Dan Shea

Anyone else feel like their 44 sounds like it has supercharger whine? Please say yes, I don't want something to be breaking in my car...

Gremlin85

usually caused by the balance shaft belts. Too tight? It goes away, slightly. But double check the tension.

Have you replaced them lately?

schwank

Hell mine sounds far louder than my Audi when it was supercharged... I've messed with every belt except the timing belt, which I will be retensioning in about an hour. The damn thing is driving me nuts. It's almost embarassing to drive it gets so loud once the engine is heated.

I'd check those belt tensions and GOOD LUCK!

Dan Shea

yeah i just finished putting the motor in, new belts and all. So i guess there is a strong possibility that the belts are too tight. It isn't very loud but deffinately noticable. I think i'll steal/borrow someones tension meter thing and check it.

V2Rocket

I've been saying this for a while lol.

After a while of driving a fresh belt will stretch ever so slightly and the whine will quiet down. However, that's just part of the Porsche engine noise; go listen to a 996, they do it too.

Wipeout

Eric, hope that goes well.

tomrc

When I autoX, I get people asking me if the car is supercharged, I tell them I would be going a whole lot faster if I did. A guru on Pelican Parts heard it however, and told me my belts are way too tight, then again I'm not running with the outer timing belt cover on either. I just loosened them a little today, I only have about 1000 miles on the belts though so I didn't loosen them a lot.

I did hear a 996 the other day and it was wild, it sounded very similar to mine.

schwank

Hmmm, I just finished spending several hours playing with the timing belt tension... I ended up going by touch as the calculations I was getting on the Arnnworx 920x tool were nuts... the supposed correct setting had no tension whatsoever on the belt. One of the nice things about no belt covers on an 87 is that I can fiddle with the auto-tensioner without taking anything else apart. I varied the tension from WAY sketchy to pretty tight and it didn't make a difference in the sound at all, still screams like mad.

Again, I've driven around now with no power steering or accessory belt, I've adjusted the balance belt tension about 20 times, and now spent 3 hours playing with the cam belt tension. None of them cure the scream at above 3500 rpm.

At this point I'm leaning towards the balance belt tensioner pulley... it was brand new from pelican when the motor got refreshed 1000 (hard) miles ago... vexing I say. I'm sure some noise is normal but man this is nuts. People turn and look as I roll by!

Techno Duck

I do not run the top portion of the cover and have my belts adjusted as per spec. The whine is very noticable.

Make sure the idler pulley is not touching the belt, it should be 1mm away. Other than that, dont worry about it. Just keep up with the retension mileage.

sharky47

Most people tension the balance belt too tight - when properly tensioned it really seems too loose - even though it's correct.

hacker-pschorr

928's are the same. When I took the supercharger off my 81 (to put on a smaller pulley) I ran the car for a bit without the blower. A few people said "I thought you took the blower off" - they were hearing the timing belt. It's dead on according to the Porsche tension tool.

yellowline

My uncle's S2 sounded unnaturally whiny when I first heard it (he had just picked it up). It turned out that the belt was too loose and turning a roller more often/with more force than it was designed to do. It was at 1.0 on the 9201 scale, when it should have been at about 2.7.

Lucky PO, all he replaced was the oil. Also had a $200 bill for a DME relay replacement.

sharky47

Man, I need to start charging $200 for the DME relay...............

95Juan

when i did my t-belt, i tensioned it completely by hand and used the 90-degree method. it was a touch overtight, and i left the belt covers off, and it was kinda loud.

after the 1k break in, i took it to my mechanic and they tensioned it to spec, but it wasnt a real huge difference.

i guess that's just how they are.

white924s

mine sounds like that particularly when its cold. My mechanic, who works on a lot of porsches and other high end cars (last time i was by, they were doing an engine rebuild on a Ferrari 328 GTS), said that its supposed to sound that way - that it was something about the positioning of the balance belts and the harmonics with that.

My dad's Boxster S also sounds a bit like its supercharged too, so I'm not too worried