Dharn55

Seem to have fuel in the lines although I can’t hear the pump running. I did purge the air out of the system. Ran my Durametric and came up with some fault codes as follows: 1. Motronic a. PO336 Porsche fault code 10 Engine Speed Sensor Open 2. Alarm a. 48 Airbag signal acknowledged Status not Present Frequency counter 11 b. 60 Central Locking limit position Locks not reached Status not Present Frequency counter 9 c. 33 Interior Sensor Faulty Status not Present Frequency counter 2 d. 21 W Lead (DME Immobilizer) Status not present Frequency counter 1 e. 49 K Lead Status not Present Frequency counter 5 f. 18 Power Windows Status Present Frequency counter 127 I am wondering if either the Motronic fault or the Alarm fault for the 21 W Lead (DME Immobilizer could be keeping the engine from starting. Any Ideas?

Checked the fuse, it is OK. Don't have a replacement relay, may need to do that. It was all working before I took out the engine. I am going to try to purge the air out of the fuel lines by disconnecting the return line at the fuel pump, see it that helps. Do you know if the fuel pump does come on whenever the ignition is switched on?

Finally got the engine back in my car after reparing the cracked head and now it won't start. Engine cranks over fine, but I don't seem to have any fuel pressure. As i remember, when the ignition is switched on you normally here the fuel pump run to pressurize the system. My fuel pump is not coming on. I disconnected a fuel line and found no gas. Then I jumpered the connections for the fuel pump at the tank and the pump runs. Used this to pressureize the system, but it still is not coming on when the ignition is switched on or the egnine is cranked. No power at the pump connections. any suggestions?

When I had the intermix and before I dropped the engine I first tested the oil cooler under pressure. Also, on the advice of Jake Raby I tested it hot as he said that sometimes the leaks don't show up unless the cooler, which is made of aluminum, is up to temperature, which can open up a crack. I put it in an oven and heated it to over 250 degrees. Still did not find any leaks. I think these leaks are fairly rare, i have only heard of a few, but they have happened. It certainly make sense to test it first. also, when the engine is running the oil is under higher pressure than the coolant, so the oil tends to go to the coolant. but when the engine is hot and turned off the oil is no longer unde pressure, but the coolant still is so it can go to the oil.

Look at Raby's article on the IMS bearing replacement. If you stopped the engine soon enough it might be savable. Porsche always says you need a new engine but it is not always the case. I had an intermix, Porsche said new engie. Found out it was a cracked head and fixed it. Porsche does not want owners to know what went wrong with their engine or why, they have been hiding from these problems for along time, and it is much more profitable for them to sell you a "new" engine than fix one.

I am just finishing reassembling the engine from my 996 after an intermix. It was a cracked head, cylinder #1, inner exhaust valve seat. I did not see it with the plugs and tubes out, not until I had the cam covers off and removed the tappet carrier. Then it was obvious. It seemded I should have been able to see it with the plugs and tubes out once I knew where it was, but I did not see it then. I never had any smoke in the exhaust or any other symptoms except oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil. The crack did not extend to the combustion chamber and had no effect on compression or a leak down test. The bottom line is that the dealer taking out the plugs and tubes and running combustion tests and leak downs can be meaningless. Next step, drop the engine, start with head 1-3, as this is the most commonly crarked head. there are also lots of other areas that can carcked and can only be seen with some disaasembly. Now the good news is that you probably don't need a new engine, although the dealer would probably love to sell you one. I had my head fixed for about $500 and hope to have the car running this week. Keep me posted on what you find.

You should check with Roock on waht they used for the Flywheel and Pressure plate. I am pretty sure that the Flywheel changed from the 3.4 to the 3.6, can't tell from PET, although it does show a different pressure plate. In watching the light weight flywheel discussion I thin they say there is a different number of bolts for the flywheel to crankshaft connection. Roock should be able to teel you having done the conversion.

One of the best investments I have made. But I have them on CD, not hard copy. Got them a couple of years ago, and received some updates. Look for Porschelibrarian. He is your friend for these manuals.

Solenoid for vario cam or the cam position sensor. I can post some pictures tomorow of both as my engine is out of the car. The plate around the solenoid can be taken off and sealed fairly easy, mine had lots of sealant around it. To replace the solenoid itself requires removing the cam cover, a major pain (but possible) without removing the engine. The cam position sensors also sometime lead, these are accsesiible and changable with the engine in the car. The pictures should help you identify the problem.

