Chopsticks!

Kid B actually ate most of her food with them! She's learning fast.

Questioning the Master

"Hey! The way the package shows is different than how you showed me!"

That's 'cause my way's better, kid. LOL!

Hi Wendy :-)

Having dinner at Thai Rama in Chandler. We wish you were here!

Kid B at dinner.

I ordered pad thai (hot) and she ordered something unpronounceable (#30) that contained bok choy, bamboo shoots, broccoli, chicken, etc. But hold the mushrooms. Leave it to Kid B to try something new!

Much Cleaner

Here's the engine, all cleaned up and Scotch-Brited. I used old rubber gloves to block off major openings and the exhaust pipes.

I think I'm done for the weekend. I'm taking tomorrow "off" and going to play with Kid B, unless I get some time and feel like messing around with it a bit more.

I put it at TDC for #1 (as shown, verified by the flywheel mark,) gently put the FI rail back over the engine, and cleaned it up for the day.

I'll order the parts in my Laundry List from Pelican or Vertex tomorrow.

I think, with the little things going wrong, I'm going to take the time to do this correctly, and make it a "3 weeks to a good running Porsche" project.

Off to dinner. Siannan and I are getting Thai food!

All New for 1987!

I almost forgot - 1987 introduced a new timing belt tensioner that more or less takes care of the need for the 9201 tool ($500 gauge), but they still recommend "checking" the tension with the tool. I change my belts every 25k miles, and have done enough WITH the 9201 to be comfortable doing it WITHOUT the tool, and just changing it more frequently than the suggested interval.

(When this automatic tensioner is removed, you take out the three nuts you CAN'T see well, not the three that you CAN see well. Look at the picture above - the three same sized through holes around the SPRING are the ones you want! All 13mm hex heads.)

Note that I routinely remove the cooling fans when working on the front of the engine. There are two electrical plugs (one on each fan,) and six short M6 10mm hex head screws that hold the fan assembly in. If all the hoses are disconnected, it lifts straight out, and, for a 5 minute procedure, makes any job up there much easier. If you still want even more room, from that point, removing the radiator completely is another 5 or 10 minutes max. I find that just the fans out of the way is plenty.

Missing a Few Teeth

Here's the culprit. Typical timing belt with lugs spun off around the crankshaft. I counted 28 lugs missing, and recovered 28 lugs scattered through the belt cover assembly. I'm just not comfortable with any of those flailing about in there.

The water pump looks and feels very good. According to the records, it was changed about 20k miles ago, and they're usually "good" for 60k, so I'm going to make a judgement call and leave this one alone.

Laundry list

Needs:
- Head gasket. The one I have looks... suspicious. One of the rings is a little warped, and I think I'm not going to trust it. The price of a new one is far less than the price of finding out this one is bad. I'll use the suspicious one on the race car, since it's 10x easier to work on. $55
- Valve stem seals. Good to replace while I'm in there. Just an extra hour or two, which might save a lot of time and effort later. $10
- Top radiator hose. The current one is "carved" by the alternator pulley, and I don't trust it. $35
- Exhaust nuts, top and bottom $25
- Heater hoses that are a pain to get to when everything's together, so I may as well change them now. $25
- New spark plugs. $20
- Fresh oil and filter. $25
- Title and registration. $30
- Cost in gas to get the car. $40
- Cost to rent the car hauler. $50
- Cost of the car itself. $1500.
- Four new 225/50R15 tires, mounted and balanced. $320
- Maaco "Ambassador" paint job. $400 (optional)

So, at the end, and unless something else goes wrong, I'll be into it for $2135 ($2525 with fresh paint), for a car that could easily sell for $3000 to $4000, depending on the condition of the AC, etc. Not too shabby.

Carbon-licious

Fetch me my SCOTCH-BRITE PADS!!!!

Got some cleanin' to do. Fortunately looks like the pistons are undamaged by their Close Encounters of the Valve Kind. Definitely knocked some carbon loose though. I know, there are many Old Guy mechanics who say not to screw with the carbon, but I can't see how overheat-prone, detonation-creating deposits can be helpful in any way. Besides, this carbon is already "chunky."

