Blown Engine 550 Spyder AE

[Jake Raby]

Jwade,
The beauty of our program is that no longer is an engine conversion the only way to enhance reliability and performance.. The conversion engines also have their share of issues and can fail in their own ways... None of the M96 engines are totally bullet proof from the factory.

Lots of people are worried by what they read and they should be. NO CAR is immune to these issues, no matter the mileage! In fact, it seems that cars that are driven easy and taken care of will fail MORE than those that are well taken care of and driven harder! Very seldom does any engine fail at a DE or on the track, most happen in city driving.

I am working on an article and DVD now that will outline what a Boxster owner should know about troubleshooting, diagnosing and engaging with preventive maintenance to note IMS issues before they create failures. The truth is that sometimes these things go "pop" with no warning at all and not a single symptom... Kind of like a Brain Aneurism.

The only way to absolutely avoid the issues is to update the IMS when you have the time and money, along with the cylinders, oil system and the 13 other issues we have taken action to solve/ prevent.

You may be like me and may have gotten a really good engine that won't scatter even if you try... I have been trying to kill the test car for the past year with total abuse and neglect, but it runs better now than it did before... Thats even after driving it 2 miles at a time against the rev limiter and not doing any service to it at all, just observation.

Look for the article that Excellence did on our program and the M96 engine issues. It will be coming out in January 09 and details lots of the modes of failure and how they are being addressed.... Very informative.

Owning an M96 powered Porsche (as factory) is like playing Poker, every time you turn the key you are dealt a new hand.

[jwade]

Thanks for the response. I drive the car as it should be driven, not crazy, but do run it as I have never babied anything with a motor.

Usually, I keep it geared in the 3-4000 rpm range as I like the sound. Very rarely do I let gearing take me below 2500 in this car, but will run out the gearing on the backroads, but never over rev.

Hopefully it won't blow, but if it does, it does, and then I'll go into cardiac arrest knowing I basically just bought a new car for what it will cost to fix this one...

Still I absolutely love the entire boxster platform and have been a Porsche buff since I was a kid. I remember back in College when the Boxster prototype came out.

From then on, I wanted one and now as my family is growing up, I have a little more financial flexibility, as well as growing my professional career, I figured go for it and bought one.

Just couldn't ever afford one growing up and didn't exactly have parents just ready to fork over that kind of cash......hell, mine from the factory in '01 was nearly 70k after taxes paid in California...

Those things you recommended sound good and I have looked on your website. You guys really have done quite a bit of research here.

What do you think a modest pricetag be on some internal upgrades would be?

Thanks, Jon

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

Jwade,
Lots of people are worried by what they read and they should be. NO CAR is immune to these issues, no matter the mileage! In fact, it seems that cars that are driven easy and taken care of will fail MORE than those that are well taken care of and driven harder! Very seldom does any engine fail at a DE or on the track, most happen in city driving.

Bruce, re: our continuing discussion, is this evidence that driving our cars hard won't hurt them?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Paul

Bruce, re: our continuing discussion, is this evidence that driving our cars hard won't hurt them?

I agree with what Paul says. Driving it like a 90 yr old woman isn't saving your engine...and besides what fun is that anyways.

[Jake Raby]

The next M96 Excellence article will cover this subject of hard driving and engine failures Vs easy driving and those same failures.

[Lil bastard]

My take on all this is that there are inherent design issues which will cause your engine to 'grenade' regardless of how you drive (or maintain) it, in addition to issues which cause your engine to 'genade' if your drive it 'hard', there are those which will cause it to 'grenade' if you drive it soft.

That's not an endorsement to drive it 'hard', though it may not matter in the long run if you drive Hard or Soft.

It seems like not 'genading' your engine is a roll of the preverbial dice insomuch as the 'Morrocan' assemblymen were asleep at the switch ... or not.

The bottom line being that the 'myth' of Porsche 'reliability' is just that... myth!

My take is that if you own an M96 motor, it's much more a matter of 'when' rather than 'if''.

[Jake Raby]

Originally Posted by Lil bastard

My take on all this is that there are inherent design issues which will cause your engine to 'grenade' regardless of how you drive (or maintain) it, in addition to issues which cause your engine to 'genade' if your drive it 'hard', there are those which will cause it to 'grenade' if you drive it soft.

That's not an endorsement to drive it 'hard', though it may not matter in the long run if you drive Hard or Soft.

It seems like not 'genading' your engine is a roll of the preverbial dice insomuch as the 'Morrocan' assemblymen were asleep at the switch ... or not.

The bottom line being that the 'myth' of Porsche 'reliability' is just that... myth!

My take is that if you own an M96 motor, it's much more a matter of 'when' rather than 'if''.

Very good observation and opinions..
But the trends point toward many more failures from cars driven easy or by Women than any others despie mileage on the engine.

We have logged every mode of failure with pics from every engine we have torn down and got reports from the drivers to create the stats and we'll continue to do this to create a very detailed understanding of what happens, when and how.

Track failures are few and far between.

[Paul]

As I've stated before (too many times, probably), I've been flooring and shifting Porsches near redline since 1974 and have yet to experience an engine failure.

I'm either very lucky or Porsches are not hurt by driving them at full throttle and high revs.

Regardless, I've been having fun for decades.