Porsche 924 now with HGF

[inconsistant]

Also Also July 2023

Took it to another local old car show.

[inconsistant]

September 2023

With Autumny weather coming I decided to have another go at gluing in the Blower motor but using working Araldite this time. I cut through my beautifully fingered off black sealant and had to scrape all the bits off with a plastic edge, I opened it all up again, and did the whole gluing process again. This time I didn’t put the cap and the sealant back on until the glue had dried. All worked fine although obviously the black sealant was nothing like as tidy as the first time. I finally had a working blower for the first time in over a year, hurrah!

[inconsistant]

September 2023

My son and I took it to the Brands Hatch Porsche Festival, where it sat in a field of a million Boxsters Caymans and recent 911s. But that was great as it stood out like a sore thumb but in a good way. A bit of interest and comments about it which was nice. I found a proper 911 to park next to. There was racing and some displays of old Porsches so my son had a great day out.

[inconsistant]

Also September 2023

I had a bit of an overheating problem on the way in to the Porsche Fest, unfortunately there was a long slow Porsche queue to get in to Brands, and the temp gauge kept going up and I had to keep turning the engine off when stationary in the queue. Thought I’m managed to beat it but on the way through the gates I got a plume of steam and some coolant dumped on the ground, so I parked it up, let it cool down, topped up the coolant and at the end of the day drove it home very gingerly with a beady eye on the temp gauge needle.

I thought I’d start with the basics so I ordered a new coolant bottle cap as it looked quite old and the new one looked a lot shinier. I popped that on, got it up to temperature and coolant wizzed out through the middle of the cap.

They sent another one and that did a better job of keeping the coolant inside the engine and not all over it.

It also proved that wasn’t the thing that was causing the overheating.  It was tracked down to a faulty radiator fan switch. I ordered and fitted a new one and got a replacement fan switch relay too just in case, as they’re both only a few quid and I didn’t want to risk any engine damage.

While I had coolant drained and my tools out I replaced the coolant tube I had welded up the holes in and tidied up. I tried to replace the thermostat too since I was in the same area but I couldn’t get the bolt off the housing so I left it, recalling this was the bolt that sheered on my other 924. That's the old tube above in the middle. The rusty bits are hidden by the hoses.

'New' and old tubes:

New one on:

And coolant all filled and topped up and burped. 

With it all back together I took it for a run and all seemed good, temperature was nice and stable. However after a couple of runs out it became apparent I was losing a bit of coolant. The engine wasn’t overheating so I wasn’t sure where it was going. I noticed signs it might be coming out of the overflow pipe by the expansion tank cap.

I went back to the car after it had been tucked away in the garage for a couple of weeks and the coolant was still pressurised as it did a hiss when I took the cap off. There were no signs of anything else major being a problem. No oil in the coolant, no steam from the exhaust, no smelly coolant, no difficulty starting, etc so a bit of a mystery.

[inconsistant]

October 2023

It was Brooklands German Car Day, I’d planned to go with the 924 gang but with my mild mystery coolant loss was concerned about going on the M25 in case it suddenly got worse and I ended up being hard shouldered by it. Fortunately we still had the very German Audi A2 at that point so I took that and parked up alongside the 924s.

It was a good day out with plenty of interesting Deutsche schizen and more Audi A2s than I had ever seen together.

Cue far too many photos of awesome German vee hickles…

 

For the rest of the year I had a few  local drives and a bit of pottering about, keeping the coolant topped up as I used it. I tucked it up for Christmas, now the blower motor shroud was sealed up I had no idea how/where the mouse was getting in. I was getting a bit fed up of the smell of mouse piss even time I got the car out and mindful of the fact I might not be using it for the next month or two I set up some mouse traps inside the car. I pulled up the boot carpet and put a trap in each of the side boot bins, and one each side of the back seat where they had nibbled the upholstery.

[inconsistant]

 

January 2024

924 vs mouse. 924 wins this round.

In non mouse news, I'm sometimes aware of a bit of white smoke from exhaust even once warmed up, but not always. Maybe just that it’s winter and everything is taking a bit longer to get warmed up?

[inconsistant]

February 2024

924 vs mouse. 924 defeats mouse again.

 

Passed another MOT. Hurrah!

Invited to local classic & supercars meet, the one I went to last year. Fantastic line up of cars and complimentary croissants and coffee. Which was nice.

 

Oh the company I keep!

Didn't see any other Autoshite window stickers though.

[inconsistant]

March 2024

924 vs mouse. Another win for the 924 

Got nudged by @wesacosa into organising another Autoshite Flower Farm get together, as the one last year was deemed to be excellent. This one proved to be even more excellent. As was the weather. 

