Well, it happened. At 75k miles, going North on I-95 near the Brevard/Volusia County line in FL, on the way to a family vacay to North Carolina, in a convoy of 3 family vehicles... I started hearing new, scary knocking and ticking sounds from my engine. I pulled over to the shoulder as quick as I could and it sounded like I was on an old wooden roller coaster.. clackity-clack, clackity-clack. Oil pressure dived, check engine light came on with P0300, 0301, 0302, etc. I thought back to every IMS failure thread I'd ever read on 6speed and Renntech and it all seemed too familiar.

An expensive tow back to the dealer, an expensive last-minute plane ride up to Charlotte to make my destination, and then I waited for the call. Oil filter's chock full of metal. Engine is toast. Cost at the dealer? 17.8k was the first quote. With the PCA discount I'm looking at $16k out the door.

I called my local Porsche mechanic shop. He said the dealership already called him, looking for other alternatives: Shop around for a used junk yard engine, or a rebuilt one that I might not get my core money back on if mine is damaged too bad, and hope for the best, or sell the car ASAP (I didn't like that option). Or bite bullet and get a brand new, shiny crate motor from Porsche with a warranty.

I weighed the options and discussed it with my wife. We both love to drive the car, and had planned to keep it for the long haul, at least as a weekend warrier car, and fortunately we have the ability to do it right if we have to. So a new crate motor is on order. $15.9 out the door. After calling several dealers, I just don't see the $12-$14k prices you read about online happening anymore. The dealers (even Suncoast Porsche) are saying the new engines are almost $12k now. My guess is that prices are going up as the inventory levels are going down as these things blow up.

It was the warranty and knowing I'll essentially have a NEW engine that sold me on the expensive dealer route. New water pump, new coil packs, new injectors, new AOS, etc... And hopefully all of the 3.4L upgrades that came about.

I talked to the dealer's mechanic and the independant mechanic, and both claimed to have only seen a handfull of these catastrophic failures in the last decade on 996s.

But, here's the scary part. On our drive back from North Carolina to Florida (in my wife's Ford Edge), we saw two 996s. One in South Carolina, one in Georgia. Both were on the side of the road, broken down. I hope this isn't contagious!

 

Damn sorry to hear about it, I am at 58K and I always have this worry in the back of my mind.

New Engine with warranty= piece of mind but OUCH! on the $14k

 

Sorry to hear that man it sucks that happened to me in June 200mi after I bought the car. I was able to fight with the dealer and get them to half but it still cost me over 6k and I still dont have my car back

Anyway one of my caveats when they were putting in a used engine was that they perform the IMS upgrade for free.

Anyway I can't tell you much more since our situations are so different but it sucks man I know.

 

Was the cause IMS failure or some other issue?

 

Sorry, was an obvious IMS failure.

Edit: as soon as it happened i knew in my heart lol just having a really bad streak of luck and sure enough it was

 

Sorry to Hear. If you are going to get a New Engine why not get a 3.6L?

This might help http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsc...Q5fAccessories

 

Just out of curiosity, why didn't you consider an aftermarket build for that kind of money? Assuming the block itself is salvageable, some nice pistons/rods along with some other goodies would surely be more fun in the end and possibly much cheaper. Or pick up a used engine in good condition and build it...

 

I aske the same question... and they told me that by the time the cluster and ecu and other things were replaced it would be much more...

 

That's what my research turned up as well.

I considered the aftermarket rebuilt engines, and like the ebay listing above, they ran about $9k + a $2k core charge. I also saw "as is" junk yard engines for $5 or $6k, but that wouldn't give me the peace of mind I'm looking for.

My understanding was that with some aftermarket rebuilders, getting your $2k core charge back was dependant on how much damage was done to your bad engine. I figured that if I was unlucky enough to have an engine failure, I might be unlucky enough that my block was bad and I may not get my core charge back, or have to fight hard for it. Good or bad, my spare time is harder to come by than a few thousand bucks right now, so I decided to go the dealer route. Plus they gave me a nice little C300 to drive in the meantime.

I paid $20k for the car and the body and suspension are in great shape, so add in another $16 and I'm in at $36k. I'll never get much money back out of it, but I'm not planning on getting rid of it anytime soon. I'm just looking at it as "what's the worst that could happen?" has happened, but I'll essentially have a 'brand new' Porsche 911 for $36k.

The hard part's going to be driving it easy during the break-in period!

 

Way too much!!! You can have a new engine installed for under $10K. $5000 for a long block from Motormeisters in California and ANY private porsche mechanic can swap your parts and install your rebuild long block for under $5000 labor.

 

For alittle over $10K you could also install a LS1 or LS7 Corvette motor from Grendage Motors in Vagas.

 

Call these guys and you will see how cheap it is to swap a motor.

http://www.motormeister.com/

 

I have not tried them... but they have a pretty iffy reputation in forums and online...

 

A Google search will provide the nasty details.

 

that is a terrible thing to happen to anybody . you are almost better off buying another car . with that mileage they are around 20 grand all day long . if your car has really nice options and add ons i would keep it if not .
I keep telling myself to fork over the cash and get a new clutch and ims upgrade but then i see 99s for sale with 175,000 on the clock and all original .