Junky Ol' Porsche 944

I spent a little time on my sunroof. The old seals were kind of leaky, so I decided to try cleaning my sunroof drains and new seals

I tried to trim this thing as close as I could, but I still ended up with a bit of a gap. The old seal had one too, so I don't feel too bad, but I have a nagging feeling about the cause of the leaking. Which was minor, but I live in a rainforest, so I'm sensitive to these things.

New inner seal, too

I'll have to charge the battery to get the sunroof fully locked down, but this is good enough for the garage

I'm thinking of taking a crack at starting the motor before too long. Any forum wisdom for things to do to a motor that has been sitting for a couple years?

Marvel Mystery oil in the spark plug holes. Let it sit for a few days, then try to turn it over by hand. It makes a mess, but it has worked for me on several engines that had sat for long periods of time. Also, see if you can oil prime it from the dizzy (this car does have one?) with a hand drill.

I replaced* the fuel filter. and also built a bunch of fuel line.

*Of course this wasn't easy, because everything had rusted together and I twisted off the hardline-side fitting. So I'm building a hardline and some hoses to reconnect the gas tank to the fuel rail

This is what I ended up with:

Pics to follow of the real thing

So happy you're still at it! Hooray for 944's!

I suddenly have this urge to go through the forum and bump every other 944 build thread I can find. (It's a Where are they now? thang.)

I am about to change my fuel filter, and also to send off my injectors. If you have any advice on either, please share!

In case someone wants to start their own project thread:

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/5348329823.html

Who wouldn't want to own the 944's daddy? :)

The only car my wife has given me permission to buy and not get kicked out of the house with.

I'd want a turbo or a shell to put a v8 in... my 944s just never had the balls it needed.

Mad_Ratel wrote: The only car my wife has given me permission to buy and not get kicked out of the house with. I'd want a turbo or a shell to put a v8 in... my 944s just never had the balls it needed.

I know where a turbo is sitting in a storage unit.... Owner would probably part with it. Its been lightly wrecked on the front end, and needs a motor rebuild. Blew the HG and has been sitting for a few years. Has a bunch of lindsey goodies, chip, 4" exhaust, WG etc....

Mad_Ratel wrote: The only car my wife has given me permission to buy and not get kicked out of the house with. I'd want a turbo or a shell to put a v8 in... my 944s just never had the balls it needed.

See my post above. That is a shell that's ready for a swap and has a lot of go fast goodies already.

Don't tempt me, it's a long snowy tow from Sacramento

New kid on the way (due in 4 weeks) and work is slowing down.

I might revist that info in 6 mo or so...

In reply to Mad_Ratel:

Hey, me too! Congratulations!

Yeah, we're due in July with our first. So congrats to all of us!

Note: this is why I'm enjoying enabling others :)

Nice to see a 944 getting some good TLC. I miss my 944 a lot, it was a lot of fun. Wiring messes are no fun at all.

So, I'm to the point where I can try to start this thing up, but it has sat so long I've lost the prime on the oil pump.

I've read a lot about different ways to prime the pump, but haven't had much luck as yet. Any tips?

Also, when I turned the key to see if the power was working, I noticed a noise like a little motor or fan coming from the passenger side, round about the glovebox. It didn't seem to be hvac related, and I don't remember that noise before (but it has been a lot of years...)

What might that be? I didn't succeed in tracking it down

I've never personally heard of losing prime on the oil pump.

But I look forward to your next posts!!!

Please make them more often than once every six months.

The oil filter has an anti-drain back valve built into it to help keep near the top of the engine.

I would pull the plugs and crank it over a bit to build a little pressure and then get it started.

They are tough, if not slightly annoying to work on, engines.

We have oil pressure! My main problem was that I hadn't torqued the OPRV down before trying... ¯_(ツ)_/¯

The factory method for priming the oil pump worked after a couple tries. Next up, an attempt with gasoline

More pictures!

I'll get some pictures after I clean out the garage for startup. Right now I'd have to stand on the washing machine for a half decent angle

Quick update - I put gas in the tank, and waited a bit to see if my fabbed up fuel lines were fuel tight. The good news is the fuel lines are tight! The bad news is, the fuel pump is not fuel tight. I had hoped it was just the crush washers on the banjo fitting, but I guess I torqued that down hard enough to crack the internal pump seal or something. Maybe sitting for a couple years didn't agree with it...

