"It looks like it's my turn" follow up

356to966 · September 20, 2012

Earlier this month I posted:

A few weeks ago, our 02 Cab started losing a bit coolant. At first I thought that I had one of the common leaks or just needed a new coolant tank cap. No such luck. Now, on cool starts, I’m seeing an obvious plum of vapor coming from only the left exhaust pipe. There’s no sign of intermix of either type and no CEL though.

With any other car, I would be thinking "head gasket" but Jake Raby of LN engineering has said on the Rennlist Forum that it is never the case.

Does this sound like a cracked head or can it be anything else? The car has nearly 90K miles on it but has recently had the IMS retrofit and other preventive work done so it would be a real shame to have to replace the engine.

To follow up:

I had my engine's cooling system pressure tested and the engine bore scoped. Bad news! They found cracks in #4and #5 cylinder walls. I thought cylinder cracking was only a problem in the early 996. Now I find that that's not so and my mark II engine is not immune. Apparently the M96 engine block has issues with torsional rigidity and overtime can crack cylinder walls. Unfortunately, unlike the air cooled cars, the M96 has cylinders that are integral with the block and can't be just popped on and off. So, I have a major problem.

I see only two remedies; either replace the engine in total or have it torn down and its cylinders resleeved. Needless to say, either is expensive

Why this happened to our car is a mystery. It's a much loved and maintained Tiptronic "daily driver"and its engine never unduly stressed in any way. I guess its just another of those 996 zingers and like I said before, it looks like it's my turn.