924Board.org

[mynameisryan]

Hi everyone. This is my first Porsche. I was looking to buy something cheap to work on this winter. I have a friend who has a repair shop and has been a mechanic for 20 years but he's not a Porsche mechanic. So we have the ability to get the car up on a lift and work on it easily just for a fun winter project.

I just bought this car. It was running pretty rough when I test drove it. I towed it home. Then I drove it the next day for a two minutes when the motor quit. The engine turns over. We have spark and fuel but can't get the motor running again. It looks like someone has maybe messed things up under the timing cover. The balance shaft wheel is wobbly and is rattling around. The car was making a tapping sound when it was running. I thought it might've just been lifter noise. The previous owner said the car had been sitting the last nine months. Now I'm wondering if it was something with the balance shaft. There's enough play in the balance shaft wheel to move it around and get it to make a tapping noise.

So my mechanic thinks it would be best to just pull the motor and put in a 944 motor from a salvage yard. We found one with 92,000 miles for $500 with a warranty. It came out of a wrecked 85.2 944 and was running before it was removed. Would there be any issues with this? The DME should work fine with new motor? Fuel lines line up with new motor?

It does need some help in other areas. The body has a few dings and small dents. Hood has screwed up cracking paint. The interior was converted over to black from beige at some point. The front seats have pretty nice black covers but they have the cutouts in the higher spot for later style seats. Back seat is black vinyl, carpet is black. I think a previous owner found a donor car with black interior parts. Door cards have been painted with black vinyl paint, warped dash cap. Climate controls don't slide. Boxster rims with nice tires. It's a shame they're dry rotted. There's a fair bit of work just to get the car up to an ok standard but I've got some time this winter.

What do all you of experts think about the engine swap plan? I only paid $1300 for the car. I wasn't planning on a total engine swap but I was figuring the car was probably going to need quite a bit of repair and maintenance. If I swap the motor out I should only have about $2500 in the car. I'd like to drive it around some in the spring and if I like it I think I'd sell it and buy a nice 944 or something. So I don't want to get too upside down on this car.

Pics or it didn't happen.




Thanks for the help.

[Grenadiers]

I paid 1100 dollars for an '88 924S two years ago. The body was and still is in dented shape, your's looks pretty good. However, the difference, is that the '88 car has a better engine, even though mine needed work. That work is what you are facing. I did mine by myself, car now runs great, and am very happy with the dented, but track only car.

I think you or your mechanic, needs to investigate your current engine before popping down some cash for another untested motor. You should do a compression/leakdown test for sure. The balance shaft situation does cause vibrations, however, basic engine health is not contingent on the balance shafts.

If your engine is covered with grit, dirt, oil, etc., then you can feel comfortable knowing that you will have to pull the motor and reseal it. Basic stuff, but expensive. Even for a DIY project, the parts, especially the while you are in there parts, adds up pretty quickly.

So, if you think that you are going to 'flip' this car after you are done, think again. These narrow bodied cars do not sell well, nor get much cash for them. I recommend that you visit pelican parts forum and search the 924/944 section of the forum for costs associated with front of engine service, and other seals/gaskets that you'll need. Even the 944 engine should be done before you put it in there, unless they have a stack of previous work done on it. I doubt they do.
_________________
'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

[Fasteddie313]

[mynameisryan]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not planning on flipping it. That's for sure. I just don't want to lose too much money if I sell it next year. I did a fair amount of research before I bought this car and I've already ordered the FOES tool kit from Arnnworx. The timing belt looked to be in fairly good shape when we took the timing cover off but who knows what the previous owner had done. You could tell it had been messed with and not really put back together the greatest.

I guess the reasoning behind dropping in a new engine is that it should take a lot less time than trying to figure out and fix the problems with the old motor. The new salvage engine come with a guarantee from the seller.

And maybe I don't want a 944. I really don't know anything yet.

[fiat22turbo]

To answer your question: yes.

A longer answer would be to head over to Clarks-garage.com and read up on the timing belt, balance shaft belt and water pump sections in the workshop manual.

Once you've done that and digested it, stop trying to start the car, get an engine stand and pull the current motor.

Inspect the clutch, replace if it is worn or if it has a rubber center. Inspect the motor mounts and replace if damaged.

Pull the cam tower and cylinder head to inspect the valves and bores, then flip the engine over and pull the oil pan to check the bearings.

If everything looks good, then eplace the headgasket, cam tower gasket, rings, seals, water pump.

If not, grab that salvage yard motor and inspect and refresh that before putting it in the engine bay.

Either way, replace all of the coolant hoses and vacuum lines in the engine bay, clean and inspect the wiring and clean and protect all of the connectors and grounds.

You'll spend more money doing this, but you'll learn quite a bit about the car and the engine, plus you'll know the common and expensive issues are taken care of so you can enjoy driving the car.

These motors will go to 300,000 miles or more if well taken care of.
_________________
Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[mynameisryan]

Well we got the salvage motor swapped into the car. Everything went pretty well. I bought a new Sachs clutch kit but didn't need to put it in and returned it. The one in the car looks fairly new. It is a Sachs spring clutch. I figured out that the previous motor in the car was a salvage motor out of an 85 944 as well. It took about 12 hours for me and my mechanic buddy to swap the motors on a Sunday and then he spent a few more hours over the next couple days hooking all the wires and hoses back up. He ended up having to replace pretty much all the vacuum hoses. It took a little longer than we anticipated because the salvage yard cut the wiring harness instead of just unhooking it and pulling it through the firewall. We also replaced the front control arms and ball joints and put in new plugs and wires. We used clarks-garage a lot. It is a great resource.

Now I've got the car back home and I'm starting to go through it figuring out what all is broken or missing. (Just realized I'm missing the air intake mounting bracket. The box is just sitting on hoses.) This is also fun because I've never owned a manual transmission car. I've driven them before but not that much and not that well. I will have more questions for you guys as I sort through everything.

Thanks for the help. It is a really neat car!

More pics: