IMS Bearing Failure & Advice
#31
Rennlist Member
Yes, I did hear a clanking as I was driving about 2 blocks from home before the oil dropped out. I wish I had been on this forum earlier and been informed of this bearing. I would have definitely been more proactive to prevent it.
The car needed new seats last year because it was parked outside with the top down and a thunderstorm came through and rained on the seats. Insurance covered the cost.
First time on this forum because I'm curious what other owners would do in this situation. When your in a bad situation you try and reach out to others who may help or assist you. If I opt to put a new motor in, I would love to have a referral to a shop that other Porsche owners are comfortable with and can give a good referral too.
The car needed new seats last year because it was parked outside with the top down and a thunderstorm came through and rained on the seats. Insurance covered the cost.
First time on this forum because I'm curious what other owners would do in this situation. When your in a bad situation you try and reach out to others who may help or assist you. If I opt to put a new motor in, I would love to have a referral to a shop that other Porsche owners are comfortable with and can give a good referral too.
#33
Sell the 996 or Fix it
Sorry to hear about your engine. If you like your car, I would at least consider a low mileage used engine and if you install the LN bearing kit before you put the used engine in your car then you probably have a pretty reliable long term solution - and your 996 will be worth more than other cars without the updated bearing. The bearing is about $ 600. and there is very little labor to install it if the engine is already out of the car. You may or may not want to consider a clutch at the same time as you are probably about 50% of the way to a clutch replacement. Another thing you might want to consider is to file a complaint with PCNA. The louder and angrier the better. They know about this issue all too well and have offered assistance outside of the warranty as goodwill. You are at a disadvantage because of the age of your car but you might get something out of them due to the low mileage. Good luck.
#35
RL Community Team
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
#36
Former Vendor
If your engine can be repaired, do that. Unless you have driven it to death the engine can be repaired by someone proficient with these engines for a reasonable rate. Even with repair costs and collateral damage you will still be way ahead fixing what you have, rather than buying some unknown beast thats probably worse than what you have.
Trust me, the used engine and cheap, half *** rebuilds are liabilities. If you'd like to talk to people who have had disastrous experiences with that, email me and I'll send you some email addresses of those who want to share experiences with you.
Until a couple of years ago junkyards and less than reputable shops hadn't figured out how to assemble the engines so most engines on the market were unmolested. Today they have learned just enough to patch things up and sell them as "used motors with 50,000 miles that came from a car hit in the front". In reality they have heads from two different engines, cams from 4 different engines and etc. Be especially fearful from anyone who just sells you a "used motor" but wants your old one as a core.. They want it as a core so they can cannibalize it and use its parts to integrate with 3 or 4 more engines to create a smorgasbord that runs.
There are two articles on my site that you need to read, both are a reality and I can get you in touch with either of the parties that got screwed in the deal. The first link is the story written by a Rennlist member thats sometimes active on this forum.
http://www.flat6innovations.com/brok...a-bad-decision
The second one is revealing because the person who ripped this guy off is still actively selling engines under assumed identities. The lengths this guy went to cover his tracks is unreal, but we still busted his ***.
http://www.flat6innovations.com/used-engine-article
That said, I have a long time customer (known him for over 20 years) that has one of my Stage 1 (3.6 based) big bore 3.8 engines for sale. The engine is brand new and was never installed in his car; he had me start to build the engine but then decided he wasn't going to keep the car forever. He put a low mileage used engine in the car and sold it, then had me finish the 3.8 for another car at a later date.. He gave up looking for a car and bought an '83 SC and has no use for the engine now. He paid 20K to me, but he priced it to someone at 16.5K to unload it. I think it is still available, I could get anyone in touch with him directly as I stay away from deals like this since I only work with the original purchaser of my engine.
Anyway, lots more choices out there than their used to be.. For many years we were the only game in town with these engine and the crazy thing is we were selling our fully reconstructed packages for 15-18K way back when a brand new Porsche engine was 5-7K... Today we have near the same prices, but the factory engines have tripled with core charges that can exceed the cost of the engine, or car. With zero advertisement other than our site we maintain a 6 month backlog with more work than we can handle in our low volume high quality approach. Not for everybody and the only guy that appreciates what we offer is the one who loves his car enough to spend more on the engine than the car is worth; because he loves it more than money. More of those guys out there than you'd ever dream about..
