944*b*bad

hey guys, i just recently picked up a 924 S and as i have been driving it more and more often, i am noticing that it is starting to get consistantly too hot. the gauge is reading just past the third mark. the fans seem to be working good, so i am wondering if maybe my thermostat had gone bad? the upper rad. hose is pressurized though so i'm not sure. do i maybe have an air bubble in my coolant system? what am i missing? i need to get this under control fast! maybe i need a new fan relay or temp. switch? please help

TIA, Brett

ErichCS

Under what conditions does the gauge get that high? Driving or traffic?

Erich

944*b*bad

it is like a mix of both...... normal driving with a little traffic here and there....i'm in Dallas so you can kind of get the idea.

theedge

You say the hose that runs from the waterpump to the rad is under pressure... The REAL question is, is that hose scalding hot when the gauge says the engine is hot. That third white mark is 212F, or in a sensible system, 100C. If you can touch that hose when the gauge says your engine is over that third mark, something is up. That something is most like the termostat is stuck closed, if you can touch the hose easily.

Crackhead944S

Mine is acting the same way. I bought a infrared thermometer and my gauge works fine. It read 212 at the top of the head. I was speaking with George at Ecology 944 about an unrelated matter, I was tensioning the belts when I noticed I have a cracked oil pan, and he recommended cleaning the radiator fins for both the cooling system and the A/C. I changed my thermostat and have yet to refill the cooling system which I will do shortly and let you know how it runs.

Skip stated that it might be running hot because of a lean condition. I did notice that my spark plugs had some white residue on them, but I need to check them again because George said that that might be a slow leaking head gasket and burning coolant.

Do your plugs have any white residue on them?

BTW, I bought a new fan relay switch and nothing changed except for the $176 hole in my wallet. I also have a new radiator, all new hoses and I have the AutoZone free loaner tool pressure tester to bleed the air out of the system. This car is beating me down, but I'm not out yet.

Tonight I hope to fill the system, bleed it and test the temps of the top hose and the bottom hose. I'll let you know how it goes at what readings I get on each hose.

Good luck,

'88-924S

My needle was mis reading and it turned out to be a weak ground, fixed the ground and voila! problem was resolved.

ljd-924SE

yeah, i had a similar problem which also turned out to be a bad ground at the bellhousing. installing iceshark's awesome ground cable solved the problem. his products are listed on gururacing.net.

The_Phantom

I also cleaned the bottom of my oil pan. The oil pan on my '89 944 has heat sink fins on it so it must be a least a minor part of the cooling system and the fins can get very dirty which would prevent them from doing their job.

944*b*bad

thanks guys for all of the suggestions, i am about to get out there and see what i can find. Mark....let me know how your changes go.

thanks, Brett

Matt

The aluminum radiators just seem to go bad after some extended time. Several years ago my car started to overheat on the track. I contacted GeorgeB of 944 Ecology, who advised me that the likely culprit was the radiator.

I asked him if he had a good used one available, and to his eternal credit he told me to buy a new one. I found one for something like $179, and it fixed the problem completely. The car now has nearly 100 track days on it.

Two points - it's likely to be the radiator, which isn't all that expensive to replace. And GeorgeB is the real deal.

Matt

944*b*bad

ok guys, take a look at these pics and tell me what this part is. i was looking under the car and found this piece dangling down. it looks as it it bolts into the lower half of the block sort of underneath the oil filler neck. it looks as if it is broke off or something. i traced the wire that is attached to it and it went up to this funky conection on the back of the cam housing. it looks as if somthing plugs into it? is this my culprit?

Broken piece:


connector with cap on:


connector with cap off showing the prongs:

944*b*bad

anyone? can somebody check and see if you have this as well? thanks, Brett

Crackhead944S

I don't know what that piece is but... I got everything back together, went to start it and my battery was dead. I just hope I didn't fry the ECU since I tried to start it with the 50 AMP setting that my battery charger has depsite the recommendations of many in this forum. And I say this with gas can in hand, I was/am angry at this car.

I have driven it about 15 miles since June of 2003. I have had some fun with it lately, when my two year old son says "Sit in the Porsche". He loves to be behind the wheel and for now we have to make our own engine sounds.