Did an exciting mileage on the way home. Had a speedo replaced at a few years old so actual mileage is about 20,000 more.

A week later I went back to Max's Diner in Horsham with the 924 folks. About an hour's drive each way, which required a small coolant top up before the return journey.

Ooh yummy.

[inconsistant]

April 2024

Reversing out of a tricky pub car park, backing towards the road below. Was doing between zero and 1 mph just rolling back on the brake and didn’t see the lone beer barrel on the left that was below window height and not in my rear view mirror.

It rolled along the door from back to front and I only realised once it started to dig in. Big sad oops.

Fortunately all damage is just to the door and is all below the black rubbing strip so I’m hoping a local friendly body repair shop can push it out and just respray the bottom half of the door.

No photos but an OEM sunroof seal was finally ordered but not fitted yet, added to my box of stuff to do over the summer.

[inconsistant]

May 2024

Invited by a local Facebook group (I'm not on Facebook)  to join a Porsche themed, but all invited, classic car meet at The Moat, Wrotham. Another excellent gathering. Here's too many photos:

Also went back to a small local pub breakfast meet.

[inconsistant]

July 2024

Car is becoming harder to start. Had to charge the battery and jump it from the other car to get it going, then it seemed to be ok, until I didn’t use it for a couple of weeks then it wouldn’t start again.

Looking at the last couple of pages I realise this thread is a bit different to my thread on  the white 924 I had before this one. That thread consisted of lots of close ups of mechanical components, dismantled things, temporary bodges, frustrations and learning from attempting to become barely mechanically proficient. I spend more time driving this one than working on it, so more of the photos seem to be of the car and the places I go with it. 

This is a photo of when I took it for a drive to some trees.

Unfortunately I had to give up my garage so the 924 has had to live on our drive for the summer. The mice will have to find other forms of high risk adventure from now on.

[inconsistant]

August 2024

Since I've owned it the interior passenger door handle has been lose. when pulled the surround falls off. It's a  job I was dreading doing and have put off for ages because I expected it would involve taking the door card off and pulling complicated stuff apart, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a really simple fix that took 5 mins max. 

That screw with the funny metal bit hadn't been screwed through the backing plate so it was just held in place by the friction of the awesome door fabric. Undid the screw, screwed it back on and clipped the smooth brown bit of plastic over the top and the job was done. and the passenger handle is no longer like a clown's car handle.

 

In other less positive news, it wouldn't start, again, so I checked the coolant and oil and discovered this:

So I'm pretty sure that means Head Gasket Failure. I suppose that overheating episode last summer did more harm than I had hoped might be the case. Which is a bit of a pain in the arse but having done it before on the white one...

https://autoshite.com/topic/14876-porsche-924-white/#findComment-740132

...I feel a bit less daunted and  a bit more confident about tackling it again. It also makes sense of some of the things that have been happening  over the last year. 

I ordered  a head gasket set and a few other bits and pieces that I will replace while I'm in there, and I've got a few things like spark plugs, a thermostat and a water pump that I had intended to fit but hadn't got around to, so I'll do all of that at the same time. 

I hadn't been able to find another garage to keep it in, finding a garage seems an impossible task as there just aren’t any about, so I had accepted that it would live outside on the drive this winter. Then, surprise surprise,  I got an email from the council offering me a garage. I joined the waiting list in 2013 when I bought the white 924. What are the chances?! Hurrah. So I now have a garage that’s about 5mins walk from hone. Once HGF is fixed it will live there for the winter.

[inconsistant]

September 2024: HGF part 1

Before going on hols in August I bought all the bits and pieces I needed so I could get cracking when we got back. I waited for a fine September weekend, cleared the bench in the shed, got freezer bags and a maker pen ready, polished up my ratchet set and mentally and physically prepared myself with some simple but effective wrist exercises.

Once up on ramps I emptied fluids, removed coolant pipes and tubes, disconnected a large number of small bits from other larger bits, took out the distributor, sparkle plugs and all manner of other stuff. Remembering how helpful photos were last time, along the way I took photos of everything I removed before I removed or disconnected anything so I could see how it had to got back. There are also some housings etc that have different length bolts in each hole so they got photographed in correct positions too before being bagged and labelled.

I undid the various jubbly clips that hold the air intake rubber sections in place, lifted out the air intake box and unbolted the intake manifold from the side of the engine. I stuffed balled up rags into all the visible engine orrifices and then I went in for my tea.

So far I'm 4 hours in.

