Has your 996 or 997 engine had a major rebuild?
Poll: Has your 996 or 997 engine had a major rebuild?
Total Members Polled: 867
Discussion
Perhaps it is time for some sensible reflections. The failures of these engines are not as easily predictable because they rely on the quality and distribution of the silicon particles in the Lokasil preforms and how they orientated themselves in the castings when the high pressure molten aluminium was compressed at 100 bar and the bonding of the piston coatings (the amazing variations of which can be seen in photos in our reports on bore scoring free from admin@hartech.org)
Then engines in drivers cars who never apply high torque will generally get longer life (because the oil is usually cooler and thicker and the thrust loads squashing the piston against the cylinder wall with a piece of silicon trapped between it are lower) and those who use relatively higher revs (but not combined with full throttle) maintain better cylinder wall oil film thicknesses (so Tiptronics suffer slightly more).
Continual high revs may well reduce bore scoring but reduce big end shell bearing life.
We have had failures from as little as 15K and as high as 170K but at the high end they all have piston coating loss, worn crankshaft shells etc and many unable to rebuild without more new parts.
Statistically whether it is 10% or 30% doesn't change the fact that they are on average capable of less miles than their 944/968 counterparts or their 911 earlier variants. it also doesn't change the facts that most will eventually require a rebuild and at least there are now good options either when that happens or beforehand.
Whenever you talk statistics you inevitably get someone who didn't fit into the main stream masses and gets upset because "THEIR CAR DIDN@T LAST THAT LONG OR LASTED MUCH LONGER" and I think it might just be worthwhile reflecting on the fact that these statistics are extremely helpful when enabling prospective owners to assess risks and perhaps more importantly specialists to invest in the right level of and amount of facilities to cater for them.
We assessed the first engine over 20 years ago and made an engineering decision that sufficient numbers would fail for long enough to justify investing it R & D, technical solutions, manufacturing plant, training skilled and experienced labour, and it has paid off. It too was a risk but statistics still help us direct the growth of the business and are therefore valuable.
Problem is if you make a general statement like "generally men are more into cars than women" you immediately get some angry person telling you that they know a female who is mad about cars etc.
Statistics don't lie but of their very nature they do NOT APPLY TO ALL THINGS NOR EVERBODY OR EVERY CAR.
The best thing is that STATISTICALLY a Hartech re-manufactured standard or increased capacity engine has proven to be a very good option if and when a repair is needed.
Baz
Then engines in drivers cars who never apply high torque will generally get longer life (because the oil is usually cooler and thicker and the thrust loads squashing the piston against the cylinder wall with a piece of silicon trapped between it are lower) and those who use relatively higher revs (but not combined with full throttle) maintain better cylinder wall oil film thicknesses (so Tiptronics suffer slightly more).
Continual high revs may well reduce bore scoring but reduce big end shell bearing life.
We have had failures from as little as 15K and as high as 170K but at the high end they all have piston coating loss, worn crankshaft shells etc and many unable to rebuild without more new parts.
Statistically whether it is 10% or 30% doesn't change the fact that they are on average capable of less miles than their 944/968 counterparts or their 911 earlier variants. it also doesn't change the facts that most will eventually require a rebuild and at least there are now good options either when that happens or beforehand.
Whenever you talk statistics you inevitably get someone who didn't fit into the main stream masses and gets upset because "THEIR CAR DIDN@T LAST THAT LONG OR LASTED MUCH LONGER" and I think it might just be worthwhile reflecting on the fact that these statistics are extremely helpful when enabling prospective owners to assess risks and perhaps more importantly specialists to invest in the right level of and amount of facilities to cater for them.
We assessed the first engine over 20 years ago and made an engineering decision that sufficient numbers would fail for long enough to justify investing it R & D, technical solutions, manufacturing plant, training skilled and experienced labour, and it has paid off. It too was a risk but statistics still help us direct the growth of the business and are therefore valuable.
Problem is if you make a general statement like "generally men are more into cars than women" you immediately get some angry person telling you that they know a female who is mad about cars etc.
Statistics don't lie but of their very nature they do NOT APPLY TO ALL THINGS NOR EVERBODY OR EVERY CAR.
