Engine replacement ...

[jakesmith]

Hi all, I did search for this but couldn't find a thread with the answer - if a old model 9X6 water cooled porker goes in for a brand new engine to OPC, what will Porsche replace it with - would it be the final revision of that engine, for example if a 996 3.4 went in for a new engine would it get the very last revision of that engine? How about a 996 3.6, as that is very similar to the 997 engine, would it get an M97 engine put in or the very latest revision of the M96? As some areas like the IMS were considerably uprated throughout the life of that engine. Presumably if they replaced a 3.4 with a 3.4 that would still be less ideal from reliability POV than an early 3.6.

I have read many times anecdotally that replacement engines never fail or that no-one has heard of this happening, so can only assume that that is rubbish, a coincidence (say 5% failure rate, happening twice is 0.025% probability so pretty unlikely), or that the failure is caused by poor tolerances in the original engine & they are ruddy careful with replacements to make sure they are spot on.

Reason I ask is I was browsing some 996s & saw one with a recent(ish) new engine from OPC Porsche, so was wondering what engine that would be exactly & if it would be more reliable. The replacement engine is out of warranty now, engine was replaced at 78k.

[sportsandclassic]

Hi, yes the engine would be of latest design and upgrades carried out that were available at the time of production... So a 3.4l 996 engine would 100% have a modified IMS bearing installed.

[jakesmith]

sportsandclassic said:

Hi, yes the engine would be of latest design and upgrades carried out that were available at the time of production... So a 3.4l 996 engine would 100% have a modified IMS bearing installed.

Great thank for the answer, would it be the last revision of the 3.4 engine though or would it have some updates that were latter to the 3.6, retrospectively applied to it? I.e. is it more reliable than the last of the 3.4's?

[roofrack996]

Garage had my ims out while doing clutch (engine replaced in 09) and it was a newer version (and didn't need replacing). Definitely some other different bits on it, not least the oil filler is veined and the cap is different.