Elliot9

Figured I'd start a "build" thread as it might get me more motivated to work on the car in the little free time I have. I'm somewhat new here, my name is Elliot I'm 20 and I live in the Bay Area of CA. I have a totally stock 1985 944. I intend to keep it somewhat stock for the time being but there are some things I'd like to do to spruce up the interior I suppose. I plan on doing everything myself except maybe some transmission work as I don't have much experience there yet. I bought the car for an awesome deal (paid about a third of what it's really worth where I live) with 82,500 miles on it about a month and a half ago, it just hit 82,700 today. Just figured I'd share, maybe someone would have some thoughts or advice or be interested in what I've gotten myself into this time...

Here's the car in my garage, it isn't much so please don't expect a lot:

Izzy Does It

Congrats Elliot. You own a super cool 944 and live near the PCH. What's not to like? I own a black 90 cabrio - she's a weekend warrior; however, I really like the 944/1s and 944/2s. I'd love to own one and make her my daily driver. Looking forward to your build. BTW, I spy the an engine hoist in the garage. A man after my own heart.

Elliot9

Yeah I've had that hoist ever since I swapped a Toyota race engine into my MK1 MR2 but I wont be swapping the Porsche, the engine oil goes 3,000 miles and comes out looking brand new so I have no need to replace it or even think about a rebuild.

manydubs

Those seats look nice.

Nice ride!

Elliot9

Thanks manydubs.

I ordered the late model water pump and kit today as well as a timing belt and all the accessory belts for the car so hopefully I'll have that all changed out in a week or so. Pelican was really helpful, thanks to those who recomended them in my other thread.

Izzy Does It

Hey Elliot,

It's not my intention to hijack your build thread. I will be starting one of my own soon enough. Here's mine. It's a work in progress.

Elliot9

Awesome dude, start a thread about it and get some more pictures up. I'm interested to see what you do to it.

Izzy Does It

I have a long to-do list. I think I'll put it all on an excel spreadsheet, so I can keep track of things. What I really like about yours is the dash layout. Mine is the "newer" type. It's okay mind you but I like the dial-look. One thing is for sure; this is going to take a while.

Elliot9

Drove the car to my shop at school today to get ready to start on the water pump and timing belt. Had an interesting thing happen on the freeway though: in 5th gear at 65mhp the car started bucking, almost like the diff was locking up and unlocking rapidly. It was totally random in sequence too, it would happen for a couple seconds then be fine for a mile then do it a bunch of times in a row. There's a faint cluncking noise coming from the rear, the car still drives it just freaks out randomly. I'm thinking its an axle so I'll just replace them both...but maybe it's not, anyone else have that experience before? I guess the transmission or diff could be done for, which just gives me an excuse to swap in the 968 6 speed box.

Elliot9

Water pump and timing belt are coming along nicely, the whole front end of the engine is disassembled right now. Unfortunatly I discovered whoever repaired the car before I purchased it never put in a thermostat...I'm praying the block doesn't have hot spots in it but I know these cast iron blocks are pretty bullet proof so it's not worth pulling it and tearing it apart unless I notice it has a problem. Pelican Parts has been awesome and have really helped me out a lot including rushing me a block off plate for the Turbo water pump when I didn't realize I needed one when I originally ordered my pump. The belts were pretty damn loose at full tension so I'm glad I'm changing them out, the car will hopefully run a little smoother since the cam timing will be more on target. I also discovered I had my A/C and Alternator belt rubbing on my upper radiator hose so I replaced both the lower and upper hoses since they were cheap and the cooling system was already apart. Also found out my coil had an insane amount of corrosion in it, so much that the coil wire actually snapped inside the ignition coil housing, so I ordered new wires, plugs, and a coil. This has turned into a full on tune up and has cost about 3 times what I originally thought but I know it will be worth it since the car is going to run really nicely when everythings done under the hood and I figure out what's going on at the rear end (hopefully it's something relatively cheap...I'm running out of funds haha).

Elliot9

Ok, thanks for that bit of information. The fact it clunks from the rear in lower gears while off throttle makes me think it's probably an axle but I'll know for sure once the water pumps done. The suspension and transmission teacher at my school said we will put it on the dyno when it's done and see if we can pin point the issue with the rear end then replace whatever is broken.

Izzy Does It

Elliot, I'm glad to hear that the944 is coming along. I have to change the belts on my 944 too, but it will have to wait until I finish installing new cam tensioner pads on the S2. I will be posting a DIY with photos. It wasn't without adventure. More on that later. Hey, post some pics.

Elliot9

Since the car is at my school I don't have access to a camera unless I take one with me (I don't have one of those fancy phones with a camera) but if I get a chance to take some I will.

Elliot9

Water pump went in today with new gaskets and all. The new upper and lower radiator hoses were installed and I filled the system up with coolant and pressure tested the whole system. No leaks, so the belts, rollers, and other bits will be installed starting Thursday. Also got the new coil and wires on today while I was waiting for a pair of bolts to come in for my block off plate. It's getting there...

Elliot9

Got the car completely back together, running open headers right now so it's super loud. I drove it about 5 miles and noticed something was wrong: it sounded like I had a supercharger on my car... I figured it was just all the new belts breaking in and maybe they'd need a little bit of adjustment (I tend to tension belts really really tight). Poked my head under the car and what did I see? A lovely stream of oil pouring out of the front of my engine. Not just a few drips, we're talking a pretty steady flow... It appears to be coming from the lower balance shaft front seal, so I was kind of mad I was going to have to pull everything back apart to replace it. I pulled the timing cover off and low and behold... My brand new timing belt is hanging on by threads. Somehow it gouged itself into the rear timng cover right below where it goes around the Cam sprocket. I have no idea how this happened but obviously it needs to be fixed. So the cars down for a little while more...sucks but that's life.