lucky escape...? and advice please...

[robwright]

Lol here we go to quote Oli of recent another can of worms opened. IMHO the belts can be used again no problem as long as their condition is good. As for the rollers my view is if it aint broken then don't fix it. By doing the water pump the belts will have to come off so the rollers can be inspected. If they look and fell good then I wouldn't change them but that is just me. I am sure others would disagree.

 

[944 man]

Id disagree with Rob with regards to actually re-using the belts: theyre cheap so theres no need not to replace them (and new belts give you a proper service date too). The rollers may or may not need replacing - this takes an experienced hand to know. The same can be said of the water pump too; so whether theyre any better than that, I wouldnt like to say..... If youre in the middle of the country then Id recommend PHSportscars / Kirkman Motor Engineers, in Shardlow, just South of Derby. The garage is run my a fellow called Simon, who is a factory trained technician. The labour rates only £35(exc.) an hour and you can be assured that he will be able to tell whether he can re-use your rollers or not. Simon

 

[alwigley]

Unless you know the age of the rollers don't take the risk - cost me 4 bent valves and a lot of grief...... Don't think the coolant will have hurt them, but they are supposed to be change every other belt change. The belt is debatable as already discussed, but they are inexpensive, and delays the time to next belt change by replacing with new, so I would simply change it...... peanuts compared to the cost of the waterpump - I feel for you []

 

[doctor924]

Hello everyone

Hopefully I had a lucky escape today....!
Driving on A road, doing 60 or so and noticed temp gauge climbing quickly..
Full interior heat on and pulled over asap - needle just touched red section of temp gauge.
A nosey under the bonnet revealed all coolant gone! I saw no white smoke out the back which would suggest a head gasket problem, and no apparent failed hose.
AA chap arrive shortly thereafter and with fresh coolant in and a few seconds of running - it would seem my waterpump has failed big time. We both agreed I was lucky the belts hadn't slipped with all the water that must have been gushing out of the cam belt covers!
So - I guess I'll need a new waterpump and gasket - what about rollers? and belts? (Belts were new about 8 months ago and have <2Kmiles on them - can I reuse them at all?) - what else will I need to renew?
Advice welcome!!
Thanks
Ian
(89 2.7 model)

 

[doctor924]

Thanks guys - I'll have to strip it down at the weekend and have a good look round the front of the engine. A quick look round the prices of parts (between £300-£400) - and oddly, the economics of a repair are comparable to picking up a known engine with history and for me to fit that instead.... Just a tad concerned that I didn;t cook the engine!!

 

[944 man]

You can buy a Laso 2.7/3.0 water pump for about £170 if you look hard enough. Steve Cheetham (ex Lodge Sports) has a couple of 2.7 engines on eBay at the moment which might suit you. His username is something similar to steve26c. Simon

 

[doctor924]

Thanks for that - I'm looking at the engines too....

 

[doctor924]

Update - stripped front of engine and my waterpump had seized. On removing it, the impellar was in three parts! So - that would account for the overheating. Butwhere would my coolant have gone? There was some coolant around the engine front but nothing substantial and its not 'in the engine'....Any ideas? Thanks Ian

 

[doctor924]

Update - well all assembled again, new pump, new pump-radiator hose (mine was a bit swollen), swapped in a new seal on the bottom balance shaft (which seemed to have a persistent oil leak) and one new tensioning sprocket (for balance belt). All other seals looked OK. Oddly I had ordered a new cambelt but this was a good inch too long to fit - i.e. even when installed and the tensioner at maximum - it would not fit , so had to reuse the older belt for now. I;m wondering if I got an 'S' belt in error - are these a bit longer? ALl back together - coolant added - had one drip from the pump take off hose that I fixed with a new O ring seal. And this leads me to a question - on the pump I removed, this take off was blanked off, yet on the 2.7 pump I received, this was a functional feed. To me it makes more sense to have this open than not (and why provide a hose for it otherwise?). Both pumps had 2.7 stamped on them, although the new one seemed to have a later version number next to it...? Car fired up OK and ran without undue noise or apparent leak. I lessened the tension a bit on the balance belt to remove the whine I had before- and it sounds better now. Will take for a drive later to make sure all is actually well....! thanks ian

 

[TTM]

The timing belt for the 16V engines is noticeably wider than the timing belt for the 8V engines because it has more valve springs to work against, so if the new one you received is longer but of the same width as your old belt, then maybe it's not even a 944 belt?! In those days I wouldn't pay too much attention on the stamping on the new pumps. The new ones I saw recently didn't have any 2.5 or 2.7 stamping. What matters instead is the diameter of the impeller, which is noticeably bigger on the 104mm bore engines (2.7/S2/968), and I believe the "2.5" and "2.7" stampings were introduced back then so that people could make the difference between the two model of pumps, as maybe not everyone was aware that the difference lied in the impeller's diameter. Today I'm pretty sure the same mould is used to make both pumps. On the back of the pump there is in fact a small recess that is machined on the casting to make the "2.7" pump otherwise the larger impeller wouldn't fit. At last but not least, I heard that some of the new pumps now came with the impeller made of plastic - I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, as there is a strong risk that the impeller will seize. 928 water pumps have been afflicted with that major fault since they came out. Was the broken impeller on your old pump made of plastic?

 

[Mike_Pollock]

All the belts on all the 944 versions are the same length but the width varies. The water pumps are different, the 2.5 impellor sticks further into the block recess than the 2.7/3.0ones and will bind with probable damage if used with the later block. Possibly what has happened here. The 2.7 should have the extra fitting on the front as that is where the header tank connects, another pointer to the wrong pump being previously fitted.

 

[doctor924]

Thanks for the reply - so still a bit confused with the belt. I;ll check that. The failed pump was stamped 2.7l - so I am assuming it was correct although the take off from it to the expansion tank was blanked - which seems wrong...

 

[Mike_Pollock]

So where is the expansion tank routed from? Must say every engine I look closely at seems to have different water pipes and breathers!