Well ......
- Thread starter wizard
- Start date
A few weeks ago returning home along the M3, I started to accelerate gently up to 80 mph, there was a very large white flash from behind me accompanied with a very loud backfire. The car started to fire on only 3 cylinders, I glanced at the temperature guage, all was ok I decelerated to 40/50mph I started to contemplate wether to pull over or wait for normal firing to return.
I was about 20 miles from home, wet, cold, very windy and dark. I decided to limp back and take a chance.
The first thing that went through my mind was the head gasket, but temperature was fine and no steam from behind, although hard to see with spray from the road.
I arrived home and in the morning inspected under the bonnet and found black oily water between the spark plugs. I checked the coolant expecting to see oil in there too, but no it was fine. Around the rim of the exhaust there was oil.
I rang Promax and 9xx for any suggestions, the guys were very helpful but Promax were very eager to get the car back to investigate as they had done ALOT of work January last year and wanted to be sure there was nothing that could be attributed to their work. I had not had a chance to do a compression test to see if it was the rings or anything worse before the car went off last week back up to Brackley. Today Roger broke the bad news.
I had crossed off the list the head gasket
I suspected may be an exhaust valve had broken -
I also thought it may have been the Turbo oil seals but the worst I suspected was a holed piston.
It appears that the number 4 piston has broken itself and badly scored the block, disintegrating the spark plug.
The other 3 cylinders are fine, no scoring and spark plugs show now evidence of overfuelling, detonation or such like.
Its a real shame, the car was performing extremely well and producing some good figures on the dyno. 315 bhp/330tq
The car is not A1 condition but has no rust in the cills/sills. Interior soft leather and is better than most.
Promax had done the following work only 3000 miles ago
New clutch - Spec2
New metal brake lines
New complete fuel lines
New LR Dual Port WG
Promax 2 chip
Greddy Electronic Boost enhancer
New valve stem oil seals
Injectors
Belts
Balance shaft bearings
Rear Engine oil seal
I thought I had covered off most of the usual problems and expected at least a few years before any more work.
It now looks extremely likley that this 88 TurboS has come to the end of its life ..... I cannot afford anymore money intothis car. I have spent in the region of £8.5k in three years maintaining it and this is it sad to say. I would dearly love to take the opportunity for a 3.2 but no such luck .....
I'm off to go and have a little cry now ....
bye [
]
I was about 20 miles from home, wet, cold, very windy and dark. I decided to limp back and take a chance.
The first thing that went through my mind was the head gasket, but temperature was fine and no steam from behind, although hard to see with spray from the road.
I arrived home and in the morning inspected under the bonnet and found black oily water between the spark plugs. I checked the coolant expecting to see oil in there too, but no it was fine. Around the rim of the exhaust there was oil.
I rang Promax and 9xx for any suggestions, the guys were very helpful but Promax were very eager to get the car back to investigate as they had done ALOT of work January last year and wanted to be sure there was nothing that could be attributed to their work. I had not had a chance to do a compression test to see if it was the rings or anything worse before the car went off last week back up to Brackley. Today Roger broke the bad news.
I had crossed off the list the head gasket
I suspected may be an exhaust valve had broken -
I also thought it may have been the Turbo oil seals but the worst I suspected was a holed piston.
It appears that the number 4 piston has broken itself and badly scored the block, disintegrating the spark plug.
The other 3 cylinders are fine, no scoring and spark plugs show now evidence of overfuelling, detonation or such like.
Its a real shame, the car was performing extremely well and producing some good figures on the dyno. 315 bhp/330tq
The car is not A1 condition but has no rust in the cills/sills. Interior soft leather and is better than most.
Promax had done the following work only 3000 miles ago
New clutch - Spec2
New metal brake lines
New complete fuel lines
New LR Dual Port WG
Promax 2 chip
Greddy Electronic Boost enhancer
New valve stem oil seals
Injectors
Belts
Balance shaft bearings
Rear Engine oil seal
I thought I had covered off most of the usual problems and expected at least a few years before any more work.
