Bore scoring symptoms

  • Hello everyone.

    The picture of myself, 8 years old, holding the white 930 in the hand chased me my whole life and now it's time to act as a grown up and pull the trigger on 997 of my dreams.


    I'm on the market for a 911 (997) 2005-2008 with preferrably 3.8liter engine and even I know the ideal buy may be the 2010 where the bore scoring is not the issue, the examples I can find are out of my budget.


    In the last 5 months I've looked 4 different cars and basically every of them have had some oily residue in the left exhaust tip. (Some more some less)


    One owner actually warmed the car up prior to my arriving, even I explicitly told him to keep the car cold so we can do the cold start.


    As I understand the issue, a lot of these cars are suffering from the bore scoring and I seem to be bying into the problem but I also think I have to do it. I'm not getting younger (37 now) and think it's about the time to fulfill my childhood dream of owning the Porsche 911.


    My main question here is:

    If I manage to buy the car with about 100-120k Kilometers on the clock with the very early symptoms of bore scoring but runing perfectly fine, could you kind of define the repair costs ballpark so I can prepare myself to do it immediately if needed.


    To be honest, If I buy my dream car, I'm ready to make it the wildest and the most reliable version there is and drive it till I'm old enough to pass it hopefully to my son or daughter.


    Thank you in advance and I hope I'll be hearing from you soon.


    Best

    Milan


    P.S. Deutsch geht auch

  • Hello Milan,


    Ultimately, every Porsche driver fulfills their childhood dream at some point and buys a Porsche. And that's right, because a Porsche is and remains the engine for success and joy!


    I don't know your budget, but if it's enough, I would recommend a GT3 or a Turbo. It doesn't matter whether it's a 996 or a 997, because the technology is very similar and the same in many ways.


    The GT3 and Turbo vehicles have the advantage of having Mezger engines installed, which can always be repaired without any problems.


    Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Porsche types with the modified Boxer - Cayman - Carrera - water boxer.


    Depending on oil consumption, these engines develop damage to the cylinder walls and pistons after 50 - 120 thousand km, which can become major problems if not repaired promptly.


    We have developed what is probably the best repair method on the market. We are the only company in the world to install cylinders made of chrome-molybdenum steel with lamellar graphite deposits.


    We have this steel manufactured specifically for our company and use it to make cylinders for us.


    HERE you can see the production process of our cylinders.


    We have now converted several hundred engines with this system, which we have been using since 2020.


    We have been repairing Porsche water boxers since 2000, first with cylinders made of spheroidal graphite, today with cylinders made of chrome-molybdenum steel without a single new damage.


    The more than 1,600 engines we have built so far are proof of impeccable craftsmanship and are based on a sophisticated repair system that we have tested on the racetrack for durability in many applications under the highest stress.


    But to answer your initial question... "You can buy a 996 or 997 Carrera today, examine it endoscopically and do further tests. Then it can still happen that one or three months later you have engine damage in the named places."


    You can only use high-quality fully synthetic oil as a preventative measure, that is the only thing we recommend to our customers for a long-lasting engine. As we can see, that seems to be the key, because no one in our customer base has had an engine failure so far.


    The numerous damages come exclusively from customers outside our customer base and around 20% from customers who have already had repairs carried out on the engines elsewhere... with subsequent, often even greater damage than was the case before.


    I don't know your budget, we currently have a few vehicles with engines converted by us in stock. These are usually sold within a few days.


    If you have any questions, just get in touch again.


    Best regards,
    Jürgen Albert

  • Hello Jürgen


    Thank you for the explanation. I assume I've learned a thing or two...


    So my buying budget is about 40-45k. 45 being the upper budget line I'm not really willing to cross.


    For that money I can buy 997 Carrera S (2005) with 93k Kilometers that I optically really like or maybe 996 Turbo (2001) with 145k Kilometers.

    Both with automatic transmission.


    I'm assuming only, but from your explanation I have the feeling that you would go for 996 in any case.


    I'd be happy to hear a word or two on this dilemma from the expert point of view.


    Thanks

    Milan

  • Hello Milan,


    yes, I would personally choose the 996 Turbo. Firstly because it is a higher quality car in the long run, and secondly because it is the better car in terms of handling, performance dynamics and later sale. The equipment of a Turbo is also almost always better and of higher quality.



    I had a 996 Turbo myself a few years ago and drove it for many thousands of kilometers without any problems. There is only one annoying point, and that is that the higher performance has to go hand in hand with higher fuel consumption. The parameters for this are set by the accelerator pedal!


    For me as a racing driver, the possibility of increasing performance was also a point. The car has an unbridled power and pulls up to 300 km/h in one go from low revs. Fantastic!


    The engine can be increased to 500 - 530 hp without much effort, which makes driving twice as much fun!


    Yes, I stick to that, for me the Turbo would be the right car.