Its Alive!

The ole spinning the starter without plugs and DME relay procedure once again produced absolutely nothing. But starting the motor .... Within 5 seconds I had a wonderful 5 bars of pressure. Life is finally good.

Now it feels like one of the cylinders is missing. Bad plug, bad plug wire or bad injector, but that can be tracked down and fixed. The good news is I have spark, fuel, water flow and oil pressure.  After all that work we're moving forward again. Yeah Team Alpine!

The culprit revealed

Into the shop. I have the engine back on the stand after pulling the bellhousing and clutch. Of course the oil pump is one of the first things you attach to the block when building it, so understandably a large number of items need to come off before we can get to it. Pretty much everything on the front and the bottom.

While engaged in this process I made the discovery that my giant oil drip pan, seen here below the motor, must have slid over and rested against my air compressor motor housing when stored, burning a nice hole in the bottom. This was made evident while wrenching on the motor and finding myself standing in a every widening pool of oil. A quart of oil on the loose can cover an amazing amount of garage floor. The remnants of that spill, plus the coolant that been seeping from the water pump, makes retrieving a beer from the cooler in the garage an interesting experience.

Eventually I got the oil pump off and onto the bench. And quickly the oil pressure problem was found. The oil pump would only rotate about 20 degrees before it would bind. 20 degrees in the other direction and thump. Something was either jammed or broken in there, but in either case, it wasn't doing it's job. Eventually I'll do an autopsy, but for now the task is getting the motor working. I'm already a month behind.

I find a spare oil pump. Running it through my parts washer it pushes fluid back and forth when rotated, so I just need to clean it up and bolt it on.

Several hours later, the front of the motor is back in shape. Belts attached and adjusted, oil pan back on, exhaust hung, clutch and bellhousing snug. Time to put this puppy back in the car.

Deja Vu? Weren't we just here a little while ago?

Winter of Discontent

This January, while outside seemed the very image of a bucolic, folksy wintertime scene - truck and trailer slumbering peacefully, dreaming of races to come, siberian huskies frolicking through the woods - inside the garage was a much different picture. Much gnashing of teeth and pitiful wailing, the rendering of garments (overalls) and loud beseeching of the car gods, why have you foresaken me!?

And it all came down to one simple thing, pressure. Or more accurately, the lack of.

Let me explain. The beginning of January saw the new rebuilt motor all buttoned into the car. Fluids topped off, electrical connections all in place, new fuel lines installed. Life was looking good. And then it all went to shite, and my January with it.

The first thing a new rebuilt motor needs is a nice healthy supply of oil. Lovely liquid deceased dinosaurs to smooth the pistons as they journey up & down in their cylinders. Oil to coat the bearings as they spin at 6000 revolutions a minute. Without oil to provide a nice slippery surface, all those metal surfaces would soon revolt, leading to what is known as the Big Bang - see last April.

The motor when built was nice, clean and dry. I used a light grease called assembly lube when putting it together. This provides the initial lubrication when the motor is started, and is dissolved as oil courses through the system. So the first order of business is to get that oil flowing through everywhere. 6 quarts of oil was added. The external oil cooler was left off for now until the motor is happy. So lets put that oil to work.

Now the recommended way for new 944 motors to build initial pressure is to disconnect the coil wires, so there is no spark; pull the DME relay so no fuel is pumped into the cylinders and then just crank the starter in 30 seconds bursts until the oil pressure gauge jumps to 5 bars. Now while this is the recommended way, it has never worked for me, and if you read the forums, it doesn't for lots of others either. But each time, I'm willing to try.

And as expected, it doesn't work for me.

And thus began my own personal brick wall for the rest of month. No matter what the technique, and there were plenty, no oil pressure was ever produced. By the beginning of February there was no more advice coming from anybody, it's all been said and done. All tried, and all with the same result, zip.

The oil pump - aka The Slacker - on the front of the motor

So one option is now left on the table. Yank the motor and put it back on the engine stand. You don't know how much I really don't want to do that. But since my ice climbing partners always seem to be washing their hair on these winter weekends, I guess I'll drag my butt back to the garage and get back to work - and work is what its feeling like. Sigh...

Tonight it's out and tomorrow I'll start playing detective, but for now, it's time for beer.