[The Radium King]

if you read the thread on pistonheads it talks about when Porsche changed linings. from what I understand from that thread it goes like this:

nikasil - pre m96 engines, aftermarket replacement (ie, lne)
lokasil - m96, m97.1 engines
alusil - m97.2 engines

apparently lokasil is the bad one, but the thread also goes on to say:

"Boxsters up to 3.2 and 3.4 996 engines do not suffer the problem (despite also running in Lokasil) and bank one is much less vulnerable ..."

this gives credence to jack's post regarding rod angle; the 3.2 and 3.4 share the same bottom end and just different bores, but the 3.6 strokes it and the 3.8 is a bored 3.6. so the stroking increases rod angle and must dramatically increase scoring. note that the m96 and m97 3.6 share the same crank (ie, the m96 3.6 is not a bored 3.4).

the other thing is the statement regarding banks, which indicates to me that cooling is an issue, and supports the idea that anything you can do to improve cooling is a good thing.

long story short, the 3.6, even the early ones, seem to be as subject to scoring.

ps, i'm not jack. I just read a lot. and have a 3.6 that i'm worrying about.