Tom M'Guinn

You say the head bolt had to be broken to get off? Have you seen it? These cars actually have studs, rather than bolts. Unless the mechanic was trying to remove the studs, I'd say its highly unusual for the stud to break with removing the nuts on top -- I'm sure it is possible, but not a commom thing. Removing the studs can be a labor intensive job, especially if one of the studs is broken! If one breaks low in the block, it'll take a machine shop's help to remove. At any rate, I would not replace the selectively -- replace them all if you are going to replace them.

Monte951

fuel lines seem good as of now. when i go to start the car when we're done however... who knows.

choinga

come on man, you bought a 951. Unless you just like blowing money (in which case, send some to me...) learn how to work on this thing. Half that stuff you could do by yourself and probably doesn't need to be done immediately anyway. Yeah, it's great 'while your in there' type stuff - but hardly think that all of that needs to be done.

In all seriousness though, you're about to embark on a very expensive journey if you're not going to get comfortable taking your intake off and re-routing some vacuum lines and replacing hoses, doing oil and gear lube changes, etc...

I had never worked on a car before...in my life...I work on computers for a living and within the last 9 months I've done a massive amount of work on my car. I had to have the head gasket replaced and wasn't comfortable doing that (I had only had the car 3 months when that happened) and had my shop do that and replace the belt/water pump while he had the head off.

Since then, I've done just about everything on that list - and then some, including pulling the stock airbox and j-pipe out and installing a Vitesse MAF and piggyback and a Tial wastegate.

I know there are others on this forum in the NC area - meet up with them...lend them a hand and I'm sure they will do the same. Your reward will be you will learn how to work on your own car and you'll save an assload of money.

manticore33

Just be careful and do not get too over zealous on replacing parts that do not immediately need replacing. After buying many used cars with issues to fix up (I am gluttonous for pain) and starting to do "I would like to replace that because..." only to have something more major and expensive fail sidelining the project. Which, if are you trying to be budget conscious, is frustrating. What good are all of these "new parts" if the car won't start and is not drivable? Given that, I normally do a several month and mile shakedown to figure out the major issues and work backward to the smaller issues. Oh yes, catching everything up on an older car all at once is extremely time consuming and very, very expensive (not to mention the loss opportunity to buy good used parts). Just remember, any car will be as expensive as you make it.

Monte951

Loving the feedback! For one, I will be doing all the work to the car with the exception of the timing belt water pump and head replacement. I am sure i can handel such a job but i would only do it if i had an experienced person holding my hand the first time. Otherwise the harness and wheel bearings and tranny mount will be dome by me and the engine mount i may tackle but it seems like a simple job for my mechanic who has tools galore. Believe me i bought this car with intentions of getting dirty and i already have my eye on a tial wastgate and a few other mods. My list may seem long and unnessecary but the parts i need are due to parts that failed while the head was being taken off. (A job i would have tried if i hadn't rounded off a few bolt heads in the cam tower of a previous 85.5 NA 944)! Most of the hoses have cracks and splits and the cycling valve just snapped in half. This is a car that runs really hot by its design and happens to be 20 years old and have 240,000 miles or better on her. Rubber $hits gonna break! LoL! This project started on a well running car with an exhaust leak and no history on maintenence, I think i'm within reason here... God i love this fourm!