I have been looking at buying a '89. I am concerned about the leak down. The car has 155K miles and the cylinders are reading 14%, 15%, 14%, 16%, 16%, 16%. Is this exceptable? The current owner claims the car goes through a quart of oil every 2,500 miles. The engine does'nt show any substantial drips. Thanks for your input.
C. Griffith

 

C. Griffith

The car that you are looking at does have some mileage related wear. The leakdown is consistant, which is a good thing. The rings are most likely the component that is showing the lower numbers. It would be nice to have a 5% leakdown as a maximum. You will probably have to do a top end in the future, so you need to budget for that. Can you ask you mechanic where the leakage was, valves, rings. Was the engine dry. Regardless a top end is in the future. Good luck.

 

Bruce Anderson does not recommend placing much faith in leakdown results on the 964. Carbon build-up and something about cylinder head shape (?) make LD an unreliable test of engine condition....better to check compression and see if findings are consistent with LD. At 155K, assuming all original innards, it wouldn't take a LD test to have me planning for a rebuild in the not to distant future.

Just my 2 cents.

 

C.Griffith,

I know this is the 964 forum, but just to clarify:

Are you looking at an '89 C4, or an '89 911? Since the '89 C4 has the 3.6 liter engine, and the '89 911 has the 3.2 liter, I just wanted to clarify to see if Mike's post about leakdowns applies to the car you're looking at.

By the way, Porsche says using 1 qt. oil/1000 miles is normal, so it looks like the oil usage of this car is in the normal range.

Good luck!

-- Melissa