silver_tt

I don't understand how they could split since it doesn't use a cylinder liner? The thermal spray is applied directly to the cylinder bore with no lining. If you have any links or evidence I would be curious to see it only to educate myself as I have not seen this failure on these cars.

jamesbrah66

Here are the pictures of cylinder 5 and 6 the shop sent me.

Graufuchs

Trying to get photos...this is from a friend who is connected with techs across the country in the motorsports industry. He does race prep and telemetry for 2 teams currently.

PM sent to avoid thread derail.

kellen

Looks minor to me. I would be more in the normal wear and tear camp but I’m just an internet mechanic.

I wouldn’t pay going market for the car knowing this though.

jamesbrah66

Appreciate your input. It's going to be hard to determine a price. I don't think I can just ask the seller to drop his asking by $15k to split the cost of a rebuild since it's not imminent (and may not be for a while). The other thing is the seller is not an enthusiast, so I don't think he understands or cares about this finding...
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Graufuchs

Agree with this....I would ask seller to consider some discount. motor will need rebuild but could be very far in future. Not something that would prevent me personally from purchasing car. Like Petza recommended, proper oil and warm up cycles. Lots of life in that motor if that's the worst of it.

Petza914

I'd call that more like medium scoring because you're looking at it above the cylinder and the contact area is already wide. From below the cylinder this is going to look a lot worse.

I'm going to stick with my low $30s recommendation if you decide to move forward. If you can't get it for $35k or less, I'd find another one. Problem for you is that the seller will be able to sell this to someone who doesn't know about scoring for mid to upper $40S, but that buyer won't be very happy in the next 20k miles.

carguy999

At this point isn't it safe to assume MOST engines probably look like this?

Petza914

No, I just saw a boroscope of a 150k mile 997.1 C2S of a Facebook friend of mine and it was pristine.

kellen

Groove on here has posted some that look horrific and nearly d chunked. I loved his quote of “looks like a two way street with a sidewalk”. Think he had 3 scoped before the best person in the world (me) found him his last 911 whose bores looked great.

I wouldn’t know but I’d be more in the camp of most engines don’t looks like this. Many people here have posted pics of pristine bores with mileage all over the place. However we are a minority among owners.

I think it’s a PPI add on with a good black and white test, but the grey area is just thought. Each ones risk tolerance is different.

jamesbrah66

When I spoke with the tech who scoped this particular vehicle, he mentioned that the last three m96/m97s he scoped all had scoring of some kind, with this one being the mildest. I think part of the issue is being in the much colder climate up here in Canada.

I think I'm going to take the advice of some members in this thread and propose an offer with a price reduction to take into account the existing scoring and likely clutch replacement required. If the seller isn't amenable I will move on and continue my search. I can accept the risk of having a car with a flawed engine, but a 30k potential rebuild is still a lot to stomach unless you're getting a GREAT deal on the vehicle.

groovzilla

Kellen here's the street/sidewalk Bore Scope Photo.

groovzilla

At 106,550 miles during PPI and my 2006 C4 purchase last year, my cylinders had no scoring. It's something I like sharing because I had searched for a 997 to purchase for 5 months and the 3 997"S" cars I PPI'd/Bore Scope Inspected had some serious scoring. I will note 2 of the 3 were cold weather cars.
It is possible to find clean cylinders and in my search, the non-S engines are much less likely to have scoring.