I will say immediately that I do NOT care for DFI. Not in these engines, or others. Manufacturers still don;t have it figured out yet, and thats clear, even from an engine oil point of view. I have swapped a DFI engine over to port injection, swapped the pistons out, changed the cam profiles to favort port injection, and made 20% more power immediately.

The M96/ M97 is well developed today. While we still find problems with the 9a1, we've pretty much documented the M96/97 failures, and addressed them. I haven't added a mode of failure to my list in almost two years for the M96/97. I'd rather have the one that's been figured out, than the one thats still not showing all of its colors.

Now that we are onto the 9a2, the 9a1 is pretty much yesterday's news, while the M96/97 is booming.

 

Great question with a great answer!

 

Has to make one wonder if Porsche really knows what they are doing. And do we know what we are doing...buying a car that in order to have full confidence needs to have an outside shop make the motor right. Its fine for Jake and Baz...they are having a field day tinkering and playing around with all this...and we (in the generic sense) are paying them a fortune to do so. But perhaps the entire concept and execution of the 911 has reached the point of diminishing returns.

 

Naw, Porsche was failing... the 993 was stale product and sales were suffering. Rumors abounded about a take over. Weideking was promoted and he brought in Toyota to help. They moved to a single engine platform and parts sharing across models... like all other car companies had been doing for 75 years. He also slashed costs and stopped Porsche-supported racing. The Boxster and the new low-cost M96 engine was their hail mary pass. It worked.

M96 engine was never fully tested and designed to be cheap. Ergo... bang.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

 

Great thread, yet I wonder about all the paranoia out there.

If you are really, really worried about your motor buy a Metzger powered GT car or turbo.

If you can't do that buy the last year of the M97 or 9A1, as Porsche incrementally improves them during production.

 

This thread and Jake's responses are examples of the best kind of cooperation and collaboration this community has to offer...For the benefit of all of us sick-in-the-head Porschephiles. Always nice to see.

 

agreed, equivalent to tony stark + bruce wayne teaming up to make the world a better place.

9A1 yes, but the 08 M97 internals (for what matters) is pretty much identical to 2005.2->07 M97 engine.

 

Jake, based on your comment above, which year would 911 you buy and base or S? Im seeing a 100k mile 2009 Carrera base for $29k and 2006-2008's (all base) for a bit less and around the same miles. Obviously the '09 runs the 9A1 DFI motor compared with the others. Which would be your choice and what immediate tests/improvements would you make to the car upon purchase?

 

Are there any facts on corralation between bore score and service intervall on the 997:2? I looking into a 997:s 4S with 30 000 km between oil changes just because im curious. This is according to porsches service plan in the service book. Its a really high milage car but im interested to find out if it really holds with so long milage betwen the oilchanges and nothing happens...

 

Lol, this is some logic. Perhaps YOU would rather have an engine prone to major failures since YOU have the resources and know how to repair it yourself.

That said, the I rather have one that is prone to blow up because I already know how to fix it over the one that has not shown the propensity to blow up because I don't know how to address problems that have not yet shown themselves yet is truly astounding.

 

OK...I would rather have the devil I know than the one I don't. My buddy lost his .2 engine at the track a while back that turned out to be a d-chunk in #1. It was a 09C2S with just over 20k miles...maintained at lower intervals than the book. Is it a one off? Not for him as it was the only one to him. His extended warranty paid for a replacement motor so it worked out.

To me I drive my .1 to the most enjoyment possible and maintain it the best I can based on my Indy's recommendation.....and I don't worry about the boogie man.

 

And just to add nothing to this thread, my buddy crunched the top ring the PTO cylinder, making a war zone of the piston head, and when I took the head and jugs off I noticed an intake port was D chunking and about to let go. All the time he said it was running fine except a bitch to get started due to the loss of compression in the PTO cylinder of his 1999 760 Waverunner. Rebuilding it now after I had a similar thing happen to my 2001 DI Seadoo 5 years ago

 

@ Jake

997.1 has bore scoring - 997.1 Turbo does not

997.2 has bore scoring - 997.2 Turbo ??? (not seen any)

991.1 ??? - 991.1 Turbo ??? (not seen any)

So how is the Turbo engine different (aside from turbos of course)? Are the differences the deciding factor?

Regards,

CF

 

997 Turbos have the Metzger engine which is really different from the M96/97 as well as the 9A1/2. I personally have not heard of any issues with the turbos other than the coolant lines that wither away (easy fix).

 

997 TTs used Mezger through 2009. Automatics were Tiptronic. They then switched to the 9A1, with automatics being PDK. The Mezger is a completely different animal.