Snoozin

It'll still cost another $86k in repairs and maintenance.

How does that even work, would the fluid just not take the shortest path to the nearest bleeder every time?

Yeah I mean the inside/outside bleeders.

Mint, cheers for that. So start with outside then go to inside. Sounds like it's tedious!

Seems to be running pretty well now, hot starts haven't been a problem again (yet) and it goes well. Have given it a couple of good hidings through some twisties, and now that I'm finally getting to learn about the car it's becoming more and more fun to hoon. So I went to Caffeine & Classics this morning, then decided I'd pull it apart. Again. This time around, a brake refresh. So first things first, acquire parts. Sterling Brake and Clutch sorted me with a set of fresh Zimmerman rotors, these are 298mm front and 300mm rear. Always a great price and the best service ever from Blair there, support the hell out of them. Great at finding stuff that no one else seems to be able to find. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-488 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-492 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I also bought a full set of caliper seals and dust boots, as I had some concerns the front calipers were sticking and causing uneven pad wear. Anyway more on that later. So I chucked al my gear in the boot, gathered up my tools and set off to George's place to chuck the car on his hoist and crack into it. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-498 by Richard Opie, on Flickr First up, here's a look at the calipers. Rears, grubby. Sort of underslung Brembo 4-pots. Handbrake is one of those internal drum kind. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-500 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-510 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Fronts, a Brembo 4-pot again. In this case I've got a bit of a problem with the clear coat going cloudy on both front calipers. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-513 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-521 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Fairly straightforward to remove really. Release the spring clip on the top, remove the wear sensor and pull pads out after pushing the pistons back. I was a bit agricultural and used a pair of polygrips to squeeze them back, as the plan is to refinish the calipers anyway. Front hubs look pretty boring, just an aluminium casting with a toothed ring on them for the ABS sensor. Rears are a bit more interesting, with the whole handbrake thing going on. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-526 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Some positives here. Studs are 55mm long (end to end) and I want to install some that are 10mm longer to accommodate some spacers before I eventually throw the 17" wheels on. Plenty of space behind the hub to install these without pulling the axles and making a massive job of it. Yay! Anyway, the calipers. Once I got them off, I thought I'd have a crack at squeezing the pistons in. They all moved fluidly in, and all the dust seals are in great condition. So I'm likely going to leave them be and not throw new seals at them... instead I'll clean and mask off that internal area before painting and it should all go to plan. A friend just drew up new decals for me too. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-546 by Richard Opie, on Flickr They might all look the same.... but here's the crucial difference between front and rear. Front - staggered pistons, with a 40mm and 36mm piston combo. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-559 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Rear, staggered again but a 30mm and 28mm arrangement. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-555 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Any tips on what to do when it comes to bleeding will be appreciated, I have never pissed around with a 4-piston caliper before with a bleed nipple on either side of the caliper. I'm guessing you just do it one at a time, but inside or outside first?

I'm available during work hours to head out that way if all else fails, I have calls out past Kumeu etc.

Would you be keen on a shoot and a story about Denis, the car, you and it's restoration for my NZ Autocar classics yarns that I spin? It's throughly interesting.

A protip, is put the ice into plastic bags. Makes it easier to manage and the result is the same.

Such a satisfying job to do.

Lifted from Audi basically.

Doubtful, front engine Porsche owners own them because they have no money and can't afford an actual Porsche. I dig this though, cool colour, pascha interior trim and an early car without any of the frills!

Do it, got another set of 7J tridies that need a home.

Hah holy shit.

For the love of all that is holy, fuck no. No no no no no no. Never ever mount a flare low on the arch to make the arch line lower, it is THE cardinal sin, pioneered by any number of shitbox DX Corollas running up and down Colombo St on a Friday night in Chch when cruising times were good. If you're gonna run bolt ons, do it properly and run them where the arch is supposed to. I'd run a bigger tyre to close up the arch gap. TL;DR please please don't do that. Reminds me of this shit;

Will try to arrange for the random presence of an angry Porsche driver.

Why not just start going back to Ellerslie and not tell anyone.

Yeah it nearly didn't happen. But nevermind. I'll try to do this methodically instead of frittering money on parts and trial and erroring it. Old electrics (especially European) are such a pain in the ass but luckily all the tables/charts with what I should be seeing at the ECU end are pretty easy to come by and even a dunce like me can understand most of the diagnostic procedures.

These do have a diagnostic ability, it's not easy or particularly cheap to sort out the use of Durametric software but I am talking to someone who may be able to help me.

No cold start injector on this thing. These don't use the older AAV type idle control that is adjustable. Later cars with the Bosch Motronic have a solenoid type IACV which either works, or leaks and you get a rough idle. You can see the IACV lurking between runners 1 and 2 on the inlet manifold.

Sorry guys I have to drop the ball on running support ute. Leave request came back denied today as I have a couple of days booked in October already. Pretty bummed, I really wanted to explore that part of the country

Yeah pretty neat to have it home! Still got a few jobs to do, brakes are high on the list to sort out now.

It's back at home now! 1991 Porsche 944 S2-478 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Wasn't without it's hassles though. The head has a couple of oil galleries that run front to back to feed the cams. They have a frost plug style cap at each end, which get removed for the cleaning process. Anyway, one of these leaked once the head was back on and the car had oil pressure. Naturally it was the trickiest one to access. I talked to Engine Specialties, who reconditioned the head, and Glen agreed to check it out. In the end they sorted the problem out in situ, and free of charge the next day. Good guys, would recommend. So it's all back together now, looks pretty decent with the freshly refinished and cleaned stuff. The cam cover is some kind of Mercedes colour I picked out of a book. Note there's a new expansion tank for the cooling system, new cap etc etc. Not taking any chances. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-468 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-469 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-471 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Onto the next problem - a hot start issue where the car requires some serious cranking and occasional throttle to get started. Will start with looking at the DME (main ECU/fuel pump) relay, and make a little jump lead to rule this out. Otherwise cam sensor, flywheel reference sensor and coolant temp sensor are possible suspects. Yay for old German electrics

Had a good pine over this on Saturday, nice to catch up for a quick yarn m8. This car is A1 (I should keep up with the forums more cos I didn't even know it was on the scene!).

I like the idea of approaching the Animates people with a plan to return to Ellerslie, I liked that joint. Otherwise I have no other real input, sorry.

Fresh-ish head, back and ready to be bolted back on. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-436 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-440 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Corrosion still present. It was badly corroded between 3 and 4, probably where it was losing it's compression. Overall head thickness is still within OEM gasket spec so that's quite nice. A few skims left in it for future issues 1991 Porsche 944 S2-445 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Air and fuel goes in here. Look at the cleanliness!!! 1991 Porsche 944 S2-451 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-453 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Under these retainers, there's new valve guides. Valves and seats have been cut. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-458 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2-462 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Inlet manifold looking all spiffy and HPC coated. Not bad, it's a pretty cool casting, equal length runners from the plenum and all. Driving again soon I hope.