KuHL 951

I sure hope not. He's changing the oil in the morning so I'll put a strainer on it and check for little foreigners. I'm certainly not in 'head pulling' form at the moment so I hope that's a worst case. I'll be honest, I don't wrench for fun anymore and I still hate 'forced maintenance'. I do it now to save money and that is all. I'm sure there is a better plan but I haven't found it yet. Thanks for the scare, I hope your are wrong though

Bri Bro

Me too, that was a pain. Let use know how it turns out.

Mike C.

It can be done without pulling the head but you need to be sure the piston is at TDC. When at TDC for number one cylinder, number 4 will also be at top of stroke. So line up number one TDC and do valve stems on 1 and 4. Then rotate crank 180 degrees - numbers 2 and 3 should then be at top of stroke (Check with a flashlight in spark plug hole). Since the cam shaft is removed, all valves stay closed as you rotate the crank. Just be sure you line up number 1 on compression stroke again before re-installing cam belt.

Mark944na86

Mike C. -- so you are saying that the valves are in a non-interference pattern when #1 TDC, and the crank can be rotated freely withough causing psiton/valve contact. Interesting...

theedge

Er no, careful there. The valves are closed when any piston is at its top dead center, thats just how it works. If the timing belt is removed, then you cant rotate the crank.

And when the cam tower is removed, ALL the valves remain closed, so you can rotate the crank freely as long as youre very very careful to line things up when before you put the cam tower back on.

pete95zhn

Worn out turbo?

KuHL 951

We changed oil today on the 944S and found that the oil pan plug was installed without a crush washer, the oil filter was finger 'loose', and there were no foreigns in the oil or on the magnet. Gotta love those quick change places that did the oil change for the PO. That's accounts for some of the oil 'use' for sure as it was leaking really bad but where he's living he's had to move the car every two hours to avoid a ticket. It also had 5W-30 which should never be used in a 944 IMO. What my son thought was using a lot of oil turned out to be 2 quarts in 3K miles so he needs to go back to math class. It still might have a problem but we haven't been able to make it smoke again since the oil change. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that the morning haze he saw was condensation in the exhaust burning off from all those two hour moves in a cold foggy climate in San Francisco.

On another note I finished the ball joints on the Super Duty today. Half my time was spent running for better tools and making a homemade seal driver from pipe and grinding it to size. These suspension parts on these big trucks are heavy as hell...my back is killing me. Time for a few Stella Artois' and Motrin.

944obscene

I had Stella and she wasn't that great for me. I prefer a good Spaten or Smithwicks.

On another note: Aww man. This problem sounds like mine too. Unsourced oil consumption that isn't present during regular driving. I only notice a drop in level, after driving the car hard. Mostly, the times I took it past 110-120. Since I've been driving it more Christian, I've noticed that the consumption mostly went away, but not completely. I was also thinking the oil return line for my car, for the turbo.

Haven't checked it out yet.

Mike C.

I should have stressed that once you remove the cam tower, then you can rotate the crank without fear of valve interference since with cam removed all valves are closed.

KuHL 951

Remember guys, there is no cam tower on the car I'm talking about. I think both cams have to come off to get all the valves closed in my case for seal replacement.

Wipeout

...those pesky 16v engines, eh Steve?

DarylJ

While someone else already posted that it's possible, I sure don't know how - and would love to know. I sure can't get the valves out of a 944 head with a top-mounted valve spring compressor and the FSM calls for a C-clamp type valve spring compressor. I can see why.

So if there's a trick to this, please share.

KuHL 951

That's odd because the FSM also shows using Special Tool #9242 to remove the valve springs with the head installed and Special Tool #9237 to remove the seals. What they dont say is how they keep the valve from dropping unless they use compressed air or it doesn't drop too far at TDC and can still be accessed for spring installation. I wonder if the FSM is wrong or the special tools are just magical.

M758

I used compresed air in the cylinders at BDC (to prevent crank rotation) to do my valve stem seals. This kept the valve up as I replaced all the seals. Worked like a charm. This was in my Turbo.

DarylJ

Ohhh..I must not have seen that page. I saw the page for removing them with the head off and didn't go any further.

Hmmm...more special tools. Big surprise.