After years of wanting one, I finally own a 944. I came into ownership of this car through a trade. The previous owner gave me a list of work he had completed which included a new clutch and brakes all around. The only down side at the time was that the car smoked excessively and the PO believed it to be a head gasket. Easy enough right?
Initially when looking at the car, I had found what I thought was a magic bullet. The PO in attempting to fix the poor idle/misfires/smoke had installed a rebuilt early DME. Changing the DME to a late one (which matched the AFM) and replacing the DME temp sensor completely changed how the car ran as well as the smoking which basically disappeared after a few heat cycles. With this turn of events, I decided to address some other issues since I felt the car would be on the road in no time.
I first started with making a new vent tube for the steering rack. Someone had installed a soft hose (I'm guessing fuel hose) and it swelled/leaked. Hopefully this hose here will work for awhile.
Then I decided to get the drivers door refreshed. I lubricated the regulator tracks and disassembled/cleaned/reassembled the window motor. After that, the drivers window worked fairly well. I haven't done the passenger side yet so I'll be sure to document that side better.
Next I ordered a dash mat and some floor mats. After a nice vacuum and re-gluing the edges of the carpet, the interior cleaned up pretty well. I also sewed on a new shift knob since then.
After finally getting some work done on my other project, I was able to get the 944 in the garage. I had decided that I was going to go ahead and replace the head gasket for piece of mind and reseal the balance shafts. What I found kinda sucks...
This is cylinder 4. I found a small piece of metal broken off at the top of the piston. Im speculating that the timing was so out of whack with the previous DME installed and the PO trying to drive it that it detonated on this cylinder. SO, I am evaluating my options on how to go about this. In the mean time though there are plenty of other tasks that need to be addressed so I will update as I go along.
-Cheers