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Use cosmoline
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Leading evidence: 'Use cosmoline' (no explicit attributable resolution; this is a reported action or suggestion). Across 1 matching discussions, The most frequently discussed action is 'Use cosmoline' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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Had a dealer take pics of the undercarriage of this 996 and I asked him what the discoloration was and he said �cosmoline�. I know what cosmoline is but does it look like that? To me it looks scraped..
Can anyone tell me what that is?
Cosmoline and scrapes. I would guess the vast majority of them have scrapes, especially with the larger sump. Mine does.
As for cosmoline, e30�s in the 80�s were caked in it.
Yea, they used cosmoline. My 987 engine was coated all over with the stuff. Your engine appears to have oil/dirt residue on top of the cosmoline coating. This also appears to have a lot of corrosion. And yes, it's scraped. Northern car? Where is it from?
Here is a clearer picture of cosmoline sprayed on a M96.
Cosmoline was commonly used on cars of this era (not just Porsche) and was applied to prevent corrosion. It's basically a wax like coating that is a corrosion inhibitor. As long as the sump doesn't have any visible leaks, which it doesn't look like it does, it looks fine to me. This can easily be replaced with a new sump cover if it bothers you or better yet, install a new deep sump cover for extra oil capacity and the benefits that it provides.
Yep!
My daughter bottomed out on a speed bump while driving my Cayman scraping the sump plate. Didn't know it at first, but she cracked it. Easy replacement and good time to do a sump inspection and if you dare... bore scope inspection.
