m73m95

+ 1 .. snap ring pliers suck...use needle nose with the tips ground down a little

And...the thermostat should NOT wiggle...if it wiggles then its letting water get past.

There's a rubber gasket that goes over the thermostat, then a metal shim that sits infront of it, so you don't jack up the gasket with the snap ring. Don't forget to look at the rubber sleeve inside the water pump too.

jstand22

yeah the sleeve is there inside the pump, and the gasket is on the thermostat, and I cannot figure out why is has wiggle room.

m73m95

You have the rubber o-ring on the thermostat, and the metal shim between the thrermostat and the snap ring?

jstand22

bingo - -no shim. However there was no shim on the old thermostat/pump and it did not wiggle. Guess I got another damn part to order. Thanks!

Whisper

Yeah, I considered pulling the waterpump, but I understand that involves doing the timing belt as well, and that would have turned what was supposed to be a small job into a big one.

It's pretty unusual to need to do just the thermostat, but mine was clearly letting the engine get too hot before it kicked on. I think it may have just been defective, because it was fairly new; the last owner did put in a new pump about 6000 miles ago, and it was quite clean and shiny when I got it out, but incredibly stiff.

Anyway, I replaced it with one rated at 160 F (instead of the stock 180), and everything runs much cooler now.

Scott at Team Harco

Wow. I forgot about the shim. It was there on the one I just did. Not sure it is there on my car. GF gets all the good stuff...

Whisper

I think it may depend on your waterpump. Some of the aftermarket ones may be slightly different from oem.

Mine has no metal shim, just a rubber gasket that goes inside the thermo, and the EVIL SNAP RING right outside it. But everything fits just fine, there's no wiggle room, and it does not leak at all.

CurtP

You're much luckier than I am. When something flies across my garage, it invariably hits whatever is the most expensive, and most fragile.

ArcticSteve

I just did one yesterday on a 87 924S with the pump installed. It was the same as yours on a replacement pump; snap ring, Whal thermo and rubber ring. Haven't received the new one yet. Old one would not open up. It was 6 years old.

Great post and nice ride.

Tenacious_G

Great post! Funny to read

....Wasn't aware that NA's made 200 hp though... even lightly modded ones. Those mods really help it from 163?

halik

I bent mine trying to get that circlip off... pliers FTMFW
Also mine didn't have any wiggle when i put it back it - i reused the metal ring and tossed the rubber gasket. The actual thermostat is $8 at any local autoparts store.

Calmchaos

Mine had no shim, and it doesn't wiggle at all.
And I'm also curious about how ~200hp is possible. I would love to copy that setup.
Unless you bored it out... then eff that... lol.

Whisper

I don't know how much detail I can give you. All the mod work was done by the previous owner. But here's what I know:

2.5'' hi-flow cat.
Flowmaster Super 40 Muffler
Polished & cross-drilled crank
lots of tuning

He told me he had tried an aftermarket airbox, and lost about 15 hp... the stock Porsche airbox did much better.

He did a beautiful job with it; not only is the peak hp high, but the power curve is quite flat... I can out-accelerate much more powerful cars from standing start.

(Overall performance is a function of distance over time, which is an integral off that dyno curve. Peak HP is just a max-point, it's the whole function that matters.)

I know he's a Rennlist member, but I don't know his username, and giving out his real name would not be very cool. Perhaps we'll get lucky, and he'll see this thread and chime in with more details.

Calmchaos

hm....

Will Feather

I don't know why and how people find the t-stat such a hard job. I did mine in 10mins with cheap snap-ring pliers for the local auto parts store.