Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Ah yes I like your thoughts of replacing the guts however I can say that the 6 valve centres are stagged in hence these have to be ground away to dismantle, but the smaller 16 valve ones are held in by a clip similar to a circlip and can be smartly tapped to remove.
I have cleaned mine in petrol and the varnish that had been on them is gone.
If it does not work an Italian tune up might do the trick

I am finding the Porsche mentality to engine detail amusing as I have never worked on these engines before.
Everything is huge and over engineered seeming to be made from granite but sadly little 8 mm bolts are in the mix and a couple have broken. The good bit is there are no scratches or excessive bore wear and the valve gear is in rude health so a careful reassembly should do the trick after a light head skim.

Recently I have worked on my turbo MX5 engine (kit car) and these are little jewels and easy to work on and completely different in design thinking.

Well I have been a learning about 944 engines I found that despite the high mileage (165 k) the engine is in rude health and just needed valves cleaning and a bit of a lap and cleaning the lifters of course.
Head with a light skim.

The fun started when I went to buy a head gasket set, with a list of £140 its pricey but local supplier said he can get it in for £68 plus VAT however it will take 5 weeks as no stock I agree because there are lots of jobs. I then change my mind and find a local supplier at £107 and here in the morning so I say okay and pick it up and go straight to my first supplier for the belts, sensors etc. Obviously you have guessed first supplier proudly declares "I have your gasket set" to which my head drops as I now dont want it!
I ended up taking the first ordered (and cheaper) and the other supplier kindly took it back with no charge. They were both Victor Reinz sets and seem very good quality.

Now I start retorqueing the head down and take the figures from a book written by a chap called Peter Morgan titled "The Porsche 924/944 Book" which is no surprise.
In this book he claims torque figures of 1st 15 lb then 68 lb and finally 115lb!!!!! now I have built a few engines and alarm bells are ringing, these figures are way too high. so I go on line and have settled for . 1st 25lb 2nd 45lb and finally 65 lb (I went a tad higher actually).
What do you guys think?

It's all in the the workshop manual, I'm sure for the 968 it's a NM amount then a number of degrees rather than torque.

I'm sure I read somewhere that the studs and nuts should be replaced

In the BMW 320Si engine I have just helped rebuild even the sump bolts were stretch bolts, total madness

yes the updated factory method on all 944 engines is 15ft.lbs then two stages of 90 deg angle of turns to complete.

Dug this out from years ago when I replaced the lifters in my S2 with ones from a Golf GTI and yes the S2 hydraulic tappets are different to those in the 8v

I bought a set of VW Golf GTI hydraulic tappets new from VW 16 for £73 and measuring them compared to the originals it seems the only difference is the oil hole location, I am having them fitted this week and next and have asked the mechanic to fit one tappet into the head with the cam installed and pressurize the tappet to ensure it fits against the valve head and cam profile i.e. that the valve closes, if it turns out the internal pistons are making the tappets too long when pressurized I will have the tappets machined down to fit but all the measurements taken so far seem positive and they are a nice tight fit into the head.

I have tried secondhand Porsche units only to have them fail quickly and the cost of INA Porsche replacements is very high. The VW units I bought are made by INA same as the replacement Porsche ones.

The Porsche unit for the S2 is 928.105.312.02 the VW part number was 050.109.309.J which from memory has been superseded by (H)

These were a good fit in the head and ran for around 6 months limited mileage as I had problems (not tappet related) but they ran fine pumped up and were quiet plus like I said they were the same manufacturer as the Porsche ones at a fraction of the cost.

Well it took time because frankly the 944 is on the back burner and I finally fired it up today and the rattle is still there and does seem to be in the top and now I suspect a balance shaft bearing is causing the noise.
I will remove the drive belt and start the engine to prove it.
I am not a happy bunny.