2002 996 Cab with bad engine
 

A friend of my brother’s (casual friend of mine) has this silver 996 that he bought new that has 200,000 miles on it now. He did the clutch recently and did the IMS bearing upgrade. He took it to his local service guy in Walnut Creek, who can only say it’s toast and it’ll take $20K to rebuild. The rest of the car is supposedly pristine. Suggestions (other than V8 conversion)? What’s the car worth with a fresh motor?

Define "fresh" first. If pretty much the same as a factory engine or well known engine builder, then I personally would pay retail for the car if I was in that market. No more.

But the question really is, why is the engine 'toast'? Did the owner drive the car to the shop? Did it stop running all of a sudden? Big Bang?

Not much to go on here so all you're gonna get is speculative comments.

Vertex sells rebuilt 996 engines for $14000.

Bad motor, bad in what way?

Sell it for a few grand to someone who wants to do a V8 swap. Move on.

Serious question, why rule out a LS swap. I rode in one and they're amazing. Owner did the swap himself with a kit he purchased. Kept the original cooling system, trans, everything and the engine was lighter than the original. Since riding in that car I've been looking for a 996 with a toasted engine.

Looking for one? Found one you did.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1598300103.jpg

Re: engine swaps. There is always this:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1037129-build-thread-69-911s-blasphemy-build-lastern-4.html#post10984836

I would get a second opinion. Seems this word toast is thrown around a bit when it just ends up being the Air Oil Seperator or something else. I would post on the Rennlist 996 board. Those guys know water like you guys know air. Impressive bunch.

996 cab w 200k on it is a $6-7k car w nothing wrong w it and nice paint and interior. Get out your calculator and do the math. :)

Just for wild comparisons ....

https://ventura.craigslist.org/cto/d/thousand-oaks-1999-porsche-carrera/7174406225.html

I did a cars.com search on 2002 cabs 500 miles away from Akron.

A silver one with 16k miles, dealer, $30k. Another with 43k miles, private, $27k. Another private seller 67k miles, $22k

Close to and over 100k miles they drop under $20.

Don't know if this link will work.

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action/?mdId=20567&mkId=20081&page=1&perPage=20&prMx=6000 0&rd=500&searchSource=GN_REFINEMENT&sort=relevance &stkTypId=28881&yrId=20142&zc=44685

All I know at this point is the shop in Walnut Creek told him the motor had to be rebuilt.

I spoke with RMG in Sunnyvale (highly regarded from Pelican and I've been using them) and Dan there speculated that a mint 2002 would be worth about $20-25K with an excellent rebuilt motor in it. He offered to buy it for $2,500-3,000 as is. He said for about $200 they could figure out what's wrong with it and he can go from there. Maybe he'll get real lucky. He's not a Chevy V8 kind of guy- I just know that.

What is the math? What's it worth then if it actually needs a complete motor? You make it sound like he ought to call "Kars4Kids" and try to take a 2K write off on taxes.

I think I'd find a way even if I had to buy an old Boxster and move the motor over and resell the Box for a race car project or part it.

Seems like they're in the mid $20Ks with much more reasonable miles, so under $20K without a properly refreshed engine sounds right. Low $20Ks with a nice motor seems about right. Without emotion, it wouldn't make sense to spend more than $20K or so on the motor. Hopefully it can be running nicely for a lot less than $25-30K.

This. You can get a working car for less it costs to repair that one. And even if you repair it you only have clapped out 996 cab.

Get me some pics. I'd give 2500 to 3 for it and send a truck. That thing SCREAMS LS transplant.

We don't know what it will cost to repair this one until a quality second opinion is obtained. If the engine is severely damaged (I suspect that's likely), I agree with you. Supposedly this car has been very well maintained for it's whole life. Aside from the engine, "clapped out" seems unlikely. From what I've seen on this forum, these cars can have a lot of life left in them at 200K. Less valuable, of course.

I told the owner what RMG would pay for the car based on the description I gave them of the car. Hopefully the owner will take the car there for a chance at an affordable and practical repair. I have no idea what he thinks of $2,500-3,000, but he's probably in a state of shock. Tentatively he already has that offer. I'm interested in helping him with some decent advise, not taking pictures to match the offer he already has.

That is why everyone is asking what exactly happened to the engine. If it is D-chunk that broke out from the cylinder, chances are it will need new engine.

That being said, with 200k on the odo there are other things that will need attention soon.

a 996 cab is the bottom of the barrell, there is no fix that will not put him upside down .
He could consider a used motor and install at closer to 10k, but thats a roll of the dice.