The best thing is that STATISTICALLY a Hartech re-manufactured standard or increased capacity engine has proven to be a very good option if and when a repair is needed.
Baz
Edited by hartech on Monday 14th June 07:27
simonas2702 said:
Mine had a full rebuild and modded from 3.4 to 3.7 at a cost of £15.5k 400 miles before I bought it. 20k miles again the other month it went pop and I was told before another few quid was spent it was the crank bearing. Made me a nervous wreck!
Tough luck 
Who did the rebuild? It always strikes me as odd, when people sell their pride and joy immediately after a rebuild. Especially if it has an enlarged engine, as most often you don‘t get your money back from a rebuild.
I was under the impression crank bearings get replaced when you rebuild the block. Or where the new bearings not up to the increased power of the 3.7?
Filibuster said:
Tough luck
Who did the rebuild? It always strikes me as odd, when people sell their pride and joy immediately after a rebuild. Especially if it has an enlarged engine, as most often you don‘t get your money back from a rebuild.
I was under the impression crank bearings get replaced when you rebuild the block. Or where the new bearings not up to the increased power of the 3.7?
It was Hartech. The lad I bought it from was a neighbour with a young family. He lost his job during lockdown a month after getting it back from the rebuild. £39k it owed him!!Who did the rebuild? It always strikes me as odd, when people sell their pride and joy immediately after a rebuild. Especially if it has an enlarged engine, as most often you don‘t get your money back from a rebuild.
I was under the impression crank bearings get replaced when you rebuild the block. Or where the new bearings not up to the increased power of the 3.7?
Yep the crank bearings were replaced but Hartech said they no longer use the crank bearings that were used in 2020 and use a much better one now that they have developed!
simonas2702 said:
Filibuster said:
Tough luck
Who did the rebuild? It always strikes me as odd, when people sell their pride and joy immediately after a rebuild. Especially if it has an enlarged engine, as most often you don‘t get your money back from a rebuild.
I was under the impression crank bearings get replaced when you rebuild the block. Or where the new bearings not up to the increased power of the 3.7?
It was Hartech. The lad I bought it from was a neighbour with a young family. He lost his job during lockdown a month after getting it back from the rebuild. £39k it owed him!!Who did the rebuild? It always strikes me as odd, when people sell their pride and joy immediately after a rebuild. Especially if it has an enlarged engine, as most often you don‘t get your money back from a rebuild.
I was under the impression crank bearings get replaced when you rebuild the block. Or where the new bearings not up to the increased power of the 3.7?
Yep the crank bearings were replaced but Hartech said they no longer use the crank bearings that were used in 2020 and use a much better one now that they have developed!
According to their homepage, the warranty for a crank bearing is 24k miles/24 months (no track driving). It didn't occur during that time per chance??
Any rebuild other than a full £15k+ bells and whistles job from ‘you know who’ gets dismissed as not worth the money, yet their top of the line job lasts a bit over 2.5 years and 24k miles 
If you’re going to give it Bily big b
ks about your product it had better stand up.
I’d love to know how many miles are on some of these allegedly ‘bullet proof’ rebuilds that are wel in to 5 figures… how many are weekend cars that do a couple of thousand miles a year, and how many are properly driven? Porsche have had enough bad press around the M96, yet there are loads of cars well in to 6 figure mileages.
If you’re going to give it Bily big b
ks about your product it had better stand up. I’d love to know how many miles are on some of these allegedly ‘bullet proof’ rebuilds that are wel in to 5 figures… how many are weekend cars that do a couple of thousand miles a year, and how many are properly driven? Porsche have had enough bad press around the M96, yet there are loads of cars well in to 6 figure mileages.
Our track record of reliability for both road and racing is superb and problems are extremely rare. The reputation we have is well deserved but after hundreds of rebuilds lasting extremely high miles I suppose there is always a very rare possibility of a failure. Despite the issue falling outside of our warranty (and that of the component supplier – Porsche) the work was carried out at a greatly reduced cost. We didn’t need to, but we wanted to help.
