Living with a Porsche 944

Another engine swap arrived in the darkness this past week... I was only expecting the engine but practically everything attached to it was included - bonus spares  :) Quite happy that a later model anti-roll bar was still attached to the cross-member too. This motor is filthy! I started stripping off all the bits and accessories so I can begin cleaning it all up... It's pretty obvious that this engine needs some tlc split vacuum lines must have made this baby run rough! Moving around the engine I had a good look at all the nooks and crannies. There doesn't seem to be any oil leaks from the gaskets, but the rear of the balance shaft housings were both leaking - the blanking plates are just rattling around in there and it's obvious oil is leaking out. Talking about rattling around the seal around the thermostat is non-existent... So the plan is to strip this down and clean it up - maybe paint a few bits - then fit some upgrade parts and see if they ...

As part of the current front end suspension rebuild, it was time to remove the front cross-member and give it a serious clean and degrease. As you can see it was nasty! Due in part to the previous power steering leak that was fixed when I first bought my 944, the drivers side (this is RHD european car) was covered in a thick coating of grime. The cross-member is easy enough to remove by undoing the four 19mm bolts located on the underside. (Obviously the engine is out and all the attached suspension parts are removed). For this job I thought I'd try some GUNK foam degreaser that comes in a spray can - which turned out to be more of a spray on liquid degreaser and less of a foam... ...thankfully it did quite a good job of shifting the muck. After using the whole spray on can and reverted to the red backup can of GUNK - which doesn't do as good a job as the 'foam' stuff. It took a lot of elbow grease to remove virtually all of the grime off using a sm...

The shocks I removed looked pretty mangey - they defintely need a nice clean up and paint refresh. Unless I ditch them for something adjustable... After removing them from the car I began stripping the shocks to inspect the dampers. Getting the top nut off is a little more awkward than I'd hoped. Apparently using a impact wrench will remove it but that failed to work, as the cylinder shaft just spins freely, so I needed an alternative method: After fitting the spring compressors the tension on the top mount was relieved. The top of the strut has a 6mm allen head recessed in the shaft and the nut is 17mm. The trick is to be able to secure both at the same time. I found this the only approach that would work for me - a 17mm socket with a small hole enabled a 6mm allen key to be inserted so I could hold the socket whilst using a 6mm allen socket on a breaker bar to loosen the two. Off comes the top mount and spring, and after pulling off the knackered bump stop and cup, ...

The worst summer in a 100 years or more should surely mean spending more time indoors - like in my garage or updating this blog, but that's not been the case. As there had been a serious power leak thanks to a loose main hydraulic hose connector the drivers (RHD) side of the steering rack, wishbone and cross-member are caked in a thick layer of grime. It looked particularly sad so I decided to begin stripping off the whole shebang for a thorough clean with a view to replacing knackered parts with shiney new ones. Disconnecting the hoses and draining the power steering fluid is straight forward. For the most part removing the rack is easy but when it came to the tie-rod ends it was impossible to loosen them when the rack was on the car. With the rack removed I could get the leverage to remove these 26 year old bits.  Next it was time to clean the rack - I used some GUNK Green degreaser from Halfruads that did a great job. The aluminium and steel shaft cleaned up a tre...

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...

I finally managed to get the leak down test done today. As suspected the compression in each of the cylinders is down, especially the number 1 cylinder. The leak down test also revealed just what the engine will achieve with new piston rings fitted. The results were: #1: 150psi #2: 160psi #3: 170psi #4: 170psi Essentially the rings are worn enough for some oil to enter the compression chamber causing the blow by problem that I'm experiencing on off throttle freewheeling and hard acceleration. By pouring a small amount of oil into the cylinder we then got 180psi across all four cylinders. What that means is the rings are definitely worn, and sorting that would not only cure the blue smoke but also restore the lost power. Almost a year ago the rolling road test showed 125.6hp at the rear wheels - not bad for just shy of 204, 000 miles and twenty-six years of use. That equates to around 147 flywheel horsepower which is 16hp down on the 163 when new. Now I know ...

With so much time taken to research what I could do with this engine project, thanks to a neck injury sustained in a rear end shunt from a saxo driver, you'd suspect I'd given up and bought a turbo... which seems to be the standard answer given to anyone wondering what to do with a normally aspirated Porsche engine. While there may be some logic for that argument, it doesn't help an owner of a nice NA who doesn't want to buy someone else's bag of beans and bondo. And what if you want a little adventure in your life, perhaps even learn a thing or two? My current engine is still running fine where it is sitting snugly in the engine bay - albeit with some oil blowby under off throttle freewheeling. I've tried to arrange for a mechanic to do a leak down test to establish whether it's rings or intake valve seals that are the culprit - but that's yet to happen despite one visit. I may have to search for another friendly wrencher who wants to earn an hours wage...