Guess it's my turn in the barrel... t-belt lost teeth

109er · 06-08-2004, 01:53 PM

After going through various posts here on the board, it seems that one owner's misfortune helps stave off others, so I guess you guys all owe me for taking one for the team...

Bottom line: one halfway bare timing belt in my 87 944S equals:

- eight bent exhaust valves
- chain and tensioner being replaced
- belt tensioner being replaced
- head is ok
- cams apparently ok
- intake valves ok
- pistons ok

The real ***** is, I don't have the time or facility to do it, so Derek at Eurosport is performing the work. Gonna run about $3100.00 US.

Oh yeah, I'm wearing a huge happy face about right now. Gonna go back through the board a couple more times to find the proper tensioning procedure, and ask Santa for a tensioning tool for Christmas.

Lynn

Zeloy · 06-08-2004, 02:12 PM

I feel sorry for you man, that really sucks. Makes my car's small problems seem not so bad! I pray that never happens to me.

TCMdocs944 · 06-08-2004, 02:54 PM

My condolences.....

Not much of a Welcome to the Board!

Been there.....Not with an S though.

SoCal Driver · SoCal Driver's Garage

You don't think the tensioner pad went first and caused the teeth to shear off of the belt?

Darn lucky to not need any cams. Those chain teeth are almost as fragile as the timing belt teeth.

What I find puzzling is that you have been on and off this board since 10-18-2002 and didn't pick up on the need to keep tabs on the 'S' chain tensioner and timing belt.

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

I feel your pain man. just a couple months into my 944 ownership I too joined the Order of the Bent Valve. My damage: ~$2100.
good luck

109er · 06-08-2004, 06:16 PM

Nothing quite like a tall, cool glass of hindsight.

As related to me, the belt was old and worn, which was quite a surprise considering it was allegedly (just love that word) replaced immediately prior to my purchase, according to the docs I got with the car. I've not frequented the board in quite a while, and frankly haven't done a lot of searching on other known issues outside of things I'd experienced. Aaaaaaand, I was under the (mistaken) impression that timing belts were good to at LEAST 45K, usually 60K.

All that aside, you'll note no blame being assigned in my post, just a sense of resignation at an expensive lesson learned. I trust that addresses your puzzlement?

singpilot · 06-08-2004, 07:54 PM

Yeah, usually, the cam chain teeth on one OR BOTH of the cams go on that one, and you DO NOT want to know how much those are.

We NA's 'only' have to pull the one cam with our rubber belts.

The S pulls two cams, with a cam chain tying them together. All with a rubber belt to do the work.

I really wanted one until I looked under that valve cover.

944TurboHB · 06-08-2004, 08:26 PM

I'm about to have my timing belt replaced tomorrow, I will let everyone know how it comes out (crossing fingers). I'm also doing the oil seals and the water pump.

GHEN · GHEN's Garage

Yeah, my timing bely was allegedly done during the top end rebuild about 13K miles ago. Since the f***kers that sold it to me didn't take great care on the rebuild, and the lessons I have taken from this forum is why my engine is going for a rebuild next month...nothing like a known quantity.

GHEN