DFC

Doug, this is an awesome thread, sorry it is really at your expense, but I know I for one am learning quite a bit. Please keep your "hobbyist mechanic" pics and descriptions coming and keep us up to date.

AndyK

Sad result, but awesome photos and posts! You know your **** Doug! If that happens to me, I pray it will be before my extended warranty runs out next month!

jerome951

Doug will take offense to that. After maintaining a 951 as long as he has, he's earned 'pro' stripes by now.

Great job, Doug. Have a couple of these
before you decide what to do...

AndyK

Also, those plastic variocam chain guides look very much like the plastic guide on the cam chain tensioner on the 944 S2! Mine looked about as worn when I replaced it on the S2.

When the guides go on the 996, does that result in catastrophic failure, like in the 944??

DFC

I agree 100%, this is way beyond "hobbyist" that's why I put it in quotes.

Jake Raby

I was happy to help...

This level of internal plundering is beyond the scope of many... We want to change that.

That said, I am assembling a stroker M96 engine tonight... What a bitch!
(but I love it)

phaphaphooey

I consider myself a hobbyist mechanic and I would never DREAM of attempting this. You are a modest man.

Nicolaasdb

I am also a hobbyist mechanic and installed my own fabspeed cold air intake, sport exhausts and spacers.......YOU ARE A VERY ADVANCED HOBBYIST MECHANIC.....one that I would like to have as a neighbor....... keep us updated.... this is the best rennlist post EVER! Still sorry you have to do all this and can't just drive and enjoy!!

LJpete

What a brilliant thread. I'm sorry for your misfortune but, you've turned it into an incredible source of information for our community. By the way, you're quite a few levels above hobby mechanic as in my day when I was working on my Jeep, I considered bolt-ons and lift kits as hobby level. Extracting the motor, tear down and creation of tools is quite a bit more.

With my 996, my level of tinkering is changing my steering wheel, seats, exhaust swap, oil changes and the like. I'm going to attempt cleaning my radiators tomorrow.

Thanks again for the great info and I hope you get her back on the road soon,

Doug Donsbach

I had some time to do some more parts disassembly and cleaning over the weekend, and thought I'd put up some pics showing something ugly that I found inside the oil pump. Apparently, at some point in the engine's 67K miles of use, some trash made it's way through the gears and damaged the pump housing and the gears.

I suspect the trash was a piece of the seal tensioning spring I found in the sump and posted a picture of earlier in this thread. So now I need to add a new pump housing, cover, and gears to the list of parts I'll need if/when I reassemble the engine:

Doug Donsbach

I disassembled the 1-3 bank adjuster and took a couple of pics for you. Because the unit is basically sealed (with crimped closures) during the manufacturing process, this is as far as you can break the unit down without some machine work:

ivangene

AWESOME !! Thank You !!

It looks like the solenoid has a drain or galley in the housing and is "open" to oil on the mounting surface. That is differant from what I was thinking. So any oil on that surface is not under pressure, but just there... is there anything or anyway for oil to go thru the solenoid? (cant see the mounting surface side) weird that mine seems to have oil coming out the wire.....(or did at last check)
awesome pics.. again thanks

Doug Donsbach

Right, there is a channel that keeps any pressurized oil off the face of the solenoid. But there certainly is some oil inside the solenoid, because there doesn't seem to be anything to seal the shaft coming out of the solenoid. So if the fitment between the wire and the case breaks down, you'll probably see some oil leaking there. Maybe a good cleaning and some slow cure epoxy would be worth a try before spending a couple hundred dollars on a new solenoid.

Here's a better pic:

ivangene

You are awesome... Thanks a million for the very detailed photos and insight.

What do you think about your motor... are you planning to get it running or is this a one way trip (tear down) -

Doug Donsbach

At this point I'm slowly proceeding down the path of a rebuild, cleaning and organizing parts, but I haven't actually bought any gaskets or bearings yet so I could still decide to do something else before I start placing orders.

It also seems that 3.4 heads are a little scarce (at a reasonable price anyway, given their tendency to destroy engines) so that may ultimately come into play here as well. I did talk to a guy in Costa Mesa who claims to have welded these heads up before, but I haven't yet done any research to verify his claims.