Higher mile GT3...

[Dan911]

Hi,

What miles are GT3 engines good for?

Seen this but the miles worry me a little -

www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/porsche/...

I will only be doing 3,000-5,000 miles a year, mainly road miles with the odd euro blast and track day, just don't want a big engine bill looming...

Is there a history of GT3's needing a rebuild at certain miles?.

Thanks

[Magic919]

I'm sure Jeremy could answer this one. :-)

There was a 180,000 miler on here a while back.

[Dan911]

I remember that car, blue if I remember correctly?

But is that the norm?

[Vixpy1]

That car is a corker, been very well looked after

[Harris_I]

Usual applies - buy on condition not mileage. In theory 79,000 is nothing for the Mezger. Frankly at 30 grand to experience the peak of automotive brilliance, banking 10 grand on a future engine/gearbox refresh is nothing. I'm tempted myself except I already have a GT3 and the missus will kick me out for suggesting a spare.

[jeremyc]

Hi Dan. As others have intimated, that's my old car.

Go and have a look at the maintenance and service history on it; it hasn't wanted for anything mechanically.

[VonSenger]

thats not cheap! 30k, gen 1, that mileage and a left hooker. Am I missing something?

[mollytherocker]

VonSenger said:

thats not cheap! 30k, gen 1, that mileage and a left hooker. Am I missing something?

What would you value it at?

[mikem7709]

I'd value it at £40K in 5yrs time ;-)

[nxi20]

When my 996.2 GT3 was rebuilt at 85K miles (about 20K of that was on track), the bottom end was perfect but it needed a complete change of valves, guides & seats even though it was still making good power and was consuming no oil. The pistons, rings & bores were perfect also.

In hindsight, it was probably possible to run it until it started to lose power or consume oil but I hate the idea of running an engine until it gets to that point.

[tracydeedance]

Can not speak for the engine on this one but that mileage is nothing for a mezger engine if its had regular oil services.

I saw this car at a photo shoot for Gt purley porsche which comes out in issue for January.It looked a nice car but could do with a bit of paint just on the insides of all 4 wheel arches from stone rashing.
The guy said it was driven regulary so dont see any issues.
As said its a good price in my opinion as they seem to be slowly rising in value.
If your thinking of it just get a good GT3 specialist to give it a check over.

[Crimp a Length!]

Just run in.
Don't let miles put you off the car is priced correctly.
I had a GT2 with 79k miles on which i bought at the right price and thus sold at the right price, all relative.
79k miles are nothing for a modern car and i'd say in some cases its better than a 15k mile garage queen.
If i had the space i'd buy today and have it parked next to my GT3 Mark 2.

[JEA1K]

mikem7709 said:

I'd value it at £40K in 5yrs time ;-)

[BertBert]

So with this experience in mind - a top end rebuild at 85k miles, how would you check the engine condition of a high miler? Would the need for valves etc show in a leak-down test?

Bert

nxi20 said:

When my 996.2 GT3 was rebuilt at 85K miles (about 20K of that was on track), the bottom end was perfect but it needed a complete change of valves, guides & seats even though it was still making good power and was consuming no oil. The pistons, rings & bores were perfect also.

[ATM]

jeremyc said:

Hi Dan. As others have intimated, that's my old car.

Go and have a look at the maintenance and service history on it; it hasn't wanted for anything mechanically.

In that case it must be a wreck right?

[SignalGruen]

nxi20 said:

When my 996.2 GT3 was rebuilt at 85K miles (about 20K of that was on track), the bottom end was perfect but it needed a complete change of valves, guides & seats even though it was still making good power and was consuming no oil. The pistons, rings & bores were perfect also.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did the rebuilt cost ?

[Slippydiff]

BertBert said:

So with this experience in mind - a top end rebuild at 85k miles, how would you check the engine condition of a high miler? Would the need for valves etc show in a leak-down test?

Bert

Yep, a leakdown test will establish if the bores/rings, valves/valve guides are worn. If the figures are low, you can squirt oil down the bores via the plug holes, this will temporarily "seal" worn rings. You can then carry out a second leakdown test and if you get a higher reading, it's most likely indicative of worn rings rather than a valveguide/seat issue. Not foolproof, but it's pretty immaterial, as if the leakdown figures are low, there's an issue which will need attending to at some point.

[unclepezza]

It looked like a good car at the GT Porsche photo shoot from what I saw, as previously mentioned and visible in the advert it could do with a small cosmetic tidy up on wheel arches and lower mouldings due to gravel rash, but nothing to worry about.

Lovely colour Zanzibar Red, plus wider audience come resale value as being LHD.

As already said get a good inspection done and go from there, good opportunity to "upgrade" items as you go and gets you into GT3 ownership at £30k.

Mind you didn't know the GT3 was offered with permanent all wheel drive....(seems the auto populated info on the advert could do with being corrected) :-)

Edited by unclepezza on Wednesday 20th November 17:14

[nxi20]

BertBert said:

So with this experience in mind - a top end rebuild at 85k miles, how would you check the engine condition of a high miler? Would the need for valves etc show in a leak-down test?

Bert

nxi20 said:

When my 996.2 GT3 was rebuilt at 85K miles (about 20K of that was on track), the bottom end was perfect but it needed a complete change of valves, guides & seats even though it was still making good power and was consuming no oil. The pistons, rings & bores were perfect also.

Even the leakdown didn't show anything to be concerned about. When stripped, there was play in the guides & the valves/seats were quite pitted. As I said, it probably could have done another 20K miles & still been running fine. Engine hours was 1700 but with a good amount of track work. You don't see a GT3 with a 50mph average speed on the ECU as a rule, so I erred on the side of caution.

[nxi20]

SignalGruen said:

If you don't mind me asking, how much did the rebuilt cost ?

There isn't a simple answer to that question because it was far from a simple rebuild. It became a 3.9 and apart from the heads, cases, water jackets, crank & cams, everything was replaced.

For a "simple" top-end rebuild, I would guess £8K-ish. Mine was somewhat more than that