This past summer, my 996 with 60,000 miles, dropped a large puddle of oil / coolant mix in the garage. The local dealer declared it fatal and their solution is to install a Porsche rebuild for an estimate of $17,000. I had it removed by a local shop European Auto Specialist (Cincinnati) and sent to EBS Racing in Reno to be rebuilt. Everything included, it was completed for ~$9,000, including the LNE IMS upgrade, and replacement clutch. Don Weaver at EBS was great to work with and the engine is running stronger than ever. I recommened either of these shops! Cannot say the same for the dealer (the mechanic called me to inquire if I wanted to sell the non-running car...hummmm!)
Paul

 

Thanks. What was the specific cause of death with your first engine? Cracked cylinder? 7-9 is easier to swallow than 15-18. Yikes.

 

so did the cost include the uninstall, shipping, repair and re-installation? how much for just the rebuild?

 

good to hear good things about Don ive dialoged with him a bit about parts for my 996tt

 

I bought many of the parts for my engine rebuild from Don @ EBS he is good to deal with.

 

New parts vs. used: if he's billing you for new, but putting in used -- that's fraud. So, you're asking, how can you prevent fraud? Get references. Check BBB. Check alternative shops. When you say, "my mechanic" it sounds like you've done work with him, but don't trust him yet?

Good rebuild? Again, ask for names & phone numbers of 3-5 people for whom he's done this in the past with the same series engine. He may have built a number of air cooled engines; but you want to see that he's done a number of engines of your series. Also, ask him, "what's the difference between a good rebuild and an outstanding one? What will you do to make sure this engine will run for another 60-100k?" And ask the same question to other shops as well.

 

My two cents, walk away.... you can get a certified engine from flat 6 innovations (the best) for less than 13k.

 

Flat 6 engines actually start at about $18K.

 

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There really should not be any difference in labor to reassemble the 3.6 over the 3.4. Maybe he is talking about parts, and the only real difference there would be head gaskets. I am not sure what LN uses with the upgraded cylinders and pistons. You should know that with the 3.4 there is a difference between the left and right head gaskets, the coolant passage openings are different sizes. On the OEM 3.6 gaskets the right and left are the same.

I think the $10,000 is way high to begin with. What parts is he providing as part of that figure?

 

The $5,000 should include new Pistons, & rings from LN so you won't need to buy any more parts because of the size increase to 3.6L (99mm bore) instead of buying 3.4 head gaskets your mechanic should buy 997S 3.8L head gaskets. The LN/JE piston rings do have to be customfit to the cylinder bores & this will take extra labor hours to do.

 

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Flat 6 gave me a quote of 19 to 23 last month.

 

Oh dear. Don't take this the wrong way, but ... if you are asking these questions, you didn't pick the right engine builder. The person who is building your engine should be answering these questions and not hesitate on the correct answer.

I will try to entertain your questions as best I can.

Basically you bought "wholesale" just the very core building blocks of your engine. Now you need another $3000 in other various bits and somewhere around 80-100 hours of labor to have the engine re-assembled, re-installed, and properly tested/broken in.

So let's do the math if this is done CORRECTLY.

$5000 LN engineering upgrade
$3000-5000 genuine Porsche parts
80-100 hrs labor incl machine shop services @ $125/hr ~ $10,000
Total rebuild cost (what F6I charges) = $20,000

LN engineering is in the business of re-sleeving (rebuilding) cylinders, among various other machine shop work they sell upgraded bits for various Porsche engine internals (and resell JE pistons/ARP hardware/etc.). They simply do not rebuild engines though, that is what an engine builder does (what you call a mechanic).

On the M96-01 engine (what you have), the only work LN Engineering performs is boring out the cylinders and inserting better stronger cylinder liners with bigger capacity (more horesepower). They could probably do a custom job of 3.4L to 3.4L (retaining bore size), but it would probably cost you the same amount of money or more AND you would still need to do all the things that come along with having an engine rebored (cylinder, piston, and ring prep).

So I am guessing what probably happened is you or your "mechanic" probably tore your engine down and you sent the engine case to LNE to have the cylinders bored out and Nikasil liners installed (and sold you new pistons, which you absolutely must get if you are having this procedure performed).

The 997 3.8L head gaskets have a 99mm bore size. The same size as the 3.6L finished product from LN engineering (99mm).

Any time you rebuild ANY engine (not just a Porsche engine) with new cylinders and new pistons and new piston rings these things all have to "match" perfectly. Even though the machining processes and tolerances these days are extremely tight and probably close to a "drop in fit out of the box", the tolerances within your engine must not be close, but PERFECT. This means the cylinders, pistons, and rings must all be measured. The pistons and rings must be indexed based on the correct tolerances (down to thousandths of inches) based upon their fit to the according cylinders. The piston rings must be temporarily installed into the cylinders and their gaps checked accordingly. If the gaps in the piston rings are too small they must be filed down to the EXACT size (remember, measurements taken down to the thousandths of an inch, less than the width of a human hair). Then everything given a good wash and finally installed in the engine according to the proper procedures (including position/confirm deck height/lubrication/etc.).

Go to your local engine machine shop and ask to speak to their engine re-builder... perhaps he can explain these things better than I (or to your mechanic hopefully).

About the last piece of advice I will give you is... unless this is your friend, if someone is only charging you $5000 (13k-8k parts) to rebuild and reinstall your engine, WALK AWAY NOW while you still can before it is a total loss. If you asked them these same questions and they wouldn't answer or give you these answers... then FIND an engine builder who has ACTUALLY rebuilt an M96-01 engine with LN engineering upgraded cylinders (and if they charge you that much, then fine...). If this person you have already selected has the credentials then by all means use them (but they should be able to provide references of past work doing the same exact thing, which I believe they refused to earlier).

Good luck!

 

Jake has offered CPO engines for less than $13k in the past. From time to time I see reconditioned engines on his site for $9k, $10k, $11k. Those engines stop at a valve job though... short of cracking the case.

Now total engine rebuild on the other hand... totally different story and yes $18-22k sounds more like it...