Not hard at all. The bitch is getting the rear coupling loose and pulled off of the transaxle output shaft through the tiny little access windows. They're allen bolts and require some creative body positioning. Once the coupling is loose though, it's just... 6 bolts I think. It's been a while, but I don't remember it being more than a couple hour job.
So as I mentioned, I pulled the engine out of the black car. The Clark's Garage how-to was excellent, and I really had no problems at all other than forgetting to take off the AC compressor, which presented clearance problems with the frame of the car when trying to move the engine forward to get it off of the torque tube. Otherwise, not too difficult. The worst part was that everythign on the passenger side of the engine was covered with leaked oil and PS fluid, as noted.
Nice engine mounts....guess that's what happens when they bathe in PS fluid and oil for who knows how long....
Last night I wanted to take the bellhousing off to check out the clutch. The way this is apparently done is to pop out the pin that holds the clutch release fork off, which releases the entire bellhousing assembly. But that pin was so rusted that no trick I could think of would get it out (yes, I used a threaded rod as suggested on the Porsche forums). So on to the other way to do it: undo all of the pressure plate allen bolts though the bellhousing openings and take the housing off with the pressure plate still inside.
That would have been relatively easy, except someone int he past apparently tried to do it that way and stripped out three of them (or did it when installing). So out came a drill bit to round out the hole a bit, and then I pounded a an old torx bit into them and removed them that way. So, that's off.
pressure plate and FW don't look too bad
I assumed by the way the car drove that it still had the old crappy rubber-centered OEM clutch in it, but happy to see it has a Sachs spring-center unit. Will have to look closer to see if this one (or the one in the red car) have sufficient life to put them back in, or if I should drop $400 on a new one.
With the bellhousing off, I was able to get the engine off the garage floor and onto a stand so I can start stripping it and cleaning stuff up, and then decide what to work on first.
Pretty beefy for a 4-cylinder. Or maybe I'm just used to working on the tiny 1.8 M42s from the rally car (spare one against the wall)
In other minor interesting things....my spare e30 PS pump was sitting on a shelf next to the engine, and I noticed it looks like the Porsche one. Putting them side-by-side, it's actually completely identical.
The alternator for the 924 is actually an exact mirror-image of the e30 alternator, though. Too bad, since I need a spare for the e30 and the higher-amp 924 alternator would have been great since I have two of them :/
In reply to irish44j:
Only the best that Bosch, ZF and other similar vendors can provide.
lol. not that I'm surprised that they use the same stuff, but it is convenient that the mounting points are the same as well, I guess.
With beautiful weather today I spent a good amount of time taking everything I can think of that I want off the black car. I also switched the wheels since the red car has some 6-year old almost bald tires and the red car has some low-mile all-seasons, which will do until later when I get better performance tires (after the car is on the road).
I also took a bunch of other things: The red car didn't have cruise control so I took all the CC stuff out of the black one (the control module, servo, cable, and steering column switch). Looks like the red one has the wiring already in place so should be fairly plug and play. Also took all the fuses, relays, window switches, and other electrical modules out of the black car since I may need them someday. And the gauge cluster and center console gauges.
So, I have a nice little collection going
While doing that, I discovered that at some point in the black car's life, someone must have replaced the fuse box or something. Kind of scary...
Also started pulling stuff off the engine and cleaning it up. So much gunk. I hate working on gunky stuff...
And did some degreasing on the engine itself
Opened up the timing case and it's a bit interesting. The block itself and the inner timing case are ridiculously dirty with oil (clearly a leak, maybe on the cam case or something), as is the water pump. Oddly, the timing belt and cam belts are spotless and literally look brand-new. The P/O had only had the car for a year or so and didn't know what the owner before him had done, but I suspect the belts were done pretty recently. I'll replace them anyhow (as well as the water pump), but it's somewhat curious.
Oh, and one other good one. Pulled the shift boot on the red car because I was sitting there and felt compelled to. And here's what I find.....
Yup, apparently finding a new clip to hold the shift rod on the lever was too much work....so someone did this....some speaker wire wrapped and knotted to secure it, lol. Amazingly, it seems to work pretty well, lol.....
Better than factory! Or not...
Great progress!
Out of curiosity, did you price parts for an engine refresh? Bearings, rings, fasteners, etc.
paranoid_android74 wrote: Better than factory! Or not... Great progress! Out of curiosity, did you price parts for an engine refresh? Bearings, rings, fasteners, etc.
kinda sorta. I'm going to do a leakdown test to see if rings are in order. I'd prefer not to take the head off if I can help it. Figure I can deal with that stuff down the road if/when I blow the HG or something. I definitely plan to do the rod bearings since they're a known wear item on these cars, as well as timing, water pump, and pretty much all the seals. Will do like I did with the e30, look around and find the deals, find people selling spare parts, etc.....I'm thinking I can do what I want to do for somewhere around $1k, TBD.
irish44j wrote: Oh, and one other good one. Pulled the shift boot on the red car because I was sitting there and felt compelled to. And here's what I find.....