I cleaned this up a lot, and called it quits for the day. I'm about 8 nice, leisurely hours into the job. I take my time.

Success!

Back on track for a successful repair! I usually replace both of these bolts with stainless steel hardware. They're in almost constant contact with water, and tend to corrode over time.

Weldify

Here's the nut, welded to the top of the broken shaft. Yay! It's a bolt again! And with the added benefit of penetrating oil and intense heat.

Weldin' Time

One of the necessary tools in automotive repair: A MIG Welder. OxyAcetylene torch set too.

Without this, I'd be trying, very likely in vain, to lock a pair of Vice Grips onto the broken bolt. When that didn't work, I'd be removing the engine completely, or towing the car to a mechanic with a welder, or to a machine shop.

(Kid B wants to learn to weld. She looks like an industrial Oompa-Loompa.)

Note: I was a good Porsche mechanic and disconnected the car's DME computer (in front of the passenger's side footwell on this year model) BEFORE putting 135 amps of crazy current through the car.

The Bolt that Always Breaks, Broken

Possible show-stopper. I've cleaned up the threads with a wire wheel on a Dremel, and will now thread a nut onto the broken "stud" end. Then I'll weld the nut to the "stud," hit it with PB Blaster, let the heat soak that stuff in, and slowly try to extract it with a deep well.

Three Bent Valves

Cyl 1, 3, and to a lesser extent, 4, are toast. They don't get much more bent than this.

I may eventually take it apart to see if the core is salvageable, but it'll need new guides pressed in, and the valve seats very carefully examined.

The Big Picture

Here it is, almost as I left it Friday night at 1:30am. I did take the intake off after this picture was taken, and tried to take the two cooling route bolts out of the head. Alas, the Bolt the Always Breaks broke. It looks like there's a decent amount of "meat" left on it though, so I'll do the "thread on a nut and weld it in place" trick tomorrow. That sometimes almost kinda works. Less risky than an "EZ Out" anyway.

So far, I need...
- Injector tips. Badly.
- Top radiator hose (the alternator pulley was rubbing on the existing one - not very reliable now with a 1/16" deep groove worn in it.
- M6 Stainles SHCS to replace a few eroded ones.

I'll call BAP and RMR tomorrow, and see if either of them has the injector parts and/or the hose. If the bolt removal goes Ok, I may be able to reach my goal yet.

Le Damage, Pt. 2

Exhaust Valve Cyl. #3, same story as Cyl #1. Note the lower valve stem on the right.

Le Damage, Pt. 1

These are the valve stems, the little silver "buttons" poking through the springs. The cam tower is off, so all the valves should be shut and even. Note the right (Exhaust Valve Cyl #1) "button" is lower than the left (Intake Valve Cyl #1). This clearly shows the damage - Exhaust Valve Cyl #1 is not closing completely. It's bent. Badly. It's very likely destroyed the valve seat, which I really don't care about, since I have another head. However, it still remains to be seen whether there was damage to the piston. I don't think the valve head would have popped off - I've never seen that happen, and I would have heard it when turning the engine over - so the cylinder walls are probably ok. Again, I dont' care terribly, since I have a newly rebuilt short block. It's meant for the race car, but in this case I'd use it to get this car going and find another engine for the race car.

Injector

Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad injector tip. And this was one of the better looking ones.

Kitty fuzz!

To the left of the camshaft sprocket, just below the bolt sleeve, you can easily see an accumulation of "fuzz" from the dying timing belt. It had been fraying against the over-tensioned pulleys and cogs for quite some time. The whole belt cover is full of this stuff. I can't wait to see what it looks like down near the crank.

Funny brakes?

I bet this car's brakes felt weird at times. Like sometimes too much boost from the power assist, sometimes not enough. The "J" shaped tube you see here is A) Pinched. B) Supposed to have a reducer in it which acts as a venturi accelerator in the vacuum line. The P.O. did a fine job replacing all the hoses, but did a "newbie" mistake in not replacing the parts that really mattered. For what it's worth, many people twice the P.O.'s age make the same mistake all over these cars. At least he tried. It's far better than a neglected car.

Icky bad injector tips.

Well, this right here might put an end to my "one weekend to a running Porsche" bragging rights. These tips are bloody toast.

