Life expectacy of a 2001 996 motor?

[HardDrive]

My local dealer has a C2 for sale with 71,000 miles on it. Assuming it has the original engine, what kind of life expectacy do these motors have?

[450knotOffice]

I have 64,000 miles on my 2000 996 and it runs absolutely perfectly - which includes about 800+ track miles. I'm guessing my engine has a lot more life left in it.

Personally, I'd call Laura Hergesheimer at Hergesheimer Motorsports down here in SoCal. Mark and Laura own the place and have been in the business for 30+ years. Laura's very nice and friendly and knows more about these cars than just about anyone. She'll give you a straight answer. She's a fellow Pelican, btw, but doesn't post much these days.

http://www.hergesheimer.com/

[purplxd]

When you get that answer, let us know.

I just picked up a C2 with 73,000 miles on it.


A

[Rickker]

About 6 weeks ago, I bought a 1999 C4 with 153,000 km on the odometer, which is getting pretty close to 100,000 miles. So, I am also interested to an answer to this question. All I can say is that the engine has good low speed torque, and pulls very strongly all the way up to 7000 RPM. In the limited amount of driving I have done, there is no indication of oil consumption.

Let's all remember, that these days, there are lots of Honda, Mazda and other engines that are still going strong with over 200,000 miles on them. I'm sure that our Porsche engines are built for the long term as well.

...Rickker

[Chuck Jones]

Interesting question....and one that I researched fairly extensively when I bought my 99 996. The answer is all over the place....some claiming early failures, others praising the longevity of the engines. It appears that there were some lots that were prone to failures...the most common being intermediate shaft failures, intermix either thru failure of a "D" shaped piece from between the cylinder walls, or pourous blocks that allowed the oil and coolant to intermix.

I found myself getting overly anxious over what seemed to be numerous reports of failures, but then I had to remember that there are literally thousands of these cars out there, and you only hear of the failures. What actual percentage of the total numbers actually failed? To some degree Porsche made it very difficult to make any sort of determination by their policy of replacing the engines that failed under warranty rather than rebuilding them....so the actual "autopsy" to determine the cause was seldom known.

After the warranties ran out, more and more were being rebuilt by well known rebuilders such as the Auto Farm in England....and the failed intermediate shafts, rear main seal failures, and intermix issues have been published....however exactly what the real percentages of these failures are in the grand scheme of the thousands produced is still a best guess scenario. I do know that the Auto Farm is "frightfully busy" rebuilding engines and would be a great place to contact to ask what they most frequently see, and how often.

I was always happy to see the folks who would publish their 100K + mileage figures becasue it reinforced my belief that they didn't fail as frequently as some would lead to believe.

Since I've moved into a 3.6L engine in the TT, I find that I have few if any previous concerns over the longevity of the engine.

[insite]

the real answer is that no one knows how long it takes to wear one of these motors out, because no one has done it yet. sure, there have been premature failures due to IMS issues or oblong cylinder bore issues. no one, to my knowledge, has driven one until it just wore out. i have a '99 boxster; same basic motor. i'm at 127k HARD miles, many on track. there are finally some reports of 200k boxsters that still run like champs.

it's a crap shoot whether any premature failures will affect any individual car. if it made it past 50k miles, chances of premature failure seem to diminish. MOST of these will run for a very, very long time. hopefully yours is in that group.

[Brett@pcc]

I agree. in many cases we have only recently found out how long the SC and carrera engines are lasting. i think on the whole these cars are driven more sparingly or tuned or tracked. Definitely confident that a PorSChe engine that's maintained would match anything on the road in output and longevity. We'll see many of them in the 200'S easily.

[Greg996]

I bought a 2000 996 about 15 months ago with 70k miles. PPI turned up nothing other than two spark plug tubes seeping.

No track time yet, but it now has 75k miles. The recent major service turned up absolutely nothing. Tranny and clutch are fine, too.

I never drove a brand new 996, but this car is tight, responsive, eager to run to 7 grand--and used one "bar" of oil in 5,000 miles. I expect a lot from a car of the 911 lineage (had an 86 911 and an 86 930), but frankly, I'm amazed.

[Elfer]

Mine went at 100,000 miles, and the guy I bought my Litronics from has 200,000 when his engine gave up.