There’s been a lot of chatter lately about Porsche engine Bore-Scoring issues in relation to the 9X6’s (986 & 996) and 9X7’s (987 & 997).
Check out my video describing this issue here.
Without a doubt, these issues do exist, our goal is to mitigate the chances of this happening to you and your car.
With these simple measures, you should have better peace of mind:
- Buy the best Gasoline you can, choose a top-tier premium fuel such as Shell (V-Power), Chevron (Techron) or Exxon (Synergy) Supreme, this is to keep your fuel injectors clean. Dirty fuel injector(s) can have a strange fuel spray pattern which can cause a rich fuel mixture. This raw fuel mixture can wash the oil off your cylinder walls which in turn will cause a lack of cylinder & piston lubrication. A lack of cylinder & piston lubrication is the major cause of wear or bore scoring. The minimum grade gasoline for all street production Porsches is 91 octane.
- Pour “one quarter” bottle of Joe Gibbs Driven fuel injector Defender in every fill-up of fuel, keep in mind that you can overdo this!
- When you start your engine cold, if the ambient “outside” temperature is 35*f or above, please take off immediately, BUT you must keep the engine speed below 3000rpm and with a low load until it reaches operating temperature. The engine management system is very rich, meaning it has lots of fuel when the engine is first started cold. This is mainly to light off the catalytic convertors, basically for emissions. A rich mixture can wash the oil off your cylinder walls, so by driving off immediately you will help burn more of the excess fuel.
- Change your engine oil once a year or every 3-5k miles.
- Have an engine oil analysis performed by SPEEDiagnostix at every engine oil change.
- Utilize a high-quality boutique type of synthetic engine oil such as Joe Gibbs Driven DT series or Motul 8100 X-Cess.
- Utilize either a genuine Porsche engine oil filter or if you have the LNE spin-on adaptor, install either a Napa Platinum or a Wix XP filter.
- Replace your factory engine oil filter housing at every oil change, because this contains a bypass valve that can get clogged with debris causing it to not operate properly. OR better yet replace your engine oil filter with an LN Engineering spin-on oil filter adaptor.
- Replace or have your fuel injectors cleaned professionally every 75k miles, this sometimes requires removal of the fuel injectors.
- Every 20k miles, remove and inspect your engine oil sump plate (oil pan), inspect it for any debris and have your cylinder bores checked for any scoring with a Borescope.
Please keep in mind that no matter what car you own, these are applicable recommendations for all internal combustion engine vehicles.
Remember to drive and enjoy your Porsche, sitting around does it no good.
For more information on preventing or fixing bore scoring in your Porsche engine, please visit LN Engineering’s website here.
Tony
Photo by Flat 6 Innovations