Boston Duce

Not to promote another source but go to Rennlist. com search the turbo forums for Kevin from Ultimatemotorwerks.

He goes into great detail, including pictures, why oil in the I/c tubes is a sign of failed turbo seals or worse.

Don't know if he's still around but he knows his stuff, and his work is/was aerospace quality.

My I/c hoses have zero oil in them.

Oil in the air flow is not a design feature. It will cause all sorts of secondary issues as it gets ingested and burned in the combustion process.

Turbo-side (turbo to intercooler) is where to look for oil contamination.

You may be better off with sand in the turbo's than coked oil, at least the oil filter will catch it- coking is forever until disassembly.

BD

sorry brain freeze

Your turbo's bearings are on the way, if not already, shot. They're looking at a turbo rebuild or replacement.

The oil gets coked up in the bearings from the latent heat after engine shut down, and just grinds away at the tight clearances. The pressure created under boost then blows the oil across the bearing 'seal' into the air passages.

Did the former caretaker do a cool down before shut down? I let my turbo cars idle about 2 minutes before I shut down just to let the oil cool a little, since oil flow is the only thing that cools the turbo's.

I also switched to Delvac 1 5W-40 which although a heavy duty diesel oil, it's rated SL for gas cars and is designed to resist the high temperature coking in the turbos of diesels. Not entirely kosher as far as Porsche's recommended oils goes, but what do they know anyway? ;)

Then I prime the oil filter full of oil before I screw it onto the car.

No offense Golden, but how in the heck do you prime the oil filter in a 996tt?

The canister goes in basically upside down and there's a drain valve built into the housing to facilitate removal w/o spilling oil all over the place.

BD

Bad plug or coil pack? If you are changing plugs, go with Bosch FR6 instead of Beru.

Did somebody try to adjust the turbo waste gates? If you put too much boost the ecu will try to protect itself.

Bad diverter valves (mechanical) usually honk like a goose (no joke) when they go bad.

BD

I'm looking to buy an early 997 (probably 06 or 07, 20k - 40k miles), and for various reasons it

1. I've talked to two dealers (not porsche dealers - just some generic sports car shops) who refuse to let me get a car inspected unless I commit to buying it and put down a non-refundable deposit of $500 or $1000 or so. Is this common? Or should I take this as a bad sign and walk away?

They may have been jerked around in the past (no offense) by a tire kicker, or there may be issues-your guess. "Non-refundable" is the part I don't like.

2. If a car was a lease and then sold at auction and is now being sold by some random dealer, is that a bad sign? I've read a few times that P dealers will keep the good lease returns and dump the bad ones.

Not so much in today's market. Nobody wants excess inventory.

3. Is there a preferred shipping company that will treat the car right? Do I need to get insurance before I complete the purchase so that it's insured in transit ?

Make sure whom ever you contract for transport does not "sub contract" you job to Goober and Gomer transport. Once you transfer money, you need your own insurance protection, its your money at risk-but you may find it hard to get w/o a registration. See who the auction guys use. Interstate advertises in "Excellence" every month.

4. Is it insane to buy the car sight-unseen? If I fly out, should I get all the details in writing first? What if they give me the financial details in writing but refuse to get a detailed description of the car in writing?

Yes, it's insane. You can never be sure a hired gun will have your 100% of your best interest in mind. Plus you'll never know if 'something' didn't go on behind the scenes. Any lack of transparency is a deal breaker.

5. How important are service records? eg. if I see a car that seems nice but has no service records and the carfax is blank, is that bad?

Low mileage cars may not have a lot of service records. You (or your inspector-see above) can usually tell if the car has been serviced. A couple of brake fluid changes and maybe 3 oil changes are really all that's been required for a car in your sights. Biggest questions is on a 6-speed -how many of type 2 over-revs have been recorded-hard to get out of an independent dealer and probably your most important piece of information.

Carfax will not show body repairs that have not been run through insurance.

Thanks

Good luck,

BD

Front radiators full of road debris, coolant reservoir leaks, grease stripes on front door windows, minor oil leaks, MAF issues with oiled air filters, automatic spoiler issues, smoking on start up.

Sounds worse than it is. Most everything is minor unless it's been flogged.

BD