Living with a Porsche 944

If you're wondering why switch from alloy wishbones to steel, or need to know what to buy - read this post first ... Firstly it's necessary to fit the ball joint to the wishbone - you can already see future painless balljoint replacements right here - it's easy & straight forward. Tighten up the three bolts and you're done installing the ball joints: I purchased a Prothane Bugpack wishbone bush kit from VW Heritage. The poly bush kit comes with a special formulated grease - so I used it, applying a thin film to the inner wishbone bushes before insertion: With the two halves pressed in by hand, I applied some grease to the steel tube and inserted that - the existing 944 inner wishbone bolt is a prefect fit so no need to hunt for a replacement: Before offering the newly bushed steel wishbone to the cross-member it's a good idea to slide the rear bush onto the 'prong' - once again I used the same bolts that came of...

After almost thirty years these Porsche 944's have either worn out their ball joints or are needing new ones fairly soon. Worn balljoints are a real safety concern and a MOT / roadworthy failure. Ordinarily, it's an expensive fix as the alloy Porsche wishbones (or control arms or A-arms as our american brethren call them) have an integrated balljoint - making them costly to replace. Choices are: hopefully good used ones; a DIY ball joint repair kit; refurbished ones; or new ones from Porsche. Even refurbished alloy wishbones are about £200 plus the exchange of your old ones. Not  a cheap fix although well engineered. The balljoint repair kits are around £50 and are a feasible alternative if the wishbone cup is in good condition. I had considered this route as my alloy wishbones look in good enough condition but rumours of poor longevity made me seriously consider another option - retrofitting steel wishbones such as those found on the 924's. I found a pair o...

The shock struts and adjustable camber plate top mounts went together really well. After a minor confusing delay, due to the old springs and the new Spax lowering springs being the same length - which is actually correct - I finished off assembling the front shocks. Before fitting to nicely cleaned wheel wells, the finishing touch were these Porsche sealing rings. Made of a slightly tacky foam, they fitted perfectly and sit between the aluminium top mount and the body work.  With the four mounting bolts done up in the engine bay, the shock assembly hangs on in anticipation for the rest of the front suspension...

Right - finally got all the bits back from the powder coaters and... My newly anodised  top mounts back too: They've got a satin finish now as opposed to the original shiney raw cnc'd aluminium look but won't corrode like a ships bottom over the years to come. Pressing in the bearings was a right pain but they're all ready to fit. Unpacking all the freshly powered parts was better than any Christmas recently! I laid them all out on the table and started to assemble the struts after cleaning up the threads etc... It's going to be a busy weekend!

While I've been waiting on parts to come back from powder coating, and still more engine bits from my OPC, I've prepped and freshened up the engine bay:    I did get these powdered bits today tho - keeping the eighties disco theme alive! Anti roll bars:  Clamps:   And the new clutch plate arrived too - some amazon vouchers made this a relatively 'cheap' purchase from design911 on the mighty Amazon.co.uk: Once all the seals and other engine parts have arrived I can start to put The Hoff back together - April is fast approaching!

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...