This post is aimed to share my recent experience with rebuilding of Porsche 3.8L Direct injection engine.

Originally my 2009 Carrera was sold in Texas but was shipped to Europe and spend most of its days there. I have modified it in 2017-18 at 25000 miles with B&B cross pipe, Cargraphic headers+200 cell metal cats, K&N filters, IPD intake and EVO MS tune. Making over 400hp at the crank car was noticeably faster than stock, however it lasted till I hit unrestricted Autobahn in Germany. After driving for about 1.5hr at nearly full throttle, I got a check engine light first and next day I heard a loud knocking sound coming at right rear of the engine. Car was shipped to Hamburg where Porsche specialist discovered bore scoring on cyl no.4 According to those guys, they see 5-6 out of 10 cars of first generation 997 and 1 out of 10 of 997.2 generation developing those issues including newer Turbo 3.8 motors. Not an encouraging news to hear for all of Porsche owners. My options were to buy new short block engine for about $10k or repair the original one. I have opted for the latter particularly considering that it could give an opportunity to enlarge size to over 4.0l. This route was not easy task and in total it took many months to complete. As I wanted to have one shop – full responsibility type of work, Hartech and US based builders were out of question. Something interesting came up that in Germany due to strict environmental restrictions galvanization, nickel electroplating, etc are severely restricted. Thus engine block was send to UK to F1 engine specialists Capricorn for 103 mm boring and Nikasil coating. Custom Mahle pistons and rings were ordered as well as custom head gaskets.

This project was assemebled and tuned at MTM in Wettstetin with some involvement from 9FF.

Engine showed 430hp @ 7298rpm and 470Nm @ 5090 rpm of torque at the crank. Not a huge jump from my previous 410ish setup, but noticeable. Most importantly the torque curve profile shifted and increased earlier in low rpm range allowing for comfortable cruise in 6th gear. My secret wish for AWD GT3 finally came through…)

Few important observations:

- before breakdown, car was in winter mode with many cold starts and warm ups and minimal driving. Such starts might have diluted original 0W40 as I did not change it before hammering on autobahn. Oil was 4000miles / 10 months old

- car now runs of Mobil1 5W50 and so far after 2k miles I cant see any oil consumption.

- EVO MS software had KNOCK SENSORS FULLY DISCONNECTED and in opinion of German tuners were contributing factor to engine failure (yes I would like my money back if EVO reading this)

- car actually runs quieter than before with about 10% improved gas mileage.

- most difficult part was to obtain new oil squirt nozzles for piston cooling. Porsche sells them only together with new engine block. Old one can not be reused.



I might be forgetting something but hope this story might be useful for some readers here.

 

Well, at least there's a silver lining after all the trouble and expense, in that you now have a stronger motor and faster car. Thanks for sharing.

 

How much does a job like that cost over in EU if you don't mind me asking?

 

Slightly over 30k euro all inclusive. Logistics ate 10% of total bill and I opted for many new parts on the way like clutch, etc. New Porsche ECU software and dyno tuning also accounted for about 10% of total bill