The main Achilles heel we found when racing was crank shaft bearing big end failure. In common with a lot of modern engines, the normally aspirated M96 onwards standard Porsche offerings are a much lower cost product when compared to their predecessors like 944/968, air cooled family including 993 (as used in the 996 Turbo & GT3) etc. Despite this they’re usually more than good enough to withstand normal road use, but we found that they were occasionally not quite up to it on the track. Unfortunately, neither Porsche (nor anyone else) offer a better-quality alternative so, following our usual approach of trying to improve inherent weak spots, we have now invested a considerable amount to get them made exclusively for us by the motor-sport division of the world’s leading crank bearing manufacturer.
They’re a joint design between ourselves and their technical guys and are wider than the original Porsche design to utilise as much of the crankshaft journal width as possible whilst being made from far better material. (They’re actually made by the exact same people who make low volume high precision Formula 1 crank bearings and are superb).
They’ve been tested on the track and are now offered in all our 996/997 Gen 1 rebuilds (with the majority of customers choosing them) and are available to other engine re-builders.
Following Porsche’s recent price hikes (around 70% for cranks & 50% for bearings) we’re now expanding the range so that we can offer main bearings & exchange professionally repaired re-hardened crank shafts. This is a huge investment for us but we aim to help keep Porsche motoring affordable for many years to come !
Whenever a weakness showed itself we tried our best to provide the best solution and have done so with the cylinders, pistons, IMS bearings and for racing the sumps etc, but we cannot manufacture a whole new engine and really all we can do whenever something starts to show up as a very rare weakness is try to solve it – as we have done once again over the crankshaft issues.
Our products for road use are tested on track with endurance racing results of reliable performance and class wins – but there are additional products we advise for track use – for road use our solutions are excellent. It is however fair to say that these were designed as a budget Porsche which we have managed to improve in lots of areas whenever the need arises.
The main Achilles heel we found when racing was crank shaft bearing big end failure. In common with a lot of modern engines, the normally aspirated M96 onwards standard Porsche offerings are a much lower cost product when compared to their predecessors like 944/968, air cooled family including 993 (as used in the 996 Turbo & GT3) etc. Despite this they’re usually more than good enough to withstand normal road use, but we found that they were occasionally not quite up to it on the track. Unfortunately, neither Porsche (nor anyone else) offer a better-quality alternative so, following our usual approach of trying to improve inherent weak spots, we have now invested a considerable amount to get them made exclusively for us by the motor-sport division of the world’s leading crank bearing manufacturer.
They’re a joint design between ourselves and their technical guys and are wider than the original Porsche design to utilise as much of the crankshaft journal width as possible whilst being made from far better material. (They’re actually made by the exact same people who make low volume high precision Formula 1 crank bearings and are superb).
They’ve been tested on the track and are now offered in all our 996/997 Gen 1 rebuilds (with the majority of customers choosing them) and are available to other engine re-builders.
Following Porsche’s recent price hikes (around 70% for cranks & 50% for bearings) we’re now expanding the range so that we can offer main bearings & exchange professionally repaired re-hardened crank shafts. This is a huge investment for us but we aim to help keep Porsche motoring affordable for many years to come !
Whenever a weakness showed itself we tried our best to provide the best solution and have done so with the cylinders, pistons, IMS bearings and for racing the sumps etc, but we cannot manufacture a whole new engine and really all we can do whenever something starts to show up as a very rare weakness is try to solve it – as we have done once again over the crankshaft issues.
Our products for road use are tested on track with endurance racing results of reliable performance and class wins – but there are additional products we advise for track use – for road use our solutions are excellent. It is however fair to say that these were designed as a budget Porsche which we have managed to improve in lots of areas whenever the need arises.
Edited by hartech on Friday 19th May 15:03
hartech said:
Our track record of reliability for both road and racing is superb and problems are extremely rare. The reputation we have is well deserved but after hundreds of rebuilds lasting extremely high miles I suppose there is always a very rare possibility of a failure. Despite the issue falling outside of our warranty (and that of the component supplier – Porsche) the work was carried out at a greatly reduced cost. We didn’t need to, but we wanted to help.
What’s ‘extremely high miles’? My 3.4 has c.210k miles (all original) and there are loads of cars in the ‘what’s an early 996’ thread on 130k+.
I’d expect a £15k+ rebuild to be completely bomb proof and the builder to stand by their work for more than 24k miles or 24 months given the claims made about superiority vs the original product (assuming proper maintenance).
