david fracolli

I bought a used engine that is supposed to be out of a 87 924s. I just noticed that there is no auto belt tensioner on it. Not that it is that big of a deal but I thought all 87 and later blocks had the auto tensioner?

lovemyp-car

924S used the early engine...i think

FRporscheman

I think so too. Either way, some would call you lucky for having a manual tensioner.

robert944h

I have an 87 924s and it does have the auto tensioner.

cegan09

My 87 924S has the spring tensioner. Correct me if i'm wrong, but that is not the same thing as the auto tensioner.

david fracolli

I thought all 87 and later blocks came with the "auto" tensioner and it did not matter if it was from a 924s, 944 NA or turbo. As I said it is not that big of a deal if they did not but just trying to clear up some confusion.

Darwantae951

Yes, the "spring" tensioner is the same as the "auto" tensioner.

On early engines (Pre 87 I think) they used an ecentric roller to adjust tension on the timing belt. Later cars had an auto tensioner with the spring.

moorepower

I believe they changed to the auto-tensioner in mid-87 for the 924S. Some early '87's have the eccentric adjuster. Late '87 and all '88's have the spring type.

schwank

My 87 was a 11/86 build and it has the auto tensioner.

My 86 951 does not.

cegan09

ok. I knew early cars had the eccentric roller for tension. Clark's shows 3 types on the belt tensioning page. The third is the hydraulic, and i thought that was the auto tensioner. Guess i didn't consider the spring one "auto" since you still have to manually set the correct tension. Thanks for the clarification.

david fracolli

Now I am even more confused as I was told that the engine was removed from an 87 924s.

Darwantae951

Manually setting the tension is not required. It is advised because the spring has the tendancy to incorrectly tension a "new" cambelt. When I changed mine, my spring tensioner set it almost exactly where it needed to be (verified with tension gauge).

The Hydraulic tensioners were used on 968s (Not sure if S2s had them).

cegan09

Ok, all makes sense to me now. Sorry to the OP if i've just confused things.

Jfrahm

I consider the 968 to be more of an 'auto' tensioner. The later 944 is more of a self-setting tensioner. If you call it an auto-tensioner, some people think it somehow maintains the tension. In reality the late 944 tensioner just allows you to set the tension without a 9201, assuming you trust the spring in the tensioner assembly. The belt tension still needs to be checked every so often with the late 944 setup, whereas the 968 tensioner should self-adjust through the life of the belt. Should. Hopefully. As long as the tensioner itself is working. I plan to have a look at mine every year or two.

Nowadays belt systems have evolved to the point where most people do not think the belt tension needs to be checked, so using words that do not cloud the issue is important in the case of the 944.
I do not know of a good way to describe the spring tensioner that would not lead some people to think it's self-adjusting. This is the best I can do:

Early 944 - Manual
Late 944 - Spring - Self setting (but not self adjusting)
968 - Hydraulic - Self adjusting

-Joel.

bjzorn

What is the engine Number on the block. at the back on the right side of teh motor just above the #4 exhaust port. Also remeber that there were '86 942S' as well