Upper Timing Belt Cover Off

It looks like a black cat got caught in here (pics of kitty fuzz in a later post).

This belt failed catastrophically, but not quickly. It was VERY tight. Whoever put the last one on definitely over tightened it. Damn thing was like a banjo string. If ya don't have the tool, and ya don't know how to tune one of these "by ear" (experience ALONE!), leave it alone.

This poor kid lost his friggin' car due to someone else's incompetence.

"There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all."
True dat, Herr Nietzsche.

Cleaning the new cylinder head

Ok, the head's out of the sink, and I'm Dremel polishing all the carbon off the combustion chamber surfaces (heats up and contributes to detonation, and can break loose in chunks and stick a valve very slightly open, causing it to burn,) and cleaning up all the mating surfaces, and removing some VERY stubborn gasket material from the intake side.

Sulky moody not-nice kid - Kid A

Kid A here used to be my buddy. She thinks she is very cool with her "angles" shots and fake lip ring. We went to concerts together, she stayed with me most of the time. Then I found out she was lying to me, and using me because I was lenient with her for Internet access, so I shut it off, and became the "bad guy." I honestly thought she was smart enough to be able to handle it. I was wrong... She was using her chat clients (Yahoo, MSN, etc) to contact guys who were over 18 (she was 12 at the time), and telling them basically everything about herself, but lying to them and telling them she was 16 or 17. Named "Rachel." heh. A child predator's dream come true.
She's gone boy crazy. *sigh*
And her mom, of course, supports her in this. She says, "Awwwwww! It's ok!" and allows Kid A here to basically do whatever she wants on the Internet, because her mom is basically clueless how dangerous it can be. I'm afraid my little girl is going to become a statistic. The bad kind.
But then, her mom very frequently describes herself as "trailer trash," and it's just fine with her if Kid A becomes "trailer trash" too. I guess that would validate her "trailer trashiness."
Kid A still gets good grades, but nothing really seems to matter to her but her social life.
I certainly don't seem to matter anymore.

Hurts.

Kid B and I

After getting Coldstone ice cream. She had Cake Batter ice cream with... butterfingers, I think. I had peanut butter ice cream with toffee.
This kid is so cool. She's my buddy, and I really hope that never changes.

How it's DONE.

I've seen a lot of the clean little warning signs that show fingers being chopped off. I used to work for a lawn and garden manufacturer. This is the first one I've seen that tells the REAL story.
Blood. Bone. Strips of skin. Gristle.
Don't put your fingers in here.

New project...

Sad story, old story. 1987 Porsche 944, well maintained for most of its life. Purchased by a young guy who really didn't yet have the means to keep up with it. Timing belt got old, spun at the crank, and crashed some valves. I have a good head from m '87 transplant into my #75 car, since I used the '83 shaved head and cam tower with the shorter exhaust duration on that block.

I picked up the new timing belt today. Might have 'er back running over the Labor Day weekend. We'll see. Depends on the extent of the damage.

How to tell no women live at your house...

...put the cylinder head from a 1987 Porsche 944 in the sink. If there are no screams, yells, sounds of disgust, etc., this is a very good indication there are no women living in your house.

Update: When Wendy, my fiancee who is currently still in Malaysia, saw this picture, here's how the conversation turned:

[8:59:28 PM] Wendy Ong says: OMG!!!!
[8:59:32 PM] Thomas Sollars says: ?
[8:59:54 PM] Wendy Ong says: cylinder head in sink
[9:00:07 PM] Thomas Sollars says: you like?
[9:01:15 PM] Thomas Sollars says: so... when we build the new garage, and I say, "I really need a sink in the garage..." you're going to say... ?
[9:01:30 PM] Wendy Ong says: go ahead
[9:01:39 PM] Wendy Ong says: u can hv big sink
[9:02:39 PM] Thomas Sollars says: don't want a cylinder head in your kitchen sink? (chuckle)
[9:03:11 PM] Wendy Ong says: of course!
[9:03:25 PM] Thomas Sollars says: LOL
[9:03:40 PM] Wendy Ong says: |-(
[9:03:45 PM] Wendy Ong says: goshhh....