That is probably due to the fact that you need a new seal, when car sits idle for 40 days all the oil is sitting in the oil pan. When the car is driven the oil is brought to the top and around the engine, getting on the seal, and then leaking again. Get the seal replaced and drive it at least the recommended amount of milage a year, and it is very unlikely that the seal will leak for a number of years to come!

 

Oil pan ? It's dry sump, no pan for oil to sit in

Had seal replaced once, and no difference in leakage, driven not driven, etc

I have learned to live with it, again car leaks less (and in fewer places !) than my 8 other 911's have. Until a different seal is made, they will all leak...new, old, driven/not driven, tracked/not tracked. Only 911's I've had that didnt leak were 97 993 C4S and my '02 Turbo....although its funny, turbo uses oil (ie have to add small amount between changes) where as the GT3 has never used one drop.

Bill

 

Bill, you are right, I am confusting your GT1 block with my 997C2S engine.

Is it the RMS that is leaking or is it coming from another point?

 

Guys, there IS a way. and Porsche can do it for you.

I had my RMS fixed FOUR times, by my dealer.

the first 3 times, it always came back. this was whether i drove the nuts off it regularly, OR i drove it rarely.

never made a difference.

the last time (several months ago,) they said they were replacing it using a "new installation process". and no, its not the turbo seal, because my dealer refused to do that. their in-house tech from Germany wouldn't allow something not by-the-book.

well guess what, it has not leaked one drop.

there have been stretches over the past few months that it got tracked several times in a month.

and there has been at least one stretch where it did not get driven for 3 wks straight.

dry as a bone.

maybe i was just lucky the 4th time, and there's really no technique that guarantees it. who knows?

 

they didnt share the secret with you ? maybe they need to let HQ in on it

 

Well I had the RMS changed again,( I think this is my forth or fifth time) and got to look at the car with the trans off. Clutch looks perfect, and they resealed some of the block bolts that could leak. I asked about the 996tt seal but they would not do it and they said I would loose the 15 HP that the engine produces because of the seals being on a vacum. So we will wait and see if it leaks again.


This is a track/ road car but I don't think Porsche expected us as owners to be at the track everyday, or they should have made it more driver frendly. It's a great car but it can get harsh as a DD. So if you can't drive it everyday and it leaks oil if it sits what are we supposed to do. LOL

 

Mine was probably done like hesperus described. Hasn't leaked since last February.

 

A couple of years ago, it was found by the tech that repaired my rms, that the surface of the crankshaft on each of the GT3s and RS they examined, where the seal spins against was roughly finished, much more so than on the mainstream motors, enough that you could pick at the grooves with your fingernails, eating away at the seal. This was shown to the engineers/techs from Porsche's headquarters so they are/were aware of it, but whether they acknowledge it as the cause is another story. The crank surfaces were refinished in the car using specially procured tooling/equipment. At the time my car was the third the procedure was performed on, including two other consistent leakers, and as far as I know none of the cars have leaked since.

 

It's a real easy fix and a stupid issue to begin with. Porsche had something that pretty much worked 9/10 times with the 996gt3 and 996tt but they went with the crappy 997 seal that you guessed it has issues. Every time we do a LWF or 3.9 kit we fix the issues. Here's a post I wrote a couple of years ago to explain...

"hey guys, so we've been doing a lot of LWF kits as of late and although it's not a "big-deal", the seeping/weeping coming from rear main seals is very common. Very. Almost all of the GT3/RS' we've seen have it. Porsche issued a TSB in case you didn't know.

Porsche wants you to use the 997 seal:
997.102.264.91 for the shaft sealing ring (RMS as we know it).

You also need a spacer since it's a different size.

997.101.264.90 (spacer/ring)

All cars done from November 21st of 07 already have this ring/spacer in there.

To be honest, I prefer the design of the original 996TT and 996GT3 seal. It's a better design with a spring in there instead of that teflon crap that doesn't seal.... If you want to use that along with the ring (same size) it's: 999 113 426 41.

So any of you doing LWFs... this is the latest fix. I'm using the 999 one in my car."

 

Alex,

I'm not clear, do you still use the spacer ring (997.101.264.90) with seal (999.113.426.41)?

 

The question is by changing to the 996 seals, what does that do to the engine long term? The 7GT3 motor uses it's multistage oil pumps to draw a vacuum in the crankcase under high rpm which decreases windage loss and increases peak hp, why it appears the main seal on the 7GT3 is reversed so that the vacuum pulls the seal tight against the crank under operation. Although the slight loss of hp from the use of an alternate seal is not a big deal, what of the potential for the case to draw outside air and dust through the 996 seal under vacuum during engine operation, especially from the clutch area, now that the lip orientation is reversed? If we acknowledge that the vacuum function is lost with the 996 seal, then we acknowledge that air is drawing through this seal under engine operation.

 

I have been thinking the exact same thing. I work in the commerctail air conditioning busuness and we use "shaft seals" for open drive motors to coompressors. It is normal that a small amount of oil drips from the seal into a comtainment bottle. If no oil is dripping that means the machine is sucking air in (this is a bad thing). We operate these seals at 8,000 to 12,000 rpm

If your car has a small oil drip.....the seal is working.

If your car produces a large puddle......the seal is broken.

 

Izzone and Steve W bring up geed points. Does the 997 motor have different oil pumps/ scavenging system that the 996 motor? Sharky, how about commenting on the concern of sucking air/ dust in if the 996 seal is used in the 997 engine?

 

The seal's leak, if not now they will in the future. Porsche's answer is typical big company BS, drive it, ha, it leaks every night and I drive it every day Porsche. There are now 40 small spots on the floor. So their answer is indeed BS, they just don't want a class action lawsuit! I was told by Porsche that they cannot guarantee that the 2010 car won't leak, so it probably will. A new car with an oil leak in 2010 it's really amazing in today's day and age and quite something for a company that prides itself on German engineering. Just another example of a company with a big head attitude and the engineering performance of a 3rd world company. If it was Chineese ok I understand but German? I don't think the Merc's or BMW's leak, maybe Porsche could learn a thing or two. So in the end guys drive them, watch the oil levels, and have fun watching the oil leak, cleaning your floor every month makes them go away as well. It's still a great car but it will leak oil. So you might as well never try and fix it!

 

Alex,

Do you still use the spacer ring (997.101.264.90) with the 6TT seal (999.113.426.41)?