1987 Porsche 944S - Wheel repair!

Thanks!

Yeah, the S still has the AFM. I do believe the S2 as well, but the Turbo had the MAF, as far as I know. I know there's some guy who makes retrofit kits for a modern-ish MAF for these cars - sadly none for the S. The hesitation on mine seems to be all but gone now with the new fuel filter, though, so I think my AFM is still good enough.

I am a bit hesitant to open it, as it's a slightly different part than in the other 944 on the S and the other ones don't fit. Finding another good one for an S seems like a daunting task, should I break it while opening it, so I'm saving that for a last resort.

Hey I saw you last night on Gladbacher Strasse in Köln. The 944 looked amazing under the street lights.

So in October, first I met up with a friend and his V70R daily for a drive.












Then a week later it was time for another drive through the Eifel. My friend with the Volvo was there as well, but he brought his black 968 instead. In total it was 11 Transaxle Porsches (four 924s with even a Carrera GT, six 944s and one 968), three 911s, a MX5 and a Galant VR4.
































A friend even caught me zipping around a corner:




And once again you can see the ride on youtube:



Sadly this day was not entirely trouble free.

My car started squealing really loudly - it later turned out that one of bolts of the belt tensioner for the belt that goes to the generator got loose and fell out, so the tensioner just kind of... hung there. And on the way home there was suddenly a 'bang' and the exhaust got louder all of a sudden. I quickly discovered that the exhaust test pipe (which is a tiny tube going from just behind the Cat to the top of the engine bay so you can connect some smog testing equipment to it) ripped off.

Not in the mood to deal with it, I simply parked the car up until March. That's when a load of work began.

My workload said:

- Timing belt and balancing belt along with all new rollers
- guides for the timing chain
- various seals on the front of the engine
- auxiliary belts
- waterpump & thermosthat
- exhaust test pipe

Of course the job wouldn't be complete without finding other things that needed replacing which ended up being a power steering hose, some other hoses for the cooling system. I also discovered that one of the balancing shafts was off by 1 tooth. The timing belt tensioner was also only fastened with 2 instead of 3 nuts like it's supposed to.









Here you can see the timing chain which the Porsche 16vs have in addition to the timing belt, to drive the second camshaft which the 8vs don't have.





Replaced all the seals on both balancing shafts and also the seal on the crankshaft.

New belts and rollers on.



Time to swap the timing chain guides. They looked better than expected, but are still the most widespread reason for real failures on this engine so I'd rather have fresh ones in.








All buttoned up... well, nearly



And ready to go...




But wait, what's that? After a quick spin up the road, I discovered a puddle underneath the car. It seems the power steering pump had a crack.






For anyone who might stumble upon this: The 944S is the only 944 to have a special power steering pump. It has a sensor that is supposed to adjust idle rpms when going past a certain amount of lock, likely for parking purposes. It's pretty likely that this sensor no longer works on any 944S. In fact, Porsche even apparently gave out instructions to disconnect the sensor as it's a fire hazard as it does not have a fuse. In fact, the cables on mine were a bit burnt.

The bad news is that a specific 944S power steering pump is basically impossible to come by - allegedly RosePassion still carries them for like ~1500€. Luckily, you can just swap it out for a normal 944 power steering pump. Mine kost me ~120€.

Quickly ordered and replaced and since then the car has been working pretty well... except for the end of May. That's when this happened:










I couldn't shift it anymore. I had thought the bolt holding the shift linkage to the actual shifter on the transmission snapped, but it turns out the two bolts holding the gear stick to the torque tube came undone and so you could not exert any force on the shift linkage. Was a quick fix and I even got to adjust the shift linkage a bit so it feels a bit smoother now.

Oh, and then... these showed up:









My current phone dials are 7 x 15 ET52,3 all around, but I had always wanted to get some bigger ones. So I finally managed to source a set from a late model 944 Turbo in 7 / 8 x 16 ET52,3. They need new paint but are otherwise in good nick. Can't wait to see them on the car, but will likely take my time with these.

And that's it so far. I've actually been using the 944 more than my supposed daily ('10 Mondeo) during the nicer months of the year and couldn't be happier with the car. Of course it had a few issues, but it's an old car. Largely it's been pretty reliable and a very good car.

Thanks!

Nah, while I used to shoot a lot of film, it's been quite a while since I shot any. I used a Canon EOS 5D2 up until last year. Then I sold all my Canon gear and made the switch to Fuji and now own a Fuji X-T2.

In fact, have some fresh shots from today:











And yeah, I'm really looking forward to it with the 16s on. However, I'm planning on doing some suspension upgrades at the same time, so it'll be some time before it happens as I'll gather the parts first.

What's the eta on those 16" Teledials getting refurbed?

toffee wheel or caramel wheel are the most common !

Good news, everyone!

A mate recommended a good painter and I went by there a few weeks ago. They were pretty excited to get to work on such a old car because it's quite different from their usual day-to-day. They took their time in matching the color and sprayed a few test panels and then I dropped the car off on thursday and it was done on friday. Picked it up today in the morning and what can I say - very fair pricing and a brilliant finish. The paint is spot on. I'm really happy with the outcome.

Will let it fully cure for the next two weeks then apply the remaining stone chip vinyl on the fender.










Next up on the list: Today I received some different transmission oil which I'll put in as soon as I find some time to do it. The one in the car currently is some Castrol synthethic transaxle oil which I put in back when I did the clutch but the transmission got pretty loud with it. Some other 944 drivers have reported the same and some have said a switch to Motul SAE80W90 mineral oil has quietened their transmissions down a lot. So I'll try this. In the long run I'm keeping an eye out for a second transmission with a LSD, but it's not a priority.

sorted sorry great post

A short while after my last update I gave the exhaust a lick of fresh paint, as it was looking rather tired.



Then it was time for one last run in 2021 and then the car got packed away over winter.



In April I got it back out, gave it a good clean inside and out.











And then I went to Dortmund, an hour's drive away, to have the car dyno'ed at Halle77. For those who don't know, Halle77 is run by Marco Degenhardt, a guy who deals with retro cars. They have a Youtube channel that's pretty well known here in Germany and every friday they do dyno runs that are then shown on youtube.







Here's the video of the run, along a few minutes of talking about the car, in German though.


The measured power is a bit disappointing, as it only made 163hp instead of the 190 it should have. I think I know what's the issue, though, as I never bothered to fine adjust the timing after the timing belt change. The 16 valve 944s have an adjustable cam wheel, so that's likely the cause of the power loss. I'll see about sorting that shortly.