"tell me more..." Part 4
By Jim Alderson.
...I was able to locate a rebuilt Borg Warner unit for
about $1500. With a little bit of machining, Red attached the B/W unit to
my existing drive shaft tube. It shifts great! BUT I miss the lower gear
ratio of the early transmission.
There is hope for later
transmissions! From an article in the March 1999 PCA Porsche Panorama.
"928 Performance Gear
installation" describes how a new 1987 S-4 owner wanted more
performance and after doing his homework (and talking with Kim Crumb)
decided the cheapest route was to have a new ring and pinion 3.09 unit
fabricated by Houseman Automotive (tel 519 652-3030) for $2500 U.S.
Then disaster struck again! One day while driving at
about 30 MPH the water pump froze! I bent a bunch of valves (but no piston
damage). Reflecting back on it, the water pump might have had 20,000 miles
on it. Shortly before the incident, after Red had checked my belt tension,
he told me words to the effect;
"When I measured the
tension, it was a little tight and I left it that way...it should be OK
since the belt stretches."
Lesson learned - replacing your water pump and belt
tensioners IS cheap insurance. And make sure your belt is tensioned
correctly upon installation and again at 5000 miles. Replace it at 40,000.
Both heads were completely refurbished and Red did the
rebuild. He also ground "smiles" into the pistons to give the
944 valves additional clearance (and hopefully prevent a third repeat of
damaged heads.)
Now the machine runs great. Acceleration between 4000
and the red line at 6000 is amazing! After all we've been through together
and a lot of driving fun, I'm not parting with my machine (but I'm always
interested in new ways to explore its potential!). - Best
wishes, Jim Alderson.
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