Prospective Purchase - Blackstone Oil Analysis Question

Looking at the attached oil analysis, should I be concerned about the high level of iron? Nothing else seems too out of place, but after watching Jake's bore scoring videos the iron number has me a bit worried. The folks at Blackstone don't seem too concerned, but as this will be my first foray into the world of Porsche, I'm a bit nervous about, well, everything.... By the by - the car is a 2001 Carrera 6MT, and the IMS was replaced with the IMS Retrofit in 2014.

The iron more than doubled from this car's previous report or average of past reports. It is also more than twice as high as 'universal' average. I think generally Blackstone tends to soft pedal bad results in their editorial, and I would see this as something to worry about. If I owned the car, I'd just be keeping an eye on it. If this was a prospective buy, I'd walk away.

I think this was the first report, so I don't think the iron level more than doubled; I think the report is indicating that it's more than twice as much iron as they normally see given the location of the car (Central Ohio).

Regarding the bore scoring concern, did you have a PPI done on the car? Did they bore scope bank#2? That would be my best advice at this stage in the game. The bearing is overdue for a change too. If I owned this car, I'd immediately get off that 0W40 oil and move to DT40 or MOTUL X-Cess 8100.

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I believe the first column to the right of the recent report numbers (unit / location averages) are the average of all reports for this car. I got my first report 6 months ago, and on my report the numbers in that column are the same as the one to the left of it because its the first report. I think the 'universal averages' column on the right is the averages for this model car overall I think.

I have noticed this weird phenomenon when selling cars on BAT or in general. The more complex information you give a buyer, the more suspicious and complicated the sale becomes. Whenever I post paint meter readings, DME, crank deviation, etc it just confuses people and makes them suspicious. People in general will be like that around stuff they don't understand. Nowadays I hold off on that info until asked. =)

I wonder what those numbers would have looked like at 3K mile oil changes. Is there documentation (service history) on the car and what's the price?

PPI was done, but it did not include a borescope. Everything else checked out fine. Brake Fluid - 1% moisture Battery - 760 cca rated; 900 cca tested Tires - 8/32 left Front Brakes - 9mm Rear Brakes - 6mm CarFax shows 4 owners and damage to rear in 2003, but it's unremarkable otherwise. Current owner has had it for about 2 years. He's an enthusiast and owns (and prefers) Corvettes, but he wanted to at least be able to say he owned and tried out a 911. Neither he nor the owner before him tracked the car. He can't say for sure for any other owners, but it doesn't appear that it's ever been subjected to track use. Also just found out that the RMS was replaced at the same time the IMS Retrofit was installed (seller sent me invoice/receipt). Oddly, it doesn't appear that the clutch was replaced at the same time, but it may have been replaced previously. Price is $17,000.

For what it's worth my iron number varies from 7-10, with an average of around 9, over the last 3 years I've owned the car. I don't have enough info to know whether yours is "worrisome", but it certainly seems like a red flag if the iron figure is more than double the universal average.

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I'd keep looking unless this one checks all your box's and you're prepared for the worst case scenario...There are so many 996 out there.

Did you examine the filter and/or sump for particles? The particle shape may give you a clue to the source.