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In case anyone was interested, I was able to grab the dealer service records from the IMS related engine failure and replacement writeup for my 997.1. My only pending question would be if the replacement engine could also be at risk, or due to later date of replacement may contain updated material?
Can you provide more details about this. What model year and Porsche replaced it out of goodwill? That's pretty disappointing that at only 15K, it failed.
Your replacement engine will face the risk of whatever IMS bearing it was built with. Given the year of work done, I'd guess it was the latest and greatest version with the larger diameter bearing. But no way to be certain without pulling the transmission and looking at it.
The engine has a serial number as far as I know. Has to be a way to use that to find out when it was built. I believe the smaller problematic bearings were phased out with the later model year -05 cars.
With replacement engines there is an 'AT' in front of the final eight digits. So a replaced 3.6L base engine should have a format M96/05AT69YXXXXX
.and for 3.6L motors, if the engine s/n is M96/05 69507476 and up it has the larger bearing so if they rebuilt the original motor it won't have the AT in the engine serial number. If they replaced it, it will and if tgey replaced it with an engine with a serial number larger than 07476 it should have the larger bearing.
+1 on Petza914. My car has a similar story that I had to investigate as the 4th owner. October 2004 build date, IMS failed and destroyed the engine at 20,000 miles 5-6-2008 when the original owner still owned it. Factory replacement 2006 3.6L with "AT" installed by Porsche at no cost to the owner. M96/05AT69665046 on the engine tag. Here is how mine decodes:
M96/05 = M96.05 3.6L
AT = factory replacement engine replaced under warentee, orginal engines built for the car originally don't have AT in the number
69 = matches for M96.05 engine
6 = 2006 model year
65046 = sequential serial number
You can find the tag on the driver side of your engine facing the side of the car and start your investigation there. Since your cars failure date was 5 years after mine, chances are good that if you have an AT coded engine that Porsche installed as a replacement you have the larger non serviceable (without opening the block) engine that they went to in 2006 and not a 2005 replacement engine. The only way to be 100% sure is to get a look at the IMS bearing, at clutch replacement time if its a manual.
Since your cars failure date was 5 years after mine, chances are good that if you have an AT coded engine that Porsche installed as a replacement you have the larger non serviceable (without opening the block) engine that they went to in 2006 and not a 2005 replacement engine. The only way to be 100% sure is to get a look at the IMS bearing, at clutch replacement time if its a manual.
As a point of clarification, they actually went to the larger bearing in mid-2005. Both my 05 Ss are large bearing cars, both by engine serial # and actual visual inspection with the transmission removed.
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Engine Failure Dealership Writeup
