Ahsai

Actually my point was it's not a forgiving design given that the o ring will eventually leak at some point of the life of the car and when that happens, it's not detectable and will ruine the engine silently. I have already seen two leaking o rings on my engine, the brake booster vacuum connection to the intake and the purge valve to the throttle body. At least those will not kill the engine and are detectable (oil sweating and air leak noise).

Hopefully this o ring in question is not difficult to be inspected and can be replaced easily.

Flat6 Innovations

Pull the sump plate and you are staring right at it. Remove one fastener and the component can be removed to facilitate O ring replacement or placement.

Ahsai

Nice. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and finding, Jake.

69gaugeman

Most certainly a design flaw was uncovered and an attempt to rectify was made.

I cannot think of one decision made at any automotive manufacturer (that I have been privy to. Which is a few) that had the potential of 10% failure rate (which in domestic automotive numbers is HUGE) where they said just continue using the existing method. They would always try to fix the problem. But they also wouldn't stop production waiting for a solution.

Now Porsche is a different story as the total numbers are lower, so a larger failure rate is 'more' acceptable. Notice I don't say it is acceptable, just more acceptable. The difference is the catastrophic nature of the failure. In almost any other system it wouldn't have been an issue.

Porsche has a way of forgetting that a vast majority of north american drivers are coffee drinking, engine lugging, commuters. They may have missed that metric when testing the engine.

Flat6 Innovations

Then the M97 got a 26% larger IMS bearing to increase surface speeds of the ***** so the "engine lugging" didn't matter as much.

But, the caveat is the higher speed is only a positive at low engine speeds, on the track the tables turn between the M96 and M97 bearing.

doud1987

So jrrhdmust did not get his engine "rebuilt"/"reconstructed" but fixed (timing chain) and modded for more reliability (update all the rod and main bearings as well as welding and pinning the IMS assembly, replacement of all chain guides and replacement of the intake valve seats + new valve springs, 3 angle valve job and a CBM surface finish), right?
Which is much cheaper than a rebuild, that was actually never recommended, right?

So how much cost the fix and how much cost the mods?

Flat6 Innovations

The engine has been extracted from the car and will be coming apart Monday.

The "mods" really are not modifications, they are really proactive updates that are being done because the labor to carry them out is free. This labor is free because the same amount of time is being charged to facilitate changing the timing chains whether old parts are reused Vs new parts being installed.

This job will cost less than 1/2 what my reconstruction would cost, primarily because the Nikisil cylinder upgrades are not being carried out, which equate to 6,500.00 alone for components and procedures.

aviography

I may not agree with everything Imo000's posted in this thread, but I will agree with the above about the Challenger mishap.

Sneaky Pete

Kinda like the tail between the legs syndrome. Very much appreciate the help you handed out. Car is running great!

Flat6 Innovations

You've been a cool dude. I like working with you :-)

Last year I just thought you were another keyboard warrior, dick. LOL!

DaveCarrera4

Jake gets the Bad and the Ugly, not much of the Good. What should we expect his POV to be? I, and many others are certainly glad he participates on this forum. We should consider ourselves lucky to have someone with SO MUCH 996 engine experience here, don't take that lightly.

BAD.TAG

^+1

If you walk into a store with 100 items, and only like 1 do you yell at the clerk for stocking the 99 things you dont like? No you buy the 1 item, or shop else where.

Same applies here. If you appreciate someone's input/advice/knowledge then thank them. If not, move along.

To debate view points on such cars is a luxury many will never know

perryinva

Another silent o-ring problem are the ones on the M96 oil cooler. If you've ever pulled it, you know what I mean.

Sneaky Pete

Ditto

doud1987

Ok but I don't know how much your reconstruction costs...
Are we talking 5k? 8k? 10k? 15K? for the repair of jrrhdmust ?