Anyhow, new pump has shown up in the mail, and as soon as baby time permits, I'll see about getting this thing started up.

While I'm talking on the internet, I was thinking of adding a mechanical oil pressure gauge. I just don't quite trust the built in one. I've got a spare gauge and an isolator, but I'm not sure about routing the lines and where to put it in the cockpit.

I was thinking of using a Lindsey Racing adapter off the exisiting sending unit, but then my pressure line would run either next to the exhaust or snake across the cross member. Any thoughts?

As to more often posts than bi-yearly, I'll put in an effort, but no promises :)

I got a stainless line from Autometer for my oil pressure gauge.

This was a couple days ago, but for your reading pleasure:

Woops, sprayed gas all over the floor. I had a heck of night.

I started out with the intention to change the oil in my truck. Of course, it's a weeknight, I'm in Alaska, my truck doesn't fit in the garage and it was 5F outside. No problem, I've got an oil extractor, so I'll barely have to lay on the ground, just suck out the oil and put on a new filter. Oops, dead battery. Charging that should fix everything up. Oops, battery won't charge at all, let's buy a battery. Now let's suck out the oil, it'll be easy. Wrong! Ford 4.0's have a kink in the bottom of the dipstick so you can't use an oil extractor.

No problem, I'll just do it the old fashioned way. I drained the oil and started in the filter, but I can't fit my 5F gloves in the space, so it's down to skinny mechanics gloves. Oh god I can't get the filter off because I can't bend my fingers. Oh god I can't get the filter on because I can't bend my fingers. Oh god warming up my fingers hurts!

I figured I'd take a look at the Porsche to cool off. My plan was to set everything up for the big weekend and check the fuel system integrity over the holidays. I put in custom made hoses and hardlines, so naturally I want to put some drip pans under the fittings and open the garage door and put a bunch of extinguishers around, just to be prepared for any eventuality. Keeping that in mind, I had no intention of doing anything with the fuel system. I just wanted to sit in the cab, go over my checklist, organize some stuff and see if the battery was charged, since the cold spell was killing my batteries left and right.

I turned the key and clearly didn't think it through because as the headlights popped up, I heard the fuel pump kick on and a hiss as it pissed gas all over the front fender well.

It's just a small amount of gas, so I throw some sorbent pads down, but it's still leaking because the line is pressurized. Obviously I panic a bit, so I make a move to release fuel pressure. I still have the fuel pump exposed because I've been monitoring it for leaks (on the plus side, I can confirm that it does not leak), so I clamp off the line coming from the tank and loosen the tank to pump connection so pressure will be released.

I anticipated a bit of a dribble from the hard line, but I did not adequately clamp off the hose from the tank, so instead I get a gush as 5 gallons of gas try to fill up my pan. I frantically re clamp the hose a couple time until I get the flow stopped, while simultaneously trying to get the hose back on the pump. Eventually, I succeed.

On the plus side, the spray up front stopped immediately. I also managed to avoid spilling most of the gas on the floor, but I was down to a kinda pine-needly oil pan, so my fresh gas is now dirty and my garage is smelly.

I didn't want to irritate my wife with a smelly garage in the middle of the night, so I opened the door and brought the pans full of gas outside so I could strain them back into my frozen gas can in 5F weather. Which went ok, paper towel filters ftw! At this point, I'm a pretty tired, a little flustered and maybe a bit gas fumed out, so I leave the garage door open a couple feet so it can air out, take a shower, then go to bed.

The next morning goes regularly. I play with the baby, tell my wife all about my problems and shut the garage door. Right before I head off to work, I use the toilet and flush, but nothing. There is no water in the tank. So I turn on a faucet. No water. No running water anywhere. I realize that it's really flipping cold and leaving the garage door open must have frozen the pipes in the garage. Acting more on hope than anything I put my little electric heater near the pipes and go to work.

Fortunately it must have been a small block, because the water was back by lunch, but it was a heck of a night.

I was too busy to grab any pictures, so here's an artist's rendering:

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Anyways, since then I've checked the leaky connection, and I believe the problem was that it was just finger tight, so hopefully all fixed and I'll have a running Porsche for Xmas

Easter weekend I cleaned up the garage. It's a small step, but I need the garage clean, because next weekend I see if the car will run.

Doesn't look like much:

This is the main feature - space!

Plus I can fit my bicycles in without tripping all over everything. Of course, I'm not showing the pile of junk outside I need to dispose of