Harry Da Hamster

I'm posting this because i'm considering buying a 997.1 Turbo. What's the real world significance of ~10 or so Stage 5 over-rev's as recent as 60 hours ago and huge amount of Stage 1 over rev's throughout the vehicles entire life? The way people refer to over-rev's on the forums, it seems to be the "tell all" for an engine that's been pampered or abused. But has there ever been a Porsche engine (let alone a Mezger engine) that has had catastrophic engine failure because of an occasional Stage 1-5 over-rev?

Dennis C

You should get lots of opinions on this one. Generally, Stage 1 - 3 over revs aren't seen as a huge issue. Stage 4, 5 or 6 over revs can be problematic. I don't think that Porsche will give a CPO warranty on a car with a Stage 5 or 6 over rev, and will only CPO a car with a Stage 4 over rev after a thorough inspection. The concern that I have about a car with a recent Stage 5 is that problems may still be yet to come.

How many 2, 3, and 4 over revs are showing on the DME report?

Harry Da Hamster

Range 1 over-revs 24,286 last time at operating hours of 1327
Range 2 over-revs 6,431 last time at operating hours of 1327
Range 3 over-revs 2,394 last time at operating hours of 1327
Range 4 over-revs 981 last time at operating hours of 1326
Range 5 over-revs 10 last time at operating hours of 1267
No Range 6 over-revs

No indication of how many hours on the engine though. Currently 27,000 miles on vehicle. So there may be more than 60 miles since last Range 5 over-rev. I was simply subtracting 1267 from 1327 to come up with 60 miles since last Range 5 over-rev

I know that's a lot of Range 1's thru 4's, which is not ideal. But i'm looking for a driver, not a garage queen and i will probably drive it aggressively though not as aggressively like the previous owner may have.

I guess my main question on top of everyone's opinion which i highly value would be: has there ever been a Porsche with catastrophic engine failure due to the occasional over-rev?

awfilms

Personally i wouldn't buy it, but if it's a good deal might as well swoop it if you plan to drive it like a race car

golfnutintib

move on

many other fish in sea

user 72902

The last event was at 1327 hours so you need to know what the current hours are. I feel that if 100 hours have passed and there are no ill effects from the over revs then you are ok. If the events just happened then I would not proceed. The damage is either done or not at the time of the event. Waiting 100 hours I cannot see how an issue can arise so late after the occurrence IMO. Good luck

Swoody

Not a chance! A turbo engine is the price of a new, semi decent family car....Keep looking!

Carsly

If you're already planning to rebuild the engine anyway and are getting a smoking deal then maybe. otherwise I'd budget a complete tear down and rebuild into your offering price. Is that perhaps overly conservative? You bet!

For reference I bought a 996TT 2.5 years ago, one owner, 25k miles that had zero Range 2 or above ignitions and a handful of Range 1. No issues so far *knock on wood*

To each his own.

Dennis C

I think the DME on the 996 only registers two ranges: Stage 1 and Stage 2. At least this was the case for the normilly aspirated cars. Stage 1 is okay, stage 2 is bad.

The thing that concerns me about the numbers above is that it seems like an awful lot of over revs. Is the car tuned? It seems like cars with a tune or ECU flash tend to have more over revs than those that don't. My car had some Stage 4 over revs from a long time ago when I bought it, but I think the number it registered was 6 over revs. It had a few hundred Stage 3 and a smattering of 1 and 2.

idlook2

If the range 4-5 was more than 50-100 hours ago, I wouldn't worry about it. Lots of useful info here:

http://www.911virgin.com/porsche/rev-range-information/

Tj40

+1 on the 911Virgin article, very imformative. On a 997.2 Stage 1 is not an "over rev" as it starts logging below the red line.

mattyf

Post the question in the turbo forum too. They'll have a better feel for this. The 997.1 turbos are Mezger engines and are extremely robust. These engines can take a lot of abuse and are routinely modded to make over 600hp. People even upgrade then to put out 1000hp.

As the overevs happened a long time ago I wouldn't worry too much. Perhaps use it as a negotiating tactic to get a better price.

Petza914

That looks like a pretty big missed shift ("money shift") because of the number of overrevs logged in the ranges 4 & 5. I'd pass on this one.

Tj40

You should be able to get the total number of hours on the engine - that's part of the same report.

FYI - you are mixing hours and miles in your reading above. The report logs events at engine hours, depending how fast the car is driven that could be 10 miles or 100 miles ago. You really need the total number of hours on the engine to come to a conclusion.

Looking at the numbers you have events at 1326 and 1327 hours - could be indicative of someone having a rather spirited test drive if the car is up for sale. Annoying but it happens.

To put it into context the Range 4 events mean the engine spent 0.04 sec or less above 7400 rpm, an 'event' is an ignition not a measure of time.

The concern is the range 5 - at 60 hours ago you 'should' be out of the window of concern where any issues would have become apparent but that is a decision only you can make. I'd have the engine checked over carefully or take a pass.

gota911

Run Forest, Run! I would pass on this car.