That “free” 924S - the one which I’d advertised here for a friend awhile back but got not bites…is now sitting in my garage up on my lift. My original intention (at least as of a few days ago), was to harvest the engine and transmission…and let the rest go for scrap. A brief perusal of a few of the photos I ran with the original ad would seem to support this plan:
But - now that things have become a bit more “up close and personal” between myself and this car…I’m finding myself having a really hard time thinking about letting it go.
Thing is, what a little more digging around has revealed…is that the car has not run in at least twenty years (more on this below) - thus making the 68K miles on the ODO believable.
Furthermore, while the guards red paint is quite faded and chalky (plus the dashboard is toast - must’ve sat out in the sun), the interior very dusty and the engine bay greasy and dirty - there is no sign of interior mold or mildew, nor is the carpeting otherwise even that dirty, and aside from obviously rusted (but replaceable) components like struts and the like, and that rusty/dented fender, plus a bent front stabilizer drop-link and dented lower front facia - the chassis itself exhibits very little rust and looks to be very straight.
But what’s the deal with this car - why did it sit idle for so long? Well, I’ve discovered a broken, frayed, and de-toothed timing belt. This, along with having been told that the cylinder head had been worked on (indeed it appears to have some new valves), clearly indicates a past t-belt failure…and I’m quite certain that a previous owner, despite having made some effort to begin the repair process, ultimately gave up on this car and let it sit.
Right now I’m in the process of removing the engine (have just drained the oil - absolutely no metal bits present!)…and I’m very eager to get a good look at its insides. My thought (and hope) is that as a low mileage engine, its quite possible (both despite and because of the early t-belt failure) that it will be in great overall condition. The lower deck of the cylinder head, by the way, shows absolutely no sign of warpage, nor has it been machined.
As for my recent post about the engine being “stuck”…with the oil pan interfering with the crossmember (pulling engine out the top), and the bellhousing hung up on the torque tube - I pretty sure I can solve this by pulling the tranny (which I want to do anyway)…after which I should be able to pull the torque-tube back enough so its front end should clear the bell housing. Again, my goal is to leave the suspension and crossmember alone for now, so I can roll the car out of the garage for a bit while I dig into the engine.
Oh…and about that faded paint? Well, as luck would have it, I’d recently purchased a pretty complete paint correction/polishing kit from Chemical Guys - having thought that my ‘87NA 944 could use a bit of sprucing up. Thing is, the paint on that car is actually in nice shape…and thus I’d been feeling despondent about having “wasted” the funds for that CG kit. Well…looks like I’ll now be able to put this kit to great use!
The beauty of this situation is that I really don’t need this car - so my goal will be to have it become a long term “budget build.” This actually seems reasonable to me because I’ve got a number of used but good components leftover from my ‘87NA rebuild - parts (clutch, water pump and front rollers, tires, etc.) that I could have left alone but went ahead and replaced because that car is my daily driver. I also am thinking that I may not need to completely rebuild this (924S) engine, but will instead reseal it.
At any rate…I’ll post some more recent photos as well as updates soon. Do keep in mind that its very unlikely that my postings will ever be in the same league as those from John Jefferies, SilverLined, et al…but I’ll do my best!