Chris - As a loose guide we suggest people start to think about re-building them at around 100k miles but many many have passed this. Some of this model range that we have repaired failed around 15K and many others in the 50-60 K bracket but of course there are also some that last very much longer. Anyone reading our free technical literature on the subject knows that we have identified some technical areas where there is a random nature to the failures depending on casting quality, piston coating quality etc where we have shown pictures of the different failure modes to prove it. It is not our fault if that random nature makes it difficult to make rebuild mileage recommendations that some with better quality internals easily exceed - but most are getting close to crankshaft wear limits around 100K. That’s one reason why we created our capacity conversions to make a pre-emptive rebuild more attractive.
We’ve been re-building these engines for around 20 years and I dare say we’ve re-built a couple of thousand and have rarely seen inside any of them again.
It is IMHO entirely unfair to criticise us for not providing a longer warranty than the many parts we have to use that are sourced directly from Porsche themselves – if they are not prepared to extend their warranty any further on what basis should we carry the can if they fail?
Yours demonstrates that the engines aren’t as fragile as the internet chat sometimes leads people to believe which is great – you obviously are lucky enough to own a car with a lot of good engine parts in it on the better side of random quality and we wish you well with it. However, to add balance, whilst there are plenty that run fault free for high mileages there are many that don’t and we see patterns of 2 classic issues kicking in at around 100k miles (hence our suggestion). Only today we’ve stripped an engine for crank bearing failure at a much lower mileage than even we would expect (and fortunately just got to it in time before it ate into the crank). Xray eyes would be nice at times !
I don’t think there is any other business providing so many re-designed and manufactured parts as us or to a higher quality or standard – but statistics will always show there are going to be some exceptions and I think it is creditable that we discounted the repair for something we did not design or manufacture and that we have gone to the trouble of investing in improving the quality of that very part afterwards (among so many others).
The spend you refer to included a lot more than just a re-build but we don’t want to (and legally cannot) break customer confidentiality (makes it hard to give the full story in the public domain), but yes, as uncommon as it is, it’s disappointing when a component fails (even when we haven’t made it and it’s outside of Porsche’s warranty which is why we stepped in and helped !). Fortunately it’s a very rare event and as mentioned in our lengthy post above, we now have superior bearings manufactured by the F1 suppliers.
You might well expect a rebuild to have a longer warranty but if you ever need one you will not find anywhere better able to offer such a statistically reliable product nor a bunch of people more reasonable to try and help on the very rare occasions when it was not their fault.
That said we cannot eliminate every single possible original part or Porsche supplied part from possible premature failure and of course have no way of knowing how different drivers use their cars or how they were maintained that sometimes can be relevant.
We’ve been re-building these engines for around 20 years and I dare say we’ve re-built a couple of thousand and have rarely seen inside any of them again.
It is IMHO entirely unfair to criticise us for not providing a longer warranty than the many parts we have to use that are sourced directly from Porsche themselves – if they are not prepared to extend their warranty any further on what basis should we carry the can if they fail?
Yours demonstrates that the engines aren’t as fragile as the internet chat sometimes leads people to believe which is great – you obviously are lucky enough to own a car with a lot of good engine parts in it on the better side of random quality and we wish you well with it. However, to add balance, whilst there are plenty that run fault free for high mileages there are many that don’t and we see patterns of 2 classic issues kicking in at around 100k miles (hence our suggestion). Only today we’ve stripped an engine for crank bearing failure at a much lower mileage than even we would expect (and fortunately just got to it in time before it ate into the crank). Xray eyes would be nice at times !
I don’t think there is any other business providing so many re-designed and manufactured parts as us or to a higher quality or standard – but statistics will always show there are going to be some exceptions and I think it is creditable that we discounted the repair for something we did not design or manufacture and that we have gone to the trouble of investing in improving the quality of that very part afterwards (among so many others).
The spend you refer to included a lot more than just a re-build but we don’t want to (and legally cannot) break customer confidentiality (makes it hard to give the full story in the public domain), but yes, as uncommon as it is, it’s disappointing when a component fails (even when we haven’t made it and it’s outside of Porsche’s warranty which is why we stepped in and helped !). Fortunately it’s a very rare event and as mentioned in our lengthy post above, we now have superior bearings manufactured by the F1 suppliers.
