I love my '03 TT-X50 and can see keeping it forever as a daily driver. I'm thinking about a Ferrari, Lambo or something as a weekend car, but not for several years. I'm wondering how many miles I can expect out of my TT and what I should do when it wears out. Has anyone rebuilt/restored their turbo (engine, transmission, etc) ? I'd like to Mod the hell out of it at that time

Thoughts?

 

Some turbos have logged hundreds of thousands of miles.
Modify it if you want, but if you want to wait for it to
break or wear out first, you may have a long wait...
Joe

 

I'd be happy if it lasts forever!
thx

 

As you may or may not know 996TT has air-cooled case with water cooled heads. Not as easy to rebuild as pre-1998 aircooled motors, but still worth doing. We have done a few for customers who wanted all kinds of trick mods, titanium rods, case machining, head mods and some other trick **** I could tell you about but then I would have to kill you... Anyway the regular 996 motors are junk not worth rebuilding, so in my opinion the Turbo, GT3 and GT2 are the last of the built to last forever Porsches. Only problem with the 996 series cars is the goddam trim rattles!
As far as life expectancy for these motors... All depends on driver and conditions in which vehicle is driven. Highway miles are obviously worlds better for a motor. Believe it or not cars that go to the track (and are driven properly!) tend to have stronger motors than street cars. Cars with very little miles that sit around for months at a time without being driven can also be a problem. There are so many factors that go into this.

 

You never know there are 996 Turbos with 100k+ already on them and still running, I had a friend who bought Ivon lendels (spelling) 944 Turbo with 145k on it and it pulled like a MF and blew my clk430 away with 1/2 the cylinders

 

Thanks guys. I guess i won't wait until the car wears out to make some upgrades. Sounds like i'll be waiting a long time. I don't want to do anything too radical, but the idea of pushing 600 HP makes me giddy.

 

your breakin my heart man .

i'm sure that as time goes by and cost of the cars and parts come down, more people will tinker with the 996 c2/c4.


may i ask why you think our motors are such rat****? besides teh RMS problems which plague some.

 

Everyone makes such a big deal out of RMS but it isn't. Porsches have always leaked from the RMS. If you drive them hard they don't leak. However on the old cars it was usually from seals just drying up. With the 996 motors it is usually just from seal drying, but some of these engines it is caused by a warped crank. This is one reason. The main reason however for them not being great motors as far as future rebuilds is that the cylinders are actually part of the case. You will also notice if you look in the owners manual (I actually read this in the Cayman owners manual... Yes I have driven one, not sure if this is in other owners manuals, prob is.) Anyway says do not use slick tires as it will allow the vehicle to achieve cornering g-forces that will starve the motor of oil. The "true dry sump" motors of the GT2,GT3 and TT this is not an issue. I guess to sum it up. The motors are not really designed to be rebuilt in the real world. Yes if you are a company like Porsche with infinite resources it makes sense to take the damaged motors back to Germany, inspect them take them apart and use whatever is undamaged to build a new warranty exchange frankenstein motor with. In some ways the motors are easier to take apart and put back together, its just the cost of all the machine shop work that is needed that makes it not worth it. Trust me I hope I am wrong and people will be restoring 996's 30 years from now...

 

My 996TT is now approaching 230'000 km.
See my sig for more details...
Greetings,
--Pierre

 

the true beauty of Porsche... thank u pierre.

to say RMS is not a bad issue is not true. it' annoying. but people freak out hearing the engine needs to be replaced they automatically think it's dead serious. it's just more cost effective for them to swap the engine rather than open it up to fix it in the states.

 

Holy crap! Thats quite a story i just read. Nice page too. May i ask how much is the Techart steering and if they have it in red or grey?

Btw, is that Integra of urs a GSR or Type R?

 

Exactly! My engine could have been repaired (oil leak, but not the RMS) for about CHF 19k (USD 15k), but I decided to invest a bit more and go for a swap. So for CHF 27k (do the math!), I got a new engine, including new turbos and 2 years warranty.

At first, I was told the exhaust wasn't included, so I bought a FVD sport-exhaust. (When the engine arrived, the exhaust was included.)

Incidentally, top speed is now over 323 km/h (indicated, tested a fe weeks ago), against 319 km/h with the old engine/exhaust.


hmmm... I think I paid around CHF 1k (USD 760) for the Techart wheel and accessories, but that was quite a while ago. You should check the current prices... Did I mention I love this wheel?!?...

The Integra we had for our endurance races at the N'ring was a Type R.

Greetings,
--Pierre

 

Just because RMS is bad doesn't mean you replace motor. When leaking RMS is diagnosed you must then seperate motor from gearbox and measure to see if crank is misaligned/warped whatever. I have the bulletin in my tool box, but off the top of my head I believe Porsche allows up to a 4mm variation. As far as regular Carrera and boxster motors you are correct, it is not cost effective to fix them stateside. However when it comes to Turbo or GT3 motors (not that you see them having RMS issues very often) I am convinced Porsche just doesnt trust the techs to rebuild them. Like I said you don't see too many issues with these motors. Porsche Academy has a class P10T where you get to take apart the Turbo/GT3 motor. I was signed up for it before I left Porsche of Huntington, so when I go to another dealer I would like to sign up again. Not that it really matters considering I have already taken more than one apart...

 

Good stuff Pierre.

 

I only scrolled down to make sure you replied ...
congrats again on driving that great car of yours!!!