New Garage Addition 1983 944

Here are the few pictures I snapped of removing the oil / water cooler cover to replace the seals.  As well as a  

Picture after cleaning the surfaces on the cover itself.

We did it.  We managed to get the oil/water cooler all back together.  It was another of those tight working conditions trying to get around the exhaust header, and holding the new gaskets all together.  

cleaning up the o-ring areas on the cooler itself.

new o-rings in place

and now back in the cover/holder.  Waiting for the gasket.  

and back in the car.  Things got going at a good pace, so I missed a couple of steps.  Also missing is the puc of the oil pressure sensor screwed back in place.  I broke a pole on it so I need a new one of those, I'll pay the 18 dollars and pick one up. 

After it was all in place we filled up the coolant reservoir and bled the cooling system.  I did get a bit worried,  as the temps rose and the fans didn't come on or fluid come out the relief valve.  So after a run of the A/C to reduce the engine temperature, and then another 5 minutes or so of running we were able to get it bled.  

Then a quick run out on the road to ensure we were leak free, and temp gauge worked we satisfied of a job well done.  

It is that time of year here in Canada.  I had to put the 944 away for the year.  Time to list what we actually got accomplished this year. 

1.  IT RUNS.  That was a big thing.  For the past 4 years of ownership it wouldn't.  I went through everything and it wasn't until I started retracing my steps from the beginning that we found the problem was in fact loose sensors.  So that is a good thing. 

2.  New braided, stainless steel brake lines swapped in to replace the old, original rubber lines.  So IT STOPS!

3.  Upgraded and rebuilt ECU = more POWER, not a huge amount but enough to feel it.  

What we still have to do. 

1.  Fix the hole in the passenger rocker panel.  

2.  Fix the drivers side headlight so that it works on low beam as well as high beam 

2.  Go through and check all the suspension and tighten or replace what is needed. 

In 2020 we should be able to drive this car legally and compare it to the 924.  Speaking of the 924, there will be some more work on that this winter.  See other thread.  LOL

Well from my 924 post I went to work on the 944 today.  5 hours later we still do not have the drivers side headlight working.  We have started tearing into the wiring to see what could be the cause.  We swapped out the fuse for the low beam, and added some connector grease to it.  Tested both sides of the fuse, and we have power to both sides.  Then we cleaned the ground and added the dielectric grease there too.  But still no go on the light.  If we connect the ground and run a wire from the battery to the low beam connection on the headlight it works.  Just not through the wiring. 

I have some pictures to show what we are looking at in terms of some very bad soldering.  We are going to cut out and reconnect.  However, we are now going through the wiring diagram from the 944 Shop Manual to see where we could have a break or a short.  This is a frustrating situation. 

Just have to keep up the diagnostic work and we will get it working soon. Then we can get to fixing a hole in the passenger rocker panel and off to a safety check. 

Some shots of the wire-nest

Bad solder.  Look at that blob 

Yellow wire is the low beam, brown is ground and white/black is high beam.

And here it is parked with the RV.  

Until next time.  

Got back at the 944 yesterday.  We started tracing wires from the fuse panel to the headlight.  Thought process is to maintain the individual fuses so that each light works on 1 fuse.  We will maintain the idea until I get really frustrated.  So as we got further and further into it we made sure that when the headlight is grounded and we take power from the out portion of the fuse (bottom of the bus fuse) and turn on the headlights, the light will come on.  This tells us we have a break in the wireing loom.  Oh great.  I start digging under the dash and pull the fuse panel out of its mount so that I can see the wires behind it.  I find a yellow/black wire with a plastic connection.  I pull it apart and check for flow, it has flow, but is not he correct wire.  I pull out the block where all the light fuses connect, try to ensure that it has continuity, and don't seem to get any, but again it isn't connected to anything, so I plug it back in.  This so far has taken me about 3.5 hours.  I figure it is time to put it all together and fire the car again so that I can put some of the charge back into the battery.  Wouldn't you know it, now the car won't fire.  It turns over, but no fire.  UGH. 