You might well expect a rebuild to have a longer warranty but if you ever need one you will not find anywhere better able to offer such a statistically reliable product nor a bunch of people more reasonable to try and help on the very rare occasions when it was not their fault.
That said we cannot eliminate every single possible original part or Porsche supplied part from possible premature failure and of course have no way of knowing how different drivers use their cars or how they were maintained that sometimes can be relevant.
Its hard to reply to that essay , Baz, without appearing flippant, but that’s not my intention…
I know your reputation… I’ve owned my car for 17 years and covered over 150k miles in that time… you can’t be around 996’s that length of time without hearing of Hartech.
I’ve read your stuff over the years, and I know you know a lot about the engines.
However, with regard to this particular discussion… if I were contemplating a rebuild with you, why would I ‘invest’ in all the optional ‘improved’ parts at significant extra cost if a part you buy off the shelf can fail in a couple of years… leaving me with another massive bill.
May as well go for the cheapest rebuild I can find… I’ll probably get 2 of those for similar money to the full bells and whistles… which will likely last longer than 2 years.
I’m struggling to see the value personally.
I know your reputation… I’ve owned my car for 17 years and covered over 150k miles in that time… you can’t be around 996’s that length of time without hearing of Hartech.
I’ve read your stuff over the years, and I know you know a lot about the engines.
However, with regard to this particular discussion… if I were contemplating a rebuild with you, why would I ‘invest’ in all the optional ‘improved’ parts at significant extra cost if a part you buy off the shelf can fail in a couple of years… leaving me with another massive bill.
May as well go for the cheapest rebuild I can find… I’ll probably get 2 of those for similar money to the full bells and whistles… which will likely last longer than 2 years.
I’m struggling to see the value personally.
Because our reliability rating is in the over 99.84% which is higher than the original manufacturer and higher by miles than the other engine builders whose engines comeback here (as publicised, photographed and proven by us on our Lee's Gurus forum almost on an almost weekly basis). Also for that minute % that might experience a problem out of warranty - our helpful approach to the cost is significant and unlikely to be available from your preferred cheap rebuilders.
I also noted that you have apparently read all about the issues in our free technical reports, seen the proof and photos, read the results of racing success with those standard rebuild parts but don't value them preferring a cheap rebuild instead and being prepared to do it again as a consequence - fair enough - it takes all sorts!
You didn't answer the question about why we should stand the cost of a failure of a part supplied from who has recently been the most profitable manufacturer in the World after their own warranty period has elapsed.
When you state many examples have covered higher mileages -- I am not sure if by that you mean that all the failures Worldwide that many businesses repair - are a figment of their imagination? or if you accept the volumes that do fail - nor understand what we are supposed to do about it when trying to provide advisories?
I am also unsure what it wrong with a small business investing in trying to do a better job for owners of an engine range that should have been much more reliable from the start when the main original manufacturers have not?
But look - it is a free World and you are entitled to your opinion and to express it for others to read (although I do wonder why?) - I hope your own engine continues be be trouble free and that you never have to have it rebuilt. If you ever do I hope your belief that an inferior rebuild using parts proven to be less reliable than ours proves to work out for you and that if they do go wrong you find two rebuilds cost the same as one that for the vast majority of satisfied customers is fantastically reliable and lasts longer than the original manufacturer managed.
Personally if it ever came to it I would expect that to demonstrate that your present opinion was wrong - but there are plenty of alternatives and if you ever need one I hope you find what you are looking for.
I also noted that you have apparently read all about the issues in our free technical reports, seen the proof and photos, read the results of racing success with those standard rebuild parts but don't value them preferring a cheap rebuild instead and being prepared to do it again as a consequence - fair enough - it takes all sorts!
You didn't answer the question about why we should stand the cost of a failure of a part supplied from who has recently been the most profitable manufacturer in the World after their own warranty period has elapsed.
When you state many examples have covered higher mileages -- I am not sure if by that you mean that all the failures Worldwide that many businesses repair - are a figment of their imagination? or if you accept the volumes that do fail - nor understand what we are supposed to do about it when trying to provide advisories?
I am also unsure what it wrong with a small business investing in trying to do a better job for owners of an engine range that should have been much more reliable from the start when the main original manufacturers have not?
