997 3.8 engine issues - real or not?

[Huw Jampton]

Apologies if this has been asked before. I'm considering 997 gen1 cars around £25k and wanted to know how real the issues with the 3.8 engine are. What has been the experiences of forum members? Any advice gratefully received. Thanks

[The_Doc]

buy one from a dealer with a good history (the car and the dealer) and get a warranty covering everything.

or

buy privately and get the engine inspected internally,

there is no such thing as zero risk.

there are hundreds and hundreds of perfectly good 997s that will not explode until >100,000 miles, and the same could be said about the Ford Focus, Lamborghini Gallardo, Volvo Penta, Ducati 888 and my coffee maker at home !

[Wilmslowboy]

Yes the issues are real

Hard to say how common / statistically likely to happen

Read this (as well as many more threads) worth reading the posts from Hartech ( who do a lot of repairs and preventative work on them) .

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Magic919]

Do a search in here. Look at the Hartech website.

[PGNSagaris]

Issues are real. My brothers 997 C4S engine went recently with 36k on the clock.

Expensive!

[av185]

My 08 13k miles C4S cab piston slapped at 2 yrs old.....OPC would not install new engine but rebuilt existing which subsequently carried no warranty.

I would save a bit more and buy a gen2 as prices dip after the summer....cars are streets ahead of the gen1 with much better and fairly bullet proof engines.

[Fl0pp3r]

Here you go, have a read of this:
http://www.porscheinspections.com/content/download...

Don't be completely put off, but you need to have you eyes open on these. Ideally get one that's had the Hartech treatment already, or be proactive and budget accordingly for having the necessary work done on your watch. IMS failure relatively rare, it's the bore scoring due to inefficient oil supply and cooling thats the greater worry.

Bargains to be had as long as you understand what you're getting into, and the 'potential' costs.

[Huw Jampton]

Thanks for all the replies, will do more research! Gen 2 sounds ok but wait until after the summer? Maybe...

[Huw Jampton]

Fl0pp3r said:

Here you go, have a read of this:
http://www.porscheinspections.com/content/download...

Don't be completely put off, but you need to have you eyes open on these. Ideally get one that's had the Hartech treatment already, or be proactive and budget accordingly for having the necessary work done on your watch. IMS failure relatively rare, it's the bore scoring due to inefficient oil supply and cooling thats the greater worry.

Bargains to be had as long as you understand what you're getting into, and the 'potential' costs.

Thanks very much, this is great. Cheers

[MaxA]

As much as I want to say that as long as you have your eyes open, etc. it'll be OK but since I did my research and then bought the 997.2 with the new DFI engine, that would be hypocritical. I need my Porsche to be reliable. The only route would have to be to buy a 997.1 with a fully rebuilt Hartech engine.