It now looks extremely likley that this 88 TurboS has come to the end of its life ..... I cannot afford anymore money intothis car. I have spent in the region of £8.5k in three years maintaining it and this is it sad to say. I would dearly love to take the opportunity for a 3.2 but no such luck .....
I'm off to go and have a little cry now ....
bye [
]
hartge bob
New member
Jason,
Very sorry to hear that []
Do Roger and Andy have any theories on what may have caused it?
Very sorry to hear that [
]Do Roger and Andy have any theories on what may have caused it?
Trackrod944
New member
My commiserations; I know the feeling only too well, only more so, albeit not with a 944 . . . . . a few years ago I was very involved with de Tomaso's especially the Pantera, and had an endurance racing clone on which I had spent rather a lot of money. One sunny afternoon at Goodwood, pulling around 6500 in top, a core plug gave way, the engine gave out clouds of steam, and I immediately switched off. No drama, bangs, crashes or dramas, just a sudden very loud hiss, and steam everywhere. On replacing the faulty, split item, we proceeded to refill the cooling system, and it was then that we realised that something might be amiss, when the engine appeared to accept rather a lot of liquid, which began running out of the exhausts. Following an overnight strip-down, the sump, appeared to be full of shale, but was in fact shattered cylinder liners, and the full extent of what happens to a 5.9 litre, heavily tweaked V8, when a valve head comes off at 6 grand plus was only too visible. It sliced the piston in two, snapped the con-rod, bent it's opposite number 'S'shaped, split the head, broke the cam in 3 places, smashed the block, wrecked the crank, and 6 of the 8 pistons. Sounds simple enough, but it was like looking at the result of a bomb going off. The engine was replaced, the car sold, and then bagan my affair with 911's, but that's another story.
924nutter
PCGB Member
omg[ORIGINAL: wizard
A few weeks ago returning home along the M3, I started to accelerate gently up to 80 mph, there was a very large white flash from behind me accompanied with a very loud backfire. The car started to fire on only 3 cylinders, I glanced at the temperature guage, all was ok I decelerated to 40/50mph I started to contemplate wether to pull over or wait for normal firing to return.
I was about 20 miles from home, wet, cold, very windy and dark. I decided to limp back and take a chance.
The first thing that went through my mind was the head gasket, but temperature was fine and no steam from behind, although hard to see with spray from the road.
I arrived home and in the morning inspected under the bonnet and found black oily water between the spark plugs. I checked the coolant expecting to see oil in there too, but no it was fine. Around the rim of the exhaust there was oil.
I rang Promax and 9xx for any suggestions, the guys were very helpful but Promax were very eager to get the car back to investigate as they had done ALOT of work January last year and wanted to be sure there was nothing that could be attributed to their work. I had not had a chance to do a compression test to see if it was the rings or anything worse before the car went off last week back up to Brackley. Today Roger broke the bad news.
I had crossed off the list the head gasket
I suspected may be an exhaust valve had broken -
I also thought it may have been the Turbo oil seals but the worst I suspected was a holed piston.
It appears that the number 4 piston has broken itself and badly scored the block, disintegrating the spark plug.
The other 3 cylinders are fine, no scoring and spark plugs show now evidence of overfuelling, detonation or such like.
Its a real shame, the car was performing extremely well and producing some good figures on the dyno. 315 bhp/330tq
The car is not A1 condition but has no rust in the cills/sills. Interior soft leather and is better than most.
Promax had done the following work only 3000 miles ago
New clutch - Spec2
New metal brake lines
New complete fuel lines
New LR Dual Port WG
Promax 2 chip
Greddy Electronic Boost enhancer
New valve stem oil seals
Injectors
Belts
Balance shaft bearings
Rear Engine oil seal
I thought I had covered off most of the usual problems and expected at least a few years before any more work.
It now looks extremely likley that this 88 TurboS has come to the end of its life ..... I cannot afford anymore money intothis car. I have spent in the region of £8.5k in three years maintaining it and this is it sad to say. I would dearly love to take the opportunity for a 3.2 but no such luck .....
