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Starting to get very worried about when not if....

Millers Oils

Follow the link on their site and they send you out a pot, and some paper work as well as a plastic envelope.

I've got a few cars and have this done at every oil change, I've only had My 911 since this summer and although it's been serviced already I forgot to do the first analysis,
 
Go onto millers oil website. They'll send you a bottle and kit, get your Indy to put some in, post it off and they'll email you a full analysis report and you can call them regarding of required.
 
Brilliant, thanks both, Premium kit on it's way.
 
GMG said:
...tis a conundrum that's for sure; main issue being that when they let go it's bloody expensive to repair !

Are they? A new short motor from Porsche is about £5k, I know this isn't the whole cost but how does this compare with other makes? How many air cooled Porsches go far beyond 100k without a rebuild and look at the cost of that?
 
Hi,
Is it cost effective to have a re build before it goes bang, or do you wait for the moment, then re build? Ie, do you squeeze every last mile out of the engine first?

Mines on 168,000 and it's my daily drive.

Note to self, when changing windscreen wipers, have new blade ready to attach straight away and don't open lid whilst the wiperless arm is sticking up.
Result, smashed screen! :eek:
 
The big cost can be the crank. If you rebuild early enough the crank can be reused. If you wait till the crank is beyond help then add a few extra £k to the rebuild cost.
 
Stoddy said:
Hi,
Is it cost effective to have a re build before it goes bang, or do you wait for the moment, then re build? Ie, do you squeeze every last mile out of the engine first?

Mines on 168,000 and it's my daily drive.

That's the point I'm weighing up, a base engine rebuild is £4300 with any future proofing on top, if you wait until it goes it's going to be at least double that and probably closer to triple if you go all out.

Nice to hear you're still going strong at 168,000, at my mileage that would give me at least another 10 years!
 
Exactly that, see....... your already looking on the bright side ! 10 years is a long time and maybe you will only get 5 ? Who knows, but there are far more important things to worry about in life than the engine in a car,

My neighbour Is currently seeking out the cheapest 997 he can find in an attempt to fill a hole in his garage that a Karman Ghia has created, he's looking at a local one that's missed its major service 4 years ago and hasn't been MOT'd in the same amount of time. I've tried educating him and told him mines been meticulously maintained every year and not two and it was still a grand at service time !

This thing needs brakes and 4 tyres so is going to cost him and then some and hasn't even contemplated a PPI on 95K Miles.

Personally if it's bought and paid for and needs some attention it's Not a great issue for me and I look upon it as preventative as do most other enthusiasts, I try and hold on to my daily drives and instead of casting them away at 3 years have kept the past few for 6-7 years, I've just changed my wife's Tiguan and lost a lot more than an engine re build on that one over 6 years !
 
He could very easily be looking at 10k to get that back into shape (depending on how fastidious he is), which of course is not a problem if he gets it for the price of one that needs nothing -£10,000, but he'll need a PPI to use as ammunition and the current owner may still think it's a 25k car.

With regards to rebuilds ahead of major-bork, I mentioned on my cars thread that I always planned on doing that at 100k miles as I'm satisfied that that's a sensible point with regards to the main bearing shells. There may well be another 100k miles in them at this point- but the point of a prophylactic rebuild is to avoid the situation where there isn't another 100k.

As it stands I'll have my current engine out of the car and on a stand at around 74,000 miles (this is a guess based on the new engine being ready Spring 2020).

I don't know what to do with it really - rebuild it as well? Sell it?
 
I am glad to see the sensible things being discussed rather than the your all doomed nonsense. and for me two of the main factors eg which oil, for me Millers is a no brainer whether you after advise go 5w40 or 10w50 is your call , personally my 997.2 is newer with less miles and I am using Millers 10w50 . and the other important thing which is had you brought a BMW or Merc or pretty much any other marque after 3 or 4 years you would have lost 10k in depreciation . whats your 996 worth today compared to when you brought it. You must realise you cant have it both ways the difference is should you need to spend 10k at some point in the next 3 years you will still not lost as much as the depreciation of any other marque and effectively driven a 911 for less than bmw money and if it doesn't break then thats just a bonus. a few years ago if someone had said to me you can own and enjoy a 911 and it wont cost you anymore than owning a BMW 320 I would not have believed them. But you must remain realistic , it is possible to own a 911 for BMW money but its rare to own a 911 for bicycle money :grin: :thumb:
 
Phil, I agree..... there's no point getting emotional about the longevity of a sports car engine, there's been a lot of talk about the various failures built into the engines in our cars and for good reason, then you hear other owners topping 150K plus.

I've said this before on here and it's exactly what I said to my neighbour who thinks once he's got one it'll be trouble free German reliability Aka BMW / Audi esque service bills and maintenance schedule. Buy the best that you can afford, if your gonna leave nothing in reserve for anomaly's it needs to be serviced, MOT'd, tyres, brakes and a book full of stamps. Don't buy a car that's being flogged because the owner knows it's not been looked after and it's gonna cost...... your just buying some one else's cast offs, mix this With some one who sits at home fretting about Brexit, melting ice caps and gender equality and it makes for grim reading, I've read posts where others worry by proxy over some one else's IMS bearing or the fact that they might get bore scoring......

If all I'd got to fret about was a dodgy bearing and some cylinder scuffing I'd be extatic ! I don't even think about any of it and I certainly don't want a Dot Cotton Fretting on my behalf,
 
First thing you do if you buy a V8 M3 or a V10 M5 is get all the bearing shells pulled out and replaced, lest you want a shell welded onto the crank.

Danger zone is 80-100k, anything beyond that without swapping shells and you're playing with fire - or so I was told when I was looking at M5 estates.

The M96 isn't great, in some departments - no question.

It's not alone in that, and I suspect the opprobrium heaped upon it is in part due to the reputation for bullet proof reliability that Porsche had created for itself in the air-cooled era.

You don't hear "mate, it'll blow up any second - steer clear!" when you're looking at an M5 in the same way that you do when you are looking at a 996 or 997.1.
 
I estimate that _any_ car will cost me at least £1000 a years either in deprecation or maintenance. Its kinda the very minimum to run a car I worked out.

My car only owes me a little more than the cost of a "roller" car with engine dead from eBay + £1000 a year.

So if the engine does die I will just swap any nice or recently replaced bits out of it, eBay it and I won't be much out of pocket.

I don't bother with oil analysis any more, the failure mode of a worn bearing is no copper in oil then immediately loads, you would be very very lucky to catch it with oil analysis.

I run it on millers 10w40 nano (140k miles) and its in rude health.
 
145k ... of which 5k in the last 3 years :/

I'll get oil looked at next time, but for now - it is what it is !
 
OP,

If you are genuinely concerned about your engine going pop or to catch worn shell bearings early, I think Hartech make a compelling case with their oversize engine conversion included in the overhaul!!

Get a 36 month 0% credit card to spread the £10k cost (if that is what it is) and it makes the decision doubly easy coming out at £278 per month.

If the car is a genuine keeper it makes good sense and even if you sell on after 5 years, you will have had 5 years stress free motoring in a better driving car that still has at least £5k (I would think) residual value from the Hartech work.

Just my thoughts!!
 

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