Its Alive - Sorta.

[Ozark Lee]

An update on the progress on getting my daughter’s 944 up and running after being parked for 8 years.

I changed out the timing and balance shaft belts. In the process of clearing stuff out of the way to get to it the J boot fell apart so I ordered a new J boot, AFM gasket, and throttle body O ring. Cleaned all of the crap out of the throttle body and got it to work smoothly, I also got the idle switch set correctly. Replaced the plugs, wires, cap and rotor.

It was a good thing I pulled the timing belts since the water pump was frozen. I used a pipe wrench on the beveled part on the front of the pulley to free it up and it now turns smoothly. During the very limited run time it didn’t leak but I think it is officially on the list for replacement.

Since the DME was missing, I picked a DME on eBay and then pulled the injectors and cleaned them up and replaced the seals. They were in just awful shape.

After pulling the fuel rail I noticed that the vacuum lines below the intake manifold were a melted glob. They were so melted that I couldn't really figure out which line went where but I took my best guess and cut the old lines out, leaving 1 1/2" or so at each end and then re-plumbed it with standard vacuum line. I think I got it right but I'm not 100% sure. I found a vacuum line diagram on Clarks and I will recheck them.

The car will start but reluctantly and with a shot of ether. Once it starts it runs very smooth and sounds great. I sure wish that the fuel rail had a standard schrader valve on the end of the fuel rail.

The next problem is the quart or so of oil per minute that it pumps out onto the number one cylinder header. I think I located the leak at the cam tower gasket so I fired up a Pelican Parts order for a new cam tower gasket, a new rear cover gasket, and just for grins a set of intake manifold gaskets.

I've read a few threads on the cam tower gasket changes and quick failures afterwards. What would you folks suggest for gasket sealer to do it right?

I plan on changing out the gasket this weekend.

TIA,

...Lee

[Icey1174]

Get a new water pump! Get a rebuilt for $125. There's a post on here about the rebuilts. Nobody has had a problem on that thread yet. I am happy with mine. That pump is run by your timing belt. One small freeze up problem and you could lose your belt and the valves and the pistons. All this time and effort would be a horriable waste.

I did my cam gaset and my rear cam tower gasket about 2 months ago. The job went real smooth. I followed Clark's the the "T" and everything is good!

Put the rear gasket on once the cam is off. Make sure the gasket stays very clean (wash your hands before you put it together) and make sure both mating surfaces are very clean. There are three screws and 3 lock washers. I would buy three new lock washers. There is only 6 lbs of torque on those screws and those lock washers will help keep tension on the screws so they do not back out. Some people use RVT. I am not a big fan of it when you have it this opened up to work on. There should be no problems for a long time if it's a good clean instill with the lock washers.

Clean the mating surface on the head and the cam housing very well. They need to be clean and smooth before you put it back together. Keep an eye on the lifters, they like to fall out. Just keep track of which one falls where. You'll prob lose 2 or 3. 4 on a bad day. I got a nice little nylon wheel to put on my drill to clean off the old gasket. I did not scrape any of it and it shined the mating surfaces up real nice. I got as much oil out of the cam as I could before I put it back together so I was not dripping oil all over the new gasket. Everything went to gether reasonably well.

I would not use a gasket sealer here. The factory didn't. If you do it right and clean you should have no problems.

Those vac lines might be the ones for you fuel pressure regulator and or fuel damper.

While you have the fuel rail off CHECK the fuel hose from the rail to the fule damper. They had a safety recall years ago. All the heat from the cam housing causes them to dry rot, crack, and bubble. A broken fuel hose there could me a fire or an explosion. Mine was real bad, but only on the underside that you could not see while it was in the car. I caught mine just in time! I would hate to see a car get damaged or see someone get hurt. So I tell everone about it.

Change the oil while you're there too.