996TT Top End
Tonight Stephen (PorschePhD) came by with the magical cam tools we needed to pull the motor down the rest of the way for inspection. This evening I pulled the driver’s side apart down to the cams and cleaned everything up so we could do both sides. Glad we did.
As many 930 motors as I have pulled apart, I have never done anything internal to the 996TT motors as that was always Stephen’s department at the shop. It was a really good learning experience and I learned a lot. Can’t wait till we start reassembly.
Pulling the cam tensioner pad off.
And removing the camshaft housing on the intake cam. This housing was severly grooved, with a direct path into the cam actuator sensor. This is from the rings on the cams coming apart (one ring missing on the passenger cam).
Ouch. There should not be a groove there. From the cam ring that came apart.
Once the cams were out, we started looking at the hydraulic tappets on the intake cam. 3 were bad on the passenger side, and 1 on the driver’s. We will replace them all. The first clue is that the center is protruding.
When you pull the tappet out, notice the spring still in the housing. That should be part of the tappet.
In fact, this is how a good one looks, all contained.
Here are the retaining washers on the backside of the tappets that came apart. They should be big like the one on the right. The one on the left has disintegrated.
Looking in at the valve springs.
The other issue we noted was the cam brackets were cracked in numerous places on both sides. The passenger side was worse, but the driver side was not far behind.
All in all, we have a lot of wear in the top end. We have a list of stuff to replace so we will start ordering parts. At 90k miles, these motors sure aren’t built like the old 930 motors.
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5 Comments
Leave a commentJean-Pierre
March 4, 2011 at 10:30 AM
If you are looking for a set of tappets I saw these on Ebay. May be it can save you little bit of money…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-997-996-987-Valve-Tappets-LIFTERS-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem5ad411b715QQitemZ390104987413QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_610wt_1167
Jean-Pierre
March 4, 2011 at 2:25 PM
Also isn’t it the best time to get those coolant pipes welded instead of glued in place 😉
porschedoc
March 4, 2011 at 2:29 PM
To do the coolant pipes would require intake removal and a lot more labor to properly prep the pipes and tig them. On the TT, a lot of the fittings and hoses are routed so they can’t really push out (IE, the force would push straight down the length of the hose, and they are short enough that it shouldn’t be a big problem. There are a few fittings though that could benefit from it. Just a ton more labor. Right now we are contemplating finding a low mileage motor for this car. The $$ required just in the top end is getting very staggering.
Bo Brammeier
March 30, 2011 at 8:49 PM
Curious as to how many miles are on this motor?
porschedoc
March 30, 2011 at 10:02 PM
Approximately 90k miles.