loftygoals

My wife and I have a friend that's a great lady. Her day job is as my wife's secretary. She also runs a dog rescue program that is zapping her financially, emotionally, and physically. A couple of months ago her car caught fire while driving home. So now she's without a car and generally down on her luck. So, my wife and I decided to do something nice for her and buy her a car. We couldn't spend a lot, but we wanted something nice. So when a non-running 924S popped up on Craigslist for a grand I jumped at it.



The body was strait with only a couple of dings. The cars hadn't moved in three years and the paint shows it. Though, the paint will clean up great with a little hard work. The interior had been redone not too long before it was parked.

I have a lot of spares from my 944 race car, so I decided to do some upgrades while I was going through the car. Here the list:

• Replace shocks with KYB replacements
• New control arms
• New stock front CA bushings and Welt reds for the rear of the CA
• New tie rod ends
• 25.5mm hallow front swaybar, 18mm rear swaybar
• Derlin bushing for front and rear swaybar mounts (with KLA mounts in rear)
• Front swabar reinforcements
• New plugs
• New wires (spares from race car)
• New injectors
• New thermostat
• New cap and rotor
• Repair front seats
• Dash cap
• Replace all fluids
• New FPR
• New fuel filter
• Drain tank and clean tank screen
• Convert sunroof to manual
• Have windows re-tinted
• Service transmission (this is the only bad thing about the car--it's an auto )
• Throttle Cam
• New intake (stock box was missing)
• Timing belts
• New Battery
• New Vacuum hose

Here's the car when I finished stripping is down:








The motor was a mess. I found wasp nests, chewed on wiring, mice crap, and more.

It started like this:



But now looks like this:




Problems:
After getting the motor back together, it almost started. I had good fuel pressure, spark, tach was bouncing, 5 bars of oil pressure--the whole deal. The motor just seemed to have a hard time turning. I had noticed it was hard to turn when I was doing the belts, but figured it was because it was sitting for 3 years.

The starter sounded really tired, so I decided to throw on the new "Hi Torque" unit I got from the group buy here on Rennlist. With the new starter on, the motor turned easily when cranked or by hand. I had a new problem though--lack of spark, fuel, and a non-moving tach.

I assumed an electrical problem, so I went digging through the wiring. I found a short between the ignition switch and the main electrical panel. I replaced the wire and was now getting consistent voltage and next to no resistance to pin 4 on the DME and the starter when the key was turned to the start position.

So I went looking at other wiring. Here's what I checked:

• 12V on DME pins 18 & 35
• DME pins 8 to 27 - 1080 ohms
• DME pins 25 to 26 - 1040 ohms
• 12v to black lead on ignition coil with key in run
• Tested continuity on green wire on coil to DME
• Removed DME relay and used a jumper between pins 30, 87, and 87b
• 12v to injectors
• Continuity of all spark plug wires and lead from coil

Everything here looked good, so I turned my attention to the coil. It tested good on the bench, but I replaced it with the one from the race car anyway. Still nothing.

Since I don't have an oscilloscope, I swapped the speed and reference sensors from the race car to the 924S. Still no joy.

I thought maybe the ECU was bad, so I swapped the ECU and AFM (the 944 is an early car) from the race car. Still nada.

The only thing I haven't done is regap the speed and reference sensors. I've pulled the intake back off and moved the heater core valve to give me more access, but I can't get anything big enough in there to loosen the 6mm allen bolts.

Anyone have any tips for removing these bolts? Or does anyone have any other suggestions on what to look at?

Thanks,
-bj

LiveFromNY

I can't help you on the tech question but just wanted to say well done. That's a very cool thing you're doing. Hope the karma comes right back at you.

luftpirate

Karma has certainly come around for this lady! Good luck with the no start. Nice project.

dillon410021

or at the worst case scenario, could the engine have been overheated and is now rough and wont turn fast.

"just a stupid guess", so don't give me **** for it later!

FabilichuS

Man that was a pretty cool uppgrade on the engien What type of paint did you use on the blue parts, and will it hold years of use ? (heat)

whalebird

Do you have fuel pressure after all this? I mean right now, no jumpers, all things like it should be. I can't remember exactly, but an automatic has a shifter cut-out(probley won't let the starter turn, but still a brake pedal switch, etc) Another good practice is to make sure all the fuses are making good contact. On an older car, I recommend replacing all the fuses with new, as per the fuse chart in the owners manual. I suppose there is no aftermarket (or factory) alarm.
Keep us posted.