To top it off, when I first got there, I started the car to get some heat into the motor, get a good charge in the battery, knowing the car will be on for a while without running as I test flow and continuity.  I smell oil, check the back of the engine and there is  small oil leak.  It looks like I may need to pull the head and add a new gasket to stop that.  Plus a hose at the front of the motor that flows the rad coolant it about to burst, so I need to replace that too.  Small things, but enough to ensure that I still have things to do. 

During this pandemic I have not been working as hard as I could be on either of the Porsches.  The 924 still runs and drives, but I haven't pulled it out of the garage alot.  I have been looking at things to do on it.  Maybe I will try to rebuild the door cards or just glue them back together. 

As for the 944, well it has me frustrated.  Not sure why it still will not fire up after pulling the fuse panel down to check the headlights.  I check all the connections, they are good and solid.  So it sits as well. 

I have been helping out someone here in my community with an 87 944 s with a couple of bent valves.  We took the head off in his laneway and cleaned everything up.  He needs to buy the seals and then we will plane the head and put it all back togther. 

Stay safe all and hope to get all going again soon. 

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post?  Early August!  Man this pandemic is making each day run together Into another without me even knowing.

I have been working slowly on  the 944. I still have not figured out why it stopped running, but we are still investigating this phenomena.   I will  bring it back to life, I will.  I swear. 

That said I had another set of wheels fall I to my lap.  A free set of 16" trash can lids.  How could I say no to this.  

They aren't perfect ,but for the price I was not going to complain.  A little elbow grease this afternoon and I was able to clean up 2 of them.

So now I just need to get this beast running again.  

Stay safe everyone.

It has been a while since I posted anything about the 944.  I had lost motivation after it stopped running and I couldn't figure it out.  So I found someone who is  better with wiring than I am.

I dropped the car off on Saturday and the guy had it running that day.  I was both happy and upset that it was that easy.  In the end, I was poking, prodding and testing so much with the Ohm meter that I messed up the pins on the ECU connector.  The guy fixed it and also fixed the broken headlight wire.  I drove it home on Monday.  

Once home I got to work and repaired the drivers seat, which was just slightly held in.  I also learned that the passenger taillights weren't working.  I fixed those today.  It was not making a great connection.  New connectors, connector cleaner and bang  taillights.   

With the 944 now at my own house and not in the country where I can't access it every day I have been able to do some more work on the car.  So what have we gotten done so far. 

On Tuesday I ordered the small hose and gasket that are leaking.  Today my wife picked them up for me

So today I installed the new hose to stop the Rad fluid leak.  Hardest part was getting the clamp on the new hose.

After that I took the opp6to clean and paint the piece that holds the airbox to the front of the car.

Small steps but it is getting there.  I still need to add some rad fluid and bring it back to temp and make sure it doesn't leak, but I am hopeful.

Next step done on the 944.  I replaced the rear cam gasket.  Not the hardest thing to do, but it was a bit awkward as it is close to the firewall.  Got it done in 35 minutes.

And here is the new gasket

Then  back in and in place.

Once complete I mixed up some rad fluid and ran the car to temp ensuring that I got all the air out of system.

Next step is to weld up the small holes.

After replacing the heater hose and rear oil gasket I started the "burping" process to get rid of any air bubbles in the radiator lines.  The car must have been near out of anti-freeze when I got it home because after the initial run, I left the car overnight and all the fluid was gone.  No drips or puddles under the car.  I must say that I panicked a bit, when I saw that the expansion tank was empty.  My first thought was that I cracked the block or warped the head.  I added water to the tank, opened the bleeder valve and ran the car again, left it for a couple of hours and again, the fluid vanished.  I added more fluid and ran and bled the system again, then left the car over night.  The fluid level went down, but did not totally disappear, there was a big mess on the laneway, but it holds and I have no leaks.  I filled up the resevoir tank, ran the car to temp last night and we are holding steady at full.  No loss.  

Now it is on to welding up the two holes in the beast and I still have 1 tail light to fix.  I think I will start with the tail light and then go from there.  

Small steps and progress.  I can get this thing back on the road after a 10 to 15 year hiatus soon.  

