apen749

Hello all. I’m going to attempt to change my head gasket along with the help of a friend soon. I’m using Clarks Garage Manuals as a reference tool. I have few questions below if someone would please respond. Background – 91 944S2 with 38K. Car ran really rough for a ¼ mile and quit. I was driving it to an upholster shop because I wasn’t able to install my world upholstery kit. The carpet is wool and none of the pieces are molded. This kit requires a lot of expertise. Since, I’ve change the fuel filter, Pressure Regulator and Impulse Sender. My car will run now but at a rough idle in giving off white smoke. I have no maintenance records on the car. I got it in Dec 03 in only putting 1500 miles since.

1 Should I change the timing belt and balance belts at this time? They look new. Per the krikit, the right tension is there.
2 Should the car be jacked up on stands?
3 How do you check for bent rods other than visual inspection?
4 Should I replace the camshaft tensioner pad?
5 What’s the hardest part?

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Thanks, Lee

Flight_951

My advice would be to do a compression check and leakdown test first. It may point you in a different direction. I didn't think a S2 normally had a bad headgasket very often but I could be wrong. Are you losing coolant?

tod84944

Did you also change the fuel dampner? Have you drained the oil and took a look at it, do it have a strong smell of gas in it? If you have fuel in the crankcase, the dampner has gone bad.

apen749

Thanks for the reply. I had a 180 psi across all 4 cylinders. I checked the atifreeze reservior in which it was low. I refilled it and ran the car for about 5 mins. It still ran rough and it would start to stall when the gas was applied in a quick manner. No change in the fluid level nor the car didn't get very hot. The only goods news was that there was very little smoke. So little, that I wasn't able to tell the exact color. My sparkplugs were smutty so, maybe my headgasket isn't blown. I

Something very strange happened though. When the car was idling, I attemped to remove the dipstick to have the car strart to stall. Put the dipstick back and the car would run fine. I was never able to completely remove the dipstick. This was really strange.

I'll look into the fuel dampner. Thanks.