Carreralicious

Porsche says the 997 can burn as much as 1qt per 390 miles (if you do the math per below), so as long as no CEL and it’s running…

Wayne Smith

From another viewpoint, we're all driving with scored bores (to one degree or another). Most of us will do that until we innocently sell or retire our car.

As asked earlier, what is your oil consumption? How quickly does the #5 spark plug foul (are you getting CELs?)? Are strange noises coming from your engine bay? What caused your mechanic to look into this?

JC997

I am in the process of rebuilding my 2006 4S, and I do not think folks understand the cost of a rebuild. I know I didn't, I went into my rebuild thinking I could do the build for the low 20's. At a bare minimum you are going to spend $25K to $30K, without replacing many parts. If you start replacing parts and upgrades you will be close to $50K.

Doug H stated that financially you are better off selling the car as a roller, and he is right. Others including myself like the car and are okay spending the money on the rebuild knowing that you will not get your money back.

Sorry that you are in this position.

PV997

Not sure what exactly you are doing but it's certainly possibly to do a high-quality rebuild for much less than that. Check out this extremely well documented thread for a 2004 996 that the owner (@outNspace) did for about $15k total. This included LNE upgraded cylinders with Nickies and Hoffman doing the head work so high quality stuff. He has an itemized spreadsheet at the bottom of the original post that lists everything and the cost.

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...e-rebuild.html

Granted this was 2018 and some costs have gone up. This guy did all his own assembly work and it took him about three months. There are also other less expensive options if the goal is to simply get up and running again as compared to making the engine bulletproof (e.g. not using Nickies).

There are numerous options for the OP but it all depends on his situation. I'd do pretty much exactly what @OutNSpace did if it were me, though I'd seriously look at selling it as a roller too.

Edit: Looking at that 996 thread again it looks like the $15k total also included a new clutch and am IMS Solution. One thing the owner did do was shop around for parts and buy OEM rather than Porsche whenever possible (smart man).

YtseFrobozz

Dear lord, you might as well make it a two-cycle engine at that point.

Optionman1

As for the cost of a rebuild its not fair to compare having someone else do it vs you doing it yourself if you don't allocate a labor cost to your own work. How many hours is a good estimate of the total needed to properly breakdown, rebuild, and replace an M96/97 engine? If parts alone run $15k or more, then add what....100 hours @ $50? More?

enthusiast

Assuming you are not interested in having a "project car', I recommend selling it as a 'roller' project.

By the way, what do the insurance companies say about major mechanical failures like this engine and auto-mated manual transmission failures (PDK)?

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Optionman1

They say "it's not covered", unless you happen to have a special policy or rider.

PV997

It is fair if you are comparing options and looking for the best value or least inexpensive way to fix the problem. You aren't going to charge yourself for the time.

People say, we'll what about your time isn't that valuable? Fair statement if I was taking time off work and losing salary to to do the rebuild but no one would do that. If I found it enjoyable (as I do) and was working on it an hour a night as a hobby instead of watching TV then it's a completely different story. I'm doing something productive and enjoyable with my time instead of being mindlessly entertained. People do all sorts of things as hobbies and spend countless hours doing things that they would never in a million years pay someone else to do.

I understand what you're saying as it's a huge commitment to undertake a project like this. My main point was that you could get a near-bulletproof engine for well under $15k (since that price included other stuff too) if one was willing to shop the parts and DIY the assembly.

sandwedge

Is there really no other way than a total rebuild of the entire engine with just one bad cylinder?

sandwedge

Depends on the warranty company I guess. I've had two full PDK replacements at around $20,000 each with no discussions. First one was with a policy I bought from a Lexus dealer. Basically identical to CPO or Fidelity Platinum which covered the second replacement. Zero deductible on the first one. $500 on the second one with Fidelity.

No special policies or riders. Just their exclusionary policies which covers just about everything except wear and tear items such as brakes, tires windshield wipers and such.

Milo2361

Qwertyqwerty,

wont get into my long story of my engine rebuild (its posted somewhere on rennlist) but I would give Dwain at Vision Motorsports in Laguna Hills, CA a call - quick google search will get you there. I came out under 20k for a near full rebuild (including removal, shipping, rebuild, shipping back, and install, and a new clutch and flywheel to boot), all in about 2 months - they may have some already rebuilt engines on the shelf too and may take yours as a core charge (might come out even cheaper that way).

Engine has been perfect for the past 22k miles, and has a little more umph than before.

cdk4219

With these particular engines having plated cylinder walls, and the cost of parts and labor, yes all or nothing. Much like most things today they are really non serviceable IMO.

Petza914

No point. You'll get it back together and 4 or 6 will then suffer the same fate. It's usually #6 that gets fired first being last in the coolant flow line so to speak. I would also bet that once the motor is apart there will be evidence of scoring in the bottoms of 4 and 6 too.

JC997

Qwertyqwerty

One option you should consider is purchasing a rebuilt engine from LN engineering for $21K. I strongly recommend LN engineering they are great to work with and stand behind their products.

Another poster recommend a partial rebuild from Vision motorsports for $20K that is another option. Vision is also well respected.

For me this is my second time around on a 4.0 rebuild and I am replacing and upgrading as many parts as possible. I purchased my car a couple years ago with a 4.0 LN rebuild by a Porsche dealer, and the total cost of the rebuild was $14K. This was a private party sale with 400 miles since the rebuild. They clearly cut corners and within 7K miles I had bore scoring again. To be clear the problem was not with the parts but the poor quality build.

The reason rebuilds are costly is when the engine is out you have the opportunity to replace parts such as water pump, clutch, etc. Personally I got a little carried away and added IPD intake, GT3 throttle body, Soul headers and cats, numeric short shifter/cables and DSC controller. I also took the opportunity to upgrade engine components with Carillo rods and the LN IMS solution The reason I went with the LN IMS solution for $1.9K versus the LN IMS bearing for $900 is the IMS solution last for the life of the engine. The previous build had the LN IMS bearing which cannot be reused once the engine is taken apart, which forced me to buy another IMS bearing.

Hope this helps.