21Nov2011
Porsche 944 Turbo Replacement
Been waiting on a turbo core to be rebuilt for awhile, and it finally showed up today, so I set about replacing the turbo on this 944. The compressor nut had come off and the turbo essentially ate itself due to the loose tolerances. Not a good situation, but I think we have it under control. Luckily we had a couple of cores laying around so we didn’t have a dead car sitting at the shop. Bibbed up and ready …
Have you noticed your Porsche just isn’t up to the task any more? Are you ready to take it for a spin on a curvy road, but yet it just isn’t ever in the mood? Don’t worry, you aren’t alone, and we can help. This is a problem that faces many middle aged Porsches out there today, but most of them are just too ashamed to talk about it. Talking with your Porsche about ED may not be easy, but …
31Aug2011
Dragon Part II:
Figured I’d make the rolling chassis a little lighter: Out she comes 🙂 I’ll put this thing on a stand at the shop and go through the bottom end. My guess is the head is warped, so a trip to the machine shop will confirm that. If so, then I know the bottom end is good. Once I get my other charlie arm back, I can button up the suspension and load it back on the trailer for it’s journey …
31Aug2011
951 Coolant Leak
Got a call Sunday night on the way back from Hastings about a stranded 951. Car lost all it’s coolant and started to overheat. Monday morning the tow truck showed up to the house with it and I checked it out. Pretty typical failure, the plastic coolant port on the radiator had broken and coolant had sprayed out of the radiator under pressure. You can just make out the piece that is broken on the end of the small hose. …
10Aug2011
PPI’s The Paint Meter Never Lies
Having someone qualified to perform a PRE Purchase Inspection BEFORE you buy is always a good idea. Being able to spot potential or current mechanical issues, previous accident damage, etc is critical when buying a car, so you can have an idea of what repairs you may be facing in the future, Ie, money out of your pocket. Unfortunately, I end up doing a lot of POST Purchase Inspections after someone had purchased a car, and they never really enjoy …
16Jul2011
951 Radiator
Dave dropped off his 951S to have me go through the cooling system. The car was starting to get fairly hot in stop and go traffic in our lovely 100 degree heat, so it was time to do some preventative maintenance on the front end. We decided it was best to replace the 25 year old radiator and any associated hoses to get the car cooling as optimally as possible. The car was hitting the top white line of the …
20Jun2011
944T Part 4:
Took some time this weekend to get the head cleaned up and ready for the machine shop. My initial thought was to put in valve seals and slap it back on, but after seeing some very slight coolant erosion in the face, I decided it was best to have the head resurfaced to clean up anything that my cause an issue. Dropped it off this morning, so hopefully will have that back in a few days. Head off the car. …
Got the car buttoned up yesterday and thought we were going to be good to go. The problem with these really really low mile cars is that once you start driving them, stuff starts failing faster than you can fix it. On the initial warm up, I kept getting a puff of smoke off the passenger side of the engine. When it didn’t stop after a few minutes, I looked underneath and found the head gasket was leaking externally onto …
15Jun2011
944T engine work continued
I got the 951 up in the air today and started poking around a little more. Always exciting to see what you will run into next. My plan was to retension the belts to the correct spec, then start on the headers. Ummmm not so much. ROFL. Some people shouldn’t work on cars they aren’t familiar with, lol. We all have our moments, but this is AWESOME! Some things put a big smile on my face. Needless to say, this …
14Jun2011
And now for something a little unusual
Something you don’t see every day anymore. A 1 owner, 12k mile 1986 944 turbo. She started having fits after sitting for a number of years, so time to go through it and see what we can figure out. Another shop went through the timing belt and such, and now we have a no start. I know, I was thinking the same thing, but looks like the T-belt is ok 😉 She’s a beut Clark…..The tow truck driver dumped it …