[Cloud9...68]

FYI, here's a picture of my head gasket. To me, it doesn't look all that bad. Yes, these are some holes between the cylinder areas, where the coolant flows, but the sealing surfaces around the cylinders look very solid. And it's hard to tell from the picture, but the thickness of the gasket is very good - none of the "paper mache" effect I've seen in pictures of head gaskets from other peoples' cars. It really does make me wonder whether the head has already been off this car. My other post, about the nine+ cam sprocket teeth in the bottom of the oil pan, even though all the sprocket teeth are present on the cams, is further evidence of this.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

Hmmm... for some reason, the image didn't upload. I upgraded my setting, and I'll try it again...



Whoops, selected an image of my cylinder head by mistake. Let me try again...

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

I hope my brain is functioning better when it comes time to reassemble my engine, or I'm going to be in a world of hurt. The picture of the head gasket didn't upload because I forgot to re-size it. Should work this time:



Well, as you can see, I'll never win any awards for my photographic skill. I should have put the gasket against a white background. I'll see if I can find one large enough, and post this yet again.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

OK, here are a couple more pictures of my head gasket:

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[flash]

awfully brown in there - has it been run on dyno-oil?

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

I guess all 968s have run on dyno oil for at least the first few years of their lives, because synthetic wasn't widely available, or at least commonly used, in the early 90s. It definitely wasn't used at the factory. But I've always used synthetic in the seven years that I've owned it, and the previous owner said he did, too. Before that, I can't say.



I did have the Run-Rite treatment done a couple of years ago, and use a proprietary (the oil analyst who put together the mixture said he'd have to kill me if I gave away the formula...) fuel system cleaner at every fill-up, but there's still a lot of black gunk in the intake ports and in the intake manifold. The machinist to whom I took the head told me that's very normal, though, and that visually, the head appears to be in very good shape. But if it's been removed, and I assume refurbished, when the cams were repaired or replaced (see my thread on this), it ought to be. I can't explain the brownish coloring, though.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[flash]

hmmmm - interesting - definitely odd from my experience - given the teeth, obviously somebody has been in there, and it seems odd that they would change the head without removing all of that, but clearly something is up

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[tamathumper]

It has always been my understanding that when you suffer a catastrophic failure in the timing bits as yours obviously has, you have to dismantle enough to clean out all the metal bits from the oil system before rebuilding and putting the whole thing back together again.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[flash]

yeah - you're supposed to

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

I'm doing it now, but of course I was unaware of the missing teeth when I started.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[tamathumper]

Amen, and sorry for your troubles.



If it makes you feel any better, I was unaware of the finish nail a previous owner had broken off in one of the oil passages in the last 944S I bought at auction in Manheim, PA to make the oil gauge read 100% when there really was no oil pressure to be had in the top of the engine.



Hmmm, is there a "smiley emoticon" for a flaming death skull?

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

Not really any trouble. You never know what you'll find inside a 19-year-old engine. At least I don't have to worry about getting new cams anytime soon.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

As far as the relatively decent condition of my head gasket - given that based on the evidence of the cam sprocket teeth in the bottom of the pan, and no teeth missing from the cams (I had my neighbor confirm that), it's clear that at least the head has been worked on since the car was new. This means the head gasket is probably significantly less that 115,000 miles, and 19 years, old. And yet, it still has some perforations in the areas where the cooling water flows against it. This tells me that the belief that the head gaskets on these cars is a weak point, and should definitely be replaced by anyone contemplating forced induction, is correct.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[flash]

yeah - pete definitely made the right call there - no doubt about it

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

As promised, here are a few more pictures from my engine that I found somewhat interesting, so hopefully others will as well. I posted a couple of these on another thread, so sorry about the duplication. The top picture is of the outside of the oil pan, on the opposite side of the regular drain plug. There's a very large, odd-sized plug, somewhere between 21 mm and 24 mm, near the bottom of the pan. Does anyone know what this plug is for? I'm thinking of tapping into it for my oil temperature sending unit that I'd like to use for the gauges I'd like to put in the center console.



The second picture shows the inside of the oil pan with that black plastic tray/baffle thingy removed. You can barely see the inside of that giant plug near the upper right-hard corner of the picture.



The third picture, which is out of order chronologically, shows the oil pan with this tray still in the pan, and the fourth picture shows the tray removed. Does anybody know what this tray/baffle is, and what it does? It contains what looks like a compartment, which is attached by several screws. I haven't taken this compartment off. Thanks.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Cloud9...68]

In response to similar questions I had on another thread, Jeol postulated that I might have a 944 oil pand, and that the giant plug might be to plug the hole that's normally used for the turbo oil return line. Is that plastic insert also something that comes only in the 944 pan? I've heard the 968 pans were upgraded relative to the 944; should I be concerned? In other words, looking at my pan, is there anything "missing" relative to a normal 968 pan (e.g. internal baffling and the like)? Thanks.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[rxter]

The closed plastic compartment contains one of about 50 special Porsche lottery tickets that they put in cars randomly over the years to increase sales (clearly did not work with the 968). I'd heard of these previously but assumed it was legend nonsense. As I recall the ticket entitles the owner to a full factory refurbish of the containing car, or a choice of any new base production vehicle. Pretty cool to see that Santa is real and wears lederhosen.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[tamathumper]

I'm pretty sure that compartment is the blinker fluid reservoir.



Sorry, couldn't resist. Perhaps this will help with your insert.



http://www.crank-scrapers.com/Porsche.html

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.