I was wondering if I could receive some insight from all of you porsche Turbo gurus...

A friend of mine was told by his dealer that he indeed has to replace his lifters, keep in mind the car has aprox. 500mi, my questions are;

Will they have to tear down the entire engine? Is this a very exstensive project? The factory engine seal will most likely be broken, how does this effect reliability and resale? Is it even a big deal?

Now, we are being told by the dealer that this is a common occurance. Are they just blowing smoke?

And finaly, any specific shop or dealer that is best equiped to embark on a job like this in Socal? Of course on cars of this caliber and with these low miles it has to be done PERFECT.


Any insight at all is greatly appreciated, thank you for the help. I have not tried the search function hopefuly this is something not covered a lot. Again, thanks!

 

Replacing the lifters requires the engine to be pulled, valve covers and cams removed. Its pretty extensive! Why are they saying this needs to be done? If it’s a warranty issue they would probably just put in a factory rebuilt engine at that point.

 

Exactly, gotta be more to the story.

 

this is the first I have ever heard of a lifter replacement, if it were common it would be all over these forums. They also typically replace the engine before digging around in there for whatever problem.

 

Either fishy or freaky and if they told you it was a common thing I would lean towards the fishy side.

 

I agree with you guys, it does seem extremely questionable. Do you reccomend another shop looks at it? This is a dealership after all.....And if it is legit, is it best for the dealer to do the work? It is under warranty.

Thanks again guys!

 

A lifter can just be "bad" We have had new lifters that would stick or collapse that had no miles on them. They are typically very reliable on these engines but it is not a 1 in a million deal. I think that this can be an issue on some of these engines regardless of the power and mileage. On our big power engines, we are now testing a solid lifter replacement to eliminate this potential problem.

 

Roller lifters might be better than solids in a hi-hp application^

 

Solid lifters have to be adjusted all the time, no? At least they did on a small block chevy.
+1 on the roller lifters. Does anybody still make the old NASCAR mushroom tappets?

 

something seems fishy here....

 

These engines are a ways off from an old chevys. There is more complexity in a turbos head then the majority of American cars combined. Which is both a good and bad thing sometimes. I don’t personally know of any ohc engines with roller anything. They just don’t need it. Cars with variable lift obviously couldn’t use any other type of lifter either. If you put a solid lifter in a car like this there really isn’t much adjusting you can do, only shimming which isn’t practical for anything other then drag racing or limited use with ridiculous rebuild schedules. The fact that Porsche test runs their engines pretty thoroughly makes issues such as this a pretty low probability. If there is an issue it should be covered under warranty. There are plenty of dealers in CA. Unless the car is making a really obvious noise or there was a specific batch recall I don’t know why they would be suggesting this.

 

Tell him to take it to another dealer for a second opinion. Either way it is covered under warranty.

 

Agree you should talk to another dealer. I would be wary of using a dealer that told me this is a common occurrance.

 

Agreed.