Slipped sleeve or blown head gasket?

[nick49]

I have a '99 996 Cab with under 50k miles and suspect a blown head gasket or worse. The car has never overheated or run more than a couple of ounces low on coolant. The other day within less than a mile of driving, engine running rough, CEL flashing, coolant dripping out exhaust and muffler to Cat connection. Called dealer and they said probably head gasket or slipped sleeve. I thought the sleeves were cast in and couldnt slip. Does anyone know for sure? Or have any ideas? I have no warrenty and am the second owner and may want to fix it myself. Or I thought about a low mileage 3.6 and am wondering if anyone knows if it would fit? What does Poesche typically charge for a remanufactured motor? Thanks for any help or related info.

[jb26jb]

That sucks. 3.6 is not any easy fit, different electronics etc. I believe a remanufactured motor from porsche is between 8-10k not including installation.

I have a '99 996 Cab with under 50k miles and suspect a blown head gasket or worse. The car has never overheated or run more than a couple of ounces low on coolant. The other day within less than a mile of driving, engine running rough, CEL flashing, coolant dripping out exhaust and muffler to Cat connection. Called dealer and they said probably head gasket or slipped sleeve. I thought the sleeves were cast in and couldnt slip. Does anyone know for sure? Or have any ideas? I have no warrenty and am the second owner and may want to fix it myself. Or I thought about a low mileage 3.6 and am wondering if anyone knows if it would fit? What does Poesche typically charge for a remanufactured motor? Thanks for any help or related info.

[Dharn55]

That sucks. 3.6 is not any easy fit, different electronics etc. I believe a remanufactured motor from porsche is between 8-10k not including installation.

I have a '99 996 Cab with under 50k miles and suspect a blown head gasket or worse. The car has never overheated or run more than a couple of ounces low on coolant. The other day within less than a mile of driving, engine running rough, CEL flashing, coolant dripping out exhaust and muffler to Cat connection. Called dealer and they said probably head gasket or slipped sleeve. I thought the sleeves were cast in and couldnt slip. Does anyone know for sure? Or have any ideas? I have no warrenty and am the second owner and may want to fix it myself. Or I thought about a low mileage 3.6 and am wondering if anyone knows if it would fit? What does Poesche typically charge for a remanufactured motor? Thanks for any help or related info.

I found this auction on ebay the other day, don't know anything about the source:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/99-01-Porsc...sspagenameZWDVW

Also do a search on Rennlist for "rebuilt engines" I started a thread there the other day on this subject and auction. One owner in CA seems to know this source.

[bhussung]

I had a similar issue. I have a MY00 C2Cab. I am also the second owner, and have no warranty. I noticed oil residue in the coolant. I took the car to the original dealership, where I also have all of my work done. I authorized $2k for them to tear down the engine. They actually found a defect in the block, which caused it to crack. It had 39k miles on it. Long story short, I asked the sales/service manager to see what they could do. They decided to cover it under the original warranty, and fixed the problem for free. (referb engine)

Take it to the dealer and try to make a deal. If you talk to the right person, you may be able to get somewhere. They would rather have a happy customer now, and keep a loyal customer for the future.

Good Luck!

[KevinC]

I thought the sleeves were cast in and couldnt slip. Does anyone know for sure?

You're right - there shouldn't be sleeves in these engines. HOWEVER, Porsche had big problems with manufacturing yields on the early M96 engine castings. For a period of time, they were actually repairing porous engine blocks by boring out the cylinders and inserting steel sleeves. But there was a flaw in the way these sleeves were secured in place, so many of then would "slip". This would be pretty much catastrophic, so if your engine continued to rotate (without making horrible noises) after it shut down, you probably have a different problem - possibly a porous block. If it can be verified that you have a "sleeved" engine, you should be in a good position to put pressure on PCNA to replace their bungled patch job. If you check the archives here, you should find photos from Jeff L. of a sleeved engine failure.

[Tool Pants]

Porsche/Kolenschmidt did not sleeve 996 motors.

[nick49]

After spending a month dealing with a more pressing family issue, and studying options regarding my failed motor on the 996, I decided to have it flatbedded to the dealer.

We have pretty much ruled out a blown head gasket and think that this was a slipped sleeve, or possibly a severly cracked or broken sleeve. If this is the case, I would not be able to repair it myself because of limited parts availability or ease of having the cases refurbished in the USA.

I am waiting for the dealer to contact me.

[x5rap]

I have a '99 996 Cab with under 50k miles and suspect a blown head gasket or worse. The car has never overheated or run more than a couple of ounces low on coolant. The other day within less than a mile of driving, engine running rough, CEL flashing, coolant dripping out exhaust and muffler to Cat connection. Called dealer and they said probably head gasket or slipped sleeve. I thought the sleeves were cast in and couldnt slip. Does anyone know for sure? Or have any ideas? I have no warrenty and am the second owner and may want to fix it myself. Or I thought about a low mileage 3.6 and am wondering if anyone knows if it would fit? What does Poesche typically charge for a remanufactured motor? Thanks for any help or related info.

In Mar-06, a new M96-BX 3.4 cost about $7,700US plus tax plus installation plus incidentals. It comes complete, with the exception of mufflers. You'll probably want to go with new mufflers, say $1,000. Everything else will be new back there. Cooling system connection points for a '99 manufactured engine are different from the '05 manufactured 3.4 engine. So you'll need a number of new coolant tubes. You'll want to change all rubber hoses in the coolant system. There aren't many, but they're there and they're eight years old. Oh, and you'll probably want to service the tranny. If it's the first time, regardless of the mileage, it's eight year old trans oil/fluid. (I don't know if yours is a tip or manual.) You'll need to align the rear end too. Mufflers, hoses, coolant, tranny service, rear alignment will cost about $1,800 - $2,000 total. Installation cost of the new motor with sales tax (at 7.75% in SoCal) plus all the incidentals is maybe $1,900.

All-in with a new M96, new Fabspeed mufflers, a serviced trans and new hoses pretty much everywhere, except power steering and a/c...my estimate is $11,500, based upon Mar-06 cost when I had to do it. Thank God, I had an extended warranty.

The problem in my early-build '99 US 996 tip coupe (Feb-98 build date) was an intermixing of oil and coolant caused by the thin cylinder wall going porous and allowing the intermixing. It happened after eight years at 42,100 miles. Mine didn't result in a catastrophic failure but this is not a rare problem. The adjuster at Warrantech new all about the problem and he knew all the part numbers by heart, yes by heart.

With the installation finished, I have a car that drives like an absolute dream. (New shocks were installed in Apr-05.) Not all M96 engines have these problems, but the problems do occur. If you have a Camry, Mustang, Civic, Malibu, Sonata, Focus, Suburban, Exploder, etc., ad nauseum, you don't have these problems, but you also don't have a car that drives like a Porsche.