reno928s

Awhile back I had 87 Turbo and a mechanic was going to change the front seals on my car. He told me that it's the same set up as the 928 and that the 928 has two seals in certain problem areas, and that you can use that set up on the 944 turbo. He installed the same seals that are called for the 928, and I have to admit after having it done twice within two years I never had another front seal leak for 5 yrs. My question is does anyone know exactly what seals are the same and has anyone done this upgrade to their car? Thanks in advance, Reno

Danno

The 928 and 944NA (up to '84) can use the same camshaft and crankshaft seals. The 944NA '85+ and 951s uses a different crank seal. Problem comes in when a mechanic wasn't aware of the changes between '84 -> '85. He might end up just assuming outright that 944NA and 951 crankseals are all the same. He might end up using an early-944NA seal on a 951.

Also the seals for the balance shafts are only used on the 944/951. The issue here is that the two balance-shaft seals differ in size by only 1mm on the ID. So it's possible when replacing the front seals to get these two reversed and end up with leaks. Or in a lot of shops where seals are stored in bulk bins, it's easy for a mechanic to just grab two identical seals and you end up with one that's correct and one that'll leak.

Another common problem is that the early 944NA and late 944NA/951 balance-shafts sprocket orientation is different. I've seen mechanics who use the early orientation on the later cars and end up with one balance-shaft out-of-phase by 180-degrees leading to more severe vibrations than no balance-shafts at all.

reno928s

Thanks, Danno

cruise98

In addition to what Danno said, the camshaft seal and spacer were updated to 928 parts. Previously, the upper balance shaft and cam seals/spacers were the same parts.