Friends and fellow Porsche enthusiasts:

I am in a bad place right now. All is not well. I bought my 997 C4 Cabriolet (tip) this summer and put a glorious 8,000 miles on it this year. I got a PPI when I bought the car and everything was a-okay... up until recently. It's currently got 66K miles on it. During my ownership, I have not experienced any issues with the car, no check engine lights, no intermix, no overheating, no clanking, no high oil consumption, no coolant leaks, etc. and it has never seen a mechanic during my (limited) ownership for repairs - only for routine maintenance (and for a gundo-hacked exhaust to give it a throatier purrr).

This past week, the car had been sitting in my heated garage for longer than usual (2 weeks - I commute by mass transit, so I dont drive it regularly during the week). When I turned it on, it struggled -- but it fired up. The car was idling roughly (like it was misfiring) and large clouds of white smoke (not sweet smelling - but smelling like oil) were billowing out of the exhausts. Took it to a mechanic who inspected it with a borescope. Below are the pictures he provided me with from the inside of cylinder 1. Apparently there is a coolant inside Cylinder 1 (see pictures).

Based on my research, the symptoms the car was experiencing appear to be an AOS issue (ie rough idle, white smoke out of exhaust pipes, etc.). However, I am being told that the issue is likely to be a bad head gasket or a crack in the head (this is not verified, just the mechanic's hunch as to what this could be). If it is a head gasket or crack in the head, we all know what it means...but I was wondering if anyone here could chime in with some advice/suggestions.

 

I'm no expert but pics 2 and 3 appear to be cracks. Am doubting bad head gasket is your problem.

 

Thanks Dadio! He was suggesting that it could have been a cracked head or a head gasket failure, but he was unable to confirm with certainty until he dug into it for a "few hours" at the tune of $135 an hour. Considering it was not displaying symptoms of a head gasket failure or a cracked head before it went into the shop, I am not inclined to believe that it is either of these issues -- but like you, I am no expert

 

There are only a couple ways for coolant to get into the cylinder - bad head gasket or cracked cylinder wall. When you look in your coolant expansion tank, do you see any oil floating on top or when you open the oil fill cap, is it all yellow and foamy. Both of those would be indications of intermix.

You might find this thread on Rennlist informative, but I'm aftraid it's not good news for you if there's coolant in the cylinder and you can see that crack in the boroscope pictures.

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...l#post15617424

 

Agreed, photo #2 & #3 look like cylinder wall cracks as well as the far right of photo #1 just above the coolant.

 

How trustworthy is this shop ? Have you consider these aren't even pictures from your car ? Like other have said you should be seeing signs of intermix; otherwise, I have it tow to a different shop for a 2nd opinion

 

Never thought it like that...but very possible. Never know with all the shop scams out there.

If the cylinder wall is cracked as seen in picture, I would think the car won't even idle.

Definitely get a 2nd opinion.