[honerboys]

well my son and i finally got the engine transplanted from our 83 944 parts car into the the 85 that had a blown engine - it went pretty well and the car is up and running - my sons face sank when DAD forgot to attach the coil wire and then switched the 1-2 spark plug wires - there are a couple of things though (there always are) - the PO had hard wired a switch for the cooling fans bypassing the sensor on the radiator so it heats up pretty fast - we'll tackle that later on as the car is parked now until we can strip the parts car and get it out of the garage - while we had the engine out we put in a new clutch and timing and balance belts - the questions we had for you helpful folks out there are:

is the clutch on these cars always so soft - i mean with the spring on the pedal it's like it's almost to easy to press it to the floor - it seems to operate fine just not a lot of feel there - is this normal?

also if you rev the engine at standstill (something i'm trying to discourage him from doing) - as the engine returns to idle there is a dip in rpms - about 1-2 hundred and then it pops right back to a steady idle - not a big deal but i did notice it

we hand adjusted the timing and balance belts (at least for now) - the balance belt has a whiny sound which i understand is sort of normal - it seemed a little loud to me so we loosened the belt up a bit and it did quiet it a bit - still seems loud to me though - the belt does have slack and i can see it vibrate a little when the engine is running - does it need to wear into the sprockets a little while before we try adjusting it again?

anyway my son and i are happy to be in the Porsche "club" now that we have a running car - my thanks to all on this site that gave advice - it is much appreciated - maybe we can pass on some of the stuff we've learned to others like hook up the coil wire before trying to start the car