My formerly trusty '87 944 brought me all the way from Toronto to L.A. and up here to Vancouver. Ran like a champ, not a hint of trouble.

Then tonight, pulling into a parking space after fifteen minutes of relaxed, non-spirited cruising, there was a poof! followed by a volcano of steam.

It was too dark to see what broke, but clearly it's the cooling system. I'm pretty sure it's not the radiator, since the steam seemed to be coming from somewhere aft of that (and to the left, I think). Hopefully it's just a hose.

Since I was planning to leave town in a couple of days, I'd really appreciate some help in finding parts. I don't suppose generic hoses will work? Do they have to be specially-fitted 944 hoses?

Poor li'l buzzbomb ... she was doing so well!

 

I think it's the heater valve. That happened to me.

 

Uh-on ... sounds harder to fix.

 

How far aft? Heater control valve on a 944 is near the firewall, isn't it? Also, left meaning driver's side -- or facing the car, hence passenger side -- there are lots of hoses ready to burst near the water pump....

Generic hoses will work -- if you can find ones that fit.

 

I hate to say it but remember last month when I said to carry some spare hoses? Hopefully it's one you can get to easily and available locally. Who knows, maybe you just have to tighten up a clamp. Sounds like the trip has gone well so far.

 

I had a heater hose blow out on my in my 951. It was a Porsche drive. It took me about 30 min to remove the hose, cut it shorter to remove the damaged section and reattach. Not a big deal. The house is molded to shape, but for the short term any auto parts store can supply a coolant hose that can be made to fit.

 

Okay, I found the culprit, a very short hunk of hose between the engine and firewall, attached to what I presume is the heater control valve. Damn tight space, but it could be worse.

One question, though ... at the top of the valve is a length of plastic tubing. Should that attach to something? Mine just sort of seems to sit there. Did it pop out of its proper place or is that the way it's supposed to be?

And kuhl, you're right about the hosing advice. Actually my mechanic brother gave me the same advice. However I had several replacement parts, as many tools as I could carry, and I figured there was really no end to replacement parts I could bring along ... I therefore made the decision to draw the line at hoses. Clearly I misjudged! Anyway I'm damn lucky it happened here, in a parking lot in a big city, rather than somewhere nightmarish (like that 100-mile stretch of Utah with no filling stations or towns).

 

Oh, and one other question: does anyone know the coolant capacity of the 87 944 n/a? I'm gonna have to refill it once the hose is replaced, but I'm not sure how much to get. Four litres? Six?

 

That sounds like it would be your problem. I don't have any good pics, but the heater hose runs from the top of the back of the block (actually attaches to the head) through the pastic control valve in to the firewall. There is another hose running from the firewall to the metal pipe just over the headers. The later cars use a small vacuum line to control the heater valve and the early cars use a cable. You have late cars so should have same vacuum connection to the heater valve.

At WORST you can run a hose direct from the metal pipe to the port on the back of the block. In this way you by pass the heater core. Car will run fine, but you will not have any heat.

 

6 or 7 qts. Buy 1 gallon of anifrezze and 2-3 gal of distilled water. Do 1/2 gal antifreeze and 1/2 gal water and finsih the antifreeze and fill the rest with water till it reads full. Then squeeze the main radiator return hose to push air out. Make sure you have the bleed screw open for this. When the tank level stays constant you are full. Then fire it up and wait for it to get warm and start spitting mostly water out the bleed screw. Then you are done.

 

Are you talking about heating/cooling hoses? Because I just mean a really thin little tube, narrower than a pencil, that comes off the top of the heater valve. I've got the actual fluid lines figured out ... this is just a little tube that seems to go nowhere. I'll try to take a picture of it tomorrow.

 

Vancouver WA or Vancouver BC?

If you're in the GVRD, give me a call, 604.908.7944 I can probably get you what you need in a jiffy.

 

Some of the Lordco's carry the proper Pentosin blue coolant. I picked mine up at the Lordco in Burnaby.

As for parts, Weissach has a lot of stuff in stock but they arent cheap.

I've had a lot of luck with Burnaby auto parts (http://www.burnabyauto.com/). One of the guys there used to own a 928 and knows alot about front engine Porsches.

 

No need to waste your money on the blue coolant. Prestone coolant (in the silver jug, not the yellow one) is Silicate and phosphate free and is perfect for our engines. Get TWO jugs (I think 6L each) and you will always have enough to last your for a few years. They are fairly cheap.

Weissach and SCAN automotive will give you very fair prices on parts, especially if you are a porsche club member. MCL Porsche will rape you, though. They usually charge 50% to 100% more than Weissach or SCAN. However, I have a rubbermaid bin that is FULL of rubber hoses from a couple of 944 turbos. There might be something useful in there... depends on how ridiculously shaped your piece of leaking hose is.

 

The little hose from the top goes to one of the 2 little nipples on the firewall by the heater lines. It is the vacuum line for the HCV so that it shuts off once in a while. Since your heat isn't always on, you must have a working flapper inside

As for the hose replacement, anybody that deals with worldpac should be able to get that hose same day, vancouver has a lot of parts. If you were farther east I'd help you out tho