AndreSilva

I recently posted about my new 2005 997.1 Carrera S and mentioned a preventive service I did on it and I thought it would be nice to share what I did here, hopefully, it will help some new buyers.



In my opinion, buying an old car is something that shouldn't be done in the heat of the moment, especially an old sports car, you should do your homework and understand all the known issues and possible problems and factor that in the price of the car.
Doing a PPI is absolutely mandatory for an early 997 IMO.

As many people here know, 996 and some early 997 models were infamous for 2 problems: IMS bearing failure and cylinder bore scoring.
During the PPI they checked for any possible scoring in the cylinder walls and everything was ok, only after that I proceeded with the purchase.
For a preventive service, I wanted to get the car in a as-good-as-possible condition, I used this nice post as a guide on what to do first.

IMS bearing failure:
997.1 has an intermediate shaft that has a bearing and that bearing can break, this is more common on 996 and 997 until mid/late 2005, 997 models after 2006 already have a bigger bearing that won't break, but still can suffer from oil starvation. If your 997 has the small bearing, it NEEDS to be replaced, if not, it will eventually break and that would be a catastrophic failure and will require an engine rebuilt, something that would cost you between 15k and 20k. To replace that bearing, the transmission needs to be taken out, so ideally, do this together with a clutch service.
My car is late 2005, so it already has a larger bearing and it won't break, but as I mentioned, it still can suffer from oil starvation.

To mitigate that, there is something called the IMS Solution, that's what I did.
Basically, you connect that on the IMS bearing with a hose that gets oil from the oil pan and directly lubricates the IMS bearing, you can read more here: https://lnengineering.com/products/t...-solution.html




Bore scoring:
This happens when the piston doesn't have enough lubrication, get's too hot and start scratching the cylinder wall, like this: https://flat6innovations.com/wp-cont...7_preview.jpeg
When that happens, fuel and tiny metal scraps get into the oil, making it less lubricant and circulating all that debris all around your engine. Not fun.
This one is a bit more tricky than the IMS problem, where you can 100% prevent it. You can make it less probable, but not 100% preventable.

What my mechanic suggested is to add a GT3 water pump that has a bigger capacity and can move the coolant a bit faster than the stock pump. Also, add a thermostat that opens at a lower temperature to guarantee the engine won't get too hot and the coolant gets there too late. As the engine was out, they did all of that at the same time.
Besides that, the only thing I can do is to be careful with temperature, so don't let it run idle after a cold start for too long, don't rev it above 2500 rpm before the oil is hot enough, and do regular oil changes.
My mechanic is one of the best(if not the best) independent Porsche specialists in the country, he said that this is enough and I shouldn't worry too much(as long as I follow the guidelines I just mentioned). He worked on hundreds of 997s in the past 20 years and said that bore scoring doesn't happen as often as the internet gurus say.

Other stuff:
The service I mentioned above was the biggest part of labor and parts cost, but besides that, as the engine was already out, they replaced:

• Engine oil and filter
• Gearbox oil
• Coolant fluid
• Clutch
• Belts and tensioners
• Brake fluid
• Steel brake lines
• New tires
• Wheels cosmetic repairs
• Battery
• Installed OEM cruise-control.

1 year ago the previous owner replaced all the injectors and spark plugs, so I didn't need to replace that now.

I did all the service and PPI at Elfer Porsche Classics in The Netherlands: https://www.elfer.nl/
I STRONGLY recommend them, the owner knows absolutely everything, he privately owned basically all 911 classic models. He owned a 997 for a few years and knew exactly what I was talking about the known issues, great guy, and the mechanics also know a lot.
If you live in Europe and not too far from Holland, this is your guy.

That's it... I bought the car, drove it for 2 weeks just so I could understand more about it and tell him what I would like to get fixed and sent the car back, the whole service took a bit over 2 weeks.
As expected, this wasn't cheap, the whole service(parts + labor) was around 8k euros + tax.

Quite expensive for a "cheap" 911, but I'm 100% confident that I did everything I could to have this car in the best possible condition.
Now, a quick drive to the Autobahn close to the border to see if it still can do 291 km/h

floatingkiwi

any reason why you didn't just flick the seals out of that IMS bearing to let oil in (and out)?

kellen

First time I’m hearing about the gt3 water pump. Interesting.

TRINITONY

What about the AOS, did you also change it?

RoadtripRyan

Afaik only has a smaller diameter on the belt side, which makes it run faster. Was used in the cup cars as well.
edit:
found it: https://www.fvd.net/de-de/FVD10699720/hochleistungs-wasserpumpen-kit-987-997.html