996 hasn't even slightly blown up shocker! ;)
Discussion
Mine ticked over 100K miles the other day, happy to report it hasn't exploded yet either. I celebrated by immediately sticking another 800 miles on it over the Easter weekend. As it's a 3.4 99 MY car it should be one of the ones which has picked up on the bore scuffing by now or had an unplanned piston/valve interface from a failed IMS bearing but actually it's fine. Over it's life it's been serviced once a year (by Porsche until I owned it) and thoroughly, relentlessly and constantly "used" in my ownership. Still doesn't use any significant amount of oil (100ml per 1K miles), shows no major bore scuffing and the IMS is still quite.
My old 98 C2 covered 133K miles on the original engine before I took it apart because I felt I should (as everyone said it was sure to explode any second) and it too was fine. Very minor scuffing, IMS had no play, bores were no more oval than most open deck designs at this mileage and that car had done A LOT of track work.
The only thing I've ever done as a "preventative" was not placed the engines in a position of high load on the piston crown when it was likely the engine was warmer than usual and therefore had less clearance. On track I've always given it a few corners for the temps to drop before getting on it and never done any side stepping the clutch off the lights after they've been at idle for a while.
I think 996s are the biggest bargain around and if one goes into ownership with their eyes open they are unlikely to be too upset regardless of outcome. You may be unluckly but there are still an awful lot of cars out there with totally original engines that haven't gone pop. Over a long enough ownership period (three years or so) of a reasonable 996 the cost of an engine rebuild is less than the depreciation on an equivalent Jap performance or similar performance car in my experience!
My old 98 C2 covered 133K miles on the original engine before I took it apart because I felt I should (as everyone said it was sure to explode any second) and it too was fine. Very minor scuffing, IMS had no play, bores were no more oval than most open deck designs at this mileage and that car had done A LOT of track work.
The only thing I've ever done as a "preventative" was not placed the engines in a position of high load on the piston crown when it was likely the engine was warmer than usual and therefore had less clearance. On track I've always given it a few corners for the temps to drop before getting on it and never done any side stepping the clutch off the lights after they've been at idle for a while.
I think 996s are the biggest bargain around and if one goes into ownership with their eyes open they are unlikely to be too upset regardless of outcome. You may be unluckly but there are still an awful lot of cars out there with totally original engines that haven't gone pop. Over a long enough ownership period (three years or so) of a reasonable 996 the cost of an engine rebuild is less than the depreciation on an equivalent Jap performance or similar performance car in my experience!
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