Could someone please tell me where the thermostat is located on a 944 please.
1983 model non turbo.
Thanks
Ken

 

It is located in the water pump (where the large water hose attaches). It is retained by a snap ring. There is a special tool to remove it, or use an angle-tipped snap ring pliers and some patience.

 

Sorry about the old bump but i'm doing this too..

so i just remove the big hose and it'll be accessible?
I was driving and outta nowhere my car had a bunch of steam out the back while climbing a hill, i let off for a bit and came to a red light no steam, then the temp gauge was maxed so i quickly pulled over and then steam came out of the hood i'm guessing it's the thermostat?

And what oil should i run during the winter? i'm using 20-50 but it's getting below zero at night, i worry that it's too thick (166XXX kms on car)

 

I hope by steam coming out the back you don't mean the exhaust...if so you need a head gasket not a thermostat. Hopefully you just blew a hose of some kind or your colant reservoir cap isn't holding pressure and ir spewed out. Sorry but it doesn't sound like a thermostat if it happened pulling a hill. Check all your hoses well and do a compression check ASAP if you can't find anything real obvious. Good Luck

 

^it was kind of more steam across the back of the whole car and very thin not thick white smoke like a head gasket.. i think it was coolant leaking onto the exhaust.. the oil was fine no coffee likeness heh.

I got the hose off.. it's impossible to get at the c-clip holding the thermostat in. Do you go from the top or bottom or what? I don't have the special pliers from porsche (i can't drive anywhere).

I just have some c-clip pliers that are right angle bent, and a pair with a very slight bend (pretty much straight)

ps: it's raining outside, i'm in a carport... coolant has run down my arm and splashed my face.. i'm cold, wet, and have class at 7pm.... God help me haha.

 

Its hard to get the thermostat out. Keep working at it and eventually you will get it. I have done 3 of them and never really came up with a good method yet other than when getting one corner of the snap ring out of the groove, keep it out and work the rest out of the groove slowly. I have never gotten the whole thing loose and pulled directly out in one shot. Also I broke a snap ring in half once so be careful with that.

 

I'm still trying figure out why you are going straight to the thermostat as the most likely candidate? You said you were climbing a hill and the saw the steam. Glad to hear it's not a headgasket. If you got that hot that fast with steam you have a coolant leak, bad cap, or now a blown water hose. How is your coolant level? IMO as hard as the t-stat is to remove I would look for the source of the steam before anything. Run the car at idle and feel the hose, if it stays cold for a minute and then gets warm your T-stat is probably working fine. If the hose stays relatively cool as the rest of the engine warms up and then gets hot on the gauge replace it. I bet you blew a heater hose though...the weakest hose is always the hardest one to get to...that would be the ones at the heater control valve behind the head.

 

^oh ok, well everyone was tellin me it's the thermostat.. the engine was over heating before the rad was getting warm.

so i should hold the lower rad hose to see if it's hot, not the top one? :P uh oh i may be a moron

 

Oh and i didn't think it was a leak just because i couldn't find the leak anywhere i know it has to be leaking somewhere but i'm not sure where... i added water to the system and let it idle all that i saw was the car getting hot and very very little steam coming up near the intake manifold

 

Sorry to keep bumping this but i have an update

Lower rad hose stays stone cold, upper rad hose gets hot (the big hose) car over heats and the coolant stays stone cold as well. looks like i'm missing class tonight ohhh man.