New member, crazy car problem

[Red944]

I've been looking for some advice, and this seems like the best board to ask about it... I've had my 85½ 944 for over a year now and i rebuilt about 400 miles ago (odometer is 180,000). Anyway, a few days ago I was stopped at a light and it started making a new clunking noise and the oil pressure gauge just started jumping up and down like mad while the main red idiot light on the dash flashed on and off. I pulled over and found nothing out of order so I nursed it a couple of miles to my house and it's been sitting for about a week now because I can't figure out what it is. The fuel injectors are working correctly, all cylinders are getting a spark, and the timing belt that got replaced with the rebuild is tensioned and the cam timing is set perfectly. All I can think of is a broken motor mount that would cause that metal to metal clunk but that doesn't seem too likely. Sorry for the loooong post! Thanks for any help also!

[very~worn~944]

Count me as an idiot since it was just rebuilt...but I will bet 3 dollars on the number 2 rod bearing...Who rebuilt the engine...something not torqued correctly...Correct me when I am wrong guys. Sorry to scare you like this.

[Red944]

It had a nice top end rebuild due to 5 bent valves, but since the pistons and rings were in such good condition I didn't bother with the lower end of the engine just yet... I was actually suprised the valves didn't marr the pistons at all. Thanks for the suggestion... New rod and main bearings will be my next project... Has anybody had any luck with oil pan baffles, crank mods or anything like that to extend bearing life??

[todwic]

Mine sounded and acted like that when the rings collapsed in (you guessed it) my #2 cyl.

[Red944]

I think I'm going to take off the oil pan and check the bearings before I do anything else... I checked the oil pressure sender and it had an internal short to ground, so that just had good timing with the big problem. My biggest fear is that a bearing spun and threw metal shavings into the oil and the shavings got into my newly rebuilt port matched and polished head!

[very~worn~944]

whoa whoa whoa...drop the wrench young man. lol(you are porbably much older than me). I would NOT base anything on MY opinion(if you are)...I would wait for more knowledgeable people. I claimed the rod bearing so when someone expirienced like AFjuvat or Todwic, lol, agreed I could laugh and know I predicted it. Course todwics answers are more on the comedy traffic school concept. If you really want to go tear apart you engine go ahead...but it MIGHT be something simplar. IMO taking off the oil pan is a pain in the rear main seal but I have never actually done it yet...just read about it and heard rumors. Damn crossmember. If it is your bearing...expect a long adventure full of cleaning oil gizmos. I asked a question about spinning bearings just a week or so ago...and i got some good replies on what to do....see if ya can find that. I am concidering buying a 951 and fixing a spun bearing...so i am doing alot of research right now. My best option right now is buy a used engine, swap, and then rebuild the old one at my own leasure...with BADASS parts! oh yeah! Anyways...good luck man...and if ya wanna just say "F" it and buy my old 83 944...go ahead.

[Red944]

I've done the oil pan before to inspect the lower end of the engine when I rebuilt the top end. I have a 3pc cross member on the car that the previous owner had installed for some unknown reason (he didn't know how to adjust his seat, much less work on a car). It's only a few hours to pull the pan and check everything out.. I haven't started to work on it yet cuz I have to clean out the garage first (too cold outside), but I want to figure out what is wrong with my engine... In case one of the 944 masters on this board reads this, here are all of the symptoms I got when it started to act up. I'm tech myself (ASE master tech soon I hope) so I can accurately tell what's going on whith the car unlike a lot of people...

Symptoms:
I suspected a problem with the oiling system for about a week
At idle at a light it developed a loud clunk that sounded like my A/C compressor mounting bolts broke again and let the compressor hit things again.
Lack of power from the engine while I limped home.. Horrible throttle response and that AWFUL metal to metal clunk... Sorry this was so long again, but I know a lot of people on this board are ridiculously good wrenches that might be able to help me fix my baby!

[todwic]

I'm no goodwrench by any stretch, but when you have A)Metal to Metal clunk singing a duet with B) Poor throttle response I'm assuming the worst. Unless you got lucky and your throttle body is caught up in a belt and bouncing around your hood, you prolly have a wounded and dying gerbal, as the man with the Brain sig. would say. But I'd wait untill somebody who had the foggiest frick of a notion as to what's going on answered you before I did much of anything. Oft I praddle so.