Sorry in advance...

[deMort]

I echo what Baz has already said .. the pictures are not clear enough ..

I see some drag marks which i don't consider to be an issue but a couple of marks on what i think is no.6 im unsure of .. they may or may not be deep but over all ..

That is not what i would call proper bore score .. it gets far worse than this .

As with any borescope inspection .. it's a magnified view of the cylinder walls and the camera can get very close making a small mark look huge .

Its again not uncommon to see some marks .

We need to angle the camera to get a depth perspective to determine if its a normal drag or actually has some depth to it .. hence the advise of the garage is best .

Below is an image of proper bore score which obviously is different to your images ..

This is basically like dragging your finger nails through a tub of butter .. that's what it will look like when stripped .

Ign range of 1,2 and 3 are fine .. its 4, 5 and 6 your want to worry about with 5 and 6 being .. i wouldn't buy the car if in the last 200 hrs .. even so selling the car will be more of an issue with these rev ranges .


EDIT .. added comments to the images .

I will say that when the silicone particles get stuck in a ring then you will get many scores .. if what i have seen from the images is very recent then it will get worse .. if a while back then its fine .. no way of saying the operating time though so an inspection after another 100 hours will say for sure .

 

[tom_nieto]

If this is a unicorn spec and it would be your ideal car, use the "bore scoring" as a bargaining chip. £33k is strong money for a 997.1 in this climate, even with this mileage. You might find that you get another 50,000 miles out of the engine before you have any problems. In which case it might be worth a punt.

If it's fairly standard specification then go find another.

The key comment from Baz for me was "I doubt there is another similar car available in better bore shape." This seems quite reassuring!

 

[montygraphics]

The first car on this site has a Harlech rebuild and similar money.

https://www.performancecarcompany.com/results.php

I have bought 3 Porsches from them over the years. May be worth speaking to them.

 

[bazhart]

I hope the various contributors have helped the originator to make the right decisions.

It is very risky responding with such poor photos - but if it helps - I find that IF a score is deep it usually is dark in the root (or one side of the groove width or the other depending on the position and angle of the camera light) and very thin and only shiny on one or either side. But these pictures look like a consistently wide equally bright reflection over the whole width of the "polishing mark" which suggests they have no depth and therefore nothing should be to worry about.

Good luck - great cars - brilliant value for money - well worth preserving even when they need attention - as long as the right solutions are implemented - lots of poor solutions around from less capable suppliers anxious to get in on the market.

Baz

 

[T8]

If this is a unicorn spec and it would be your ideal car, use the "bore scoring" as a bargaining chip. £33k is strong money for a 997.1 in this climate, even with this mileage. You might find that you get another 50,000 miles out of the engine before you have any problems. In which case it might be worth a punt.

If it's fairly standard specification then go find another.

The key comment from Baz for me was "I doubt there is another similar car available in better bore shape." This seems quite reassuring!

:agree:

I've just had a quick browse on AT and was very surprised to find that £33k for a low mileage Gen1 manual car is not actually too OTT price wise. Assuming of course that it's an S. A 3.6 would definitely need to be a few £K less.

 

[watchescarswinecigars]

Wow. I've been amazed by the amount of responses here... i've been on other forums for years (watches) and rarely get such useul comments! Thank you all for that, it's appreciated.

My instinct was to pass on the car and so I told the seller as such. But since then I've been a bit gutted about it to be honest. The car is almost perfect in terms of what I'm looking for... low miles, electric sunroof, electric leather sports seats, short shift gear change, sports exhaust and suspension and cruise control.

The only thing I'd have preferreed is (controversially?) would be lobster claws! But this is something easily remedied. If the over revs isn't an issue with the driving hours then I may reconsider. Having said that, a low mile car with Hartech build completed would be the ideal.

I did see one sell for an £31K, with 35k miles and with the full 6 cylinder Hartech treatment. It went so fast I didnt even see it until sold even though I look on all the sites daily. So they are out there... I hope!

The one mentioned by @montygraphics is nearly perfect... but its a tiptronic and the absolute must above anything else for me is manual. But again, it shows they're out there.

I am about to move house so the car would need to wait until the end of Jan to have a garage to go into... so perhaps I'll hold fire until January and see whats around or if the vendor of this particular car is up for a deal.

Thanks again and when the decision is finally resolved, I'll let you know.

:?:

 

[jonttt]

One think is for sure, whatever car you get you will know its the right car for you with all of the research / knowledge you have already gained. If this particualr car if for you it will still be available and you will want it even more in January, karma :thumb:

 

[bazhart]

One piece of advice is that owners generally have no idea what other similar cars for sale are like.

That means that at the high end of the price range (for condition and specification etc) there will be some rubbish cars while at the low end - there will be some really nice ones.

What it means is that the best thing you can do is visit a number of cars (I would say minimum 10) after which you will see exactly what I mean.

Top dealers get good cars because they see so many and can easily pick out good and poor ones (with the same history, mileage and condition).

Asking questions on here is useful but no substitute for travelling and checking some out.

Baz

 

[jonttt]

Agreed, the search has to be part of the fun, the more you see the easier / more comfortable you will be when you find the car for you, unless you get lucky :grin: