Bore-Scope Review, Snap-On BK5600

[piscator]

Good Morning Gentleman,

There wasn’t much in the archive on bore-scopes so I thought I’d post this brief review of my Snap-On BK5600. I bought this scope to help trace a heavy knocking noise in my 3.0 liter SC engine.

I’ve added photos to demonstrate the quality of the scope, but I’d very much appreciate any and all comments on what these pix tell us about the engine’s condition. Frankly, I don’t have enough experience to assess these photos.

I decided to buy this BK5600 after talking with an engine builder and several professional mechanics in my town. The youngest of these guys, Jamie, is up on all the latest diagnostic tech and kindly gave me a thorough demonstration of his BK5600.

The BK5600 has two viewing lenses, one at the end of the wand and another that’s offset 90 degrees. There is a simple button on the self-explanatory touchscreen to toggle from one lens to the other. This makes it very easy to get a ‘side shot’ of the cylinder walls.

The Snap-On specifications describe this ‘side lens’ as having a 57 degree viewing angle, which enables the scope to ‘see’ the underside of the valves. This works well, but requires a little operator finesse to position the wand.

Initially, I thought I’d ‘step up’ from the BK5600 to one of Snap-On’s later scopes, which include the BK6000, BK6500, & the current BK8000. But reviewing the specifications, I discovered that those newer models have the same screen resolution, same two lens set-up and the same viewing angle as the BK5600.

The later models add a wireless function, a voice recorder, and some other stuff I didn’t need. The newer models also have a rechargeable battery, that the specs say lasts 3 hours. The BK5600 uses four AA batteries and runs for 4 hours. Mine does go that long!

If I were a professional using a scope regularly, I might select a rechargeable model. But my scope won’t get much use, so I feel that its’ running on AA cells is an advantage. I never have to worry that the proprietary Snap-On battery won’t take a charge and I can always find AA cells.

There’s a good selection of Snap-On scopes on Ebay and none of them look like they’ve been used very much. The seller of my scope claimed it had been ‘used twice’ and I believe it. My scope arrived in it’s factory box and it looks new.

Here’s the best part! I snagged my “used twice” BK5600 for $250! That’s only $60 more than I paid for the useless Teslong!

There were plenty of other Ebay listings for new and slightly used BK5600 scopes, priced around $300 to $400 – Frankly, I think that’s still a bargain!

So now, forthwith, here are some photos taken with my BK5600. The photos showing the valve stems were taken through the respective fuel injector port. The photos of the underside of the valve and the cylinder walls were taken through the spark plug port. Any and all comments about the scope or the condition of my engine will be much appreciated.

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Photos of Cylinder #1

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Cylinder #2

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[walt]

Knocking noise - have you pulled your valve covers and checked the rockers and valve adjustments?

[rwest]

Those are great pictures and the ability to see the valves is awesome.

[Trackrash]

Really great pictures. Can you use it with a lap top to get a larger picture?

The fact that it will focus closely is great. Unlike the cheapo I bought off Amazon which will not focus closer than 2".

[gomezoneill]

Look's like the cylinder walls are scored both horizontally and vertically in some of those photos. Knocking noise usually comes from the bottom end. Does it knock on acceleration or during idle? Is there high oil consumption or smoke?

[Catorce]

Wow, I guess this is why this thing is worth $300 more than my harbor freight one. The image quality is outstanding!

[piscator]

Good Evening Gentlemen,

I’m glad you liked the photos and appreciate the comments!

Hi Walt,

I took the intake valve covers off and reset the valves with a Stomski jig and dial indicator, they are dead on.

The noise is loudest when you place a stethoscope on the inboard end of the #5 intake runner. And louder on the bottom of the runner than on the top. You can feel vibration in the runner with your hand. There is no noise on the underside of the engine or anywhere other than #5 (maybe #4) intake runner.

The noise is a very heavy knock that disappears once the engine speed reaches about 1800 RPM – plus or minus. At idle it’s very disconcerting, but doesn’t seem to be signaling anything catastrophic.

The engine is running extremely well and uses no oil. Compression is 170 psi in every cylinder. A leak-down test showed less than 1% difference between cylinders. A smoke test did not reveal any leaks.

Several great Pelicans have been helping me with this, but we haven’t quite reached a conclusion. I took the car to Butzi Porsche, which is the best shop in my area. The owner David Esposito and his compadre Luke put a stethoscope to the engine and concluded this was rocker noise. Specifically, noise projecting from the #5 rocker and possibly #4, also.

I should also mention that I believe this knocking has been going on for some time, but has now gotten considerably worse.

What I can’t decide is whether to try and remove the #4 and #5 rocker in the car or drop the motor to remove and inspect ALL the rockers. I don't know if it's 'standard procedure' to only pull the rockers that are causing a problem or whether they should all be serviced at the same time, as a wear item -- sorta like fuel injectors. This is new territory for me.

I had the engine out for a suspension refresh. Everything on the car is clean and renewed, so dropping the engine wouldn’t be a super big deal. But I don’t want to drop it until I’m confident that the rockers are the problem. And if I do decide to drop it, I'd like to know (as I said) whether it's better to fix or replace what-ever's broken at #4 and #5 or do all the rockers together.

I bought the bore-scope after that diagnosis, just to see if anything else might be going on.

Hi Trackrash,

There is a mini/micro USB on the back of the scope which I’m guessing can connect to a computer.

Greeting Gomez,

I noticed the scratching also. However, the car doesn’t produce any smoke and doesn’t use a drop of oil. It’s actually running fantastic, well at speed it does.

[Reiver]

A great tool and I have a similar device..... realize that the light diode in that darkness will make every irregularity look massive.
Much of the scratching is cross hatching designed and put there by the maker....cylinder bores are not smooth.
I have similar but mine looks a bit more x ish…..I burn 8 oz. of oil between 3k oil changes.
My piston tops look similar....I've never invaded the heads as yet.
Great pics btw.

[911pcars]

Picture resolution looks very good. An experienced tech would have looked at other engines in various conditions to reference for typical vs unusual.

I would assume the tech performed the following basic test for low speed engine knocking, but here it is.

Adjust the idle speed to hear the knock, then in turn, temporarily disconnect each spark plug wire and observe any change in knocking. For example, shorting no. 3 cylinder reduces/eliminates the noise. That’s typical of a spun or overly worn con rod bearing. That would be a preliminary test to help isolate the noise. The rocker arms are next due to the ease of access and the suspected noise source. Hope this helps some.

Actually, if your tech pinpointed the rocker arm area, I’d Inspect the rockets first to confirm everything looks normal w/o a pivot pin having walked out of the cam housing or other damage.

Sherwood

[MichaelSJackson]

I'd agree with Reiver. The cylinders are not smooth/flat. The rings were fluttering and caused the ripples on the sides. I'd say they were just re-honed, but not bored. Those ripples will shorten the lifespan of the new rings, but I can't tell you how much.

Most of the scratches are just from the re-honing, but #4 is a bit different/worse?

[MichaelSJackson]

Also, fluttering rings indicate worn ring grooves in all the pistons, but maybe they were replaced? If not, the new rings are already fluttering.

[pmax]

Yeah, #4 appears to be missing a line of coating and possibly more, crosshatch's less defined.