carlege

I bought the same kit from ebay maybe 15 months ago Conitech belt with new rollers and its still not installed.

Did you look the belt over and it looked normal? The amount of pissed i will be wont even begin to touch the cost of a kevlar belt.

onspeed

What's the production date stamped on the belt?

944Ross

Buy a Gates, no worries... they are $14 at Pelican

Travis - sflraver

Or a Gates Racing Kevlar belt and remove all doubt...

odurandina

8 thousand dollar cars with the significantly challenging mantenance schedules, "buggy" electrical and cooling issues, and goofy timing systems (see "belt retension"), make 944 ownership a daunting proposition for the novice. i can see the justification $$$$-wise for having someone do the belts. it's all good as long as something doesn't "come up."

you hardly don't notice because like the op, you're a "pro."

you can easily place our cars in the category of "semi-exotic." i'm currently running all "Gates" in my 968.

bonus12

Best questions I've read:

1) What's the production date stamped on the belt?
2) Did you look the belt over and it looked normal?
3) Did you retension the belt during that 10,000 mile period?
4) Did you run a compression check on your motor?

PorscheDoc

Been using contitech belts for year and years, never a failure.

Van

Sorry to hear Mike. I have a spare head kicking around if we need to pull some valves out of it.

I also keep threatening to buy a bore scope... A look inside the cylinders will show if there was piston to valve interference.

V2Rocket

+1 on the to-do list someday...

Mike, considered this at all? IIRC he just cut the valve reliefs a little deeper, it drops compression slightly (to like 7.9 I think he told me) and allows the valves to survive should the belt break..

Josh B

I've got three turbo intake valves for $15 plus shipping...

robert944h

Same here. Few questions.

What tool did you use to check tension with
Did you retension after run in period
Check the studs that the rollers ride on and make sure they are not bent

Dean924s

I had the same thing happen to me last week.

Short version. (well not really)

Friday of the previous week it was really cold. Car started but died about 10 second later and would not re fire. I smelled fuel and I thought it was flooded and took my wife's car. Saturday I did a compression test and all cylinders were low. About 80 psi. I added some oil to the cylinders and they came up to about 130. I got the car running but it was really soggy feeling. I plugged in my laptop to the MJLJr so i could see the MAP and it was very low (50KPA at idle). Normally it should be at between 10 and 20 KPA.

Thinking I had a huge vacuum leak I then removed all the vacuum lines and plugged the hole sin the J boot and there was not change.

With a sinking feeling I had to check the timing of the motor. I put a dowel in the #1 cylinder and brought it to TDC. No mark in the cam tower hole. I cranked it over another 360 deg and again no mark. as I was turning the motor over for the third time all of a sudden the cam and belt stopped moving and I watched as the teeth on the crank spit out the little rubber bits that was my timing belt. Needless to say I was annoyed at this point. However I was also hopeful that my valves were intact.


I got it apart yesterday and found that there was one missing tooth on the belt and then there was two areas close together where 6-7 teeth had come off. The belt is a conti. I had replaced it about 2 years and 30K miles back. I did all the re tensioning etc. I tend to inspect the belts quite often. I run with the upper cover off so I can visually inspect the belt easily.

I have taken the cam tower off and put a strait edge to the valves and all is good so. Since I am doing the belt I also figured I would do the cam tower gasket and the cork one at the rear as both had developed small leaks in the last couple months.

My problem is a far cry from a new belt failing but it did fall short of the expected service life. The good is that if all goes well I will have it back together by the end of today.

JohnKoaWood

Studs that the rollers ride on?

AFAIK ALL 944 engines are flat tappet direct cam on lifter design... no rollers (rocker arms) included.

ernie9468

Same here, in fact for 27 years , and don't think the belt letting go has anything to do with the brand (either Conti _Gates or otherwise) it could be that the E-BAY supplier is selling timing belts which has been laying on the shelves for years ,probably got them for peanuts & is passing those junk belts to peoples who want to save a couple of bucks on maintenance.Personnaly I always bougth my timing & balance shafts belt -roller kit from trusty supplier & it paid off even if I had to pay a couple of dollars more.Still no fun what happen to the the OP & hope he hasn't got bend valves.

944V8inDFW

One thing i have noticed buying eBay parts for a couple unusual cars I own is just because the part is stamped a name brand it my not be. I have bought parts more than once that were obviously China knock off parts.

Case in point I bought a Gates 4 rib Gatorback serp belt off eBay because my local parts store couldn’t get one for about 10 days. Go one off eBay in 3. Once I got it and was very obvious it was a poorly made Chinese knockoff . Lettering was badly stamped on the belt and I swear I could stretch it by had more than a inch. Lesson learned. Bought the generic at AutoZone waited for a Gaterback.

Moral of the story it is easy to change cheap knock off parts into premium parts with a little stamping and packaging. If the price is too good to be true, it just may be. Namely when you are doing business with someone on eBay that is 10 states away