Any strong recomendations on a particular spark plug for a 3.4 engine. I am going to be putting my engine back together over the weekdend and thought I would put in new plugs. the ones that came out were Beru R6 245.

When I originally called Costa Mesa they told me where the crack was before I even had a chance to tell them. Said they had seen and repaired many of them, almost always the same crack, cylinder #1 at the inner exhasut valve seat. Costa Mesa said they cut out metal in the area of the head that is cracked, weld in new metal, then machine it as required. I don't have the head back yet but the color does look a little different, not a real problem to me. No anodizing involved. I did not have the head pressure tested. The crack was so obvious and pronounced that it seemed the obvious source fo the leak/intermix. I found no other cracks/problems in the engine, but only the reassembly and running of the engine will tell for sure. Based on my experience with trying to find, a head I am convinced that there is either a design flaw or a manufacturing flaw that casues this cracking, and that there are alot of engines out there with undiscovered cracks, some may never leak, but others are ticking bombs.

I thought I would provide an update on the solution to the intermix/cracked head problem on my 2000 996. For those of you who haven’t seen the previous threads, last September, 8 months after the expiration of my EasyCare extended warranty my car developed an intermix problem, with significant amounts of oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil. Initially I tried to change the oil and top off the coolant to see how long before the intermix reoccurred, but it seemed to happen immediately (although some of this might have been residual contaminated fluids in the engine and cooling system).Therefore it seemed that a new engine would be required, and with the economy limiting the budget I parked the car for the winter. This spring I started work on the car, first checking the oil cooler for any problems, but quickly determined that this was not the source of the intermix. Then I dropped the engine and begin disassembling it. Soon I found the crack in cylinder head 1-3, cylinder 1 at the inner exhaust valve seat, which you can see in the photo above. This seems to be a very common problem, and the most common area for cracks in the heads of M96 engines. Now I considered four or five alternatives, a remanufactured/rebuilt engine, a used engine, a used cylinder head, a new cylinder head or fixing the crack in the head I had. The replacement of the engines was out of my budget. Porsche now wants over $12,000 plus a core for a remanufactured engine (this is through Sunset or Suncoast, the list is much higher), and only warranties the engine if it is installed by a dealer. I wanted to stay married so that option was quickly ruled out. Looked at some sources for rebuilt engines, but they seem to be $7,000+ and somewhat of an unknown quantity. Used engines seem to be $5,000+ and are also an unknown quantity. I checked out the cost of a new head, which list for about $2,700, and Sunset and Suncoast were about $2,400, and the 1-3 heads were in Germany so over a month away. The parts department at Suncoast did lead me to a dealer in the Chicago area who appears to have the only new 1-3 head in the states, and would let it go for approx $2,400. But I found out that Porsche only warranties the head if it is installed by a dealer. Seemed like a lot of money for a head without any warranty. So I scratched that alternative. Next I tried to find a good used 1-3 head, but they are very scarce. Several wreckers had 4-6 heads but no 1-3 heads. Found a set of heads through a member in Florida at an incredible price, but I asked the member, who is a Porsche tech to check the heads for cracks. He said he had never seen a cracked head but would gladly check the heads. A little penetrating dye showed that the 1-3 head was cracked a cylinder #1, inner exhaust valve seat. Found another set, but when they were checked 1-3 was also cracked. Do we see a pattern here? Found another set in NY, but they were from an independent/Ebay seller who could not tell if they were cracked. He said he would refunds the money if they were cracked, but we could not agree on a price, and I was worried on getting the money back. Cracks in the 1-3 heads seem to be far too common. I spoke to Jake Raby and he told me that in a 10 day period they tore down 5 engines for big bore upgrades, and 4 had cracked heads, although only one had developed an intermix problem. But we all know that cracks don’t get better, and it is probably only a matter of time until the other cracked heads would lead to problems. Jake said he would certainly not use a cracked head so he was sitting on the engines until a solution could be found. So I decided to have the head repaired. Kind of figured that with so many heads cracking in the same area maybe a repaired head would actually be stronger. Sent the Head to Costa Mesa R&D, where they have experience with repairing these heads. Here is a picture of the repaired head, it is supposed to be delivered to me on Friday and I hope to be back on the road in the next week or so. The cost of the repair was $503, including a valve job and drilling out a frozen bolt on the cam sensor and putting in a coil, plus about $30 shipping in each direction. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the solution to my problem. Wish me luck!

