Thorough Going Over

Today my 944 is having a good going over by the chaps at Project9.

With everything I have planned, I need to know exactly what needs doing that I'm not aware of.

I started this journey with this 944 fixing bits & replacing parts that were listed by JM Garage and the check they gave the car more than 18 months ago.

In that time I've thoroughly enjoyed my little often over-looked gem of a Porsche. There are not many good & excellent 944s around these days, and so the plan is to refresh and restore this one so that it will continue to add miles & smiles to the 204,000 already under it's wheels.

Over the course of the summer (the garage is warmer to work in) and coming winter this little Porsche of mine is going to be rejuvenated - inspired in part by what I've seen some others do to their 944s but largely due to the affection I have for this car. I don't want a 911 and I don't want to follow the sheep into a turbo.

The Hoff is going to be slowly roasted into a tasty treat by next spring. That's the plan and it'll all be here in the blog so other owners of these totally under-rated Porsches can hopefully be inspired to do the same to their front-fours and keep them on the road. Maybe one day the world will wake up to their real value.

It'll be interesting to hear what Clifford at P9 has to say.

Comments

Bellhousing & Clutch fork removal

Removing the bellhousing from the Porsche 944 engine is not as complicated as it may seem - such as in this situation with my replacement engine. When I removed the original engine I detached it from the bellhousing in the car and removed the clutch pressure plate bolts through the starter motor hole - see my other post for details . In this case I decided to remove the clutch fork pivot shaft bolt. Begin by removing the four 17mm bellhousing bolts - you'll find that the bellhousing doesn't detach completely from the engine. It'll feel like its hooking on something. That something is the clutch fork pivot shaft inside the bellhousing. The bellhousing will be loose enough to rotate - turn it 180 degrees and peek through the access port which is now on top - this is what you'll see: If the engine is still in car you'll be looking at this from underneath. The pivot shaft needs to be extracted from the clutch fork. It's held in place by a small bolt on the...

Engine out the top - Easy Peasy

After reading numerous posts, the Porsche workshop manual and Clarks Garage step-by-step engine removal guide - I felt confident enough to tackle the job. But I wanted to remove the engine from the top. As I discovered, it was pretty straight forward even for a novice! Result. I wanted to avoid removing the cross member and disturb the front suspension to do something I was convinced could be done easier from the top. Posts such as this one convinced me to give it a go at least. And I'm glad I did. In summary I was able to remove the engine from the top without needing to remove the bonnet/hood; torque tube; transaxle; bellhousing; clutch; clutch slave cylinder; cross member; front suspension; and radiator. Contrary to many so called internet experts opinions and many confusing threads this was painless and without dread. All that was necessary to remove was the starter; power steering pump and alternator (I figured to make the bottom of the engine narrower); intak...

HT lead order effects idle

When I fired up TheHoff after fitting the exhaust it was very obvious that the engine was not running as it should. It was a relief that it was firing up but being so close and not having a smooth running engine after all the hard work is a little discouraging. I videod the engine running and sent the clip to Jon Mitchell at JM Garage to get his views. He suggested it was either spark related or at worst cam timing being off. I spent a lot of time trying to ensure that the timing pulleys were aligned correctly during the rebuild and I'm confident it isn't the issue - but then again... So I began problem solving with the HT leads and spark plugs. Each of the plugs were extracted, cleaned (they were dark from all the firing and refiring I guess) and then connected to an inline spark tester to check if they were in fact getting a spark from the distributor. Thankfully they all were. Next thing to check was the order of the HT leads on the distributor. The 944 has a firin...

Living with a Porsche 944

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