Cyberpunky

I have come to conclusion that I must have blown head gasket. How hard a job is it and what will i need besides the HG ? should I go cometic ?
Thanks in advance

mtnman82

Not too bad if you're handy and have done stuff like the belts before. Biggest pain for me was to clean the old gasket off the block. If I had fresh surfaces I might have tried a cometic, but decided to play it safe with a WF as they seem to be a bit more forgiving. Then since I had the head off I decided to have it freshened up, and then since it was in the shop decided to have it ported, ... I bought a kit which included the head gasket and a bunch of the other little stuff you need.

refresh951

I used Tom's write-up the first time I did the head gasket and found it very helpful:

http://members.rennlist.com/tom86951/headgasket.htm

IIRC it took me about 20 hrs the first time I did it. I would recommend the stock head gasket in your case.

Cyberpunky

OK cool 944 online have a wide fire kit on ebay but not sure if that is a good price. I would rather buy a kit as I would hate to have it apart and then find I didn't order something I need, as being down under extra parts can take some time to arrive. I havent done belts before and if I need to do belts for this job I might not tackle it.

Dougs951S

HG at shop = $$$. Just buy the tools you need and do it yourself, it'll be a learning experience. Anywho, not hard. If a clutch job is 10, a HG is like a 4 in my opinion in terms of difficulty and how long it will take you.

hp18racer

You can save a lot of time by what you choose to not take apart. Leave the fuel rail in the intake. Leave as much of the boost hoses together as you can. Leave the headers attached to the head. A center punch helps to line the header bolt holes back up to the crossover when it goes back on. A segment of a 13 mm curved wrench on top + an impact with universal joints from underneath makes quick work of getting the header to crossover bolts out. Leave the plug wires attached to the distributor and you will get them back on in the right order every time. With no dust cover the distributor is easier to take off by unbolting the housing rather than taking the distributor off on its own. You will want a long alan to get the bolts out of the cam box, a magnet tool helps to pull them if you drop them.

Black51

Seeing as how the head and cam hosing need to be removed to change the HG, yes, you need to remove the timing belt off the cam sprocket.

fejjj

Thank you for taking the time to share all of this!!

Paulyy

no need for a wide fire or MLS

Cyberpunky

Shawn that right up from Tom puts it into perspective and I think I can cope with most of it although tensioning belts still worries me a bit. If I can get enough of a break from work I might just tackle it myself.
Hp18 thanks for the tips, which may save a bit of time and simplify the process. I don't have a workshop and so no impact driver so I hope I don't have any issues getting some of the stuff off. Most stuff has been off in last 1-2 years so fingers crossed

Dougs951S

No air? No problem! Here's your "impact driver"

Cyberpunky

lol Doug, that I have

Paulyy

you don't need an impact driver. Sometimes they do more harm than good.

If using an impact driver, it is very important you use an impact socket. (flats on the inside, not jagged) so you don't round nuts/bolts.

jmj951

Your first time, it's a big pain, a bit complicated, but it does not require any specialized knowledge that you don't quickly find in the forums.

Don't worry at all about tensioning the belts. The twist method works very well. I originally tensioned mine using only the twist method, then later bought a tensioning gauge and found it to be spot on. The advice from hp18racer is excellent. I wish I'd known all of that when I first did mine back in 2008. As everyone has said, use the stock gasket.

A quick rundown of the special tools you will need:
1) LONG Alan head socket for the cam cover bolts - can't remember the size and it's not here with me
2) Slim wrench for the timing belt roller (because you manually tension the '86 timing belt using the eccentric-mounted roller)

Honestly, that's all I had to buy. I assume you have access to a torque wrench, or can rent one from a parts store. Optionally, you could also buy the following:
3) Flywheel lock - installs in place of the starter
4) Tensioner tool

Items 2, 3 and 4 can all be purchased from http://www.arnnworx.com/. Select 944 tools, and you can also access a really long list of DIY articles for the 944 on the right side.

Although it's also a good time to replace the rollers and the water pump and have work done to the cylinder head, I recommend you leave them alone for now. You want to keep this job as simple as possible for now. It's easy enough to remove the intake and other stuff later on to go back and do all of the 'while you're in there' stuff that people normally do with a big job.

BTW, how did you determine that you have a bad headgasket? Just want to make sure, because sometimes when people think they have a failing headgasket, it's actually a failure in the oil filter housing seals (allowing oil and coolant to mix, but not actually burning any oil or coolant) or possibly the turbo seals (leaking coolant into the intake or exhaust and producing white smoke from the exhaust, which many people assume is from a headgasket leaking coolant into the cylinder). Are you seeing oil and water mixing in the coolant tank?

Cyberpunky

Why I am thinking HG is this all started when Tial was on backwards at car was over boosting to about 20#. Was very random break up and sputtering back then, but has got much worse since. Even when WG was fitted correctly could not get more than 6# boost
The coolant has got darker from pink to dark crimson/red.Slight coolant leak under intake but not from temp sensors. No milkshake. Car wont rev beyond 4000, max boost is bout 4-6 #. Can't put boot in at all, so only goes if gentle with throttle.

Have replaced TPS, fitted new TPS plug. Throttle body rebuilt. New speed and ref sensors, and harness. New injector harness. New plugs, leads rotor, cap, and coil. New FPR, new ECU(rogue) new MAF M tune, replacing AFM, new injectors, new fuel rail, new AOS line and venturi delete, new vacuum lines and Laust vacuum manifold. New Cat. New DME relay. New DME temp sensor. Probably more but you get the idea. I knew a lot of what I fitted may not solve hesitation but decided to replace anyway as was off chance one of them was issue and was intending to upgrade/replace anyway.