[inconsistant]

September 2024: HGF part 2

Because I now know what TDC is I set the engine to TDC before removing alternator and timing belt. I also know that it doesn't matter that much until just before I refit the timing belt but it felt good doing it anyway.

 

I removed fuel lines, pulled out injectors and disconnected and unbolted the various weird contraptions and devices scattered about the engine that make up the K jetronic mechanical fuel injection system.

I disconnected some fiddly and hard to get at pipes, tubes, wires and sensors from the back of the head, and removed the thermostat housing from the front, but couldn’t get the thermostat out of the housing due to stubborn bolts I recall enthusiastically sheering last time, so I left it in the housing for the time being.

Next, and nearly last, came the bit that I was dreading, undoing the bolts that held the exhaust manifold to the down-pipe. I’d been dousing them in plusgas for a few days in the hope it would help a bit. There are 5 studs, so 5 nuts to remove from under the car with limited access and suspension, steering and other engine bottom gubbins in the way.

4 came out more easily that I expected, leaving the last one that was only accessible through a narrow gap between one of the two downpipes and the crossmember but at an odd angle so a socket with a straight extension wouldn’t work. It looked impossible, and after several failed attempts to get the socket over the nut I was ready to admit defeat and set fire to the car out of frustration. I knew there must be a way with the tools I have because I did it on the previous 924. So I took a frustration break, looked back through the hundreds of photos I took last time, couldn't find any record of how I'd done it, and decided I would phone a friend, Karl, who owns and races Porsche 924s so knows his way around the oily & noisy bits.

I worked the puzzle out with his help, and the nut came off relatively easily. I took a photo of the socket extension combo so I’d remember what I did when it came to reattaching it all.

With the cam cover off I undid the head bolts and the head came off to reveal a bit of a mess underneath. No signs of a catastrophic failure but definitely some coolant in the rear most cylinder. 

 

 

I wiped the block surface clean and sprayed a bit of WD40 over it then covered with a blue Ikea bag which is a perfect fit.

I took the head into the shed then went in for my tea.

8 hours to get the head off over two afternoons.

Nothing broken, no sheered bolts, no injuries. What are the chances? 

[inconsistant]

October 2024: HGF part 3

Before the exhaust manifold came off the head I carefully removed the heat shield. They tend to rust out around the bolt holes and rattle about bit.

This one is in decent condition which is good as these are another component that are somewhere between silly money and unobtainable, depending on luck and timing. This is the only one currently on eBay UK, which is madness for a bit of pressed steel:

 

I removed the remaining housings from the head...

...and had a look at the condition of the camshaft and followers. This lobe looks OK:

 

Hmmm, this one not so much:

A few of the followers are pitted and worn too. I did a quick search for Porsche 924 cam followers and they’re another hard to get hold/ silly money component, they appear to be at least £100 each from a couple of Porsche parts suppliers who had old new stock. I need several. I couldn’t find a standard spec camshaft new or used for sale in the UK. Uh oh. I thought it was all going a bit too well.

I sent the photos of the camshaft to Karl for a second opinion. “Yeah that’s fucked mate” he helpfully replied. The next bit made me much happier. “Bring the head up here to Karl Racing HQ in deepest rural Bedfordshire and we’ll take it apart, get it skimmed locally and when it comes back we’ll fit one of my good used camshafts from my stash and set of good used followers to rebuild the head. Hurrah for Karl!

So on a wet Saturday in October I popped up there. First job was to get some heat on the thermostat housing,  then we took the camshaft out to get a better look at it, and to se what condition the followers and valves were in.

Valves looked to be OK, these were the worst of the followers, so I'd need probably 5-6 replacements, and that camshaft looks to be scrap. Karl good used ones of all I needed. Karl took the valves out (so no photos) and dropped the head off at his local engineering shop while I went home and decided to clean and repaint various bits of engine while I waited for the head to get cleaned, skimmed and returned.

[inconsistant]

October 2024: HGF part 4

I’m lucky enough to have a sand blaster and small spray booth at work so I took the exhaust manifold, heat shield and timing belt cover to work, cleaned them up and sprayed the first two with Frost’s finest High Temperature matt black paint and the timing belt cover with Halfords finest whatever black I could find in my shed.

 

Impressed with the difference this made I also took in that replacement steel coolant pipe I fitted recently, sandblasted that and gave it a protective clear coat of lacquer.

Next to get the tart up treatment was the water-pump pulley, intake manifold support bracket and coolant bottle fixing bracket, sandblasted then sprayed with matt black.

Taa daa!

 

[inconsistant]

November 2024: HGF part 5

The following weekend I went back to Karl’s. He’d already lapped and fitted the valves for me so we fitted a good set of cam followers and a decent used camshaft.

