aggravation

The way it would work for me is how do I want to spend $20,000 out of pocket at the moment I'm faced with the dead engine problem?

In my case I'm $23,000 into it right now. If my engine dies I can go a total of $43,000 into it to get back on the road.

Choice A - Put $20,000 into my roller and have a 996 with a new Raby engine....

Choice B - Cash the roller in for $5000 to add to my $20,000 out of pocket which buys me what for $25,000?
A replacement 996 with an unknown used engine?

Noz1974

Your in exactly the same boat I was.
Repairing my blown engine was just too costly and didn't make sense, in the end I sold off whatever I could, luckily including the heads which were ok!!
Then I did buy another engine from a breaker but stripped it down to improve , it's much better improving an engine that was running rather than trying to repair the un repairable and works out cheaper in the long run.
I also agree with everyone else , you don't start a poorly 996 engine, if your finding brass , that sounds like head damage, valve guide material possibly???
I would buy a used engine but get it bore scoped and compression tested to make sure it's good to start with,
Then tear it down and put new big end and mains, upgrade ims, rings, cylinder strengthening rings or liners, valve guides and seals water pump AOS , you know the drill!!
Best of luck!!

Schnell Gelb

I am rebuilding an M96 now. I would grade my decision to incur the cost,time and anxiety of rebuilding as F-F-F.
Fascinating engine
but Financially Foolish.
Would I do it again -sadly, yes because the engine and it's faults are intriguing.
Although I have all the tools, equipment,skills(?) to do an M96 rebuild, I lack the knowledge required to do so confidently because Porsche does not share the vital specs , clearances with owner/enthusiasts like us. We are left begging Raby for help on issues like bore ovality & taper, special tools. If my rebuild succeeds ,I will owe that good fortune to Raby,not Porsche.

tdrimer

Would love to know what a Raby build is on a good motor...just take it out, strengthen all the issues and put it back in with the bells and whistles!

5CHN3LL

My '96 Corvette - which is dangerously close to clicking over to 30K miles - is one of the few possessions I have of my mom's - her dream car for decades and her prized possession for many years before she passed away. The connection I have with her memory when driving that car makes it valuable far beyond what KBB says it's worth. If that car needed a new small-block V8, I wouldn't hesitate.

Some folks feel the same way about their 996's - others feel like it's a really cool car that three other people have also owned, and replacing it with one just like it wouldn't be that big of a deal. *shrug*

What did OP ever decide to do, anyway?

Ahsai

He decided to start a new thread here https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...t-options.html

c4racer

It won't. A 96 LT1 will go 200K miles easily. And if you had to replace it could be done for less than $5K or better yet upgraded to LSx for less than that.

5CHN3LL

I think it'll go forever - it's an auto, and I replaced the D36 with a D44 and 3.73 gears. It pulls like a freight train without working the engine too hard, although it does sometimes bleed ATF if I run it in second too long at the autocross.

The LS swap into a C4 is harder than you'd imagine only because of CA smog, but it's doable - some other poor guy did it first, so there's precedent now.

Jake Raby

Whether its a preventative build, or the result of a failure, I still throw away about 100 pounds of parts from every engine. I have almost 7 tons of scrap to haul away on Monday.

Whether parts are good, or bad, I still throw them away and start from scratch. I retain 6 major internal engine components, thats all.

AndrewMT996

Nothing decided yet, but I'm sharing some emails with Jake and hope to chat with him in the next couple of days to see what we can't work out.

I'm definitely leaning toward getting the engine redone. It helps that my wife is firmly in the "do what we have to to get it fixed" camp. She doesn't even drive stick, but apparently she's formed an attachment too!

tdrimer

Cheaper to do preventive build though correct?

Jake Raby

HELL YES!
I am giving big incentives for preemptive builds, trying to make our lives easier here.

Once a failure occurs the caris of the road for a year, the enine needs 2-7K worth of core components replaced, and there's no incentives.

With a preemptive things are much different. The owner only does without the car for the final 3 months of the bild, the engine is 2K cheaper to build due to my incentives, and no core expenses occur.

Last year we only had two preemptive builds all year. Everything ese was blown up, and scattered.

Ahsai

What's involved in a preemptive build and what are being addressed?

Jake Raby

There are no options. Every engine receives all failure modes addressed and is reconstructed from A to Z.

I really have to watch this sort of information on forums, because it's not generally accepted by the members.

I offer on e monthly online presentations to those who are interested in what we create from a preemptive reconstruction point of view. It's 1-2 hours in duration, depending upon the amount of attendees and their questions. The next one is February 25. The last one was last week and we had a full house.

You can also email jud@rabyenginedevelopment.com to register for the free presentation, or to get more answers. I don't want to step outside the bounds of the forum by answering questions :-)

ejs1

Jake, do you have any trusted engine builders in Europe who use your components/have been trained by you? Reason for asking is that we are planning a move to Europe later this year and was just wondering if there's anyone over there who can be contacted in case I have a need in the future. Thanks!