944S in Canada - long in the tooth project

[500]

I'm going through the same issues with the windshield washer system in my 87 S. I installed the same kit from 944online, found (what I think) was a good set of squirters from ebay. Hooked it all up and.......nothing. Pump seems to work, but I have a feeling either the squirters are wrong or one of the check valves is stuck or backwards. Now I get to cut off all those Oetiker clamps again and see where the flow stops.

I'm really enjoying your progress on this car. Keep it coming!

I have not tried to run the windshield washer yet, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that they can sometimes take a little effort to prime. Maybe taking the suction line from the tank and putting into a temporary bottle of washer fluid that is held above the pump will help prime?

The only other thought I have is that I am pretty sure it is not the check valves, as both would have to stick shut to have neither jet spray (well, I suppose it is possible, just less likely).

My own progress is OK. I am starting to run out of things to do prior to actually putting the engine in the car (which is going to wait until the end of April, as my son has exams in April, and I want to have his help…)

Having replaced the timing belt a few weeks ago, I was curious to see if the cam timing was still ideal (was not sure whether there could be a meaningful difference between belts that would result in a very slightly different length between the cam and crank sprockets. Doubtful, but I was not 100% sure either. So, I popped off the cam cover and went through the timing process again, and everything was fine! Ha.

After that was done, I hooked up a DC power supply to a cheap injector pulser I purchased from Amazon. I scavenged one of the injector connectors from the old harness and used that to test each injector to make sure they were still firing. Some years back, I sent them out for cleaning and replaced the seals and caps. I figured they should still be OK, but since I had the pulser, I figured it made sense just to check as it is one less thing to trip me up.

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I had actually got the pulser when I was working on the Subaru. Having learned a little more about how injector cleaning is done, I decided to make up own apparatus. Basically, I used pressurized air (approx. 20 psi) to flow carb cleaner through the injectors, using the pulser to continuously fire the injectors. It worked very well, and a similar approach could be used for the 944, so here was the set up I did for the Subaru:

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Polished the corner marker lenses and freshened the bumper pads and put the front bumper together.

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That is pretty much it for now…

[500]

Have run out of cool things to do before the engine installation, so mostly I have been preparing things for installation day. For example, I have a checklist and have made up bags of hardware for various steps, with the torque specs etc. in the bag, to make everything run as smoothly as possible on installation day. My hope is to get the motor in, as well as the front suspension (not aligned, just basically installed) all in one day, so that the car can sit on wheels by the end of that day. Looking like the third weekend of April.

I have a regular engine hoist with a load leveler. However, the garage floor has quite a slope, so the engine hoist would want to roll back easily and would be hard to move forward in a careful and controlled manner. So, I have a hand-operated winch and am making up some rigging to use the winch to hold the hoist’s lateral position and be able to move it forward incrementally.

Over the next few weeks, I will just be finishing up all the preparation steps, and then hopefully be in good shape.

The only thing actually done on the car was putting in spark plugs (went with NGK BPRES6), a new rotor, and the front housing:

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Only thing I will still do on the engine prior to installation is finally connect the rest of the wiring (fuel injectors etc.) as I left it unconnected in case I needed to move things around, which I did…

[NCGermerican]

I'm still in awe of your patience and attention to detail! You may have already contemplated this, but if you want to make the "PORSCHE" pop on that cam cover, Garage9 has the black letters to fill in the emboss:

https://garage9.com/collections/944/pro ... 3480226868

They are heat resistant and mine has held up well.

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[500]

...You may have already contemplated this, but if you want to make the "PORSCHE" pop on that cam cover, Garage9 has the black letters to fill in the emboss:

https://garage9.com/collections/944/pro ... 3480226868

They are heat resistant and mine has held up well.

I had not really thought of those before, but now that you have shown me, I am thinking this is something I might do as a final touch at the end (have a few more mission critical items to buy still, e.g., radiator).

I see that they also have white version, which I think would integrate nicely, although the black would look good too. I need to think about it.

Thank you very much for the link!