Being an expert at this sort of thing he'd noted what order the camshaft clamp things came off in and we put them back correctly and torqued them up nicely to just the right torque and no more. Or less.

He then showed me how to set the valve clearances, which was really interesting in terms of understanding how all the insides of the engine worked but also actually quite boring and fiddly to do with limited and awkward access to the adjustment holes in the side of the followers

Once the camshaft was on we put new rubber seals on the end bits that I can remember what they are called and popped the lid on to make it mostly oil tight for the journey home.  

[inconsistant]

November 2024: HGF part 6

I completely underestimated how much time it would take to get all the leftover bits of old gasket off the head where the several housings (distributor, thermostat, coolant temp sensor, thermo time switch, inlet manifold, etc) bolt on.

I popped a new thermostat in too. After removing the old gaskets I got totally carried away with cleaning everything, so spent a day doing that but everything looks lovely now.

I also gave the block a clean as it had signs of something (coolant?) having leaked a bit on it, and I also scrubbed and washed down the bits of the engine bay that are usually hard to get to because access is now lots easier.

During another gap in the bad weather that was too short to do the head but long enough for the block to dry out I fitted the new water pump . I’d bought a replacements  when I bought the car and it had been sitting in my ‘parts to fit’ box but hadn't got around to it until now.

 

[inconsistant]

November 2024: HGF part 7

With everything rebuilt, cleaned and painted and the various auxiliary housings reattached to the head I've now just got the exhaust manifold to refit and it’s all ready to go back on. I’d bought a set of 16 stainless steel studs and some fancy stainless aerotight nuts that were recommended last time I did the head gasket in 2016. So, 8 studs to go into the head for the exhaust manifold to bolt onto, 3 into the exhaust manifold for the heat shield to bolt on to, and 5 to go into the exhaust manifold for the down pipe to bolt on to.

A bit pricey at £35 but I thought it was worth it as they look good, have an allen key hole on the end for easy fitting and should make removal easier if I ever have to do it in future. I checked my previous HGF replacement thread the owners club forum and  found the ebay link, which was still current, and ordered a set. I remember they were listed as Ford/Cosworth and not 924 last time but this didn't matter because they were the same thread (M8) and length (45-47mm) so were perfect.

I ordered them weeks ago, but obvs never thought to check them until it came to fitting. Unfortunately they were 5mm shorter than previously, 40mm and needed to be 45-47mm to be long enough to get through the exhaust manifold flanges. I fitted 2 but with the exhaust manifold on I could only get two full turns of the nut which felt well dodgy so I took them back out and swore a lot. I could still use them for the heat shield and the down pipe fixings so not all bad.

Unfortunately the main problem was when I took the exhaust manifold off the head several weeks ago two of the old studs came out with the nuts stuck on them, and I don’t know where they went. Maybe I threw them out? Because I was going to replace them I didn’t bag and label them. I’d taken a large crate of stuff up to Karl’s twice and we chucked some old, broken or rusty bits and pieces out so the studs could be anywhere. So I had 6 studs and needed 8 to refit the exhaust manifold. I needed 2 more studs and asap. I checked on eBay for ones listed as actual Porsche 924 manifold studs and found a new set of 8. Ordered, got the seller to post 1st class so I had them for the weekend.

 

Arrived the following day, fitted two and all good. Went to remove the other 6 studs from the head, so I had a complete new set of 8 studs and I couldn’t get any to budge. I tried really hard. One came out. I decided I’d just leave them all and only use two of the new set. I then found the two old studs I’d taken out, in a pot with other bits pretty much under my nose all the time. So I thought I'd just put those back in the head, except the nuts were still stuck on them.

I tried to get the 5 down-pipe studs out of the manifold but none of them would budge. I tried really hard. In the end I took the manifold and the head studs into work where we have gas/air torches so I could try to convince them to come out with heat.

The two nuts came off the studs reasonable easily and because they were a bit manky looking I cleaned out the threads with either a tap or die,I  can never remember which is which.

It then took 2 hours of heating and cooling the manifold to remove one stud and sheer another, then get the three heat shield studs out. They were so tight I had to re-heat one of them half way out as it seized again. That’s how the first one sheered, halfway out and I kept turning it instead of re-heating the manifold.

The following evening I tried again, and managed to get another two out in an hour. The last one just wouldn’t move. I had 3 nuts tightened against each other and had heated and allowed to cool probably 7 or 8 times. I was heating the manifold around the stud and trying to keep heat off the stud.