With the car running and driving again it is time to tackle the stuff I'm not great at.  Bodywork!.  I figured I would start at the bottom where you cant really see things.  The spare tire well in the 944 had big enough hole that i had to address it.  With a set of tin snips, some sheet metal and a rivet gun i got to work. It isn't pretty and I need to add another piece if metal but here is the start of rust repair.

When I get the second piece in, probably from the inside, I will take some POR15 to the area and cover it all up.  Then I will look for a welder to fix the hole in the right rear corner.

The 944 is getting some more love these days.  It helps make the work day go by a bit faster knowing that ibhave things I can do in it.  After i cut out the patch for the spare tire well i put some black rubber spray over it.  I think i need to get the POR15 though to fix it right.  pretty paint picture.  I'll get one with it painted up soon.  

From there I found that I ordered the wrong sunroof seal.  I wanted the one that goes on the car, not the actual sunroof.  But I had I,  and the other was worn and probably the original so I swapped that today

old and busted

new and Improved.  It needs to settle a bit, but it is on.  I also did some work in the 924.  I'll post that in it's own update.

I broke down and with my loving wife's agreement, I bought out rocker covers for the 944.  The hole on the passenger side looked daunting to me to fix and what I found was mad for a later car but should work with some tweaking.  I'm not a fiberglass guy,  or a body guy, but here is what I got.

outer rocker hole 

new panels to fix/cover the area.  I have for both sides 

quick trial fitment.  I will use some tape to hold them in tomorrow. 

I broke down and with my loving wife's agreement, I bought out rocker covers for the 944.  The hole on the passenger side looked daunting to me to fix and what I found was made for a later car (968) but should work with some tweaking.  I'm not a fiberglass guy,  or a body guy, but here is what I got.

outer rocker hole 

new panels to fix/cover the area.  I have for both sides 

quick trial fitment.  I will use some tape to hold them in tomorrow. 

Cut and grind away, get some 3M panel bond and glue some 20 ga. Over those rust outs. You'll feel better affixing those covers on top.

Cut and grind away, get some 3M panel bond and glue some 20 ga

So Agent98, what you are saying is to use a bonding agent to stick metal together and then cover it up with the Fibreglass rockers.  I have the steel, been using it to fix other areas of the two cars, so that isn't an issue.  I haven't worked with fibreglass in a very long time, but Youtube is our friend so I can look both of those up.  Unless you have a link that I can look at to get more information on what you are suggesting.

Mike... are the replacement panels metal or fiberglass?   I would patch the hole and rotted metal area with metal sheet or a fiberglass patch to cover the repair. If the replacement panels are metal I would consider cutting it to fit the repair area. 

Note by adding a cover panel you create a cavity that will fill with road dirt and eventually rot the rest of the original rocker.   

Good luck

Gordon 

The new, replacement panels are fibreglass. 

I was looking at having a professional do the rust/rot repair and then put the new outer rocker skins on. 

Took some time to do another trial fitment of the fibreglass outer rocker covers.  This time on the drivers side.

You can see the gap at the front where it should fit over the fender lip.  It seems to be a bit rounder than I need.  The panel fits pretty well at the back. 

My camera work is a bit shakey I admit, but the idea can be seen..  

It looks like I can use panel bond on most of the fibreglass shell,  I need to work out how to get it on and over the front fenders.  

You are making good progress!

This weekend I finally got the 944 to an ex-Porsche body man that I have known for years.  He is going to repair the hole in the rear quarter.  I will post some pictures when i get the car back.  For now, my main area of research is going to be how to get the outer rocker covers on properly and mold them into the body lines at the font fenders.  From the front of the doors back they fit nice and easy.  I have never worked with fibreglass in this way.  TIme to start learning.

Here is the first picture of the work being done on the rotted out rear corner of the 944.  It is a buddy of mine doing the work, he used to work for the locaal Porsche dealership here in Ottawa before leaving to teach. 

Apparently the car is not as original as I thought.  It has had a couple of resprays over the years.  For me when this is done it will be solid and done right.  Then I can get the 968 rockers on and make it look the way I want. 

Here is the repair to the panel.  Rot all removed and new piece in place.