MotoIQ.....Performance Engines that Suck M96

[achillies]

Performance Car Engines That Suck- The Porsche M96

[truegearhead]

Well ya, but hey 201hp doesn't come easy!

[steved0x]

This article, while correctly pointing out some issues, has SOOOOOOO many errors and inaccuracies, that the author (and/or editors and tech reviewers?) should be very ashamed.

Just a few:

We are glad to report that IMS shaft failures have been greatly reduced on the current engines, although they still occasionally occur.

IMS errors still occasionally occur in the current engines? Was this article written in 2008?

BRS makes this deep sump oil pan with nicely executed baffles to help deal with the oil starvation issues.

Accompanying picture is the FVD pan which has many differences.

We guess that you could also bite the bullet and install a Dailey Engineering dry-sump system to really fix the problem!

This one sounds interesting I emailed Bill at Daily Engineering and he said:

From: Bill Dailey
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2017 12:58 PM
To: 'Steve Danielson'
Subject: RE: Dry sump options for Porsche M96 engine

Sorry I have nothing for it.

Bill

So, to make your 911, Boxter or Cayman reliable with an M96...

Boxter used throughout the article...

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by truegearhead

Well ya, but hey 201hp doesn't come easy!

That is funny, that made me LLOL (literally...)

[thstone]

More stupid stuff:

The fact that the engine was designed with such a dumb method of driving the cams dumbfounding to begin with. Why not drive them just by taking the drive from the front of the crank like any other company would?

If the author knew anything about Porsche's, he/she would have known that Porsche had successfully used an intermediate shaft on the air-cooled flat-six engines for what seemed like an eternity (thru 1998) without any problems.

Did you know this? Its true. Use of an intermediate shaft wasn't new to Porsche on the M96. What was new was the type of bearing used in the M96 (ball bearing). This is where they screwed the pooch.

The air cooled IMS used a regular (plain) bearing that was continuously fed pressurized engine oil for lubrication (and as such, they never failed). A bad bearing resulted in a knocking sound like a bad rod due the increased clearance, but they never resulted in catastrophic engine failure.

Porsche followed this tried and true approach (oil fed plain bearing) on the other end of the M96 intermediate shaft where the oil pump is located and this is why that end of the shaft never fails - failure is always at the ball bearing side. Porsche should have figured out a way to get oil to both ends of the IMS so they could employ plain bearings at both ends and the problem would have been eliminated.

[Nmbrsix]

Does the article have inaccuracies? Yes. Many. But it also does nail many of the dumb 'value engineering' decisions Porsche made when designing and manufacturing the M96.

If I own another porsche, it'll have an NA1 motor. This is my first and last M96/M97 equipped car.

[achillies]

To be fair the author did say that Porsche used an intermediate shaft in the aircooled cars to drive the fan.

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by thstone

. . . The air cooled IMS used a regular (plain) bearing that was continuously fed pressurized engine oil for lubrication (and as such, they never failed). A bad bearing resulted in a knocking sound like a bad rod due the increased clearance, but they never resulted in catastrophic engine failure.

Porsche followed this tried and true approach (oil fed plain bearing) on the other end of the M96 intermediate shaft where the oil pump is located and this is why that end of the shaft never fails - failure is always at the ball bearing side. Porsche should have figured out a way to get oil to both ends of the IMS. . .

Blah, blah, blah in the article. Nothing we didn't already know. Turns out I really love my new-to-me 2004 550 anniversary S. Almost as responsive as my Tonykart (well, not quite). I'll be upgrading from my current LNE IMSB to the 'Solution' prior to the LNE recommended interval for IMSB replacement or when oil filter exams dictate. #317 is in excellent condition and the 'Solution' should insure that it will be one of the long term survivors (if I don't wrap it around a tree or have a close encounter of the deer kind)

PS: the comments at the end of the article once again serve to remind us that the M96 is not the only engine with design problems. And remember, it's better to be infamous than unknown.

[husker boxster]

I'm pretty sure Caymans only came with the M97.

[JayG]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

I'm pretty sure Caymans only came with the M97.

through 2008

[husker boxster]

Originally Posted by JayG

through 2008

True, through 2008. But the following stmt from the article says Caymans came with the M96:

"So, to make your 911, Boxter or Cayman reliable with an M96..."

Just pointing out another inaccuracy (Caymans never had the M96). But as Nmbrsix states, regardless of the number of inaccuracies, the article highlights the numerous M96 faults.

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by husker boxster

I'm pretty sure Caymans only came with the M97.

You're right, this article is about the M96, that sentence should have said "911 and Boxter"

[steved0x]

Just thought of something - they all suck. The author left out squeeze, bang, and blow.