What where they thinking?

[dgcantrell]

I got my 944 N/A back in February of 1992. A few days later, a former high school Biology teacher of mine snagged an '87 944S. Both of them were red on black. Identical to the uninitiated. It was funny when I pulled up to the Post Office that first week and parked next to his. He came out of the Post Office to see that his car had reproduced in that couple of minutes he was away. The look on his face was priceless.

Anyway, a couple or three months later in the summer, we were both at a function where we able to pop the hoods and kick the tires and talk about the cars. One thing that stuck out that has always puzzled me about the 16-valve engines. What the hell was Porsche thinking with that TAN color on the valve cover and instake? My 88 S that I picked up last year (that I'm hopefully going to get running after the oil cooler replacement went south on me) had been painted a God awful dark blue/purple color but you can still see bits of the Tan color on it. I plan on later on removing the intake and valve cover and powder coating them silver. May do the valve cover in red but...

Anyway.. Tan? Such an agressive color, no?

[Techno Duck]

While i couldnt tell you why, the tan color is almost the standard for any magnesium part (Yes the valve cover on the 16v is magnesium). Check out the intake manifold on the turbo cup, BMW valve covers, Mercedes valve covers, old Vette's...all have the same finish.

Anyhow if you powder coat the valve cover, make sure you tell the place its made out of Mg. They will need to do a little extra prep work for a good finish due to how porous the Mg is.

[commdiver]

Yes it might be more cost effective fo you to get a good core valve cover thats not painted as the magnesium especially on the inside of engine where hot oil has been on it for 25 years is porous and almost powdery, you can literally keep scratching it until it is very thin. So best not to mess with inside and media blast is the only way to go for stripping just make sure they use walnut shells!

Also the S intake manifolds are very bizzare and complicated to work around. Alot of folks with s motors opt for using a aluminum S2 intake manifold, throttle body, throttle cable, intake boot and airbox. The AFM is the same so you just need the intake and parts around it with airbox all factory that work perfect and are good for a few extra HP along the way.

[dgcantrell]

Oops.. I didn't mean to post this in the Parts Forum. But since we're here.

I'll be doing the powder coating. I understand the magnesium is delicate and will probably be using baking soda to clean the parts when I do. There's really not much of the original tan finish on the parts anymore. I'm going to replace the cam gear cover with the aluminum units available from one of the several aftermarket makers.

I've not taken the valve cover off to see what the insides look like just yet. Hopefully the oil vapor inside the engine has coated it and prevented too much corrosion. I'll powdercoat it inside and out if it's suitable.

[v2rocket_aka944]

...if interested in an S2 intake manifold i have one available at $150 shipped in USA...




also a popular trick to prepare the mag stuff for paint is to clean them with vinegar to clear oxidation off the raw mag surface.

[dgcantrell]

I'll have to pass for now. Very tempting though. It'll be a while before I'm ready to make the swap. I'm just wanting to get the car mobile for further work for now.'

Did they go back to aluminum on the S2's?

[v2rocket_aka944]

S2 got aluminum intake mani. but the valve cover is the same mag part as the S.