I'm off to go and have a little cry now ....
bye [
]
Diver944
Active member
Commiserations Jason [&o]
When I was weighing up my options 18 months ago the absolute cheapest way to get back on the road was a secondhand engine. Okay it's an unknown quantity, but there is always the possibility of picking one up for £500-£1000 plus fitting costs.
I would bung SimonP an email and see if he has anything in his workshop, he doesn't just do fire breating 3.2 widowmakers
When I was weighing up my options 18 months ago the absolute cheapest way to get back on the road was a secondhand engine. Okay it's an unknown quantity, but there is always the possibility of picking one up for £500-£1000 plus fitting costs.
I would bung SimonP an email and see if he has anything in his workshop, he doesn't just do fire breating 3.2 widowmakers
pauljmcnulty
Active member
Nightmare Jason - and after all that work! []
It does sound like, with the new bits that weren't damaged and the spec and condition of the car, it's a perfect project for a donor engine. If you want to cut your losses, maybe someone else would want to take it on?
]It does sound like, with the new bits that weren't damaged and the spec and condition of the car, it's a perfect project for a donor engine. If you want to cut your losses, maybe someone else would want to take it on?
I could have a matching pair...
I'd second what people are saying; drop a used engine in it at the very least. It sounds like you have more of your original engine left than I had when my piston broke so you could even get away with just a bottom end which makes it cheaper to buy and also lets you inspect the bores before you hand over the money.
I'd second what people are saying; drop a used engine in it at the very least. It sounds like you have more of your original engine left than I had when my piston broke so you could even get away with just a bottom end which makes it cheaper to buy and also lets you inspect the bores before you hand over the money.
Damn poor show. Sorry to hear such bad news.
But......once the engine is out you can give the engine bay a thorough spring clean and how smart will that look. []
While I would like to add my vote to the "Get it running again" campaign it obviously depends on if you are sick of the car or not. Although, I would have thought a runner is likely to command £2K over a dead car so it should be worth doing either way. (Obviously Ben did us a big favour recently by completely devaluing the 944 in one fell swoop. [])
In the midst of the doom an gloom, it would be worth having a look at the turbo just to check no tiny bits of shrapnel were blown down the exhaust.
But......once the engine is out you can give the engine bay a thorough spring clean and how smart will that look. [
]While I would like to add my vote to the "Get it running again" campaign it obviously depends on if you are sick of the car or not. Although, I would have thought a runner is likely to command £2K over a dead car so it should be worth doing either way. (Obviously Ben did us a big favour recently by completely devaluing the 944 in one fell swoop. [
])In the midst of the doom an gloom, it would be worth having a look at the turbo just to check no tiny bits of shrapnel were blown down the exhaust.
Thankyou for your sympathies, I would dearly like to get the car running again and I am only really thankful I never sold it on to some unsuspecting poor soul earlier. I haven't got round to putting KUI up for sale as I really do like the car and its a real wrench. KUI was bought purely as a car for keeps and I spent almost 2 years in the search for the right specconditionprice car.
Selling it has only recently come about as my Wife (soon to be ex!!) really de-tests the car and hates thinking about the money that I have poured over it. It has also become a bit inconvenient as since buying KUI we had a baby arrive, Matthew who is 2 now, and she simply will not have him in the car.
Roger has just sent me this view of the damage.
Selling it has only recently come about as my Wife (soon to be ex!!) really de-tests the car and hates thinking about the money that I have poured over it. It has also become a bit inconvenient as since buying KUI we had a baby arrive, Matthew who is 2 now, and she simply will not have him in the car.
Roger has just sent me this view of the damage.
George Elliott
New member
Is the block/crank on a normally aspirated 944 not the same as a turbo? If so would a 2nd hand short engine with new rods/bearings & pistons not be an economic way to fix this car? It upsets me to[&o] see an 88'S out of action. These cars will be worth £20k in 10yrs. (and 996's nothing[])
])
ORIGINAL: George Elliott
These cars will be worth £20k in 10yrs. (and 996's nothing[
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