I bought this Porsche 944 sight unseen from my buddy Elliott Grafton – owner of 944 Barn.
As mentioned in the first Project 944 post, we have no real background info on this car. Elliott doesn’t know when it last ran, or what ultimately took it off the street, etc. But I kind of dig the tragic mystery of it all. And I want to see if I can get this 944 to start. This is when I first laid eyes on her, and that’s Elliott Grafton waving…
So now what?
Elliott’s diagnosis was that the FUEL PUMP was bad, and that the engine might be ok if I could get fuel to it. 1) Fuel pumps are common fail-points on Porsche 944s. The good news is, 944 fuel pumps are cheap & easy to change. You can buy an off-brand pump with solid reviews on Amazon for about 25 bucks… and the pump is easily located behind the passenger-rear wheel. 2) The fuel FILTER is located just above the fuel pump in the pass-rear wheel wheel, so I swapped that too. 3) If you remove the bolt on the bottom of the fuel tank (right where the fuel line exits), there is a screen on the backside that catches any muck in the tank. I pulled that out & cleaned it up. Then I bit the bullet & bought a dang battery. Here’s what happened…
Fail… lol ok…
That’s about what I figured. On a Porsche 944, the fuel pump does not prime when you put the key into ignition… like most cars. Instead the 944 waits to send fuel until you start cranking the car. BUT we needed to make sure the new fuel pump was actually working. Testing the fuel pump is easy – you just remove the 19mm cap that’s located on the end of the fuel rail. (Be careful – there’s a metal ball inside that cap that you don’t wanna lose, as it seals the cap to the rail.) Also – it helps to put a water bottle over the end of the rail so fuel doesn’t spew all over the distributor cap. Naturally, I used a vodka bottle we found in the car. Like this…
Ok… so we know the new 944 fuel pump works!
Plus there’s now a few clean gallons of fuel in the tank… so good things are ultimately coming through the pipeline. But that old gas pushing through the fuel rail is naaasty. Which means the likelihood of the injectors being clogged is pretty good. Check it out…
Elliott from 944 Barn had already foreshadowed the probability of clogged injectors…
And he recommended a good place to send the injectors for cleaning. BM Injector Services… only about 10 bucks per injector. Buuuuut I’m overall impatient & just figured I’d try a little starting fluid before I gave up for the day…
Man this 944 wants to run!!!
It’s so close; she wants to do it! So I went back & really doused the 944’s throttle body with starting fluid this time. Tried to fire it again… and… SUCCESS!! Here’s a vid of the car running for the first time in literally God-knows-how-long…
She’s a classic; she just needed a lil nudge that’s all…
As the 944 ran for a minute, it began to clean itself up as new fuel got through the system. Man I’m soaring! In what seemed like total darkness, there’s now a beacon of light. That’s just the boost I needed. Now we’re in this thing! On to the next challenge! Stay tuned… good vibes a comin’.