[500]

When re-doing the timing belt, I made a mistake with the balance shaft belt in that I had rotated the tensioner in the wrong direction (which puts the belt a little closer to the water pump pulley). I corrected that over the weekend, and started to plug in the rest of the connectors. As I am going, I am using a meter to check the continuity of each connector to the appropriate DME pin or whatever just to be certain that I have ID'd all of the connectors right. It really does look pretty obvious what goes where, but I find the checking is also helpful for me to understand the wiring more and more.

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The other thing I started working on is repairing the mid-pipe. When I got the car, the mid-pipe was completely broken at the entrance to the cat.

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Previously I had cleaned and butt-welded it back together as a first step.

The next step will be to weld on some reinforcements. I used to have a DC inverter TIG welder, which was a beautiful machine, but when I moved, I sold it as the new place did not have the right power. Now I have a small MIG machine for "around-the-house" stuff. For welding the S/S exhaust, I now use a flux-core S/S welding wire which does a decent job structurally, but it is pretty bad cosmetically.

Anyway, it is also necessary to back-purge the weld area, so I spent some time getting things ready. Essentially a matter of blocking off the openings in the pipe and feeding the purge gas in:

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The gas enters ahead of the cat, and the blocking plate at the back has a small hole, to allow the gas to flow.

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For the reinforcements, I cut up two diameters of 304 S/S tube which I will weld over and around the area that originally broke.

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I only got as far as setting things up this past weekend, as I did not have much time. If things go well, I will finish the job next weekend.

Later, once the engine is in, the exhaust will be test-fitted and if all is good, I will get it Cerakote coated.

[Zirconocene]

If you're interested, I have some information on the wiring for these engines (link for the 2nd post is at the end of the first): https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-944 ... ation.html

That engine is looking GOOD, and I love the color scheme.

Cheers

[500]

If you're interested, I have some information on the wiring for these engines (link for the 2nd post is at the end of the first): https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-944 ... ation.html


Cheers

Yes, that is interesting, thank you for the link. I may try someday to make an injector harness for the 911 (in the 3.2 cars, the injector harness is a "sub-harness" that connects to the "main" DME harness and is the part most subjected to heat. The original is still pretty OK, but is somewhat stiff. Your info is very useful.

[barnwerks]

Enjoying following along with this amazing journey. In case you are not aware and would like to be, the mid section of exhaust you are working on is not an original exhaust part. It appears to be rather carelessly designed / made compared to the factory piece, in particular at the two to one juncture. This may or may not have an impact on performance, sound and longevity. Just FYI, carry on

[500]

Enjoying following along with this amazing journey. In case you are not aware and would like to be, the mid section of exhaust you are working on is not an original exhaust part. It appears to be rather carelessly designed / made compared to the factory piece, in particular at the two to one juncture. This may or may not have an impact on performance, sound and longevity. Just FYI, carry on

That is very good information... I had thought a few times that the part did not look brilliant, especially the way it necked near where it had broken ahead of the cat. Now that you have woken me up to the realization that it is likely some sort of repo, I will consider a longer-term goal to find a good genuine sample. If it takes a while, I will just continue to use this one.

Thanks again. I had not considered that possibility until you mentioned it.

[500]

Following up on the exhaust, I spent some time online searching up pictures of the genuine mid-pipe, and the physical appearance differences are quite marked. It bothers me enough that I am sure I will be sourcing a genuine replacement. However, it won't be cheap, so I think I will go ahead with finishing up the repair and probably use this piece for initial start up and running. Not sure when I will actually purchase the genuine parts, but it will wait until the other critical items still remaining are sourced.

On the one hand, I am slightly bummed since I now have more expense incoming, but on the other hand, I am glad I learned this. I did think that the fit & finish on the mid-pipe was poor in comparison to the tail pipe unit (which I think is genuine, but I will post pictures eventually when I dig it out of storage).

Here is a photo I found online of the genuine part:

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It is very clear that the lengths of the tubes ahead of the "Y" are considerably different than in the part I have.