Sad Porsche RUNS LIKE NEW after DIY mechanic work! 

Nothing beats the rush of finishing a project!

Awesome! Hope once you've driven it a couple of times to discover and fix any kinks that might pop up, you'll take it on a nice weekend trip with your lady to celebrate the new addition in style.

You gotta love your fellow 944 owners, especially after they complete a job that you got to watch the journey on. APPRECIATED!!

My wife gives me grief and rolls her eyes when I describe a car as being happy or sad. Thinking about it- it is we humans that feel happy or sad. Happy for a job well done or sad that someone else let an otherwise good machine fall into neglect. It's so rewarding to put work into and resurrect a machine that you can enjoy such as this 944! Hope to see it at Mid-Ohio and or Road America this coming summer! P.S. the new plug wires may work the same but they look SO much better. 👍

You can use a reversible screwdriver without the bits for the clamp screws. I have two barrel sizes, the smaller one fits most standard clamps and the larger one fits most of the bigger clamps. So basically you have a socket screwdriver which is a lot easier than wrenches or flat screwdrivers.

@2:15 Prince Birabongse aka B. Bira was nephew (of many) to the king and Prince Chula's cousin. The King and I was not based on him, but he had a bit of a grand prix racing career in the 1950s. He also wrote a book on racing and there's a circuit in Thailand named after him.

Nice Casey ! Keep inspiring and poking kids into DOING STUFF !!

Love what your doing. I have an 86 944 turbo, and I’ve done everything you’ve done multiple times. So please take what Im saying with that in mind. YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO READ THE WRITE UPS ON 944 timing belts. First, that whining noise means your timing belt is too tight. There are very specific specs that require a specific tool to get it correct. Also the idler pulley is NOT supposed to touch the belts - at all - when setting it up. Also, I get the whole “feel” to tighten down thing, but any proper mechanic has a torque wrench, and if you have to go through all the work you did why would you not torque to spec when it’s so easy to do. That way there is peace of mind and crap won’t back off with possible catastrophic consequences. By the way look up Clark’s Garage for all the how to’s on 944’s. I mean ALL. My suggestion is that ANYONE wanting to work on these cars should ALWAYS read the how to’s, they are strait forward and will give you the confidence to do the work right. The first time. BTW bonehead move on the thermostat in the water pump after the installation. I’ve done that move too! Also thank yourself you don’t have a turbo, everything is x2 as hard to do. Also, if you ever do the clutch replacement you’ll understand why they charge $3,000 to do it! Otherwise good set of vids, I liked that you went real time through the process. My only ;) gripe being you didn’t show how the cam tower went back on. That’s the treacherous part IMO.

Not sure when you changed the intro, but it's epic!

Casey, You've provided the best guidance on the web for 944 timing belt tension adjustment with this video! I've typically used the water pump method, if you can't turn the pump by hand the belt's too tight and if you can turn it easily it's too loose. But, your explanation of the basis for setting tension by removing the "dead spot" or slack of the belt, but without over tightening, is spot on. Porsche, in their infinite wisdom, built a proprietary gauge for tension measurement and set a spec. with no units, rather than providing the industry standard force and deflection. So, understanding and feel is all we have. Enjoy the car and maybe share what you find when you adjust the belt in a 2,000 miles or so once it breaks in. Keep up the great work helping the world to understand and enjoy the mechanical world of cars and racing.

As a former owner of a Porsche 924S, this "mini-series" on 2.5L Porsche front-of-engine service was a heartwarming thing to watch. The Porsche 924S and 944 are two of my all-time favorite cars. They're not uber-powerful supercars by any stretch, but that's okay, because what they are, to my mind at least, are cars that can be thoroughly enjoyed at sane public-road speeds. Even by today's standards, the handling dynamics of these cars, assuming they're in "well sorted condition," are very good. They were fun back-road touring cars when new and when kept up to scratch, there's no reason why shouldn't be just as much fun in the here and now. Hopefully, this series of videos has inspired people to consider "adopting" a Porsche using this engine and keeping it in road-worthy condition.

This was really great! Congrats on getting the Car to run so smoothly. I look forward to being able to get a project car to start on

The best advice for the timing belt tension as a guide that I've picked up from a 944 dude; if you cannot turn the water pump pulley with your fingers..it is too tight. Have it tight to the point that you can barely turn it with your fingers like opening a ketchup bottle. I think this ensures the life of the water pump bearing. This is with the engine cold.

