should I replace small vacuum tubing?
 

As my car is about 19 years old now, I'm wondering about replacing the "small" vacuum tubing that runs all over the engine compartment. What do you think? And, do you have an easy source for ordering? Thanks in advance.
Curtis' 87 944 n/a

Go for it. One less thing to take into consideration while troubleshooting performance issues, and is a cheap thing to do (while giving you the opportunity to intimately learn the connections).

Can pick up all the needed vaccuum tubing (or silicone hose, as is available these days) and necessary connector tees from local autoparts store for around $30.

Lindsey racing has a set of tubing which i just installed and they include metal T's and its about 40$ shipped they auction them off on e-bay you can look there. the hose fit great. replaced all Lil vacuum hoses but the one that goes in firewall to A/C too much work lol used a small zip tie one one of the lines b/c it was a lil loose other than that it was money well spent.

Helped out a lil idle problem i used to have, Still have it but not as bad i'll find it soon

here's the link pick you're color
http://www.lindseyracing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LR&Category_Co de=944VACUUMLINE

AA_Ezra, if you can remember what the Lindsey hose cross section looked like, do you recall how thick the hosing was? I remember reading some bit on arnnworx's site about the vacuum hosing collapsing under vacuum and I'm wondering if something like this hosing on ebay would be a better choice:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-944-Turbo-951-Silicone-Hi-Performance-Hose-BLK_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33553QQitemZ8016612 643QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V

Thanks,
Matt

Give me the Item # because that link is not working plz... Thickness of hose is inside diameter i measeared to be about 1/8 or an inch and the outside diameter is about 3/8 of an inch. Basicaly if you take one of the j-boots off the hard plastic vacuume line thats how thick the tubing is. and the kits comes with a picture of a bacuem line diagram for a turbo.
and heres the technical data on the hose lines posted on there site

" kits contain 25 feet of 5/32" Silicone tubing (-65º F to 350º F maximum operating range) and metal "T"'s. Enough hose and fittings to replace all the hard plastic lines in your engine compartment."
It doesent come with the Big huge cloth covered vacume line's but those arent very long and i've seem them at the autoparts store so that's no biggie. And besides the lindsey kit comes wth METAL t's wich is way cool and wont break or leek :)

Oops, here's the item number: 8024284134

And it seems like they keep reposting it with the same title:
Porsche 944 Turbo 951 Hi Performance Vacuum Hose PURPLE

Obviously, I'm not looking to get purple. I'd probably go with the standard black. I really can't decide if the extra money is worth it to buy the ones on ebay. Plus, I like the idea of getting the metal T's and instructions. Tough call. Have you checked to see if your hoses seem to collapse under vacuum?

I have the hoses bent in almost the same angles as he J-boots but I have not checked if they have collaped under vacuum but i doubt it. I got some extra tubing that i didn't use And I realy have to bend it into a u shape and close the vacuume hose together for it to even pinch.. The stuff is pretty thick. Ill check After i run erronds this morning if there is any vacuum colape to assure that it doesn't. Anywho the Hose thickness is between The kit they sell and the kit other people sell in that picture on the auction. its not skiney and not to thick.

That's the same kit i was lookign at, Pretty expensive then i saw the lindsey kit jumped on it. one trip to the auto parts stor and i can get the rest of the hoses like the ones the ac uses or the big ones from the INtake boot to the Oil filler other then that it does have all the hose you need i have extra even

Sorry for the late response but.... No i havent had any vacuume colape you really gotta pinch the hose with yer fingers if you want it to collaps but as soon as you let it go it snaps back in place

Talking to a Porsche mechanic a few weeks ago I mentioned that I might replace my factory lines with the Lindsey silicone kit and he about bit my head off :p
I'd say stay with OEM/ factory and just fix whatever breaks. Those little hardlines have lasted 15+ years, haven't they? Silicone might not.

What was the reason for almost biting your head off? I was under the impression that silicon was more flexible and would better cope with the extreme heat changes (thus, allowing them to last longer than the normal rubber hoses). If I recall correctly, the hoses on government vehicles (police cars, ambulances, etc.) have silicon hosing because of this reasoning (that they won't harden and crack as easily). Seeing it as a way to reduce costs of maintenance in the long run, I wanted to swap them out. But maybe there's something about silicon hosing that I'm missing?

well, it was more about the factory hardlines being very good quality than the silicone lines being bad. I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this subject (or any for that matter) but it seems to me that porsche had a reason for everything they did on these cars.

i replaced all of mine minus the 3 bigger hoses, which im going to replace when i find some tubing for those, i bought a "value pack" of vacumm fittings.. they are plastic though, i was thinking about casting them in metal

the hose in the back by the firewall, i cant remember if its connected to the oil filler tube or just near it, does anyone know what this goes to?? i saw that this hose was loose when i was redoing the lines, i need to tighten it, didnt look very sealed at all

There is a big vacuum hose that goes from top of filler tube ( rear engine ) to a fitting that goes into the Intake boot.

That tubing wasn't so hard 20 years ago, and it cooks until it gets brittle, and can beak just by touching it. I've used soft rubber vac tubing from the auto parts store with good results on my 928 and plan to use the same stuff on the 944. All the basic technology and some of the parts are quite similar between the two cars. No vac collapse, as it really takes a LOT of vac to do that.

regards, P

I've just replaced the Y and U rubber end fittings and some of the plastic tubing. Parts cost less than $30 locally. Bought stock end fittings. Plastic tubing is at Pep Boys. Requires hanging with a weight and some heating with a hot air gun to straighten.

Two "Y"s 928-573-727-02 and three "U"s 928-574-717-02 for the 83.

For those with the silicon hoses, did you place clamps of any sort where the small diameter hoses connected with hard pipes or did you expect that the hose would stay on on its own0?