Clint's 944

Finally removed the head as my parts arrived Friday!
I am going to do the headgasket, waterpump, belts and the front crank seal. Hopefully...that'll do it!

Here are some pictures of the block and head. How do they look? Seemed OK to me but i'm a newb...Also, while I was cleaning up the head I noticed some large pitting, this would be bad I assume....Will the machine shop be able to take of this?

Pics!

MM951

The cylinder walls look really good (alot better then others I've seen and they were good to go)

xsboost90

head looks bad. Not sure it will effect the head gasket or not but ive never seen one do that!

aribop

That pitting on the head needs to be filled in. A good machine shop will be able to fill it in with aluminum and then shave the head.

Clint's 944

Right...so a machine shop can repair it, cool.
Whaddya think of my cylinder walls? Pretty good for 200K miles?

Oh, I was able to remove ALL of the camshaft bolts without stripping a single one! Woo Hoo!

Granite 944

Oh yeah! A machine shop that knows there stuff should be able to fix ya up just fine! Maybe a shaving of the head will clean it up, or even at worst, a little spot welding, and machining should take care of it. I've not generally seen it so close to the compression ring of gasket, butt know its not that uncommon, but it should still, not be a big deal. Take it to a machine shop, AND DO NOT INSTALL AS IS, TILL YOU TALK TO THEM, AND LET THEM SEE THIS (I STILL say, porsche 944 knowledgeable machine shops....EVEN for the head work), and go with their recommendations on this. Your this far, so ya might as well do it up right, and go all the way with this, at THIS time. Have them check over the head top to bottom, you know, valve stem to guide clearance, the flatness of both sides of head, the spring tension, replace valve guide seals, grind the seats/valves, CHECK FOR CRACKS IN HEAD, check valve stem height.....would be what I would expect from a reputable, knowledgeable machine shop. Butt, ya might want to talk about it with 'em also, to make sure your getting all that. Head gasket change is looking like its in order here, butt, ya just might want to go a little bit further with this at this time too. Talk to a machine shop. They can help you, and give ya more of an idea of what your working with. Its worth it (to me) to pay for at least the inital costs of checking it over, and then having them getting back to me, than assume that I'll be ok, and then later discover, I "should have". Then again.......the call is yours. Good luck!

Zero10

Those are amazing cylinder walls for 200k!
They are definately fine. The pitting requires filling, it's too deep to shave off. Did your head gasket fail? If so, was that the point of failure?
Have the head fully checked out by a machine shop (as already mentioned)

User 41221

That pitting is the result of the coolant eating away at the aluminum, so beware of the coolant you run. Porsche was serious when they say no phospates/silica...

As for the head itself, if its a street car, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Whatever is left after the machine shop decks the head won't make a difference, in my opinion, and isn't worth the cost of filling it (tig weld fill and grind). You get bonus points for doing so, but I think most shops wouldn't be too concerned about it. I'm guessing a good number of folks here may disagree with me on this, tho.

EDIT: I just went back and looked at the pics again, the pitting where the sealing ring IS a concern. I'd ask the opinion of the machine shop on that instance.

If the pitting/damage were in the combustion chamber, it would be a different story.

YMMV

Regards,

Granite 944

Coolant type. IMPORTANT thing to take notice of! Notice what kinda of water your using ALSO. If.....ya care about any longevity.

Get the machine shop's opinion. Mainly, because it IS so close to the compression ring seals.

Just remember. If you shave the head less than .020" and use the stock sized head gasket (nothing wrong with that), just know that your gonna boost the compression in the cylinders (however slightly), thus putting a little bit more stress on already worn piston ring/wall clearances (just like on ANY engine type). Your cyl. walls look good in the picture. If they really are "eggshaped", and out of "tolerance spec.", than.......ya might just wanna know this. Chances are........you'll be JUST FINE.
Shave that head!

Gotcha worried now? Don't be. Just take the head to a machine shop, and get their "take".

hosrom_951

Very good block!!

Clint's 944

Well, the search is on for a machine shop. I called about 15 shops today that all refused or were reluctant to work on a Porsche head. So, I called Auto-tech, a local Porsche Mechanic, who told me not to take it to anyone around here unless I wanted a head in worse condition. Yeah, that was inspiring!

Tomorrow I am taking it over to a guy that does head work for Mercedes so...who knows? He said he would look at it and tell me if he can do it.

Is there something magical about Porsche that scares everyone? I really do hate Myrtle Beach!

~Clint

Clint's 944

Oh, I forgot! I was thinking of cleaning up the piston tops with some Sea foam. Should be no problem right?

MyBlackCar

A sure fire place is Devek (www.devek.net) in Redwood City, CA if you can ship it. I know it is far for you, but they specialize in Porshes and they confirmed they have an in house machine shop. This is where I am going to take my head if I have to take it out.

Granite 944

Clint, I'm SURE NO EXPERT........butt, as far as finding a machine shop to do the head.....IF you take it in, and supply the "technical data" for dealing with checking and machining the head, I doubt you'll have much of a problem. The issue here is that YOU should either find a knowledgeable Porsche machine shop, or KNOW the requirements of machining it, and supply it to them, yourself. This will give you the knowledge, and the peice of mind. Its all in the FSM. All I know is........if a shop tells me they are NOT comfortable doing a "Porsche" type of machining job.........I'll keep looking! (those people, SCARE me!), it really isn't THAT different than most other head jobs. "magical".........I don't think so! Butt........don't go to anyone that THINKS SO.

Sea foam? Don't know, never used it. I just use a little solvent (mineral spirits, MEK, or whatever I have handy), on a rag, with a plastic scraper (if needed) to clean it off with. I don't get to "fancy". I'm still learning and trying different products too. My garage is already to full of chemicals. Most of this kinda stuff is just gimic sales pitches crap anyway. IMHO. Once in a while though.............

Peckster

Thw cylinders look Ok but you don't know how good the rings are without a compression test. Did you do that?