Another 944 Turbo Engine Rebuild Thread

dlknight · Jul 4, 2025

I then turned my attention to the cooling system and another bit of surface rust on the rear valance. Started with mechanical rust removal using my Black and Decker sanding file and a drill with wire brush attachments. Then cleaned it up and used the Bilt Hamber Deox Gel to remove any remaining rust chemically.

I filled the block up with coolant by sticking a hose into the outlet and filling till it reached the top, the refitted the hoses and filled the coolant reservoir until it came out of the bleed screw, managed to get 8 litres in this way, so hopefully only half a litre or so will be needed to top it up.

I pressure tested the system before I filled with coolant and managed to find a few leaks, one of them necessitated a new hose from Porsche (odd shape and tapered - £30). I did this again once the system was full of coolant and found more leaks which were fixed by tightening hose clamps. Eventually I got it to hold 15 PSI over a couple of hours which was good enough for me.

Kongsodoken · Jul 4, 2025

Looking good - the last bits are the most satisfying

scam75 · Jul 7, 2025

I had to replace that hose too after my rebuild. I ended up ordering a silicon hose with the right size ends and cutting it to suit.

dlknight · 2025-07-26T20:15:44+0100

scam75 said:
I had to replace that hose too after my rebuild. I ended up ordering a silicon hose with the right size ends and cutting it to suit.

I actually did that, but I wasn't happy that the silicone hose was as secure as the rubber one.

Another update from me! almost there, I think I should be at least turning the engine over on the starter to build up oil pressure in the next week or so!

So next steps from the last update was to get the fuel tank fitted and plumbed in. I used some butyl tape I had purchased a while ago to reseal the taillights, (another job for the list that I haven't got around to yet). Then refitted the carpet and seat belt, I thought the seat belt was broken but after doing some detective work, didn't realise it had a tilt mechanism inside it. Once it was properly installed the seat belt started working again, saving me the £100 or so for a new one from Porsche (which I thought was quite reasonable, considering the prices of some of the aftermarket belts from rennline etc.).

I painted the DIY fuel tank strap I made from aluminium strip (unfortunately I had to modify this again later as I'd made it slightly too long and therefore it was a bit slack). The transmission oil cooler also got a lick of new paint.

Meanwhile the heat shields and exhaust had been with Matt at MB Engineering. I had the shields vapour blasted, and the exhaust tailpipe needed welding as it had split from the silencer. Got a bung welded into the exhaust downpipe as well for my wideband sensor.

Started looking in my parts boxes for the exhaust fittings and noticed that the silencer hangers were not in the greatest of condition (even though I'd had them powder coated, I think that was all that was holding them together). After seeing how much Porsche wanted for them, around £30 per hanger (4 of them), I searched the web and found that 944online had new ones for a fraction of the Porsche tax and came with new rubber blocks (my original ones though are still good) for $91 including delivery to the UK (£67 after exchange rate).

dlknight · 2025-07-26T20:37:39+0100

Something that had been bugging me for a while was that some of the interior had overspray from when I had the car resprayed. So I got some white spirit (which didn't work) and then tried some xylene thinners I had for my epoxy paint. This worked great and removed the overspray making the trim look like new. I then immediately washed the trim and treated it to some Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber Care. The other trim pieces that had overspray were the left side door panel and the centre arm rest. I think the bodyshop must have left the trim pieces somewhere where they got sprayed by accident...

I then began gathering the parts for the next job, fitting the transmission!! Trying not to injure myself whilst moving the transmission from the utility room to the garage was interesting, I split it into a two-day activity, moving it to the front hall and then moving to the garage the next day.

Installation was fairly easy; the plastic selector protection tube wasn't too difficult to install. The main issue was trying to fit the transmission between the bell housing and the spare wheel well.

I then completed the Buchanon Automotive gear shifter mod (see the 944 FAQs - https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/threads/the-ba-gear-stick-upgrade.104615/). The shift feel is amazing like a bolt action rifle, can't wait to try it out on the road.

When attaching the shifter rod to the transmission I found a weird modification that must have happened at some point (but not by my hands). Someone had drilled a hole straight through the shifter rod and secured it using an M8 bolt and nut, instead of just the M8 pointy shaped bolt. I also found the hole had an M10 thread, so found an M10 bolt, cut it to size and ground the end into a point to fit in the divot on the shift bar. Drilled the bolt for safety wire and secured it with Loctite.