"Do you smell that? Do you smell that? ...you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. It smelled like...victory."

That's awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing how this thing drives, especially in winter.

Nicely done Casey! I always liked those 80s 944s, and you’re really breathing life back into this one. Super cool! Gonna be fun to drive!

Casey, these videos were very helpful... Thank You! I have my first Porsche... it’s an early ‘85 944 automatic. I love the car, but every mechanic wants at least $2,000 to do the timing belts and water pump service... I’d love to try my hand at doing this myself, But I’m scared of making a “first timer” mistake, and causing more problems. ...But, your channel is awesome, the videos are great! I just wish I had the courage to do this job on my own 944. Dave.

Great to see, Casey. Thanks to you I have spent the weekend working on my Porsche, saved a ton of money, learnt stuff and built some confidence! Cheers mate!

I freaking LOVE THE 944. Awesome video.

I have been a tech for about 22 years and I have always installed timing belts on the tight side, ,,better tight than loose

Thank you for the tech tips, history lesson, and the humor! We love it keep it up!

Great work loving the 944

your tune up was fun to watch and hearing it run was quite rewarding actually. i miss working on cars and miss my 944T. it was so fast on the highway and so expensive to run! but it was beautiful! your red one makes me want another one very badly.

I love this channel for it is so relatable it hurts, I work in the ag. industry and I definitely know what it feels like working on your equipment and losing nuts and bolts from dropping. this is a great perspective in the real world of tinkering and enjoying your stuff keep up the good work Casey.

Good job casey i really like the car.

Casey, I’m LOVING these videos! I actually just bought a 1987 944 S about 2 weeks ago. I’ve always loved that car so I figured why not? This will be the first car I really work on and I plan on doing most of the work on it myself(minus paint) and you are giving me inspiration and great advice. Thank you! I have a 2009 C4S Cabriolet too and I think I’m going to enjoy driving the 944 more!

Very cool and well done editing and montage of the assembly in the beginning. One of the best of all car videos.

A while back I was looking to get a Porsche 944, I was doing research on them and came across several forums that were talking about the timing belt and that it was something you would have to take the car to a shop for. It has been about a year since then and I have gained a lot of knowledge on mechanics by completely rebuilding a Miata and after watching this series I have come to the realization that “Porsche snobs” turned me from away one of my favorite cars. With that being said, who has a Porsche 944 for sale?

Great work Casey, the videos are really inspiring to learn how to work on cars and not being afraid of doing it, I read your posts about figuring out RU-vid and as a viewer of many diferent kind of videos on RU-vid, what I have observed is that once you get going with about 100k subscribers you can exponentialy grow, and that has a lot to do with video and audio quality, I hope you take this as constructive critisism. First your camaraman rules video is not an issue, my advice is to get a good microphone and use that for audio, people apreciate when the sound is clear and consisten, also this may seem stupid but not many people like wathching 40 minute long videos but they like seeing part 2 or 3 of a series of videos. You are already building a great comunity and improving your videos in small ways that make people more confortable wathching them and make RU-vid promote them more. P.S. Sorry for the long comment.

Nice seeing her running again. Appreciate all the perspective put into doing that job in the face of the fear of not having the tensioning tool for it. Hope you do a driving impressions follow up.

Great video! Good tip on always double checking everything.

You actually explain things. Like, the tie rod. I already knew how that worked, but it's great to see someone actually provide a quick, clear, correct verbalization.

Loved this. When I made O-6, back in O6, still raising three kids....my wife grew tired of me complaining about only driving “kid haulers”. She gave me the “go” to buy what I wanted (within reason!!). As a Lt(jag), I had admired my XO’s white 944 cab ( he was going through a divorce....and I imagine he found this a great “visual pheromone” in downtown Virginia Beach). Anyway, after looking at God knows how many, I found a 1990 very low mileage Baltic blue cab, that a Marine LtCol was selling in Tampa. Fast forward, a follow on career in federal law enforcement....I never seemed to find the time to work on mine. So indeed, I am one of those “idiots” that pay others to work on it. As I used to do (when much younger) all of my own car repairs, now that I’m retired at 65....that car still brings “smiles with the miles”! Your video is inspiring....the next time my belts, rollers, tensioner service is due, I’m going to give it a go! Bravo-Zulu, great video, amigo!

i enjoyed this video and it true you can do your own work by following common sence and following instructions

good job casey

feels great to have a car finally fired up, i just buttoned up the motor on my vw bus 2 days ago, and i cant wipe the smile off my face :)

The correct tensioner is $20,000 dollars, a porsche shop told me about it. Its a very expensive tool. 1000 miles you have to re-tension it, and 30,000miles replace and repeat..

