944S3 bites the dust...

Just venting.... This is the end of the road for this 968-powered 944. I was at a track-day 4 weeks ago and in the last run session (trouble always happens at the end of day...), the car started blowing white smoke everywhere and even filled up the cabin. Someone caught a picture of it BEFORE it got really bad:



There was incredible amount of pressure in the coolant reservoir and oil turned to milkshake -- so I was hoping for just a blown headgasket. This week (with the help of V2Rocket_aka944), I finally got to pull the head and found out that the headgasket is okay. It turned out both #2 and #4 cylinder walls were scraped up by the pistons. I still can't figure out what kind of engine problem would destroy two cylinder walls at once!

Even though I have a spare 968 motor, I'm not going to try to put her back together. I have too many other projects to do in the rest of the fleet (and a one-year old baby at home). Once everything is cleaned and inventoried, I'll let the vultures get at some of the premium parts (968 engine parts, 'S' tranny with LSD, 2 sets of sport seats, Redline rollbar, Saratoga sunroof, Iceshark wiring, perfect dash, Wilwood brakes, and so forth....). For sale post to follow later this summer.

 

Man sorry for your loss...

Sounds like an over-rev scenario. Did you money shift?

C.

 

This is horrible.

 

Try and find out what happened. It may help someone else in the future. It does seem odd though.

 

My condolences. Have you checked the valves for damage? How about the spark plugs? I fried my old 944 when a spark plug's porcelain insulation broke and dropped into the combustion chamber (unbeknownst to me)... the piston looked kinda like yours only worse.

 

Valves and plugs looked fine -- though I might have to go and do a closer inspection. In fact, I'm hoping to do full autopsy this weekend, since the rest of the engine is out of the car.

 

Just a stab in the dark here, but could it be fuel managment related? Lean run condition?

 

how much for the whole "s3" car?

 

That's a worthwhile check. And a condition like that could certainly cause this.

C.

 

That sucks to hear Joe, I too am interested to find out what caused this.

The only way I'd track one of these cars is after Laust completed his non-interference mod... it's just peace of mind.

 

Looks like one realy nice car. Sorry this happened. Please let someone save this one, it is such a pretty and rare colar.

 

what about a super-rich condition? like, the gasoline washing the oil off of the cylinder walls?

 

Joe - sorry to hear the news. Having grenaded two 968 engines last season, I have much empathy for you.

Not sure why you don't want to rebuild when you have a spare. In fact, I thought that you had more 968 engines than me At the moment I'm down to two good, two not so good. Hoping to make one killer engine from the two not so good engines.

 

I'm at 3 good engines, and one bad now. And the thought of over-boring the bad one did cross my mind....

And I thought hard about rebuilding the car, but I just don't have time to wrench anymore -- right now, I need to focus on my young family more than cars. Plus, the entire drive-train is out of the car - if I'm going to let the car go, this is a good time.

Now if I only a two or three Porsche, maybe I'd rebuild it -- but I have 4 other running Porsche's to look after already!
Thanks -- but the car only looks good from far away and after you had a few drinks. Every panel has either faded paint, a dent or two, or otherwise screwed up. Perfect body for a track car.

 

So where are you located in socal?

That sucks that you lost the engine, but you did have V2 helping you...