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Since last posting quite a lot has happened, the rear axle assembly has been removed, cleaned up, painted and the mounting points cleared of surface rust and given treatment to keep things nice and healthy. Once this was all re-attached the engine was removed due to an oil blockage where the air/oil separator drains into the sump leaving the canister filled with oil and being sucked up by the breather hose leaving oil all over the throttle body and ending up in the airbox.
The pictures aren't terribly thorough at this point as it's work that generally requires having oil and dirty absolutely everywhere from an engine that had turned black from dirt and oil both inside and out! Whilst the engine was out I discovered that there were a few leaks around the engine from oil seals for the cam, crank and balance shafts so new seals and top hats were ordered for all and everything was resealed and rebuilt.
Signs of oil leaking from lower balance shaft seal
Rear balance shaft seal having seen better days
New oil cooler, water pump and shaft seals
New rear main seal fitted
Engine after new seals, rear timing belt cover, sump gasket refitted and blockage removed. Also note the new coolant rail replacing the old corroded item.
New belts and rollers were also fitted. Water pump was deemed to be good to use until next belt replacement.
While the engine was out I discovered that the clutch was of the old 'rubber donut' style and also had little friction material left so this was replaced with a new (although bloody expensive) spring design unit and pressure plate. The clutch release lever bearings were also replaced at this point to ensure a smooth clutch operation.
New engine mounts were also sourced to replace the original tired items which were starting to crack. New on the left, original on the right.
All that (and a few other bits here and there) and we have a complete and much shinier engine once again!
All of that took quite a while as the seals, rear suspension bushes & mounts, timing/balance shaft belts and clutch all cost a considerable amount, as in hovering dangerously close to £1000! Just as well I do it for the love not the money and this car's going to be a keeper.
Once the engine was back in the car I noticed an earthing point was in the wrong place when I got the car, it was instead mounted where the reference sensors should attach to a bracket which was missing. The earth was moved to the correct place and the bracket was sourced from the ever helpful Marc at Porsche Exeter. When the engine was out I had my doubts about the state of the crank sensor which was threatening to fall apart whilst I set the spacing of the bracket against the flywheel, my doubts were confirmed upon starting to crank the engine where I ended up with no spark whatsoever. Enter the spare 944S which lives outside rusting away with half a missing conrod!
Earthing point in the correct place
Dead crank sensor falling apart at the plug
A lot of dismanting, swearing and grazed knuckled and the crank sensor was liberated from the stubborn 16v motor and placed into the accessible 8v (the only time this engine will be called accessible!). After remembering to charge the battery from being a fool and forgetting to do it earlier we had a running 944 again. All seemed to be running rather well, no smoke, getting up to temp, fans kicking in and very little smoke from the exhaust apart from 1 thing. Turns out during all the spinning around, dismantling and being knocked around the oil pressure sensor has given up leaving the needle pinned to 5bar, I may be able to take this from the other car yet but I will have to check.
Rembering the battery was dead
There was one more problem I discovered after turning the engine off but I will leave that for the next post.
P.S. Almost forgot to say, the other reason why I forgot to update for so long featured a temporary project of a cheap Toyota MR2, a little bit of fettling and a whole lot of fun during the spring and early summer.
