Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

My '83 944 always runs extremely hot. I have flushed and reverse flushed the rad, with no noticeable improvement. I have been advised that overheating can be a sign of imminent head gasket failure - can anyone here confirm that ?

it is very common for the water temp sensor to be F***d and show hot, sometimes it can be a bad earth but usually changing the sensor is required.

I have a dodgy one on one of my 924S's, quite weirdly it recently started to behave itself for a few months and has started to play up again.

I flushed the system refilled with blue premix and Frost's Staycool which has definately lowered the running temp slightly. My previous engine had run with a blown head gasket at some time and the bores were badly scored, so be careful. The gauge contacts can get a bit dirty according to Clarke's and give faulty readings. Pressure cap was also goosed so I was getting a regular slight coolant loss.

I also have an 83.

The gauge reads ok i think. It normally doesnt go much over a quarter on the temp gauage. It runs mint.

This is my first 944 though and i always think it seems hot. The fan always comes on after ive stopped which i believe to be normal. Just always thought the temp gauge should be reading higher than it does.

Have you checked / replaced the thermostat to make sure it's opening properly?

I went through this with my '86 last year. Turned out that the timing belt was a little lose and was slipping past the waterpump instead of spinning it. The early cars dont have a self tensioner, the belt tension needs to checked and set manually. After I re-tensioned the belt the car ran significantly cooler and I could stop having anxiety attacks everytime the traffic stopped

How old is the radiator?

If it's original I'd be tempted to change it. Even on an '05 Mondeo V6 with clean coolant (it was spotless when it came out) changing the radiator made a marked difference to the cooling ; they do clog up inside over time.

Otherwise I'd say thermostat or temperature sensor. I also wouldn't rule out the cluster pins being dirty assuming the car is otherwise running cool visually.