Just wasted $400 on a borescope that couldn't see past my own thumb

I bought this fancy little borescope off Amazon thinking it'd help me inspect cylinder walls without pulling everything apart. First time I used it on a Lycoming engine, the picture was so blurry I couldn't tell if I was looking at carbon buildup or just dirt on the lens. Then the LED light died after maybe 3 uses, and the whole thing just became a paperweight. I tried to return it but the seller ghosted me, so I'm out the cash and still had to borrow my buddy's Snap-on scope to finish the job. Has anyone found a borescope under $500 that actually holds up to shop use and doesn't crap out after a week?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary_west1mo ago

I've had good luck with the Teslong borescopes, the ones that hook up to your phone. They're under a hundred bucks and the picture is actually clear enough to see crosshatching on cylinder walls, and the LEDs on mine have held up fine for about a year now. The big downside is the cable gets stiff when it's cold out, so you gotta warm it up before you snake it into a tight spot, but for the price it's hard to beat. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather buy three of those over the years than drop $400 on one that dies on you.

evan_green521mo ago

You're talking about the cable getting stiff in cold weather like that's no big deal, but that's a dealbreaker for me. If I'm out in a shop in the winter trying to diagnose a no-start on a cold engine block, I don't have time to warm up a cheap borescope cable. I'd rather pay $400 once for a tool that works every time in any temperature than mess around with a budget option that has a list of workarounds. Plus, those phone-based ones always seem to have shitty connectivity issues where the app crashes or the adapter gets loose right when you're trying to focus on a valve. I've seen guys snap those flimsy probes off inside a cylinder too, then you're out $100 AND stuck with a piece of plastic rattling around in your engine.

joel_clark371mo ago

Buddy of mine bought a cheap scope off Amazon for his diesel shop. First real cold morning he tried to use it, the cable was so stiff it wouldn't bend at all, he had to leave it next to a heater for ten minutes before it would even go into a glow plug hole. On the second job the phone app crashed five times and he finally just gave up and went back to using a mirror on a stick. That was the last time he bothered with anything under $200.