ToxicSlick

So I was on my way home last night when I heard a very light clunk from the engine, which immediatly sounded a little quieter and had more of a constant sound, then it lost all power and died. The bad part is I was at about 4k when it happened... adios valves. I have yet make sure it was the timing belt, but Im pretty sure it was.

Ok, heres my question, since I have another (mostly) running car, can I just pull the head off of my 87' and bolt it onto the 88' and replace the timing belt and water pump, belts, ect. and be off? Should I even bring it to a shop to have this done, or could 2 mechanicly inclined people with little engine experience do this?

Any advice would be appreciated. < this is how no 944 makes me feel

SoCal Driver

You can pull the head. Buy the necessary valves and hand lap them in. This will get you another 30k to 40k miles before you will need to think about a full head job. Most likely the four exhaust and two to four intakes.

You might be able to find a used head at a junk yard that is in decent shape. Check how hard the stem seals are or fill the combustion chamber with water and blow shop air at the back side of the valves. The cost of a used head is about that of the eight valves. Or cheaper.

Tom M'Guinn

Replacing the head is not rocket science. Go for it. The only complication is setting the timing belt tension, which is supposed to be done with the factory tensioner tool. You see, if you don't tension the belt properly...oh, sorry.....

I don't know the n/a's well enough to confirm if the head is a straight swap. An 89 will not fit, but I THINK an 88 is fine.

PorscheDoc

I feel your pain, i just stripped the teeth off mine as well. Lucky i am getting really good at pulling the intake, fuel rail, Ac/ps belts, this time it only took about 15 minutes. Have to tackle the b&t belts next and get those out of the way and then pull the head...yipppeeee!!!!

ToxicSlick

Could any other engine failures cause similar results? Im not even sure if it was the timing belt, as it was just replaced ~25000 miles ago
There was a faint clunk and it engine slowly lost revs down untill it stalled, no sudden engine seizing.

The car is still sitting in a parking lot 10miles away

Zero10

Well, you could look in the inspection hole above the distributor. That is the cam gear right there, if there is no belt on it, then your t-belt broke.
I can't think of anything else offhand that would cause a failure like that.

SoCal Driver

A burned out rod or main bearing will do the slow death thing. So will a seized piston.

If you crank it and it spins over real fast kind of sounding like a sewing machine then the belt broke. I would much rather replace a few valves in the head than rebuild an engine.

Type_LT

Toxic: If it's only 25k old then it is unlikely it snapped, provided it was properly tensioned. Did you car always wine for a couple minutes when you first started it in the morning?

ToxicSlick

It used to whine in the mornings ~ 10k miles ago, but not reciently. It did however, knock for maby 2 min after starting it, or when it was really cold out. The car was fully warmed up when this happened.

seb928s

Hmm maybe a timing tensioner went had this happen. Also the balance shaft belt may have let go or a balance shaft tensioner went and it would have ran rough and took out the timing belt. How many miles on it?

On a side note I have all new rollers and belts and they whine a bit not much. It has had the tension done with the P9201 tool and the mech. that has worked on these cars for years (since 1970's) said it's normal on some to have that won't cause any damage like early ware when it's tension right.

ToxicSlick

Today I turned it over while my friend looked at the belt. The engine made a high pitched sewing machine sound, and he said he diddnt see it move at all, but the belt was still on the gear.

So what are power gains like with a p/p 16v s head?

jonnybgood

The teeth on the belt are stripped. By turning it over to test it you likely bent some more valves. Don't know why SoCal told you to do that. Take the belt cover off and look at what is going on.

16v head to 8v is not an option.

Boobers

Oh, that sucks dude. It doesn't seem sometimes that we are ever ahead of the curve on these timing belts. I start my car about every three days and let it idle just to keep my seals fluid. I hold my breath every time, especially on very cold days. This is just something we've got to suck up here. Pull the head and get back on the road.

ToxicSlick

I thought the 944s head bolted right up. I know the s2 head does not fit, but (assuming one could find the parts, and that the water passages line up, and ignoring cost) the only other differences were the headers, intake, ecu and exhaust, right? maybe some other suspension/wheel stuff.....

Anyone else know anything?

Jfrahm

The S head fits but the S pistons have different valve reliefs, I suppose the valves will hit the 8v pistons.

If you wanted to add the S head you'd need the intake and exhaust manifolds, pistons... hell might as well get the car to bring it all home in.

-Joel.