And remember- The best warranty is the one that you never have to use. Text on a piece of paper won't keep the engine from failing and most are virtually worthless ways of giving the purchaser a false sense of security.
Not trying to sell you on anything that we do, just trying to shed some light on the fact that the quickest way to lose your *** on these cars is to try and save money.You are better off selling the car broken than wasting money on a junkyard solution. Like txhokie4life, we also pay cash for broken cars via certified check in two days.
http://www.flat6innovations.com/comp...hase-worksheet
Trust me, the used engine and cheap, half *** rebuilds are liabilities. If you'd like to talk to people who have had disastrous experiences with that, email me and I'll send you some email addresses of those who want to share experiences with you.
Until a couple of years ago junkyards and less than reputable shops hadn't figured out how to assemble the engines so most engines on the market were unmolested. Today they have learned just enough to patch things up and sell them as "used motors with 50,000 miles that came from a car hit in the front". In reality they have heads from two different engines, cams from 4 different engines and etc. Be especially fearful from anyone who just sells you a "used motor" but wants your old one as a core.. They want it as a core so they can cannibalize it and use its parts to integrate with 3 or 4 more engines to create a smorgasbord that runs.
There are two articles on my site that you need to read, both are a reality and I can get you in touch with either of the parties that got screwed in the deal. The first link is the story written by a Rennlist member thats sometimes active on this forum.
http://www.flat6innovations.com/brok...a-bad-decision
The second one is revealing because the person who ripped this guy off is still actively selling engines under assumed identities. The lengths this guy went to cover his tracks is unreal, but we still busted his ***.
http://www.flat6innovations.com/used-engine-article
That said, I have a long time customer (known him for over 20 years) that has one of my Stage 1 (3.6 based) big bore 3.8 engines for sale. The engine is brand new and was never installed in his car; he had me start to build the engine but then decided he wasn't going to keep the car forever. He put a low mileage used engine in the car and sold it, then had me finish the 3.8 for another car at a later date.. He gave up looking for a car and bought an '83 SC and has no use for the engine now. He paid 20K to me, but he priced it to someone at 16.5K to unload it. I think it is still available, I could get anyone in touch with him directly as I stay away from deals like this since I only work with the original purchaser of my engine.
Anyway, lots more choices out there than their used to be.. For many years we were the only game in town with these engine and the crazy thing is we were selling our fully reconstructed packages for 15-18K way back when a brand new Porsche engine was 5-7K... Today we have near the same prices, but the factory engines have tripled with core charges that can exceed the cost of the engine, or car. With zero advertisement other than our site we maintain a 6 month backlog with more work than we can handle in our low volume high quality approach. Not for everybody and the only guy that appreciates what we offer is the one who loves his car enough to spend more on the engine than the car is worth; because he loves it more than money. More of those guys out there than you'd ever dream about..
And remember- The best warranty is the one that you never have to use. Text on a piece of paper won't keep the engine from failing and most are virtually worthless ways of giving the purchaser a false sense of security.
Not trying to sell you on anything that we do, just trying to shed some light on the fact that the quickest way to lose your *** on these cars is to try and save money.You are better off selling the car broken than wasting money on a junkyard solution. Like txhokie4life, we also pay cash for broken cars via certified check in two days.
http://www.flat6innovations.com/comp...hase-worksheet
Last edited by Flat6 Innovations; 08-18-2012 at 09:24 AM.
#40
Rennlist Member
Have we lost the OP...?
#42
Racer
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Sacramento, Cali
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Did you hear any banging or clanging before the oil dropped out on the garage floor? I find this a hard pill to swallow the same as you did. If this had happened to mine I wouldn't go within a million miles of a 996 Porsche again. Sell the carcass and move on. What was the reason the car needed new stock seats last year? Quite honestly I think you are pulling our pissers. First time on this forum with this crap. Hey Mark you can delete this if it suits you. I speak my mind.
#43
Three Wheelin'
Hurdi- I recall you came on a bit strong when I had my IMS failure. Why would you think he is "pulling your pisser?" I know, for me, I found your post insulting back when it happened to me. I think you later apologized but now you do it again. Have some compassion man. It really sucks to have this kind of major problem. I am probably selling my car before long as I still haven't gotten over how horrible it was to have IMS failure after 24 hours of ownership. Be grateful you haven't had it but don't be a db about it.
#44
Rennlist Member
#45
Three Wheelin'