But look - it is a free World and you are entitled to your opinion and to express it for others to read (although I do wonder why?) - I hope your own engine continues be be trouble free and that you never have to have it rebuilt. If you ever do I hope your belief that an inferior rebuild using parts proven to be less reliable than ours proves to work out for you and that if they do go wrong you find two rebuilds cost the same as one that for the vast majority of satisfied customers is fantastically reliable and lasts longer than the original manufacturer managed.
Personally if it ever came to it I would expect that to demonstrate that your present opinion was wrong - but there are plenty of alternatives and if you ever need one I hope you find what you are looking for.
Ok, well that obviously touched a nerve!
The fact that the failed component is from a 3rd party is irrelevant (whoever that 3rd party is)… you’re providing a total solution, at a premium price. It’s your responsibility to find/source components that can deliver the level of quality that justifies your price point.
If, overall, your failure rate is less than one in a thousand you can clearly afford to stand by your product (you have more than enough margin) and make it right with the owner… particularly when it’s your most premium product.
The fact that the failed component is from a 3rd party is irrelevant (whoever that 3rd party is)… you’re providing a total solution, at a premium price. It’s your responsibility to find/source components that can deliver the level of quality that justifies your price point.
If, overall, your failure rate is less than one in a thousand you can clearly afford to stand by your product (you have more than enough margin) and make it right with the owner… particularly when it’s your most premium product.
Unfortunately simple questions do need long answers sometimes but a few paragraphs defending your criticism is hardly an essay and reveals and underlying intent to damage the rightly hard won reputation of one of the best providers of engine solutions for this engine range.
In the particular example half the cost wouldn’t have touched what was needed. If we remove the extra things that were originally needed (and can’t go into detail as it’s the private information of our original customer) then it will be similar to what most charge.
An issue like this could have happened no matter who built it but your argument about off the shelf parts can be applied to most things which fail in anything, let alone engines, but what sets us apart is how we identify patterns of failure, look at the causes and then develop improvements where we can like we have done in this case. Most of the off the shelf parts are adequate - there are just a handful which fall short and we’ve picked up the mantle where we can where others have just left them be (and continue to do so as new patterns emerge) which should be applauded rather than criticised.
Why come to us ? Well, self promotion quite rightly isn’t allowed on here so I won’t get on a sales pitch (nor want to as we’re too busy anyway) but I doubt there’s anyone as experienced, well equipped with their own in-house machine shop, has developed as many solutions as we have and back up our work as well as we do contrary to what you may think.
But, you have your views and are free to use who you like should the time come and we wish you well.
In the particular example half the cost wouldn’t have touched what was needed. If we remove the extra things that were originally needed (and can’t go into detail as it’s the private information of our original customer) then it will be similar to what most charge.
An issue like this could have happened no matter who built it but your argument about off the shelf parts can be applied to most things which fail in anything, let alone engines, but what sets us apart is how we identify patterns of failure, look at the causes and then develop improvements where we can like we have done in this case. Most of the off the shelf parts are adequate - there are just a handful which fall short and we’ve picked up the mantle where we can where others have just left them be (and continue to do so as new patterns emerge) which should be applauded rather than criticised.
Why come to us ? Well, self promotion quite rightly isn’t allowed on here so I won’t get on a sales pitch (nor want to as we’re too busy anyway) but I doubt there’s anyone as experienced, well equipped with their own in-house machine shop, has developed as many solutions as we have and back up our work as well as we do contrary to what you may think.
But, you have your views and are free to use who you like should the time come and we wish you well.
Chris Stott said:
Ok, well that obviously touched a nerve!
The fact that the failed component is from a 3rd party is irrelevant (whoever that 3rd party is)… you’re providing a total solution, at a premium price. It’s your responsibility to find/source components that can deliver the level of quality that justifies your price point.
If, overall, your failure rate is less than one in a thousand you can clearly afford to stand by your product (you have more than enough margin) and make it right with the owner… particularly when it’s your most premium product.
Hartech provided an engine rebuild option, at a quoted price, a warranty of a stated time, from components available at that time. The fact that the failed component is from a 3rd party is irrelevant (whoever that 3rd party is)… you’re providing a total solution, at a premium price. It’s your responsibility to find/source components that can deliver the level of quality that justifies your price point.
