Tim Cullison

Hey guys,
I have a 1984 944 and it's been sitting up for a while. I put some water in it and started it up. The temperature gauge went into the danger zone so I had to shut the engine off. My brother said that the thermostat might be sticking. I'm just not sure. What are some problems that might be causing this and how can I try to diagnose the problem myself. I may have to take it in for repair, but I can't do that yet, I don't have the money. I'm going to sell my boat so I can have some money to fix it up. It has 72,000 miles on it and the water pump has never been replaced as far as I know. Maybe it needs to be replaced soon...? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Tim Cullison

tazman

Do the fans behind the radiator run at all?

Thaddeus

I suspect an 18 year old water pump may be due for replacement... as will the timing belt, rollers, and thermostat if they're all original. Nothing too horribly expensive here, but there will be some work involved. You should research threads on the following:

Timing/balance belt and rollers
Thermostat replacement (a pain!)
Water pumps
Bleeding the air out of the cooling system (tricky!)

Just to stress: if that timing belt is original, it needs to be taken care of ASAP. If it breaks, your valves will kiss your piston heads and you'll be very very unhappy.

Also, don't drive the car if it's overheating. Aluminum blocks are way less tolerant of overheating than cast iron ones. If you overheat the engine, you can destroy it utterly.

Good luck

Thaddeus

Tabor

What did you do to "put some water in"? Just filling the expansion tank up isn't nearly enough.

You need to fill the radiator and block up. I prefer the "mouth-to-mouth" approach.

Tim Cullison

Hey,
Thanks for all of the advice. I'm going to check the fans and make sure they are both working. Maybe a relay could be out. I have replaced the timing and balance shaft belt so they're good for another 30,000 miles. An 18 year water pump, yes, I should probably replace that. Tabor, could you elaborate on what you said about filling the coolant system? I didn't quite understand all of it. I plan on replacing the thermostat, Thaddeus- what makes it such a pain? I know everything is tight underneatht he hood. Is it hard to reach or something? Thanks.

Tim

billybones

Tim you have to just about pressure bleed the system.. You can not just add water.

billybones

check the archives for a procedure. there are many different ways.

Joel

Are you sure it is overheating? Did you see steam coming from anywhere? The temp gauge on my 83 944 is notoriously inaccurate. The gauge will sit near or in the overheat range almost all of the time. My car has a new waterpump, radiator, hoses, t-stat, etc. It has never overheated.

Another friend of mine with an 83 has the same problem, except he has an aftermarket temp gauge in addition to the stock gauge. The stock gauge is in the "red" zone (actually yellow!) all the time, but the aftermarket gauge never budges above 210 or 220 degrees.

jim968

Tim, if you go to the home page here and follow the links to the FAQ for the 924/44/68, you'll find a section on the cooling system, including the bleeding procedure.

As stated already by others, don't risk overheating. It can be death to an aluminum block & head.

Jim, brass hats done come and gone... Spring Break starts in one hour and 25 minutes!!! <img src="graemlins/jumper.gif" border="0" alt="[jumper]" /> Yeee-Haaawww!!!!

jordanolder

Can we hear about the different methods of bleeding the cooling system?

********************

What did you do to "put some water in"? Just filling the expansion tank up isn't nearly enough.
You need to fill the radiator and block up. I prefer the "mouth-to-mouth" approach.

--------------------

-Tabor
1987 Porsche 944 NA
porsche.pdxmax.com

jordanolder

I just keep filling it up with the "bleeder" bolt on top loose until it spurt out water from that bolt. Then I tighten the bolt.

I've never heard anything about mouth to mouth or filling the block or radiator.

Tabor

Basically, my method is this:

1. Open the bleed screw.
2. Fill the top up tank with coolant.
3. Blow into the top up tank until coolant is coming out of the bleed strew. Re-fill the top up tank as needed.

jordanolder

[quote]Basically, my method is this:
1. Open the bleed screw.
2. Fill the top up tank with coolant.
3. Blow into the top up tank until coolant is coming out of the bleed strew. Re-fill the top up tank as needed.

--------------------

-Tabor
1987 Porsche 944 NA
porsche.pdxmax.com
<hr></blockquote>

Blow into the tank where you put in the water? (On the drivers side next to the air cleaner/filter?)

red9four4

try replacing the temp sensor on the block. i did that and my overheating problem stopped.

Tim Cullison

Hey guys,
More updates on the overheating situation. I found the bleeder valve, opened it, put water in the coolant system and then blew in the reservoir until water spouted out. I did this several times to make sure all of the air was out and I filled it all the way up again. I started up the car and let it idle until the temp guage was sitting right in the middle between the filled square and the empty one. There was steam coming out of the tail pipe. I told my brother this and now there are a lot of things to consider. The car came without a gas cap and I had put supreme in the car, but this was months back. There could be moisture in the tank and maybe that's making the steam? If so then I guess I will have to drain the gas from the fuel filter and put some new fuel in. Should I drain the oil and look for signs of water in it? What will I see if there is water mixed in with the oil(other than water... duh!). Will it be foamy, or...? I really want to check everything out in order to make sure the head gasket is blown or not before I spend a bunch of man hours replacing it. Thanks for your help.

Tim