I totally want one of these. Even a broken or blown one. Just LS swap it. (Easier said then done. Hope to do it one day.)

If you have your timing belt too tight on this car, you'll kill your waterpump bearing. It's one thing that sets it apart from other cars where you have more room for error. There are some ways to get it right without an overpriced tension-tool, you can try to turn your waterpump, if you cant it's too tight.

Don't know if timing belt tension is too tight why it's wining like a super charger , usually happens if belt is too tight.

Thats a good job well done and upu showed us we can do this at home

Dead spot = excess belt deflection. Most shop guides will tell you the correct belt deflection in millimeters, so you can tension a belt without a gauge, just using a ruler. No guessing or prior experience needed. Even the finest new belts need a tension check/adjustment after 100(?) miles of use.

Way to go Casey!! 😁👍

Nice job bud, hope to see a driving video of this awesome car soon!

I probably had a momentary lapse of attention, and I’m sure you explained, but I hope you don’t drive it till you put the belt covers on. A little piece of gravel got under the belt and slipped timing on a rabbit which I had just rebuilt the engine and was so excited to drive once I got the engine in, that I drove it without the cover. Needless to say I’m an ID10T and I’ll never do that again. Glad you’re going to enjoy the 944.

Ever since you purchased that 944 prices on CL have shot up. I have a shortish list of cars I want you to buy and magically make their market prices go sky high. But please start working your mojo on that 928. I have two that I need to sell.

I recently bought a 80s JVC component tape deck for my home HiFI system. Laughing 😂 because one of the first tapes I found and bought at a local Goodwill was Miami Vice cassette. It lasted about 2 songs and then broke. Tapes are fun but unfortunately do not last. I bought a new re released Prince Purple Rain on eBay. Classic !! Love the 944 series 👍🏼

Casey, could you make a poll on when people would perfer or do have time to watch your videos? It might help your frustration on the RU-vid algorithms. Another great video! Cheers!

Good job Casey but I'm surprised you didn't break out a timing light to double check your settings? Cheers!

"I heard it hit the floor. Yes!" ProTip: look in that odd corner in the shop where all the 10mm sockets wind up.

Pop in that Miami Vice tape. Nothing like cruising in an 80's sports car listening to Crocket's theme.

I came back to watch these videos specifically because I was thinking my balance shaft belt may be a little tight due to the whine but when yours fired up it sounds exactly like mine. So I guess the point of this comment is that there is no point 😂.

This is super useful, and inspiring stuff. Keep it up Casey.... I do have one comment, maybe don't lean to hard onto the anti-snob thing. I mean, in general you only make good points, and this video actually struck a great balance, it's just a bit alienating to people who aren't snobs, but maybe very particular. Hmm... Idk how to put it. I get whera You're coming from with, and agree, i just don't want you allientating potential viewers, or worse yet, students.

Thanks for the Empowerment. Keep the vids coming, you always turn my day around with your optimism and up spirit mood. Looking forward to seeing your next project. Cheers - Zach G Canada P.S. Please find some long winding country hills and make a nice video of a Porsche be driven fast and responsible. Or track would do. lol

Much appreciating it Brother ! 89 951 ;)

the coolant on the exhaust might be a good thing, as it shows the fumes pushing up. Check those bolts looks like you got a manifold/exhaust leak somewhere might quiet it down alot aswell LOOKS Great tho love the vids!!!

Internet troll voices live rent free in Casey's head.

To better find how much tension I have on the belt I remove the sparkplugs so there is no compression while I rotate the crackshaft. It also helps to find if anything is mechanicaly wrong like valve interference. Not sure if this is good or bad, so follow this as you like, it should help and not be a problem.

Well done buddy !!! 😄😄😄😄😄😎😎😎😎🍺🍺🍺🍺

Your making me itch to get a 80s Toyota MR2 so bad lol but I like my 370Z. I also like the 80s theme montage at 2:57 haha

Would love to see you tackle a Tesla ala Rich Rebuilds channel.

