Is there any history of people on this forum who have blown their engines from mild modification? Mild meaning exhaust and tune (from a reputable tuner).

I'm trying to assess the risk in buying a 996TT, modifying it, and being stuck with a $20,000 repair bill. Car will never see a track or anything beyond occasional spirited street driving.

 

If you haven't noticed, "blown" motors are not at all common, even with highly modified 996/997.1tt engines with upgraded turbos. And, keep in mind, if these things were popping with and frequency at all, it would definately be a VERY frequent topic of conversation on forums like this. If you don't believe me, check out the 996 n/a sections of some other forums...for a while it seemed like every third thread on rennlist was from a guy with 1 post soliciting advice on a motor rebuild becuase he lunched his engine somehow. Aside from the odd "my timing chain snapped" or "my EBC malfunctioned" threads, you just don't see that kind of feedback on the turbo forums, and its the nature of forums to attract attention to and focus on the bad events (i.e., no one ever posts out of the blue with a thread titled "my car drove great today...no catastrophic failures").

With that said, there have been odd/rare failures with cars that don't even have any performance mod's, so a failure is always possible. But again, its very, very rare. I'm the paranoid type and scrutinize every little sound, screach, puff of smoke, and oil consumption, and I've come to the conclusion that these engines are great and there is really no need to worry!

 

I think it was this reasoning that convinced me to buy a 996 TT instead of a 997.1 4S since they were in the same price range.

 

I appreciate the feedback.

I did search the forums extensively and the lack of these blown-motor threads lead me to make the assumption that you have validated.

 

Several members making well over 600ftlbs on stock blocks for many, many, miles. The GT1 block rivals the 2JZ-GTE when it comes to power and longevity. *puts on flame suit*

 

I have always heard the 3.6L Mezger engine described as "bullet-proof." I guess it is as true for this performance engine as much as any other.

 

a blown motor from only a exhaust and tune isnt possible on a 996tt

 

depends on who tuned it, but would have to be real bad.

 

yep, excess of 600 ftlbs and tracked my car 20+ times this year as well as few long road trips, proper fluid changes and maintenance after every event and the car runs beautifully - I do minimize redline's and average 6k top shifts.

 

Similar engine:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...ock-997tt.html

 

HI,Maybe back in the days when the cars and tunes first came out..I believe everyone has a handle on it in there own way now...I think a tune that retains the stock boost controller has the safety net in it to avoid blown motors...IMO