ACG

I was browsing through some of my email folders, and came across this email that someone has sent me:

What's up guys? I'am new to this site as of yesterday, so I just wanted to give all my fellow Porsche junkies a heads up about their cars. I work at a Porsche dealer and have access to hundreds of Porsche TSB's. There is a factory bulletin for all 924/944's which have the airbox snorkel entering a hole in the left fender (this excludes the 951 and S/S2's). When these cars were new, literally hundreds of them were getting new engines under warranty. How could the air box snorkel do this, you ask? Well, people would unknowingly drive their cars through deep puddles in the rain, and the engine would actually suck water up and into the cylinders through this snorkel-----hydrolocking the engine! Maybe a lot of you already know about this, but for those who don't, the modification is really simple. Just cut the snorkel off about halfway down or 6" from the hole in the body. This will not hurt your horsepower any, Porsche did plenty of tests to be sure. They even sell a round black plastic cap which fits in the old hole in the body, it costs about $2.00 and I've only seen it available through dealers. I hope this information will save someone's engine---as if the timing belt wasn't enough to worry about.

I live in the great NW which is very prone to wet weather. Therefore, I am trying to validate the above comments to determine if I should consider the above modifications. Has anyone heard of this?

ERAU-944

i've heard of this as well. i just don't drive fast through puddles, because thats just not something you do with any car.

its not porsches fault people are retarded.

-Mike-

cheetah chrome

I heard that also when I first bought my car. The guy who told me said "pull your snorkel off and we'll trim it down" (I was over his house at the time, right after a PCA event). While I was popping off the snorkel he told me a story about the 951 he bought at a great price because the PO and his mechanic couldn't get the car to perform right. Out of frustration the PO let the car go a for a very cheap price (~4k IIRC) figuring there was something major wrong w/ the car. The day the guy brought the 951 home he went and trimmed the snorkel to avoid any hydrolocking and found that the snorkel to fender gasket was sucked up into the snorkel. The car ran like a champ from there on out. So we take my snorkel to the band saw and trim some off and guess whats stuck in mine.....the snorkel to fender gasket! I later replaced the airbox w/ a K/N conical...reading the above porsche had eliminated the problem on the 951/S2s so it wasn't all that necessary but I'm glad I did it.

theedge

But going thru big puddles is so much fun

I went thru one in a Sentra, the damn rooster tails off the front tires must have been a good 20 feet above the car LOL

SoCal Driver

It's not only the snorkel that has to be modified. You have to remove and cap the vent hose from the belt covers. Also a factory bulletin.

In looking at the mechanics of the situation I think it's more the vent hose and belts that bring up water into the air filter box. Balance belt makes a real good water transport when the crank pulley is under water. This is at least six inches lower than the snorkel intake in the fender.

While you are at it make sure the plastic shield and gaskets are behind the dist cap and rotor.

Peckster

If you have to go through a puddle that might be deep, just yank the snorkle out of the fender, than reinstall after. It pops out easily.