If, overall, your failure rate is less than one in a thousand you can clearly afford to stand by your product (you have more than enough margin) and make it right with the owner… particularly when it’s your most premium product.
You seem to state that a £15.5k price should mean it's 'bullet proof', as 'premium', but it doesn't work like that, it's just a higher price than others. They all have their own risks & advantages, eg;- I had a 'Premium' 3rd party warranty/insurance for a car, it was the most comprehensive I could find, better than all the others, & most expensive, but it still didn't cover everything that could go wrong. 'Premium' isn't infallible.
'Bullet proof' would mean a higher price again. It's up to the person spending the money to do the research, weigh up the risk & if it's worth it. No one is forcing anyone to spend this money.
Perhaps the real question should be why Porsche are still making these products if there are these potential issues? The reason is cost. They've weighed up warranty work costs v profit v reputation, & come out on this side of the equation. If Porsche doesn't care enough to improve components, it's customer choice if they wish to have a product by a company that thinks/acts this way, irrespective of price point.
If Hartech helped out, it's more than Porsche did. Things can always go wrong, but it's the way the supplying company acts that makes the difference.
Others can try & solve the issue as data comes available, it may take years. Any company/individual also has to make the difficult financial/time decision to invest in finding this product. Customers can at least be glad there are the Hartech options. Like the TVR Speed 6 engine, which had/can have issues, it took time to resolve them, but it can now be had with a 5 yr/100k mile warranty - engineering solutions are out there, but it's still up to the customer if it's worth it to them.
And by a stroke of luck, irony (or perhaps Karma) on the same day we wrote about premature crankshaft bearing failure the next engine we stripped had these in it - std Porsche big ends that have failed at a fraction of the mileage some others manage to cover.
That it is not our fault - we were not involved but unlike the manufacturer who never improved that product and just elevated the price hugely of a new crankshaft - we try to do a better job for our customers so have developed a re-hardening process and proved it over more than a decade and now have much higher quality big ends available.
What advice should we give when some fail like this at very moderate mileages and other last longer?
The cost of investment in that new product is huge for our tiny business and will not show a profit for several years (if ever) but will help our customers enjoy greater reliability for longer.
There are other things we could invest in that make a better return but we are devoted to helping people with Porsches enjoy the marque that we all love despite their short comings.
We provide the best cylinder replacement solution, pistons from the most prestigious manufacturer, wider higher quality big ends and now main bearings with a properly re-hardened crankshaft solution and shells to suit (when others claim its Ok to grind through the thin hard layer and run on the softer interior metal).
I am finishing with this topic now - more important things to do for customers than respond to what I regard as purposely critical attention seeking posts with no logical or engineering based reasoning to them and facts and figures miles off the mark.
Baz
That it is not our fault - we were not involved but unlike the manufacturer who never improved that product and just elevated the price hugely of a new crankshaft - we try to do a better job for our customers so have developed a re-hardening process and proved it over more than a decade and now have much higher quality big ends available.
What advice should we give when some fail like this at very moderate mileages and other last longer?
The cost of investment in that new product is huge for our tiny business and will not show a profit for several years (if ever) but will help our customers enjoy greater reliability for longer.
There are other things we could invest in that make a better return but we are devoted to helping people with Porsches enjoy the marque that we all love despite their short comings.
We provide the best cylinder replacement solution, pistons from the most prestigious manufacturer, wider higher quality big ends and now main bearings with a properly re-hardened crankshaft solution and shells to suit (when others claim its Ok to grind through the thin hard layer and run on the softer interior metal).
I am finishing with this topic now - more important things to do for customers than respond to what I regard as purposely critical attention seeking posts with no logical or engineering based reasoning to them and facts and figures miles off the mark.
Baz
hartech said:
...
I am finishing with this topic now - more important things to do for customers than respond to what I regard as purposely critical attention seeking posts with no logical or engineering based reasoning to them and facts and figures miles off the mark.
Baz
Please try not to take these internet baiters to heart, you offer a great service for all your customers and stand out amongst the crowd.I am finishing with this topic now - more important things to do for customers than respond to what I regard as purposely critical attention seeking posts with no logical or engineering based reasoning to them and facts and figures miles off the mark.
Baz
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