I think I am in trouble!

[Scott R]

Took my 951 for a short drive this morning, and it died. Weh it dies I saw a tony of brown smoke out the back as I coasted to a stop. Then when I tried to turn it over again it just backfires. I can see the timing belt in the inspection window and it's connected. But there is a chance that it could have slipped since I just put the belts it. Any ideas? And if it did slip I am assuming that I need to pull the head and replace the valves correct?

[Booster]

Scott I had my 951 do the same thing one time, take your distributor cap off slowly and check the rotor inside, it sounds like the retainer screw has come out of the rotor and if your not careful when pulling off the cap you will loose the screw and that thing is pretty small. I hope that is it and nothing bad anywhere else as it is a easy fix. I have read that there is no way for the belt to slip, you would have to mess the teeth of the belt up really bad to do that.

[wolfrpi]

did you rotate the engine backwards to tension the belt?

[Lawrence Coppari]

Put it in neutral with ignition off and turn the crank pully with a wrench to see if you have compression. Turn it two complete turns so you can feel compression from every cylinder. If you have compression 4 times during the rotation, I doubt you bent valves and your problem is elsewhere. Good luck.

[Craig944[951]]

I'm with lawerence, if you bent a valve, it'll come to an abrubt stop or you won't get any compression, I had a similar incident w/ my 944 n/a.

[Scott R]

OH YEA! It was just the rotor screw! And yes I did reverse the engine and tension the belt again! Oh this is a happy day! Now I just need a new screw...

[Lawrence Coppari]

A new screw is always a good thing to have.

[Joeblow944]

or a good one

[Booster]

Did you take it off the way I posted? I knew that was what was wrong, it scared the crap out of me when it happened.

[wolfrpi]

glad to hear it worked out Scott!

[Scott R]

No, actually like a moron I removed everything else first. Timing covers and all. The very last thing I did was remove the cap and rotor. But on goes the saga. Since I was under the car again I noticed that the oil pan gasket has started to hemmorage, so I will be doing that this week.

[PrerYDoG]

How hard is the proceedure for the oil pan gasket?

Keep notes, I need to do this soon I think.

[Scott R]

I am not sure. I was going to drop the crossmemeber, support the engine and drop the pan. Looked easy enough. I'll snap some pics and try and write down my steps.

[Lawrence Coppari]

Check Paragon Products web site on the subject of changing rod bearings. You have to remove pan to do that. They have step by step complete instructions to remove pan.

[JuiceMan]

Whew! Glad you figured it out.

[Scott R]

Damn, do you seriously have to reomve the crossover pipe? This is a real nightmare on my 87'. If thats the case I may let it leak for a while. I did that when I replaced the turbo and I never want to do it again.

[Lawrence Coppari]

Scott, let me look at it tonight. I just got the pan back on last night. I'll see if the pan can come off without removing the crossover. Mine is not hard to get off. It may be that you cannot get the oil pickup to pass through the windage tray with the crossover pipe in place. Like I said, will eyeball tonight.

[Scott R]

Great thanks!

[Lawrence Coppari]

Scott, I'm sorry to tell you but I seriously doubt you can remove the pan without taking the crossover pipe off. You have to wiggle the pan to get it to clear the oil pickup. I think the crossover is in the way.

[Scott R]

Oh well thanks. I guess that means 4 new intake gaskets and 5 hours of back-breaking labor. Oh well it's a labor of love right?