I'm finding I like the front bumper on the pre face lift C2's with the 3.4 vs. the more aggressive looking 3.6. I've heard of 3.4 sudden engine deaths. Is this a big issue? What year did did the face lift occur? 2001?

 

Facelift was 2002.
I don't dare touch the rest of your post.

 

hmmm.... has this been discussed before? Not trying to create a rukus

 

Here's an even better front bumper: http://nrauto.com/product_image.asp?id=371 My car should finished up at the body shop this Friday.

http://www.porscheenginefailure.com/ It's been discussed in length on this site and several others. Just do a search.

Here's a PDF that's a good read. You may have to register on the site before the link will work.
http://www.renntech.org/forums/index...e=post&id=3223

 

Not alot of specific info on those sites regarding failures. I was hoping for something concrete like "a pulled headstud caused an exhaust leak that compromised the head and cylinder..." All I'm reading here is the usual RMS stuff (that isnt typically fatal) and engine failures without definitive attribution and nothing specific to the 3.4. Is the 996 as a whole compromised or is this all a witch hunt?

Or am I missing something?

 

I think that if a 3.4 has a decent amount of miles on it, and has been properly maintained, it will be fine.
From memory it seems the motors I heard about that went bad did so before they had @ 40k miles...

 

yeah I second that....I did lots of research before i bought my 99 C2 3.4.........I drive it as a Porsche should be driven with passion.....104k miles later and still purring and pulling like a legend!

My advice would be to buy one with at least 50k miles.....also check the expansion tank as they are prone to cracking and leaking water........mine just cracked the other day :-(....apparently is a common problem!

 

all about maintaining