support it.

Benjamin Choi

good luck with that engine bud

Pugnacious P

Perhaps it 's the law of averages that kicks in regarding the reduced frequency of reman engine grenading. Thanks Bernoulli. I have not heard of any, nor has the tech at the local dealership, nor the local indies that I talked to before buying my car (with replaced engine).

Benjamin Choi

The million dollar question is, what does Porsche do exactly on these reman engines in that factory within the factory as described in Streather's book?

jury_ca

The process to reman engines would basically be designed to reduce the amount of labour required to as little labour as possible. So you'd see, no custom work being done...they'd just replace a bunch of prescribed parts with new parts. Updated parts would hit the production line on new engines first before it goes toward service/reman engine.

jury_ca

Thanks but don't need it. There's a good chance it'll hold up better than a reman.

phaphaphooey

This scares me. Usually these stories come from a 3.4 owner, not a 3.6. No one is safe!

AndyK

Warranty is key for peace of mind, I think. I'd really love to hear the actual failure rate on the 996 engines from Porsche. Is it 1%, 5%, 15%? We'll never really know I guess. But if it is a small percentage, worrying is pointless.

Stefan Richter

+1

easier said than done.

Stefan

blk on blk

I think Porsche now only gives warranty on the new engine as long as the CPO remains which in this case the new engine will get 18 months. I read this on here some time ago. I had a 2004 996 that I bought new. I had 5k miles on it when the engine went kablooey. I got the "replacement engine". I was told by the regional rep from PCNA they do not recognize "reman" engines. He told me allegedly they simply make engines and pull the next one off the shelf. Anyway, i do not know how much truth there is in that. Anyway, i got the new engine drove it for a bit. I sold the car because I got a really fantastic offer on a 997S from my brother in law who was in a situation where he had too many cars. Anyway, the guy I sold me 996 to had no issue with the replacement motor. I was very up front about the engine replacement, gave him all documentation, etc. He has now put close to 30k miles on it without a hitch. I wouldn't be worried about the new engine. These are really great cars, and I know engien replacement seems like a big deal, and it obviously is a huge deal when you have no warranty. However, I do feel like these engines are well built and can withstand the test of time if dirven regularly and properly maintained. I plan on keeping my current 997S for the foreseeable future, and my warranty ends next year I think.

Benjamin Choi

I know it's on your mind, bud. We all know.

Benjamin Choi

I wouldn't trust any PCNA rep. I'm not sure they really care or would even begin to know.

I take it the 997 3.8s are holding up just fine? I do hear they still have some of the RMS leaks, though not as common?

Galun

In hindsight, I think I got pretty lucky with my car.

1) reman engine installed about 2 months before I got my car in 2007, and got a price break because of it.
2) almost 2 years of warranty from PCNA on the engine
4) Extended warranty through 2011 (I already had a claim and it went through).

On the engine warranty - my reman engine was installed in Dec 2006 and it was replaced under the extended warranty policy by the previous owner. My engine still got the full 2 year PCNA warranty.