Flat6 Innovations

Not a design change, because the design stayed the same. The castings are weaker and have different characteristics.

I have only seen ONE 99 crack a head, and I have another one here now that might have a cracked head, so that might make two. We have repaired dozens of 2000 cracked heads and the issue continues into the early 01 cars.

Last week we diagnosed two more intermix cars, both with cracked heads and one can be saved, the other was "driven to death" by an owner that refused to listen to the engine when it was screaming at him with mechanical noises..

dsowen

Reading this thread might lead one to believe that you're f'd if you have a 2000. Loving my 2000 with 70k that I've driven the **** out of on the track. It runs like a champ.

Flat6 Innovations

Just trying to share my direct experience. Someone asked why I didn't care for the MY2000 cars and I answered directly without bull**** or candy coating. Keep the damn water pump healthy if you own a 2000! Change the coolant annually and keep those Ph levels in check.

Not all of them will have issues, just like not all IMS Bearings will fail. The fact is these issues are symptomless and thats why one needs to be proactive.

lvc2

How soon should it be done? i.e. what mileage, years since last one? Any early signs of potential issue?

Flat6 Innovations

If it hasn't been done, do it tomorrow. If you don't know if it has been done, assume that it hasn't and do it this week.

No early signs, the only "symptom" that you'll see is actually a result of collateral damage. Read that article I linked earlier.

I literally take the words right out of caller's mouths when they ring us to go over the symptoms that they are experiencing. Thats how much we see this in the MY2000 and early 01 cars.

At the present the amount of intermix cars that we have onsite is 3X greater than the number of IMSB failures that we have onsite. After receiving 4 more 996s last week we now have 996s onsite from 27 states.

dsowen

That's why I chimed in--your experience seems to be only with broken motors. Thus, it's limited and one-sided, which is what I want to counter. (If you also see healthy motors, then you are willfully presenting a distorted picture.) Moreover, as you know, the broken motors you see were broken for a wide-range of reasons, including poor maintenance. It just happens to serve your business interests to drive up everyone's anxiety about these cars. Thanks for sharing.

Seeeu911

Great info ! Thanks for putting it out there.
If I had this info previously, instead of all the IMS strident noise ... I would not have had a sudden blown intermix motor. A fastidiously maintained car.. Suddenly dead.

Flat6 Innovations

ALL I see are broken engines. We do a fair share or preventive work for those who want to take advantage of the things we have developed and have them installed by their developers.

I say all the time that I am biased, because all we see is the worst of the worst, usually after another shop has given up on the engine because they got in over their head. There's no use for us to have cars at the shop from 27 states, its only because shops have refused to learn about these engines. Even though I have instructed my classes to over 400 technicians across the US and Canada this year alone, that barely helps because most of them also won't tackle the bigger jobs.

Now, if I were here for business interests I'd not say a damn thing about water pumps and just let the cars roll in with even bigger numbers. There is no gain for me with stating the things that I have in this thread, because we do not sell water pumps! In fact, we don't sell any components directly, (other than installing them every now and then) including those that we have developed.

Everyone has to hate the vendor and has to hate the guy that may appear to have something to gain from offering his first hand views. I hate dealing with it, and in fact I declined an invitation from PCA today to be a Technical presenter at the 2014 Porsche Parade, because of the comments that people make and how fed up I get with it. Its bad enough here, but in person my temper is a little too hot to listen to it without exploding. Tact only goes so far. Discipline only goes so far.

Most of the engines we see have never been neglected or abused and most end up here with less than 70K miles and without any symptoms previously. The owner says "I have all the maintenance records, I have done everything right, so why did this happen to me?". I need to start getting more testimonials from these folks because all their stories are the same and no one will believe it otherwise... Hell, why even get the testimonial, everyone will just think that we made the people and their stories up anyway. Thats what people do today.

Howaboutthat

What caused your troubles -- a faulty water pump or something else?

Flat6 Innovations

People need to hear from more folks like yourself. All too often the people that have these types of issues stay quiet and don't share what happened, or how it was remedied.

Because of that it all looks like vaporware.

Seeeu911

Sadly yes, a internal debris hot spot caused by water pump. It was my DD. A week or 2 before had normal service, tip serviced and AOS replaced by a very good Orlando PCar specialist. Sweet fast strong no problem or pre symptoms. Normal highway speed driving home, Sudden engine light, loss of power...then when I opened the coolant cap, intermix.
I kept it for a year looking for a motor, or cost effective fix. Finally gave up and sold it to Vertex in Miami at a very ugly price. Seriously almost took it to a gun range and opened fire on it.

Really put me off of Porsche for many years. Guess what I replaced the first week I bought the C4S ?

Flat6 Innovations

Sounds like the exact scenario thats in my article. This is how they happen over and over again.

Was the car a 2000?

Seeeu911

Nobody would listen to me. Im very glad guys like you speak up. You add to the body of knowledge. Not just internet BS. Keep talking please.
This forum is diff than 5 years ago, now I see a lot more real info cut filters open, proactive maintenance etc is the norm.
Thank you.

Flat6 Innovations

Too many "parrots" here online that hear something in one place, regurgitate it and convey it as gospel, like they did it themselves.

These engines have been our educators, they won't lie to you and they speak very clearly. You just have to learn how to listen.

Seeeu911

99 C2 a Tip