That's true, but where Porsche was different is that they moved to more mass-production, lower grade components (Lokasil liners instead of Nikasil) and interchangeability of parts - the 986 Boxtser and the 996 911 shared a lot of common parts (but not the Turbo or Mezger engined cars). The GT3 for instance uses titanium con-rods. Dry-sump provides better cooling for the high performance as opposed to the non-Mezger cars which Porsche described as "integrated dry-sump". Porsche was nearing bankruptcy and moved from low volume cars to mass-production (just google the number of 993 and 964 cars and then compare to 996 and 997 cars sold). Accountants took a firm grip to cut costs of production. The IMS design was at fault with a layout that leached the grease and effectively made it run almost dry and rapid wear until crunch it disintegrates. There is no intermediate shaft in a mezger engine - like my motorcyle days when I used to tell guys in their BSA bantam's - "the rattle is your tappets mate, get a mechanic to readjust the tappets", I joke to Turbo owners - "get the IMS setup checked out mate"
There were inherent flaws in the 996 and 986 and the early 987 and 997's also. Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) lost a lawsuit brought upon them by owners whose engines went crunch and suffered scored bores.
http://www.eisenimssettlement.com/
In fact the flaw is so inherent, that Baz hart of Hartech in Bolton says if not modified, it's a matter of when not if the engine packs up with scored bores and/or IMS failure.
I know a lot of Porsche indys who are ex-OPC and they ALL cite the numerous examples of crunched engines (around 2-3 a month) they got in for replacement engines. OPC (Official Porsche Centres) refused to accept an inherent flaw in the design, fearing it would open the floodgates for class action lawsuits or individual lawsuits.
Unfortunately, when OPC replaced the engines under warranty (remember you can extend the standard warranty to 10 years), they replaced the crunched engines with the same flawed engines so it was another ticking time bomb until that engine went crunch.
Hartech are probably the best for rebuilds, replacing the cheap lokasil liners for nikasil, and machining the water channels on bank 2 for better water flow and cooling, better quality pistons and rings, better IMS bearing etc. baz has made a living out of rebuilding broken boxster and cayman and 996 and 997 engines. His core business is founded upon Porsche's failure to correct the flawed design (until they came out with the DFI engine). But a Hartech-rebuilt engine is no safeguard without sight of (a) Hartech full report and recommendations and (b) the FULL itemised invoice.
I even know of people who had a borescope on pre-purchase at indys, were given the all-clear and then into ownership, borescope request at service showed scored bores. Some off-loaded them onto unsuspecting mugs. Others sank £10k-£12k into a rebuild and kept telling themselves and forum members that it was a keeper. It has to be after sinking that sort of money and worth not a lot more than the cost of the rebuild! Still some others went for "partial" rebuild for the problem to re-occur on the non-rectified items to keep costs down and off-load the car to some unsuspecting mug who is mesmerised by "hartech-rebuild or indy- rebuild". It all depends on what the owners instruct Hartech to carry out with the recommendations provided.
Now tell me, who wants to buy a non-Mezger, non-DFI Porsche water-cooled car?
Not me for sure. I don't like to play Russian Roulette with a live round in a chamber. Though plenty of people evidently do judging by how many of these cars are out there.