Karl_W944

After 15 Years, all 4 cylinders and a turbo run smooth and healthy, Vaughan and I were able to bleed the cooling system and do a partial ignition timing; but there are new challenges before it can actually be driven.

1. The starter finally gave up after the first startup so we couldn’t do an effective timing of the ignition system, the 931 starter was superseded by 944/951 starters so I found a used late 944 starter for $25.
   
2. With the car having sat with a moldy and moisture-ridden carpet, good chance that a lot of the connections could have corrosion. Fortunately I’m not dealing with Lucas Electrics and the 924 has robust wiring. I’m gonna clean every ground, contact and connection I can find in the car.(Contact cleaner and a steel wire brush)
   
3. I don’t have a working horn no obvious reason as to why yet (relay, fuse, ground)...But I have working turn signals and one brake light. Contact cleaner will do wonders here.
   
4. New tires are here but the car can’t be driven or even moved until the starter and timing is done.
   
5. Passenger window won’t go up. Window switches and aforementioned wiring is the suspect. I need second window switch to test my theories, I might have one lying around.
   
6. I was actually able to move the car out of the driveway and drive a few houses down and back and shift the dogleg box for the first time, it was glorious. But I'm glad I got bushings for the shifter because it's incredibly loose.
   
7. I believe I have a leaky turbo....Apparently the K26 turbos only lasted about 50k miles, and at about 52k in this car, a rebuild is soon to be in my future.

Scott at Team Harco

Nice job.

Karl_W944

Dialed in the timing and changed the trans fluid this weekend. We took it around the block, the snailshell doesn't grind as bad as previous attempts to move it but double clutching will be mandatory, and discovered the front suspension is in desperate need of refreshing, that is the next project on schedule. In the meantime while waiting for parts, I'll continue to work on the interior.

kghaas

Nice. Keep going!

Karl_W944

On my '84 944, it was a non-issue and had probably been dealt with prior to me. On my 931, you can see the inevitable pitting and corrosion that I had to deal with. Not only that, but a dime-sized hole had rotted it’s way through in the location designated by the arrow above and water was pooling into the thankfully painted passenger footwell. On the left is how it looked initially, the right after taking a dremel to the worst areas. You can also see the hole in the lower right of both pics.



We all know rust is a cancer and the only definitive fix for it is to remove it all. Unfortunately, cutting and welding and that’s just not possible for me right now. This was a great opportunity to test a theory in my mind about expanding foam or caulk. So after cleaning up the rust hole as best I could, I stuck the nozzle of a Loctite brand foam can and filled it up. I then used a rust encapsulator on the exposed metal and rust, followed by a lot of primer, all after letting the foam set and cure for an hour.

This won't be a permanent fix, but if it stops anymore water in the interior, I'll run with it until I can properly fix it. In the meantime, I've also got suspension stuff to do.

Karl_W944

The one nice thing about having a car that hasn't got an exceptional history or records is that I'm not burdened by the anxiety of keeping it as original as possible. And with many interior pars hard to find or not willing to spend the money on the exact parts, I get to be creative and truly make this car mein. With no money for a carpet or the will to buy one, I've cleaned and painted the floors and laid Lloyd rubber mats in their place. I'm working on covering the trans tunnel with marine vinyl.

Scott at Team Harco

Hey Karl,

You can take the carpeting from Penelope if you want to come and get it. It is probably a match for your interior.

I don't normally take pictures of carpeting or interior. Here's the best I can do.

Karl_W944

If you wouldn't mind, I'll gladly take you up on that offer! I'll PM you for timing, location and such. It's possible I could swing by on my way home from work sometime.

Karl_W944

I can’t begin to positively describe the unreal and bizarre feeling of driving a once “dead” project car and driving it after months of hard work; though not perfect, it was amazing. A road test is a perfect way to find out how far you’ve come and what more needs to be done. From here on in I’ll list what I’ve learned.


1. As I was driving around town, A horrible groaning and grinding noise coming from the rear brought attention to me and was even worse when I came to full stops. Removing the rear calipers showed me the driver side rear brake setup is seized up causing the nails-on-chalk sound. Just gonna rebuild all four calipers.



2. A few times during driving, temps would not get to overheating levels, but certainly too hot for my liking. Further more, having repaired a smoking oil leak in the days before, smoke from the same area would come into the cabin. But unlike oil smoke that just smelled “meh”, this smoke burned my eyes, nose, and throat. It wasn’t until popping the hood later did I notice a watery substance around the engine bay...and then I remembered. One of the previous owners replaced the hose connecting the thermostat housing to the water pump with a weak rubber tube (much like one of the fuel pump hoses I discovered last year) and it slightly ruptured, causing fluctuations in the engine temps and spitting coolant. This will be another messy but easy fix.

3. My running and reverse lights are intermittently working. Have to pull out my multimeter and check for resistance and power and clean wherever necessary.

4. The horn came to life on its own. After being unable to get it to work, it just decided to come alive as I was turning into my neighborhood on the return trip. I’m not complaining or even questioning it, that’s one less thing to fix.

I can't thank Scott enough for allowing me to pick the carpet from one of his 944s to help me bring the interior back to life!

fasteddie313

A long time ago I saw in the what did you do to your car today thread some guy who, on an early interior car, deleted his center console and just carpeted the center hump.. I thought it looked awesome..