There is no pride outside of finishing it yourself! May take a couple Days/Weeks/Months, but you did it yourself!!!

That thing is gonna be fun to drive.

Don't jack around if you change the timing belt on the 928. You'll need to follow the directions carefully. Nothing wrong with going by the book either.

@casey putsch ...I have that Miami Vice soundtrack too 😂

A proper tensioner tool is about $50, you can afford it, and anyone who can't, DON'T buy the car. It's great to get people into doing this stuff as it's really simple. BUT after 20 years of keeping 944/951/928 running, not hammering the proper tension specs is really a disservice. People will screw it up, and then blame you and the car when it goes south.

Best stock music on RU-vid!

Great series of videos

I had a 89 944 for 8 years, my son a 82 928,,,,,now I have a 89 turbo,,,for 12 years

Casey, is it worth buying a 944 if the sills need rewelding? Or is that to be avoided?

Put the coolant cap on so nothing falls in there

The dreaded high pitch wine, was not there until belts were changed on my S2

Awesome job.

Hey Casey I'm not a Porsche expert nor an experienced mechanic (in fact I just put cars together and hope they don't explode) but one of those belts was sounding a lil too tight even when you where a lil bit further from the engine bay. I actually looked at the engine bay like "wait... this things didn't come supercharged" EDIT: Typos

I liked the clicketyclickety sound, like a sewing machine. Idid NOT like the coolant smoke off the headers... That would make me Butt-clenching nervous for a moment. Thank you for the tip regarding "squeeze to create vacuum - to check if coolant does flow". Also the O-rings around the injectors... Aha! that might by why i see oil in that area... The exhaust note... nonono. I like your Viper better :D You DID seem less relaxed than usual. Squirrely. Camera"man" must be Beautiful indeed. Thank you both!

Wish the intro was longer lol

My 16v Scirocco had a cassette of Joan Jett stuck in it. .......

Hello Casey,thanks for what you do,,,,,,what Year is the 944,,,,,,,,,and 928?

Wondering what your thoughts are on the 924. Total junk?

That wining means one of the belts are to tight,probably the cam belt.when the engine gets up to temp it’s going to be even worse. A guy that does many 944’s says you should be able to turn the water pump by hand slipping against the belt. I tighten mine until it whines with the engine hot and then back it off until it’s quiet, it’s definitely to tight now. When it’s perfect it seems a little looser than you think it should be. Being to tight is hard on the related parts and decreases the life of the belt considerably. I don’t mean to be to nosy but I’d hate to see it have a problem. If it’s right the belts last a long time, mine are 10 years and 20,000 mi old and show no signs of breakdown. I’ve got new belts and pump and will do them this summer mostly because I think the pump is even older.

Sounds like the belts are whining a bit. Is that because you have not reinstalled that cover yet?

There are few things better than hearing the bolt hit the floor.

Hopefully it will turn out to be your Venus and won’t turn into a Cruel Summer for you!

Everyone puts a different weight oil in the 944 witch is the best weight 20-50?

You sound like Marvin Martian when you’re making fun of the Internet.

how come you didnt use the belt tension guade

Awesome

is the engine bay supposed to smoke?

I just messed up my Miata by not checking if my Miata was timed right. 😅 I wish I watch this before I tired to fire it up

Too much whine? Timing belt too tight?

Is that high pitch noise ok?

Deflection on a belt should be 1/4 inch i thought! Could be wrong.

I’m looking into getting another 944 had a n/a a few years ago but I’m not sure if I should look for another n/a or go for a turbo? Opinions and thoughts anyone?

Will 20w50 oil work

Now you need an LS swap.

If you don't have a Mix Tape, you are not in the '80s!

You're wrong about women on ships. The real reason goes back to Greecian times. A ship is Poseidon's daughter and a priest literally would perform a wedding of the new captain to his "bride". Women were never allowed onboard lest the ship become jealous and invoke papa Poseidon's wrath, taking back his daughter into the depths.

Well, can replace every components in that 944 into a Toyota celica supra Mk2 1986 due to the great German technology that is duarable and faster!?

I miss my 944

Is it supposed to make that squealing noise? Is that correct? Runs great otherwise.