Year? milage?

carlege

check your connections with the starter. Sounds like maybe something happened when you connected it up

loftygoals

I don't know the history on the car, but I don't believe that's the case. Check compression before I bought the car and it was good on all cylinders.

It's Dupli-Color Engine Enamel in Ford Blue. It is specific made for engine parts, so it should hold up well. This particular paint is rated up to 500 degrees. They make higher temperature colors for headers and such.

I usually clean the parts in a parts washer, then scrub them with a wire wheel, wire brush, and/or plastic brush, rinse in the parts washer, the wipe down with rubbing alcohol. Then I preheat the parts to 200 degrees. I apply 3 coasts returning to the oven for 10-15 minutes between coats. After the final coat I cure for 90 minutes at 400 degrees.

The cleaning and preheating processes are important. With the parts clean and warm, the paint bonds a lot better.

Maybe the motor is bad at me for painting it in Ford Blue. Maybe I should repaint everything and try it again.

Yes, I have fuel pressure. The gauge that's on the fuel rail in the picture is still attached. I borrowed it from the race car until I can get this all figured out.

Based on the codes in the hatch and the lack of evidence, I don't believe an alarm was ever installed. I don't even think these cars had a lock out that requires you to step on the brake to start or shift from park.

Oh, its a 1987 with ~135k.

Starter work fine. I've verified all the wiring.

The only thing I can figure is that the old starter was wedge in at an angle. This raised the flywheel just enough for the speed and reference sensors to read it. When I installed the new starter, that pressure was removed and thus the sensors can't read the flywheel any longer.

Honestly, this theory doesn't sit well with me. The starter shouldn't be able to shift the flywheel, so I don't really buy this.

Thanks for the replies!

-bj

GTSilver944

Tach bounce? Check the speed and reference connections at the back of the intake. Make sure the wires aren't swapped. Clark's has a diagram that shows which is which.

thirdgenbird

wow, looks like the list of things ive done, or have planned for my 924s

i am still debating a manual sunroof, but i do have a manual steering rack...

eye candy/motivation:





keep us updated!!

loftygoals

Nope the tach doesn't bounce. (It did when I was first trying to start the motor, though.) I verified the sensors are in the correct plugs & holes and tested the wiring all the way back to the DME.

My newest theory is that as these sensors age, they loose their ability to detect changes in the magnetic field. I'm betting that the gap from the sensors to the flywheel is smaller on my 944 than this 924S. That would explain why all of my 20+ year old sensors work in the 944 and not the 924S. If I could get the bracket to adjust on the 924S, I'm sure I could get these old sensors to work. But, since I don't think I'm going to be able to break the bolts free without pulling the engine, I think I'm going to order some brand new sensors. I think new sensors should tolerate the gap better. Hopefully Paragon can get them to me quickly.

Thanks,
-bj

FabilichuS

New sensors is not a fun thing to buy.... When I did the clutch mine broke like 1mm ice falling on the ground tho... Getting my gap adjust tool from antworks this week tho will be cool to have the gap 100% right.

whalebird

So...you've got fuel(to the rail). Good. Now how about fire?

M758

BJ,
You should be able to get to the sensor mounting bracket. I could be too big of a gap. I have been chasing some electrical issues on my 944 race car and I reciently move my sensors. It was a recient rebuild to no corrosion to worry about. Still getting to those bolts can be tough, but you still need to try. I can be done with the motor in. The best way may be a standard L shaped allen wrench and then use some box end wrench to act as lever on the end allen. This can give you 8-10" more wrench length and better leverage.

You can also try to get caliper down in the hole and check the distance. The gap to the starter ring should be 0.8 mm. Just measure the distance down to the starter gear and then the length of the sensor.

loftygoals

Great post Joe! Thanks for the help. I didn't think about measuring the gap as you suggested. That should be an easy way to check.

I can get a standard "L" shaped allen key on both with no problem. On the adjustment bolt, I have even tried using a jack handle over the end. I'm bending the allen wrench and the bolt won't budge. On the lower locking bolt, the angle isn't right to put anything over the end. I've used the jack handle to press down on the end, but still can't get it to budge. I've tried whacking the bar with a hammer, too. All that is doing is rounding the bolt.

The thing is, I did have fuel, spark, and a bouncing tach at one point. It just stopped. While the gap may be over .8 in, the gap didn't change. Something else must have changed. My guess is that all these sensors are just too weak to get a reading over whatever gap is there. I've got Jason at Paragon sending me two new sensors, so we'll know soon enough if that's the issue.

-bj