If you have a welder this is the fix.
I did this on my car and it worked great. (this is my write-up)
This is how I fixed mine on my 944 Turbo:
http://s148.photobucket.com/user/fiat22turbo/library/Porsche951/Shifter_repair
A couple of 10mm thrust bearings (from Amazon $5/ea), a 10mm shouldered bolt and jam nut from the local ACE/Parkrose Hardware.
I also later built a new handle and moved the pivot pin upwards by 1/2" to shorten the throw. I used a stainless bolt for the top of the shift lever to make it slightly taller and allow the use of a weighted aftermarket shift knob.
Basically a take off on the shift lever from 944only.com.
Either way, a great improvement for the street car.
^^ thanks, will definitely bookmark that for when I take care of mine!
But of course, for any of you who have followed the rally e30 thread, you know I tend to jump around between projects so as not to get bored/frustrated working on one single thing for days. So here we go again.
Tonight did some disassembly of engine stuff, as well as some cleanup. Fuel rail off, intake manifold off. My late nights are spent reading everything about these cars and especially these engines, and also trying to figure out what seals, gaskets, parts, etc I need to order.
Also cleaned up the cam cover
Getting a nice collection of parts in the boot of the red car...
Then got a bit tired of greasy stuff so decided to finish swapping over the cruise control out of the black car into the red car. Had to get under the dash to get the control module out, which I forgot to do before.
Convenient that all the wiring and plugs are already there in the red car...
Then I had to swap the stalk and switches...
Did find one issue that may explain why the turn signals were acting odd in the red car when I tried them...
So went and cut the plug out of the black car and spliced it in...will put everything back together tomorrow..
Oh, one last thing. I set the engine to TDC in preparation for future stuff, but since I have no bellhousing on the engine, I can't use the "flywheel lock tool." So, I stole someone else's great idea: using the power steering pump adjuster as a flywheel lock :)
So that should keep everything where it needs to be. Just for the heck of it I loosened the crank bolt with my impact. Loosened up no problem....Snap-On with a full charge made short work of it...
So more stuff. Tonight felt like doing some interior stuff. Pulled the driver's seat and wanted to see if my carpet cleaner could salvage the grimy carpet in the car (I eventually planned to replace it anyhow, but wouldn't mind this stuff in the short term.
Actually came out half decent
Also took the center console storage tray out. It has a crack in it, but that should be fixable. I have some plans for this for a little winter project, so will just leave this here for posterity.
Also found a few bucks in highly-corroded coins under the seat...
So then went to take the passenger seat out and....hmm. I knew there had been a leak and that side of the car was damp, but the rails were rusty as hell. Took a lot of cursing and muscle to move the seat around to get to the bolts but eventually did
That made clear what I had alraedy suspected. I bought the car right after the recent Hurricane in NC and the P/O said that somehow the door had been left slightly ajar and it had gotten "a lot of rain inside that side." Well, this wasn't a big worry since....hey, galvanized body! If he said that about an e30, I would have walked! Anyhow, it's pretty clear that A LOT of rain got in there, because I can see where the water level was on the carpet!
as soon as I saw this I knew there was no choice but to rip it all out ASAP. So that's what I did tonight, at least on that side of the car. As expected, underneath was nasty, and the tar soundproofing/padding was a mess. At least the moisture makes it easy to chip off.....minor victories I guess.
So, cleaned that crap up a bit and put a fan on it to dry everythign out. No sign of any rust or issues with the floorboards (this only happneed a month ago), but the seatbelt attachments are really rusty. Luckily no wiring on this side of the car so at least that escaped corrosion issues. So, that's where I'm at now. Not really a big deal since all that carpet and stuff was going to be evenutally replaced anyhow, but it's slightly annoying to have to do it so soon. Oh well...
Make sure you do the cam tower gasket and the one at the back of the cam tower while you have the motor out.
dean1484 wrote: Make sure you do the cam tower gasket and the one at the back of the cam tower while you have the motor out.
Yeah, I'm going to do pretty much every gasket and seal in the engine, period. A lot easier while the engine is on a stand!
Haven't gotten much accomplished recently as most of my free time is spent blowing/raking leaves and getting the e30 ready for a couple winter rally events upcoming. Also am putting together my full list of parts to order for refurbishing the '88 engine this winter, and plan to order all that stuff in the next couple weeks and get going on that (my unheated garage will surely make progress slow!)
In the meantime, the black car is finally stripped of all parts that I could possibly want, and it went away last week. Two fellow rallyists - Robert Pepper, who lives near me, and Charli Tameris, who lives up in NY - took it for use as body/glass spare parts for their 944 rally cars. This is kind of a quid pro quo for me that I'll be able to get parts from them in the future (especially interior stuff that they don't need for their rally cars).
So away it went
btw, here are THEIR Porsches. A bit more fun than mine!
