Mister Quickie

I bought a rod bearing kit from 944online (oil pan gasket, nuts, rod bearings).

How do I know when the old ones are at their end and time for a replacement?

Also it didn't come with an instructional guide like the only944 parts do and I couldn't find anything with pictures online. Anyone know of a good tutorial?

1986 951

wildcat077

Clarks Garage has detailed info on how to ... you can download it in PDF and print it as well !

Cheers
Phil

Techno Duck

Two schools of thought on this.

Do you track your car or is it street miles only? What mileage is on the motor?

I dont think rod bearing replacement is a bad idea if your pushing 125k+ miles, but for a street driven only car i probably wouldnt bother doing it unless the oil pan gasket was leaking.

If you track the car, i would consider replacing them as part of preventative maintenance depending on mileage.

The only indicators that the bearings are bad are either rod knock (which means its too late), low oil pressure (you probably wont see this until its knocking) or doing oil analysis and developing a trend over time.

https://rennlist.com/forums/944-turb...pictorial.html

goatfarmerdave

Well,it happened to my friend today.Less than 10k km on a total rebuild.Car was running mint,then bam! without warning…no oil pressure and a horrible clackityclack sound.He's not a happy camper with the rebuild done not long ago….I guess when it's your time,it's your time…no warning

ASAP944

You might want to do your motor mounts while you have the front end apart!!

Van

I'm a big fan of oil analysis. It alerted me to this and I pulled it out just in time.

raleighBahn

Any preferred companies for sending to? Might be a good annual thing to do.

V2Rocket

Anybody done an oilpan gasket by just lifting the engine up high and not pulling the x-member?

tommyt73

If the car has been tracked, I have a number of knowledgeable folks who recommend changing the rod bearings every 40 track hours. In particular, the #3 bearing oiler is awkwardly designed to throw oil in the proper direction. As a result, that's the least well-oiled of the four. For a street car, I wouldn't bother until after 100k.

Arominus

When i doubt, just do it. Its easy and well worth the piece of mind.

Dimi 944

Van,

Do you send it to a lab or you inspect it yourself?

Van

I bet if you take the radiator out, slide the engine forward of the torque tube, disconnect the wiring harness, then lift the engine up 10 inches so you can clear the oil pickup tube, you could do the pan gasket. But, if you're going to lift the engine up 10", you might as well take it all the way out.

Or you can drop the crossmember.


I use Blackstone Labs.

Mister Quickie

I don't track it but the PO did. 178,000 miles

jeffrsmith

Obviously you are concerned with this, you should go ahead and change them. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing.

PorscheDoc

I do them every 30 hours on our race cars. Street car, 140k is usually the mark I like seeing them done at with experience to pulling them out at various mileage intervals. The rod bearings that have been spun on street cars that I have seen have all been a quart low (or more!) on oil when I checked them after coming into the shop.