Help!! BIG Problem!!
 

I had my '84 944 parked and running while i was in my garage, it was sitting like that for about 10 minutes, and I look over and see smoke pouring out from under the hood. I run over and notice that it is the smell of antifreeze, not smoke. pop the hood, steam poring out of coolant resevour. car is still running, and i shut it off. collant steams out and finally stops. what could this be? please help!

Could be numerous things causing this, the most likely being your cooling fans not working or low on coolant or both.

Did you check the fuse for the fan? Stupid question but sometimes the most obvious is overlooked. I had a similar problem with my early 85 a few years back. The 16 Amp fuse kept burning out - caused by the copper fuse holder deteriorating and creating high resistance. If it has and the holder is badly discoloured you should replaced it as the excess heat has probably spoilt the temper and therefore its connection. Porsche sell replacement fuse holders that clip into the box relatively easily.

my dad is going to be working in the car with m. he is a pretty good mechanic. we have not worked on the 944 yet, so where should we take it from here(after the overheat). we have not started the car since it happened, so should we try to start it and see if there was damage or just take it apart.

everyone who responded said that the fan didn't go on, so what would the most logical thing to do be?

thanks

is there anything we can do to see if the fan will run without running the car?

Jumper cables from the battery to the fan, also could be bad thermoswitch, thermostat. Thermostat is a pain to fix, thermoswitch is cheap, fan motors are expensive, good luck.

Bad thermostat. Car ran a little toon hot,, melted the thermostat, and created a " backup" from the water pump. THe water pump continued pumping, but since the thermostat is now clogged (melted) from overheating (lack of coolant or fans not coming on) the water had no where to run except back out where it came from. Replace Thermostat, "backflush system" (also maybe a symptom). Steam is from overflow onto block, which was hot.. try that..

Frank B