Living with a Porsche 944

There are a lot of bolts on the front of a 944 engine. A lot. And the ones on this filthy 2.5 16v motor seem to have been there, undisturbed, for a very long time - along with the muck. There was even a spiders nest! However, I can say that there doesn't seem to be any front engine oil leakage - the culprits being the rear balance shaft seals. Requiring that all the belts and gears, along with everything else on the front of the motor, be removed first. My local Porsche indy budget 8.5 hours to do this - it's a big effort and one that I'm glad I'm not doing with the engine in the car. After removing the front plastic belt cover the main crankshaft bolt was next on the list. One broken breaker bar later, only the intervention of the impact wrench could shift it - not before buying another, longer, breaker bar failed to budge the bolt from the depths... Lesson learned: Go to the impact wrench first. With those two items out of the way I worked through...

As part of the 2.5S engine rebuild, I'm doing a few things to try increase the output of the engine in the hopes it can get to the levels of the standard S2 - 208hp. Modest yes - but perhaps in reach with a modest budget. In fact I'd love to see 220bhp which will be the same as the series one turbo... While rodders might say there's "no replacement for displacement", the japanese have been eaking out more BHP from their engines by lightening the internals and spinning them at higher revs. Legend has it that even within the 944 family range, the 968 is reputed to have a much lighter crankshaft. As I'm not opening up the bottom end, the crank will stay stock - for now... While there is a lot of debate about the actual gains of lightening engine internals - reducing rotating mass helps you accelerate faster and releases power because the engine has less weight to throw around blah blah blah. Racers do it so it has to be good right? After chatting to a coupl...

I love getting shiney CNC bits in the mail... All the way from Poland are these schweet adjustable top-mounts bought off ebay. They work out at about the same cost as the rubber type inserts from Porsche - if you use the "Make an Offer" option. I figured I may as well give these ago... I'm going to find somewhere to get these anodised before I fit them, so they last and last. The finish appears to be good - a test fit will follow this weekend. Also in the mail were all the front strut bolts I'd ordered from my local Porsche centre. Great service from Tonbridge OPC. For the record the part numbers are: 171 407 265 - Eccentric Screw x 2 944 343 175 00 - Eccentric Washer x2 900 082 058 02 - Lower strut bolt x 2 999 025 212 09 - Lower bolt washer x2 N 022 141 4 - Lock Nut x 4 N 040 108 1 - spindle to brake caliper bolt x4 133 412 367 - sealing ring x2 - in case someone needs to order them.

Everyone loves the arrival of a bog box of goodies! Especially one from a suspension manufacturer with an upgrade kit inside. I purchased this SPAX PSX suspension kit from Larkspeed , for the bargain price of £333, as an upgrade for the well aged Boge dampers that I removed a couple months ago. Delivery and service was good, the kit being shipped out and on my doorstep 2 days later. I decided on this kit as opposed to a coil over kit mainly because of the price, furthermore it offers the damping adjustment I was primarily after with a 30mm drop on the front. With the speed bumps around my neighbourhood, lowering it anymore would create a problem - as my lowered PT attests to! Comparing the SPAX to the Boge damper I removed, the body is marginally longer overall with the little black spacer but it's clear to see that the PSX shaft is shorter. Adjustment is via a plastic knob that fits onto the top of the damper piston as seen below. Pretty neat. The dampi...

In the process of refreshing the front suspension these were two tasks I was dreading. The front wishbone inner bushes are big and pressed in so tightly it's a wonder they can be extracted at all. It took a coule of different approaches until I discovered the one that works. Clamping the circular steel section in a vice grip is the way to go. Place the wishbone on the floor and rotate the grips one way then back again to break the seal between the bush and the wishbone. They are seriously attached to one another after 27 years of bonding! Once that bond is broken, lever the vice grips against the wishbone and the bush will 'pop' out. This works for both sides. The bush housing seems to be a steel insert into the alloy and will need a little filing down to get it nice and smooth to take the new set of bushes. Moving onto the ball joints... This was a frustratingly difficult task. Far more so than the videos on YouTube make out - at least that was the case ...