Para82

Yes I upgraded to he LN Engineering ceramic bearing about 5 years ago. It suddenly lost power at about 65mph and died. Car was driving beautifully very odd. My tech should know more tomorrow. He suspects one of the tensioners came apart.

Petza914

This is exactly why I have 3 pairs of tensioners sitting on my workbench right now, so I proactively change them in the near future, especially in my wife's car that now has over 105k on the original tensioners.

Para82

Smart move Pete. Mine was at 98k miles.

Tech is hoping no internal damage and just a fix on that. Is that possible?


A friend of mine who is an instructor at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta recommended these two builders for Porsche:
Goldcrest Motorsports in Kennesaw GA or Motorwerks Racing in Dawsonville GA

Also i've heard good things about Pat Williams Racing in Memphis

I've added Vision Motorsports to the list also.

Petza914

I don't know any of those guys. Are you down here in the Southeast now?

Para82

Gulf Coast, Florida

TheBruce

**** @Para82 im sorry to hear that. Let us know what the diagnosis is. Did you have any rattle on startup before it happened? I thought that was the sign a tensioner was going.

@Petza914 can you do a writeup when you replace. I'd like to put this on my list of todos. I spoke to my indy about it before and he said it was pretty easy, but he hadn't seen many fail.

Petza914

I think it's as easy as rotating the motor to TDC, installing a cam lock, and then replacing them one at a time, but need to do some further research on this before diving in.

Milo2361

Honestly, no clue how it actually broke. and so far just a street car - but I plan on doing a couple of track days a year in the future.

bought the car with 50k miles, picked it up for what seemed like a steal at $30k out the door. against my better judgement I didn't do a professional PPI ( I know I know. don't hate - lesson learned, NEVER again) - just looked over it with my own knowledge from growing up working on cars (specifically Chevys, VW beetles, and my 1980 SC I had for ~10 years before the 997 purchase). 2 1/2 years later at ~70,000mi I was driving home nice and easy after work one day, downshifted from 4th to 3rd going~40mph before my last turn to my street, so not even a hard or crazy downshift, then I heard a clunk. had no clue what it was, trailered the car to Porsche of Wilmington (NC), and long story short, they determined something was wrong inside the engine after cutting the oil filter open and finding a ton of metal. the dealer then ran a diagnostic and found some insane overrevs that a PPI would have definitely caught. something like 1500 Level 5 overrevs. When vision cracked the case open they sent a pic of the crankshaft snapped in half (ill try to add the pic in an edit from my phone later).

The mech hit me with 2 options. buy a new crate engine from Porsche at $25k before install, or buy a used engine from DC auto in Rocky Mount NC. no way I was shelling out $25k for just parts, no labor, and didn't feel comfortable with buying a used engine from a salvage yard (albeit with a good reputation at least). the Master Mech told me about Vision and how they did his car, so I sent it off to them.



.

JustinCase

Check into RND engines. Rebuilt engines from a company essentially set up by Jake Raby of Flat Six Innovations and Charles Navarro or LN Engineering using their latest technology. These get expensive if you don't have a usable core, but at least check into them to see. You probably cannot get a better rebuilt engine, and you save yourself all the problems originally engineered by Porsche into OEM engines. Also, there is some chance they have one in stock.

Milo2361

Engine was rebuilt by Vision last year - but if it happens again i'll definitely look into them!

Vietjdmboi

John Bray at Evo Spec LLC. He use to be head engine builder over at EVOMS

Para82

Thank you i'll put them on the list - much obliged.

EVOMS

John is great and has been doing a lot of M96 motors recently. Look him up, www.evo-spec.com or email johnbrayspec@gmail.com

Sam