Dan -- I'm sorry to hear about your motor...that sucks. Thank you for sharing your experience here.

It sounds like you've already got a rebuild plan that you're executing...however, it may be worth your time to express your disappointment to PCNA and see if there is any goodwill that could be provided. We had another member do the same (don't know where that post is) just recently and he worked out PCNA covering 50% cost of a new motor. He was only just out of warranty, but who knows what is possible.

For those of us who already own 2006-08 3.4L motors, perhaps you'd be able to provide more info on the history of this motor that may be helpful to us. I'm not in any way implying that you've done something wrong to cause this motor to fail. It is safe to say the M96/97 motor is prone to failure without additional "help" from owners. Instead, I'm merely seeking to better understand your engine failure in hopes that I and others can take whatever actions we think prudent to try and avoid the same fate.

• Was this a manual transmission?? If so, any overrevs beyond Range 2??
  
• What oil change intervals did this motor see, and what oil(s) was used??
  
• Any symptoms leading up to catastrophic failure?? This may include oil consumption, oil leaks, metallic noises, etc...
  
• Has this vehicle ever been exercised at the track, and if so, were racing tires fitted for those events??
  
• Have any "band-aids" been fitted to the car to try and prevent this?? Deep sump pan, X-51 baffle, Accusump, 3rd Radiator, etc??

Thanks for any background info you can provide, and good luck with the motorsports rebuild!

Matt

 

Hi Matt,

• Was this a manual transmission?? Yes. If so, any overrevs beyond Range 2?? 18 ignitions in Range 3, but this was over 300 hours before the motor expired.
  
• What oil change intervals did this motor see, and what oil(s) was used?? Every 3000 miles. Total 5W-40.
  
• Any symptoms leading up to catastrophic failure?? This may include oil consumption, oil leaks, metallic noises, etc... No symptoms.
  
• Has this vehicle ever been exercised at the track, and if so, were racing tires fitted for those events?? Yes, DE events. R-compound tires were used at these events.
  
• Have any "band-aids" been fitted to the car to try and prevent this?? Deep sump pan, X-51 baffle, Accusump, 3rd Radiator, etc?? No. Replacement of air/oil separator, power steering cooler. No engine mods of any sort.

Dan

 

Man.. I'm sooo sorry to hear that. I just hit 75k on my 06 CS and with yours and another member had his motor blown, I'm seriously considering getting rid of mine. Two stories of motors blowing up in two weeks, its really disappointing to hear these kind of stories.

Good luck on your build!

 

Thanks shifterkartracer!

 

Dan,

Unfortunate,

And yours even had the IMS Bearing retrofit. Accusump, and TTP Scavenger pumps are not preventing the failures. The engines still fail.

Full engine rebuilds seem to be the only remedy.

Sorry for your loss.

Ice

 

Dan's engine did NOT have any of those things done to it. He's just stating that he's not convinced that they would have prevented the failure. Not sure why not, but he's entitled to his opinion.

 

Dan, I feel your pain. I just got my 05 Boxster back from engine rebuild.

Failed valve lifter caused metal debris causing complete engine rebuild. I had only 30K+ miles, so PCNA was willing to help a little.

The best advice I can offer is do everything by the book with the car, and buy an extended warranty.

 

Yikes. I'm looking at used models, and this has me very nervous. I'm disappointed in Porsche's not commenting. I'd like to understand the frequency of these failures. I would hope Porsche would be investigating as well. If the failure rate is high enough, I have no interest in these model years. That said - the lack of response is the most troubling. Have they learned nothing from the IMS lawsuit? Just be honest with the owners and offer a fair solution. It doesn't really give me a lot of confidence buying any model year, quite frankly.

 

Bottom line: direct injected engines ('09-'13) have a much more robust internal lubricating system than previous engines. If you do not track the car, the incidence of catastrophic engine failure is infinitesimal (caveat: can happen to any engine). M96 engine failure rate, much higher than M97 engines. If you buy an '09 and later Cayman with a PDK, your chance of detonating your engine, on the track is, is infinitesimally small but not zero.
If you buy an '06-'08 Cayman that has not been "tracked" and not track it, your chance of having a catastrophic engine failure event is very small but not zero. If you don't have an IMS in your engine, by default, you cannot have an IMS failure. Let us not exaggerate. I'm I missing anything else ? To me this seems a good factual summary of the wisdom imparted by this Forum.

Cheers.

 

There is a class action suit in process, which you with your car might be able to participate in, which involves engine failures due to IMS/IMSB (intermediate shaft and intermediate shaft bearing) failures.

I do not have the details but links to the details have been posted on various sites.

 

I dont think 06's are covered... Unfortunately...

 

I was assuming the failure was IMS/IMSB related but you are right it may not be.

 

Darn...engine paranoia...after studying the IMS/rod blowout issue, I was seriously considering trading my 06 S in for a 996/7 TT or a GT3...then I found out about the 996/7 TT and GT3 issues (coolant pipe epoxy meltdown - a good welded fix is $4K; 2nd gear shift fork tranny R&R and rebuild - $3K, clutch slave cyl - $2K, etc.).

I guess the answer is, you pays your money and takes the risk....

Consider this morbid fact - I think the stats for "not surviving" any given car ride is about 1 in 5,800. Think about that, 1 in 5,800 auto trips are fatal.

I wonder what the chances are for "experiencing IMS failure in the 06 CS" - per trip - 1 in 500? 5000? 10,000?

Just sayin'.....

 

Consider this morbid fact - I think the stats for "not surviving" any given car ride is about 1 in 5,800. Think about that, 1 in 5,800 auto trips are fatal.

This defies common sense. Think about it - given that an average driver takes about 4 trips/day this says that statistically you are liable to die in a car crash within 3 years. With that level of death rate anyone who survived more than 20 years of driving would be a statistical fluke - it would be a rarer event than winning the lottery.

Actually the traffic fatality rate in the US is about 1.1 per 100 miilion miles (source: U.S. Traffic Deaths Decline in 2011; Fatality Rate Hits All-Time Low), which means you have to drive about 90 million miles to reach the point where you have a 50% probability of being in a fatal crash. If you estimate the average car trip at, say, 15 miles, you would need 6 million average trips to reach the 50% probability mark.

I apologize that this has nothing to do with the OP's problem with engine failure; so now back to the original discussion.

 

That's what I keep reminding myself any time I start getting nervous about something catastrophic happening to my engine; that I'm far more likely to get rear ended at a stop light and total my car than I am to have a failure so I may as well drive something that I love each day.

 

Something catastrophic can happen to any engine at any time.

Cheers

 

You nerds like to scare people I insist - chances of me making through the first trip are just as good as through the last one and every extra mile I drive, does not make it any more dangerous.... Yes, because it didn't rain for the last 5 days, there is a higher chance of rain tomorrow - but comes tomorrow and it is still 50/50:taunt:

 

I disagree somewhat with the quote, if you sat in your bunker all day and NEVER rode in a car, you would lower your chances - so, isn't the risk based on the number of times you start your car up? Just sayin....

(I did not make up the stat from the earlier post....it's from some risk web site)

Getting back to the topic, if 1% of Cayman engines blow up at some point, and there were some 45,000 of the 987.1's built, that is 450 of them. Sound high? Or Low?