From May issue of the Excellence magazine:

"When the Boxster and 996 were relatively new cars and the M96’s problems were not yet understood, rumors suggested that up to 50% of the cars were going to experience failure. Porsche addressed the problems and, today, I am hearing the number of cars that have had or will have a problem is closer to 20%, or one in five."

Am I reading this right?? Does this even make sense? How many N/A 996 owners on Rennlist? 500? That means 100 will have had or will have an engine failure (presumably prematurely as all engine WILL fail one day)?

 

I only know 1 person personally that had the IMS failure. It happened under the new car warrenty and it was replaced.
I did see another 99 C2 with a blown engine and a really beat up and abused 99 boxster with a blown engine.
Then again I know many others with no problems and 3 of them drive 99's and 2 have over 100k km. There is even a person in Toronto with all most 500k km on his 996.
I will hit 100 k km this year and other then burning a bit more oil, the engine runs fine.
I think if you look back into the history of the 996 forum you would find it hard to find 10 blown engines and I am sure there are more then 500 rennlist memebers that have had a 996 on this forum.

Should you be concerned, Porsche wasn't so I wouldn't.

 

I like to think it means 400 996's won't have a problem and that the other 100 that will have problems are Boxster's.

 

Is that 20% of all M96s sold - or 20% of the early years?

Either way, it's a disgrace

 

If it makes you all feel better, my 2000 996 is still ticking away with over 110,000 miles but I blew my "most reliable 911 engine ever" (3.2L Carrera).

Well, kinda, just bent the exhaust valves.

 

Nothing wrong with the engine's design... Many parts of the engine are exceptional, like the cylinder heads for one.

The issue is the cost cutting that Porsche enabled with the engine's components.. We have worked to overcome the inadequacies of the engine and honestly all it takes is better component quality.

We unlocked another reason that adds to the IMS failures on Saturday of last week, during another test session, and this one may be the most difficult to address, with the biggest expenditure of both time and money yet.

Lots of IMS failures, aren't really a failure of the IMS.. Porsche dealerships often mis-diagnose the issues and not until the engine is opened up do they find out what really failed was the IMS drive chain tensioner paddle.

Here is a post I made on 986 forum a few months ago that illustrates this failure and how it has ALL the classic examples of an IMS failure, but isn't. In fact, this IMS was in perfect condition other than the damage it received from schrapnel from other components when it scattered.

http://986forum.com/forums/showthrea...7&page=2&pp=20

95% of Porsche dealerships don't have a single Employee on the staff that has done more to one of these internally than change a cam cover in the real world.. They receive training at school, but even then they don't assemble an engine by themselves.

Until recently they were not authorized to do any internal repairs, even a lifter swap or a timing chain.. That has changed and now I get a call at least once every couple of weeks from a dealership tech somewhere in the country calling to ask US a question! I recently hired a factory trained tech that spent a few years at Brumos, and he had no experience with the engine's internals and states that everyone there was in the same situation!

So, while the engine may not be the best on the planet, don't blame that on the design as much as the German Accounting that far superseded the German Engineering that went into the composition of the M96 engine family. Once updated with "overkill Engineering" components and assembled with Human hands (instead of a Robot) the engine is what a Porsche engine should be.

 

Thanks Jake... very informative!

 

+1

 

I had 2 M96 engine replacements in the life of my 996. The original engines issue was the RMS seal bore was out of round, the replacement engine lasted 500 miles before it blew with an IMS failure. The 2nd replacement engine has been flawless. BTW, the third engine was installed in 4 hours (and that included the R&R of the clutch assembly).

 

No wonder in/out/under your engine is so spiffy!

 

The original engine was just as clean!

 

Most of the RMS issues have been weeded out for several years, today this mode of failure is the least of our concerns; though we do have preventive measures to reduce it's occurrence in our engines.

Most engines that were going to have an RMS or case porosity issue have already failed and been taken care of.

 

Jake, have you ever come across a reman engine that failed? If so, can you note any differences in construction, materials, if any?

Thx for your input.

 

Absolutely. Some examples are on my site, under the engine reliability featured article.

 

I tried to download the pdf, but there is an error.

http://www.flat6innovations.com/m96-engine-reliability