Caught an episode of Speed Test Zuffenhausen and they actually showed a tour of the Porsche factory. They were showing the engine assembly line and said that each and every Porsche engine is hand built.

 

i think so. bmw m series and amg are hand assembled too

 

So how do all the other manufacturers build their engines ?
With their feet ? Lol

 

Possible, others strictly robots!

 

Robots assemble 99% of most engines in everyday cars. It's pretty amazing to watch.

 

My 0.02$, I would rather have a robot build my engine than a guy (after a long night).

 

Porsche factory employees are all robots

 

It is true...I met a guy at my local carwash, that took the tour when he did ED and he said NO ROBOTS in the factory. Very cool.

 

there are certain things robots cannot do or don't do very well. when engineers design mass production engines, this is factored. this limitation does not optimize engine output.

with a handbuilt engine, the design of such engine have less limitation.

this is why a handbuilt engine is superior and most costly.

the difference is similar to a made-to-order shirt vs sized shirt.

 

Correct. There are three engine assembly lines: one for the 997TT/GT3/GT3RS engines, another for the 3.6 and 3.8 Carreras, and the last one for the Boxsters and Cayman.

I takes about 2h30 hour for a mechanic to build a 997TT/GT3/GT3RS engine, and 2 hours for a Carrera engine

Actually, there is one and one robot only which is used to place the front and rear windshields on cars.

 

The only good part about a person doing it is that people have eyes, and some even have common sense, but everyone makes mistakes regardless. Robots can’t tell that a head has a gouge, or there is a bit of material in the sump but they are very good in repetitions. There are a lot of pluses and minuses either way. Even hand built f1 engines blow up (especial when Raikkonen is driving). The bottom line is that if my two hands aren’t the ones turning the wrenches, then it’s all the same to me. I would go see a psychologist about my trust issues, but I think they are well founded because any time you start pushing a piece of metal that fast the possibility of failure starts to creep into the equation.

 

Funny.

 

Robert, its really amazing to see how its done. There about 25 guys and each guy builds 2 entire engines per day. As the line moves the guy moves along with the engine, all of the parts on in the center, he grabs the parts he needs, and then each tool needed to assemble that part is above him, if its a air tool or torque wrench, it stays in place waiting for the next guy to use it. Every engine is then tested, broken in, and checked to be sure that it comes within 1-2% of its stated HP. Also in another room just down the hall is a separate test room, in this room one engine is pulled from the line and its fully inspected and tested, then disassembled back into parts. This is a quality check for the guys that assemble the engines, its random, they do not know which engine will be tested. And yes there is just one robot in the entire factory, it attaches the windshield to the car. After visiting the Mercedes factory where we say many robots, it truly makes you appreciate your Porsche knowing that its all assembled and built by hand.

 

i was there in germany watching them, took a tour and did a porsche thing on the autobahn, great times. they dyno test each engine too !! we were told if its off of spec, that tech is pulled aside with the engine, he has to disassemble it and find out what went wrong...

 

that is worth the price of these cars...period.