I have threads here that talk about this. Look up my name or search for oil consumption. I only had 25K miles on the car, bought it with 20K. Very high oil consumption. About a 1/2 quart consumed every 400 miles. I put 9 quarts of oil in the car over a period of 6500 miles, not including an oil change in that time.

No issues with excessive smoke though did have very sooty pipes on both sides. Dealership did also change out the AOS and the reading from the manometer was very low though the oil consumption did not change after the AOS change. I took meticulous records of how much oil I put in the car from day one of my ownership.

Based on this data the dealership took in the car, did a full breakdown/drop of the engine and found scoring in cylinder 1 and they asked Germany for the engine replacement which was approved.

 

Nice explanation, but not good. Sounds like these things may even become more of a disaster down the road, especially if you drive it hard or have a 3.8. Kind of defeats the purpose of purchasing a Porsche. This definitely seems to be a long term defective design issue much more that say the IMS or RMS.

I passed on the 2008 997 S aero kit with 18k miles and went with a 2017 M3 Competition for a daily driver. Really wanted the 997 above, but I still have my 458 and wife's Gallardo spyder for weekend around the town fun. Wifey also has her Macan for daily duties as our "token Porsche," but gotta say the prospects of used 911s, unless you go very old, are not as confident aspiring as they once were. The little top end rebuilds of the air-cooled era ain't nothing compared to these new and improved Porsche quality control issues of the 996 and 997 NA variety that torpedo your entire engine. Better off getting a 430 or Gallardo and driving the wheels off those than trying to save a few $$$ and rolling dice here . . .

 

Sort of agree but since my best bud since age 14 has always been a foreign car employee all his life I'm still a P car guy and never a F car guy. His last 10 years before retiring was parts manager for a Ferrari dealership. I now think of those cars like trophy wives with bad habits you forgot to get a prenup for.
I'm also colored by fact past 20 years my company used mostly Italian processing equipment so got to know the mind set on engineering and support too well. Way too well $$$

 

You read too much Rennlist. There are thousands of 997s out there with 0 issues - myself included. Probably <5% of all 997s have the severe issues.

 

Lol, I rarely come here since mid 2000s. Not sure your numbers are accurat between IMS, RMS and scoring which seems to be picking up with prevelancy.

The poll had a fairly high rate of response with scoring and many could be driving around right now with and not realize it. Reading that long explanation by the tech repairing these things about the cause seems to reflect more than ever that these engines are going to have issues the high the mileage gets or the harder they are driven in low rev range, especially the 3.8.

Sure it's a calculated risk, but not one I will take. This is coming from someone that has owned just about every single iteneraton of the 911 since the late 80s including 94 3.6, 993 tts, 2 Rufs, multiple GT3s, RS and 2 cup cars and CGT thrown in for good measure.

 

The poll on Rennlist is such a small sample size, and someone analyzed the responses and found that the majority were invalid (spam users, vehicle not applicable, etc.).

 

In the end these are boys toys. Big boys get to choose how much and on what they want to spend. My current toy is a 997.2. It fits my sweet spot between fun and acceptable risk. The wife's opinion? Not so much. It's also P #7 for me. On the other hand it's more acceptable than getting my ticket updated and buying another airplane. Unless have done that cannot appreciate the term hanger queen. They even make Italian sports cars maintenance seem reasonable. Then again, airplanes can be used for cross country transportation.

 

Well as you said most don't have access to a quality machine shop and I didn't have a garage, tools or retired friends to help out . Would be a good way to do it though

But I had to hire a professional and he costs money. You prob could get out for the amount you talk about but I figured if I am going to do a rebuild, then do it properly ie get rid of the crappy cylinder liners. I added a bunch of other stuff but even without that it was way more than $17k. Of course I had to deal with shipping and fx rates etc - lucky me

LN and Hartech do the same thing but they are competitors. I looked at both before I did my work

You are of course right, there are tens of thousands of them out there and of that probably 1% of these drivers are on here. We are the obsessive!!

The poll up top isn't scientific for sure but its worrying that the scoring issue comes up more and more and its effecting the 997.2's even though some want to stick their heads in the sand on this. I didn't think too much on this issue till it hit me. Oh well, that's life!!

 

I read your rebuild post with great interest. Sounds like you ended up with a fantastic motor in the end.

Also read the Hartech white paper this morning. Those boys have done great work and come up with wonderful resource for us to share and learn from.

The Raby solution you chose sounds just as thorough and with good maintenance should last many years.

 

Just getting ready to change out my break in oil. Hope all is good. Looking forward to many years of a very strong engine - so far it is a very nice upgrade!!

Hartech were helpful and know what they are doing but didn't want to get in to shipping an engine block overseas. A little pricey!

Cheers

 

Forget Italians and airplanes and buy yourself a nice boat if you really wanna make the wife happy about hobby expenses . . . Ferrari maintenance ain't what it used to be. Buy new and enjoy . . . at least for seven years . . . Lol, we are all lucky to have such high bottom issues.

 

I long thought that the reason I had such excessive oil consumption since new was due to scoring. The dealership borescoped them and found no evidence. Finally after about 100,000 miles I had a shop service something which entailed replacing the oil. They put in something European with a weight higher than the usual factory recommendation of 0-W40 weight. I finally got normal oil consumption--much higher than the usual quart every thousand miles.

 

I look at it different there are many varieties of 911s out there for many prices and it's not uncommon to add 20k to a new spec build 991 in options . So even if you pay 20k for a rebuild the 997.1 is a good deal at approx 40k for a used one . Let's say 5 percent have the issue it's a 'equavelent' 45k car' that has a fun factor close to many 'new' 100 or 150k sports cars.

 

Bore scoring can potentially occur in any piston driven engine, and does. One common cause is simply contaminants in the oil, which is what leads to the abrasive scoring marks. Mechanical engine parts do wear as a normal part of operation, so unless the wear causes performance issues, its not a problem.

Given how unusual the scoring issue is, my money would be on either extreme thermal gradients (e.g. guy in Michigan likes to hit red line right after startup in the dead of winter) or just infrequently changed oil--especially since Porsche recommends oil changes only ever 15K miles or 2 years.

 

Honestly, if you have a new M3, a new Macan, a Ferrari 458 and a Lambo Gallardo Spyder, why the f**k would you lose sleep over the prospect of a $15-20K engine rebuild on a 997? This makes absolutely no sense.

So many people on this forum will sweat $5-15K like it is a life ending expense, meanwhile they gladly lose much more than that on depreciation on a new 991, M3 or Lambo. Oh, and meanwhile they will drop >$6K on some fancy wheels that weigh more than stock. But by God, if that oil change is more than $160, there is hell to pay! I don't get it. The probability that a given 997 engine blows up before 100K miles is <1%. So anybody with a basic understanding of finance would understand that the expected cost is $15K*0.01 = $150. I'm not going to let $150 expected cost keep me from owning/enjoying a 997.