I had to do SOMETHING on this car, so the other day I drained the gas tank. Of course, the p/o left it almost full, so had to go buy a couple gas cans. Mixed the old gas up with some fresh super unleaded and dumped it into the Sequioa to burn it off on our Thanksgiving trip this week...
Draining the tank on the 924 is pretty easy, and there's enough clearance to get a big can under there..
Also removed the entire exhaust, which had been welded to one piece with the manifold :/ So I took the grinder and just cut it off at the base of the header, since I have another one anyhow. It's funny seeing the super-rusted old exhaust on this car (which sat in the grass) but no rust on the (awesomely) galvanized body. The xhaust from the black car is almost new, so I just cut this one up and trashed it and will use the onther one when the time comes...
Also turned it around (not much fun by myself on a sloped driveway, lol) to get the front of the car in the inner garage so I can start taking stuff apart and pull the motor this winter.
I am following closely! Keep it up! Keep us informed on your decisions!
I'm still deciding on parts n stuff for my ongoing 88 rebuild. We have a lot in common going on.
I'm not going to buy an old Porsche, I'm not going to buy an old Porsche, I'm not going to buy an old Porsche.
Or at least that's what I need to keep telling myself. I've got to stop reading these threads. This was one of the cars I lusted after in high school. "There is no substitute."
JoeTR6 wrote: I'm not going to buy an old Porsche, I'm not going to buy an old Porsche, I'm not going to buy an old Porsche. Or at least that's what I need to keep telling myself. I've got to stop reading these threads. This was one of the cars I lusted after in high school. "There is no substitute."
Well, considering I have a Triumph as well, I think you're just gonna have to get a Porsche to join the exclusive club of "People who both like working on cars built by Drunken Brits With No Engineering Common Sense or Quality Control, and cars built by Teutonic Engineers Who Make Everything Too Complex"
I drove a '75 Spitfire all through high school. And I will someday buy another for a restomod /electric conversion project. It's all I can do to stop myself from buying one every time Barn Finds throws a nice one onto my Faceballs feed.
I agree, I think we need our own club here. With a catchier name. Maybe something like "Capital Driving Club"? 
CrookedRacer wrote: I drove a '75 Spitfire all through high school. And I will someday buy another for a restomod /electric conversion project. It's all I can do to stop myself from buying one every time Barn Finds throws a nice one onto my Faceballs feed. I agree, I think we need our own club here. With a catchier name. Maybe something like "Capital Driving Club"?
lol....indeed. I used be a CDC member back in the day when I like to race on paved surfaces ;)
How's it coming along? I want to follow along closely!
Lol at the bailing wire shifter. The c-clips for those are like $.15. People are so freaking cheap. I've seen that on another 924/944 shifter as well. We ended up using a dremel to cut the groove out a bit then used a washer to space it. Slop gone.
CrookedRacer wrote: How's it coming along? I want to follow along closely!
Lol....stuff has been a bit busy recently with the NJ Rallysprint (NASA) in the e30, and me spending the week doing the E36 M3tiest possible fix on my WRX (turbo inlet).
I'll update this weekend. Though all I really have to update is the fact that there's a box in my garage with basically all my engine refresh stuff in it (all gaskets, seals, bearnings, water pump, belts, pullies, etc etc etc).
I have been slowly taking stuff off the engine on the stand and cleaning up parts for the time being.
corsepervita wrote: Lol at the bailing wire shifter. The c-clips for those are like $.15. People are so freaking cheap. I've seen that on another 924/944 shifter as well. We ended up using a dremel to cut the groove out a bit then used a washer to space it. Slop gone.
yeah I'm betting it was an "on the road" fix and it worked to some extent so he just left it lol...
So, I guess it's time for an update, eh?
I've been a bit busy recently
Also fixing the turbo inlet on the WRX, which seems like it should be a simple job, but it most definitely is not.....3-4 total hours of busted knuckles and that car is finally running well again (the OEM one split).
So now that it is rally off-season (well, for about 2 months) with only a few minor things to do on the e30, time to get moving on the 924.
I got a big box of engine-related parts:
Then started taking greasy things apart and to the sink. Liberal use of Dawn ensued...
oil cooler, new seals, etc... http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j85/irish44j/Porsche%20924%20Build/IMG_20161211_185139074.jpg" alt="" />
stripped bare(ish)
took a while to figure out how to get the oil pan off....everything is a tight fit...
Though I've been very careful to "wake up" all the bolts, I still managed to shear off one of the water pump bolts, which will take some extracting...
Also began to take off the cam tower by undoing all the outside bolts. All of them came off with little hassle, until of course the very last one sheared off as well. Annoying, but it's a 30-year old car and apparently this hardware is notorious for seizing/snapping off...
For the inner bolts (under the cam tower) I'm going to have to wait. Since I definitely do NOT want these to strip, I'm waiting a long-length hex driver that I ordered from Snap-On before I remove those
Also waiting for a few things to come in the mail as far as sealants, etc go....anaerobic sealant is recommended for these engines in several places and I want to do things as right as possible to forestall future leaks and stuff...
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