Early head on late 944

[RichardB1]

Hello all, long time lurker first time poster. Hope I am doing this right.

I recently slipped a timing belt and bent several valves on my late (87) n/a car. A friend donated a lower mileage head from an early car (83-84 I believe) which is in much better condition. However, the early head had a single bent valve. I pulled the valves from my late head and compared them to the early and they seem significantly different.

My question is if there is any reason I couldn’t replace the single bent valve on the early head and use it on the late block. Will the difference in compression be an issue etc…

I know it probably isn’t advised to do this at all but seeing how much better condition the early head is, I’d like to see if it’s possible. It would save me quite a bit on valves.

Attached is a photo of the valves I pulled. The left being the bent valve from the early head and the right being a valve from the one that came off my car.

Finally, I don’t believe the valves on the early head are aftermarket but the history isn’t really know and they may be. Please let me know if any clarification or more info is needed.


Thanks guys!!

[944 Ecology]

No pictures found.

If you have a good valve, swap it out, then check that it seals properly by placing the head upside down (with combustion chamber on top), fill the combustion chamber with water, and see if it leaks. You may have to use valve grinding compound to make the seal perfect.

[Monkey Wrench]

no he said the valves are significantly different.
I think his question was can he use a early style head on his later block.

if you compare the head gasket , does everything line up?
is that later block also a larger displacement? larger bore?

others can advise better on this.

[cfassett]

I had this happen on a 951 I had previously. I fixed it myself, instead of taking it to a machine shop. Turned out pretty good, but had slightly lower compression on one cylinder. Later I burned an exhaust valve at the track and had to do a full rebuild of the engine.

I dont know if that one cylinder was the one with the burnt valve. But did I regret not just taking it to the machine shop and letting them at least look it over? You bet I did.