Your running video there.. I think I can hear your recirc valve clacking from all the way back there, lol.. Not saying it is a problem but I don't remember mine ever being that loud..
You said something about resealing the turbo because it leaks? I don't know what your symptoms are for this leak but go through that recirc valve wile you're at it.. The vacuum elbow down there to it is a b****, I'd put on a new one while you have to put one on.. The recirc valve gaskets, definitely check and likely replace them.. I have recirc valve parts if you need them..

Your revving there, sounded a bit lazy.. Could be your exhaust or a ginger right foot though..
Did you ever do a proper CIS pressure test, injector flow test, dwell tune?
You might have more zip hiding in there..

I have an entire S1 931 worth of known good CIS components so if you ever need to swap test anything I might be able to help, but you are in much better shape with so many transaxle friends down there you are in good hands..

That car you have there, it's special.. Lightning struck just right and you have the best narrow body car ever made.. Do you have LSD? Likely do..
Is your green speedo numbered to 160 mph?

Good luck with your car, I hope you really love it.

Karl_W944

DrivingWhileAwesome on YT has a center console delete that I'm gonna try and replicate at some point...Problem is where to relocate the power mirror and other center console switches. Another project for another day.

So the recirculation valve is what makes that noise? My uneducated guess was the wastegate or something around there haha. Definitely clacky, not sure if it needs addressing at some point. I forgot to mention this in my last post, but we actually found and fixed the leak. As it turned out it was from the oil feed line atop the turbo (Where #3 goes into 10). Though a pain to get to, we manipulated the CIS to givie us enough clearance to clean and reseal the fitting and the only leak I have now is that coolant hose. Fortunately there's no blue exhaust smoke either...


As for the exhaust, mostly my ginger foot. I can't recall if we did a CIS pressure test, but we did do the adjustment with the allen keywhen we set the timing. It definitely felt smooth driving it last, but that locked up rear brake definitely put some drag on the acceleration I noticed. Once we sort that out this weekend we'll have another go at giving it the beans for the chowder and it should feel much stronger.


Unfortunately I only have the green 85MPH speedo, but if there's a higher speed green speedo somewhere, I very much want it. I only tilted the speedo because that cable is a PITA for inserting the gauge back in. As always, I appreciate all and any knowledge and help with this quirky car. It's unlike any other Porsche I've experienced and drives nothing like my 944 ever did. I now believe more than Day 1 that this car is definitely something special. Haven't checked for LSD but will do so when I get the rear back together.

One of these days, all of us Michigan transaxles are gonna have to get together!

fasteddie313

Their is a little box in the middle of your speedo cable under the hood.. It counts revolutions and turns on your service light after so many spins..
If you take the speedo cable off of that box under the hood you can then pull a bunch more cable into the interior to do your speedometer then reattach it to the counter box under the hood when you are done with your gauges..

Their does exist a 160mph green speedometers, actually I think it has the 170 line too.. My car came to me with one.. I'm pretty sure I saw some for sale on ideolas garage under gauges galore or something..
http://garage.ideola.com/used-Gauges.html
I'd contact Dan (ideola) and ask if he still has any he could sell if you want one..

The recirculation valve, a blow off valve that keeps the air in the system recirculating it, built into your compressor housing there.. In your pic the round thing with 4 bolts around it, 90 hose barb coming off of it, that thing..
You're a smart guy, I probably didn't need to explain that..
They are known to clatter at idle, I'm not like 100% sure that is the clack I hear in your vid, but it sure reminds me of it...
I think they have the same internal parts as the recirc valve on the 930..

Karl_W944

Had a no-start issue for the last three months. After months of diagnosis and research in the factory manual, a misreading of my multimeter (also frying it, but that's another story) prevented me from realizing my ignition coil went bad. Had I not burned out my original coil during testing (again, another story for another time), I wouldn't have discovered this and replaced it.

As such, the car is back in running order. As it sits now, all I need to do is:
1. Find and repair the source of a coolant leak
2. Continue with my interior restoration and repair
3. Find the source of an exhaust rattle
4. Exterior paint correction

Karl_W944

I went on my first proper test drive of the car since the last breakdown, I cannot believe how far I've come from when it arrived non-running to now! This is an amazing machine. There are some things to note:

1. Coolant leakage isn’t as bad as I initially thought. It’s only dripping for now. The car stays at middle tick and slightly below while driving. Louder fans come on when I shut the car off.

2. Acceleration is kinda “meh”? I’m not really feeling much “GO” from the pedal. I’m thinking the linkage or cable needs adjusting. It’s decent enough to get where I need to go, but full throttle leaves much to be desired.

3. Brakes are great! The suspension is in better condition than my 944 was. Stiff enough and not too harsh around town. Manual steering isn’t as hefty as one would expect.

4. Shifting is patient. Can’t speed shift or I’ll grind gears. Unfortunately, because of the somewhat laggy throttle response, this makes upshifts and rev-matching downshifts tricky.

5. Headlights only go halfway up and have to be manually lowered.

6. That oil leak at the top of the turbo came back. Me thinks a tricky rebuild will come sooner. These turbos only originally lasted about 50k, and I’m at 52k.

bureau13

Do you have a boost gauge on there? You're going to need one to diagnose your possible low power problem. I sort of had the opposite problem...it was very laggy but hit quite hard when you revved it enough. I got a boost gauge...15 psi! Yikes. I'm lucky I didn't blow it up...