I tried cooling it with a wet cloth wrapped around it for a few seconds before trying to undo, I tried hitting it with a hammer, and after 2 evenings of this I gave up and took it to the mechanic to remove and drill out the sheered one too. Later that day he dropped it back all done.

I’m just waiting for a dry, not freezing cold day to re-fit the head. After everything coming off the car relatively easily back in September the rest has been quite an ordeal. I was hoping it would all happen quite quickly as I've felt the time pressure of the impending late autumn and  wintry cold and wet conditions which aren't great for doing stuff that needs to be clean, dry and precise.  When I was ordering the head gasket bits in August the one thing I was dreading was trying to get it done in the depths of winter, and here we are at the beginning of December. I really need just one good day so I can get the head back on in the dry.  I can then do all the other stuff in the gaps between the wet and cold in bits and bobs. Hopefully there will be a dry day soon to get the head on then I can breath a sigh of relief that the hardest bit is all behind me. 

[Alusilber]

Arrgh, lightning does strike twice! 😖

Bit of a trivial question given all the work you've done on this, but how did you get the bracket that holds the coolant expansion tank off? I've tried to remove mine to give it a lick of paint, but the lip at the end stops it pulling through the slot that it goes into.

[inconsistant]

December 2024: HGF part 8

The last Saturday of November was that day. A last minute change in the weather forecast meant a swap around of weekend plans and the hurried and much appreciated enlisting of help from another 924 owning chum who was going to be my second pair of hands under the car to locate the exhaust down-pipe studs while I located the block on the head. In preparation I finally fitted the exhaust manifold onto the head and tried to keep the downpipes gasket in place by wrapping tape around the studs.

Double checked all the various housings were properly attached,

We jacked the car up on ramps again, supported the exhaust on wood blocks, and we gave the head surface a last clean with brake cleaner and then gave the mating surface of the block a careful scrape with a wide plans blade to get any gasket remains or surface rust off, cleaned out the bores to get the oil, wd40 and coolant out, we then wrapped a rag around a wood dowel and dunked it into all the head bolt holes to get all the mucky fluids out before screwing an old head bolt in each of them to check the the threads were clear.

We then gave the top surface of the block a wipe with brake cleaner and laid the new head gasket onto the block on its locator pegs and we were ready for the bit I’d been dreading for weeks. So we had a cup of tea, chatted tactics, and got the head in position ready for some middle age man bad back awkward angle weight lifting.

It took a bit of manoeuvring but we got the exhaust studs into the downpipes holes, and a couple of nuts on lonely to keep them on. It then took a bit more jiggling to get the head to fit exactly onto the block and plop down onto the locator dowels. Finally I felt it drop down slightly and into place. We held the block into place and got a couple of the new head bolts in finger tight. Once they were all finger tight out came the torque wrench. All bolts done up to 65 Nm. Then a dab of tipped on the rear side of the head bolts before finally tightening another 180 legs. The tippex so we could see how far we needed to tighten, and of course which bolts we had already done and which still to do.

And the head is on and torqued up! I was absolutely over the moon. 

Decided to stuff rags down all holes and gaps to make sure nothing fell into them. 

And, for the first time in at least a couple of years, this thread is now up to date. The photo above is where I am with it. 

Still plenty to do but it's really just putting stuff back together in the right place, in the right order, with the right fixings. I've got the photos I took when I took it all apart, plus the photos from last time in case I need more clues. Fortunately the two 924s are virtually identical mechanically. 

 

[inconsistant]

19 minutes ago, Alusilber said:

Arrgh, lightning does strike twice! 😖

Bit of a trivial question given all the work you've done on this, but how did you get the bracket that holds the coolant expansion tank off? I've tried to remove mine to give it a lick of paint, but the lip at the end stops it pulling through the slot that it goes into.

Mine's got a hook on the back and is held on with a bolt at the front. This is what the strap looks like without the bottle in position: 

Undoing that bolt at the front should loosen the bottle enough that you can jiggle the metal strap around the bottle. Maybe slide it off sideways or lift the front of the strap up and it should come off? I've never had to fight it so should come off ok.

[somewhatfoolish]

I'd have thought the owners club would be all over getting that remade, heat shields are practically a consumable.

[mercedade]

Absolutely pure THREAD.

Great to see.

[Zelandeth]

Don't know what you're worrying about, that camshaft and followers look fiiiiiine!

I still can't quite believe the engine those came out of was running absolutely fine and the only sign of issues was it sounding like an old OHV Ford engine needing the valve lash set.

In all seriousness, glad you were able to find good used parts and it's nearly back together.

Nicely documented.  I wish my posts were half as well organised and clearly written!