PPI Results - Oil in Cylinders and Oil Resuide on Throttle Body

Hello all, So I have a lead on a 90k mile 2000 c2 manual in white. She is stock and a friend owns her. I drove out of town today to view it and do my own PPI in his home shop w/ a lift. It needs work. Ive made and offer to him and I am just going to sleep on it. Various things I need to clarify. To me, it looks like she needs variocam actuators, and AOS (ultimate?) and and IMS n RMS. She has 9*crk deviation bank 1, and 3*crk on bank 2. Runs cool. OG IMS bearing, weeping RMS, Serviced trans (detent) and clutch. New coolant res. I have a set of new actuators to install if needed. Expecting engine out level work. No shocker here Problem is, the bore scope results. From what we can tell, its bores are alright, not horridly scored, but a slight bit scored... normal levels? Ive been told a bit of scoring is pretty normal even on nice cars due to all the lokasil stuff (ignorance). My biggest fuss with the car is the oil in the cyl! There is a LOT of caked up oil reside JUST behind the throttle body. Is this an AOS issue? No soot in the exhaust tips, like you could eat off it lol. Over 3000 last miles, only one bar of the digital readout has been used. That's what, like 300 ml of oil? We both like the track, and drive the cars hard. He has driven this car pretty hard too, and its oil consumption is good. Same with the oil pressure. Again, 90k on the engine. Florida car. Now in Oklahoma. Long highway runs I have read that a bit of oil is normal, but this much... IDK. Concerned that even if I fix the aos, maybe even go UASO with track drain, that this might still be an issue even after doing the AOS and surrounding parts.... I am looking for feedback on this! Check the pics below This friend of mine is also a pro mechanic and we have all the parts, but I am considering if its worth it to buy it and then throw 5k+ at it to get into running order. I will not buy in if this oil issue is worth declining the deal. Speaking of the deal, 17k usd for the car and then prob needs 5k plus in parts. Thanks **IMAGES ARE A JUMBLED MESS OF CLY 1 AND CLY 6

You will see some oil in the tube behind the throttle body and that is normal. I don't know what you mean by "a lot of caked up" oil. As far as the slight scoring, your pictures are kind of fuzzy and conclusions are hard to make. "Some" scoring is fine. Deep scoring is not fine.

I don�t see any scoring around the pistons. This is where the issue is seen, when scoring is advanced. It�s better to look from the sump if you want to catch it early. Not easy, but more conclusive. Where is the focus of your camera for the scoring pics?

Hey guys, First off, thanks! But yes, when I say 'caked up oil' around that TB, I mean it looks like this. Not nearly as bad, but you know what I mean. Also, I made sure the bore scope camera was either aimed up (to the sky) or down (to the ground). That is where the scoring starts, not the sides (from what I read)... Finally, I agree about the quality of the photos. In short, I drove 100 miles, then realized I forgot my scope... then had to drive another 50 miles to the nearest homedepot to get a generic scope (only one in town). Worked... KINDA. I think it's enough to say its not badly scored, but not to tell the real story. So you guys think a fail AOS can get that much oil in that cyl? I also think it could have flowed in from the badly failing spark plug o ring seals on the tubes. Maybe when we removed the spark plug, the oil was somehow allowed into the cyl? More insight would be greatly welcomed! Peace

This is a classic case of chasing a unicorn. Your options are to find a good car and then be prepared to fix issues or be prepared to pay more to get one with all of the renovations done. The next essential is to have a trusted Indy lined up. I am ridiculously happy my Indy is a 30 min drive from my place and is a pcar fanatic. Original IMS and AOS should mean the initial price is lower. My personal preference is to get a solid original car and have improvements done under my watch, but that's usually more expensive than buying a car with everything done. Lastly, inspecting for bore scoring is probably not as good as looking at a used oil analysis. If there is a actual problem the UOA will tell you. And it will tell you other things you've not listed, like intermix, bearing health, etc.

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Thanks for the insight @996.x . I think a quick oil analysis could help. I am sitting at 17k for the car right now, and seeing as he is basially my indy, I planned on having him do the work. I was going to do AOS, RMS, variocam, etc, to my personal 996 (not my car), but thought I might do it to this car first right after buying it. Maybe strike a deal of sorts. The Oil analysis route sounds good, but im conserned about the fact that we have no previous analysis results to compare to. Also, he wanted to sell quickly so an analysis result might take long to get back, no? Thanks for more info. If anyone else wants to chime in, I'm not going to hunt you down later if your speculations prove to be my downfall (aka engine goes boom) haha

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Lake Speed at Speediagnostix has a quick 3 day turn around kit. You should do this as well as drop the sump to see whats in it. Gotta start a baseline. The other possible headache is the 5 chain system and plastic bits. In addition to the IMSB and UAOS, dont forget the water pump. Refreshing/upgrading these 3 parts will help to mitigate sudden catastrophic failure. They are a no brainer.

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Bore scoring issues will show up as abnormal values. Speed Diagnostics will tell you. I think Jake from Flat Six did a video about UOA and specifically discussed this issue. There are several others out there. A baseline with subsequent UOA measurements allows you to get in front of issues before they get real expensive. Since you have your Indy standing by, dropping that sump would be the first thing I would do after getting the sample.

This is bore scoring. Unless you accept that you will be rebuilding this engine, I'd keep searching. I'd wager if scoped from the sump, you'd fine more scoring. Unless the car is being bought as a roller and is priced accordingly that is. You Tube

Seems like a roll of the dice. Can you afford a catastrophic repair if something goes bang? I think Charles is providing good advice. Also, a 25 year old car is likely to have a lot of other issues lurking in proverbial dark places. You could easily exceed the value of the car in repairs.