Recommended Porsche Engine Rebuild Expert

How to Choose a Porsche Engine Expert for Your M96, M97, or 9A1 Engine Rebuild

Porsche 911, Boxster, or Cayman Engine Rebuild Specialists

Why You Need a Porsche Engine Specialist

Porsche water-cooled M96, M97, and 9A1 engines found in 911, Boxster, and Cayman can fail for several reasons. These Porsche engines are susceptible to bore scoring, spun rod bearings, cracked cylinders, and IMS bearing failures that lead to an engine re-build being necessary. We recommend Slakker Racing Development rebuilt Porsche engines. Below we explain why Slakker is the best choice to rebuild your Porsche engine.

How to Tell if You Need Your Porsche Engine Rebuilt

There are some clear signs that a Porsche engine rebuild is necessary. Loud rhythmic knocking noises from the passenger cylinder bank, excessive black soot on the driver side exhaust, sudden loss of power, increased oil consumption, and metal fragments in the oil are all signs of impending trouble.

Understanding the Options Available If You Need to Rebuild a Porsche Engine

Accurate diagnosis of your Porsche engine health is critical before embarking on a rebuild project. Check with a Porsche specialist to be sure that an engine rebuild is the right solution before diving in.

With an accurate diagnosis, and once all engine repair options have been exhausted, the next step is a major decision and investment in your Porsche. At this stage, you’ve probably considered a used engine, a factory replacement, or a low-cost off-the-shelf rebuilt engine. In our experience, all those options are fraught with risk, hidden costs, and typically end up costing significantly more than advertised. We recommend re-building your original engine.

How to Choose a Porsche Engine Rebuilder

Porsche engine rebuilding experts are few and far between. Choosing between them comes down to understanding engine terminology, technology, process, customer service, and after care. Much of the understanding of what is required to decide between Porsche engine experts and the rebuilding of a Porsche engine, is complex and in-depth technical information.

Our recommendations are based on technical knowledge, process experience with the claimed experts, and first-hand experience of re-building many Porsche M96 and M97 engines ourselves.

One well know engine builder publishes mountains of self-proclaimed expert opinions and videos on why a Porsche engine failed. While this engine builder is well known and has a cozy relationship with the PCA, we do not recommend investing in an engine rebuilt by him.

Simplifying the Porsche Engine Re-Build Decision

There are essentially two ways to approach the Porsche engine rebuild. Both are successful, however, only one ends up with truly measurable results and a strengthened engine that can be pushed beyond original design limits. We recommend you don’t just rebuild with different parts. We recommend a thorough change in the engine design and use of high precision technology to achieve a better engine and stronger return on your investment.

Avoid The Standard Rebuilt Porsche M96 or M97 Engine With Cylinder Liner Re-Plating

The standard and most well-known Porsche engine rebuild for the 911, Boxster, or Cayman involves over-sizing the cylinder bore, re-plating the cylinder walls, and adding some off-the-shelf pistons and connecting rods. What you get back is essentially the same flawed engine design with a few new components that may work longer. In this style of engine build, the inherent engine design issues are not addressed, and an ad hoc mix of manufacturer components is cobbled together to replace the original ones. It’s also sold as a Porsche engine rebuild kit or an exchange engine! To keep the integrity of your car, you want to keep your original engine.

Avoid Long Lead Times and Bad Customer Service

The standard engine rebuild is not usually dyno tested before being sent back to you. That makes you responsible for the critical break-in period and liable for any subsequent issues. Trust us, you will get the blame if the engine has a problem after you run it the first time. In addition, the most well-known Porsche engine builder has long lead times for repair, renown bad customer service, cloak and dagger pricing, and a “the customer is always wrong approach.” You can spend a lot of money, wait a long time, and get an average engine back! Or worse, exchange the engine for one already built which lowers the integrity and value in your car.

Porsche Engine Rebuild After Bore Scoring

While claiming to be an engine builder, the above company is not much more than reassembling the engine with a few different parts. Typically, this engine builder will only rebuild an engine that has failed through bore scoring. Any other type of failure will be rejected as a rebuild candidate. This is likely due to a lack of engineering talent and the in-house equipment necessary for machining and correcting engine design issues.

Recommended Porsche Engine Specialist

Hartech Porsche Engine Rebuild by Slakker Racing Development – Porsche Engine Experts

We highly recommend Slakker Racing Development and the Hartech Porsche Engine rebuild for your Porsche M96, M97, and 9A1 rebuild in the 911, Boxster, or Cayman.

Slakker Racing Development uses the Hartech system famed throughout Europe, to rebuild Porsche engines. The Hartech system is a combination of innovative engine redesign and precise engineering technology. The Hartech system improves the original M96 and M97 Porsche engine design with the updates used by Porsche in later engines. Updates include a closed deck design, increased cylinder support, better cooling, an improved IMS solution, and an extra main bearing to support the crankshaft.

Stronger, More Reliable, and More Powerful

Engines built by Slakker have significant changes that result in a stronger engine and a better return on your investment. For example, rather than just re-plating the cylinder and using standard pistons, Slakker uses custom made and matched sets of pistons and cylinder liners produced to microscopic tolerances. The matched piston and cylinder set is manufactured using the same process  as pistons built for Formula 1 engines! This high precision engineering technology delivers results beyond the capability of the standard “re-plate the cylinders rebuild kit.”

For even the lowest cost standard road engine, Slakker will build you a more precise, stronger, updated, and more powerful engine that includes the most advanced technology and precision engineering. Typically, that will cost less than the “kit builder” discussed above!

Our Recommended Porsche Engine Rebuild Specialist

Unlike other engine builders, Slakker Racing Development can rebuild Porsche engines from almost any core, no matter what has caused the original engine failure. Exceptions may be large holes in the casing and catastrophic destruction of the engine interior! However, most engines can be rebuilt. Every rebuilt engine is dyno tested, fully data logged, and delivered to you with the break-in complete and ready to go. Slakker’s after care is exceptional with extended data logging to always monitor the ongoing engine health.

Porsche Engine Rebuild Experts

The Slakker Porsche engine rebuild is custom tuned to each customer based on their individual goals. Slakker will listen closely and help you build the engine that matches your intent. Slakker Racing Development engines are significantly more advanced, more complete, thoroughly tested and broken-in, and they have great customer service.

We highly recommend Slakker Racing Development Porsche engine rebuilds. What you get back is a redesigned, strengthened engine, ready to be driven with exceptional ongoing support and care. So much more than the standard engine rebuild kit!

Slakker Racing Development is without doubt the best return on the investment in rebuilding your Porsche engine and they are great people to do business with. We highly recommended them.