Turbo coupes are getting so cheap now that it would make more sense to just buy one. However, Turbo Cabs, which weren't made until 2004 are still pretty expensive.

Doesn't surprise me at all. When I bought my 2000 996 C4 Cab in the summer of 2000 cars were selling for list or more and werre hard to find. My local dealer had sold out thier C4 Cab allocations for 18 months. Then the tech market crashed and six months later you could get any car you wanted, most of the ordered cars were now sitting on lots and prices were 15-20% off list. Just a few months ago I saw people talking about whether they should accept 5% off and I said wait for a few months and the deals will be incredible, now you are seeing it. Our local dealer has a plethora of 2008 and 2009 cars just sitting on the lot. That costs them alot of juice. And Porsche has alot more in the pipeline. They only started reducing production earlier this year, way to late for the drop in demand. If you have the ability now if a great time to buy!!

I had the rear wheel bearings reploaced under warranty in my 2000 996 with only about 20,000 miles, had a humming in the rear and the dealer said they were bad. The cost was over $2,000 because the dealer said he had to pull the wheel carier to press out the bearings. I don't know if this is really required and did not care at the time is the warranty paid for 100% of the cost. But it did seem like alot of money.

NAPA make a kits for this that costs about $16.00.

Actually I am debating between a new head, a used head or the repair of thie cracked head. The masnine shop I talked to in Costa Mesa is the one familiar with these cracke and they say they have repaired many. It seems like it would be hard to do, but they say they have a way to do it.

I had just over 50,000 miles on mine when the intermix was discovered. I am talking with two machine shops that have experience with these cracks. With one I did not even have to describe the crack, as soon as I tild him I had a cracked head he told me exactly where it was (#1, at the inner exhaust valve sprng seat extending down the sparkplug bore) and said he has fixed many of them, cost $500-$600 including a valve job. A new head list for $2,695, Susnet sells for $2,294, but they are in Germany, so a month away unless you want to pay a 20% permium to Porsche for expedited shipping (why should they stock parts locally when we all know how rare failures are :lol: There are a few used ones out there, but 1-3 heads are harder to find (fail more often than 4-6) and are going for $1,000+ it seems, with no real warranty.

Undo the ones with the heads that face the front of the car. then use a pry bar or something to move the rubber osolator toward the front of the car. The whole shaft slides toward the front of the car on a splined end that fits into the front differential housing. I know because I dropped the engine on my C4 last week. It resisted at first, but with a little pressure (not tos much) the ruber and the flange on the transmission will separate. Good luck, if you need I can send you some pictures of the ends after they are separated.

Fond the source of my intermix problem which happened last September. Car sat most of the winter, starting the removal and teardown of the engine two weeks ago, an hour here and an hour there. Crack in cylinder head at cylinder #1, by the inner exhaust valve. You can readily see it in this picture. I am told this is where they are usually found, either at cylinder #1 or #6, which is essentially the same place in the head casting. So now I ned a cylinder head and I should be back on the road soon!! :P

22K-24K on the rears, WOW!! that is just about unheard of on a 996. I think mid-teens and you are doing really well. But then we have all seen the way you maintain your car. Maybe a clean car gets alot more miles out of tires :lol:

How does the AC Compressor mount. If it is the same as on a 3.4/3.6, which i would think it is (essentially the same block) then why couldn't use the old compressor and hoses. If not you cound have some fabricated. You could try try the same approach for the pwer steering, either use old pump or have hoses fabricated with the appropriate ends.

Make sure you get the latest hardware. there is a TSB on upgrading the hardware to a "screw" type that reduces squeaks, etc. It will also show how to install the hardware. You may have to do a little wiring for the rear defroster as the connector may not be there, each wiring harness is custom made, but it won't be hard.

With those cost figures you are bascally at the cost of a remanufatured engine, although you might not get the core deposit (at least al of it) back. And with the reman engine you get alot more new parts, etc. and a warranty. Kind of surprised that the dealer has not suggested this.

Here i sthe link for the IMS bearing upgrade http://www.flat6innovations.com/shop/produ...=310&page=1