Uh Oh, Bore Picture and Question

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by nuvolari

Yup, it was running great. I bought the car in LA and drove it for a couple weeks around LA and then drove it cross country to Nashville where it now sits disemboweled.

Where is this $200 engine? I checked craigslist but didn't see it there. It's far from me now but worth a look maybe....

Thanks.

Strange. I would think those grooves get rounded after the engine running like this.
The ad is on facebook marketplace. 2004 Porsche Boxster S Motor for $200, was $500; in Marina del Rey, CA, near Venice.

[nuvolari]

Originally Posted by Homeoboxter

Strange. I would think those grooves get rounded after the engine running like this.
The ad is on facebook marketplace. 2004 Porsche Boxster S Motor for $200, was $500; in Marina del Rey, CA, near Venice.

Thanks, found it and asked how bad it is but no response. Pretty difficult to deal with on the other side of the country but for $200, it's worth considering.


I got a couple borescopes but, geez, these things are not easy to use! And that's with the engine out, on an engine stand and turned upside down! And I'm trying to see into cylinder #2 which is the easiest of all to get into! Then when I was able to get the camera into the cylinder, the fact that what you're trying to see is basically a half circle of shiny aluminum makes the view extremely difficult to make out due to reflections and focusing. Also, I am using a scope with the tiny 45 degree mirror on it which completely destroys the quality and adds all sorts of reflections and focusing difficulty. I think a 90 degree camera tip is needed but that adds much expense to the scope and makes it impossible to find one to borrow from an auto parts store.

So, does anyone have any tips? Of course, I'm talking about trying to use the borescope to see the bottom ends of the cylinders, going in from the sump. I don't think it's really possible to use the mirror attachment for this purpose; has anyone used this attachment successfully? The scope I bought was an Amazon $30 part and without the mirror, the quality is very good, much better than you would expect for such a low price. And you really must have a 90 degree view once inside the cylinder or all you will see is the underside of the piston.

It's a very frustrating process and I can't imagine being able to see into all the cylinders. As I've said, the middle #2 has the easiest access but the others....Well, I didn't even try as once inside #2, I really couldn't see anything. I thought saw scoring but it was too tough to tell if it was scoring, reflection or some other anomaly.

Ok, time top research more borescopes/endoscopes....

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by nuvolari

Thanks, found it and asked how bad it is but no response. Pretty difficult to deal with on the other side of the country but for $200, it's worth considering.


I got a couple borescopes but, geez, these things are not easy to use! And that's with the engine out, on an engine stand and turned upside down! And I'm trying to see into cylinder #2 which is the easiest of all to get into! Then when I was able to get the camera into the cylinder, the fact that what you're trying to see is basically a half circle of shiny aluminum makes the view extremely difficult to make out due to reflections and focusing. Also, I am using a scope with the tiny 45 degree mirror on it which completely destroys the quality and adds all sorts of reflections and focusing difficulty. I think a 90 degree camera tip is needed but that adds much expense to the scope and makes it impossible to find one to borrow from an auto parts store.

So, does anyone have any tips? Of course, I'm talking about trying to use the borescope to see the bottom ends of the cylinders, going in from the sump. I don't think it's really possible to use the mirror attachment for this purpose; has anyone used this attachment successfully? The scope I bought was an Amazon $30 part and without the mirror, the quality is very good, much better than you would expect for such a low price. And you really must have a 90 degree view once inside the cylinder or all you will see is the underside of the piston.

It's a very frustrating process and I can't imagine being able to see into all the cylinders. As I've said, the middle #2 has the easiest access but the others....Well, I didn't even try as once inside #2, I really couldn't see anything. I thought saw scoring but it was too tough to tell if it was scoring, reflection or some other anomaly.

Ok, time top research more borescopes/endoscopes....

I use an "Uniojo" borescope, also from amazon, it's not a high end unit but works well for me. I think getting into the cylinders from the crankcase is very difficult with anything. I don't really understand your efforts in seeing the cylinders from the sump, maybe it's written somewhere in the thread. That engine is toast as it is now, you either resleeve it or replace the cases, but the cases have to be split either way, so why bother with borescoping the cylinders?

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by nuvolari

Ok, time top research more borescopes/endoscopes....

The boroscopes used to inspect the aircraft engines gives you an amazing resolution, unfortunately these professional boroscopes cost several thousand dollars

[nuvolari]

Originally Posted by Homeoboxter

I use an "Uniojo" borescope, also from amazon, it's not a high end unit but works well for me. I think getting into the cylinders from the crankcase is very difficult with anything. I don't really understand your efforts in seeing the cylinders from the sump, maybe it's written somewhere in the thread. That engine is toast as it is now, you either resleeve it or replace the cases, but the cases have to be split either way, so why bother with borescoping the cylinders?

Originally Posted by Gilles

The boroscopes used to inspect the aircraft engines gives you an amazing resolution, unfortunately these professional boroscopes cost several thousand dollars

I think the main problem was trying to use the tiny mirror attachment in order to see the cylinder walls. I have ordered a 90 degree borescope. This scope has two cameras: the normal straight ahead camera and then another one on the side where you can see 90 degrees to the side which is just what's needed to see if any scoring is present. And it's only $50 on Amazon so not too bad. I'll let you guys know how it works.

Oh, and, homeoboxster, the reason I want to see the bottoms of the cylinders is because this is where traditional scoring occurs first and where it will be the worst generally. My situation is unique because of the gouge in cylinder 2 but I'm not as worried about this gouge as I am in the slight damage on the opposite side of the cylinder which looks like it may have been caused as a result of the gouge, either when it first occurred or later as the piston reacts to the gouge. Therefore, I want to see the bottom of that cylinder just to see if anything bad is going on or not. Also, I want to check the other cylinders although as already stated, they are much more difficult to see into from the sump so not sure how successful that process will be. But this is a 3.2 engine which isn't usually too prone to scoring.

And the engine isn't toast yet. This is all part of the information needed to make the best decision. Lee Jenkins said to put it back together and not worry but I'm a pessimist so I need more reassurance in how long it will last if I do just that.

[Homeoboxter]

Originally Posted by nuvolari

And the engine isn't toast yet. This is all part of the information needed to make the best decision. Lee Jenkins said to put it back together and not worry but I'm a pessimist so I need more reassurance in how long it will last if I do just that.

That small horizontal gouge right where the rings ride nearly at highest speed would bother me just enough to not reassemble this engine as is, but that's me usually ending up losing when gambling
It's your call, I hope it'll turn out fine whichever decision you go with.

[The Radium King]

i'm no expert, but that latest round of pics of the scratch seems pretty damning. if that scratch is as deep and wide all the way down as it is at the top of the cylinder then i doubt you will get anything for compression, will get a tremendous amount of blowby into the crankcase, and lots of oil into the combustion chamber (which appears to be happening given how dank the top of your piston looks).

dunno why you took the engine apart in the first place so can't really correlate cause to effect, but did you send these latest images of the scratch to lee jenkins? i'd agree with him if all he was working with was the initial images which look more like bore polishing than bore scoring, but the scratch seems a bit more than all that.