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Unread 07-09-2009, 01:47 PM   #1
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Just prior to 944Fest this year we (my girlfriend and I) were getting our respective cars ready for the trip to picturesque Nelson Ledges. My car needed a new waterpump. While "in there", I decided it would be wise to replace the timing belt as well. This due to the fact that my records did not reflect a recent belt change. As near as I could tell - I have accumulated about 30,000 miles since I did the last one. But this story is not about Herbie (my little love bug) - it's about the perils of Penelope (GF's car).

After all the planning and preparations to get her car ready - replaced the alternator in late spring and were preparing to do an oil change - I noticed an odd discoloration in the coolant overflow bottle. This is two days before we are scheduled to leave for Ohio! Oh - and my car is still up on jack stands waiting for the timing belt and small waterpump pulley to arrive from Pelican. DOH!

I stick my finger in the overflow bottle and come out with a gob of brown goo. Suspiciously this looks and feels a lot like oil. I tell Dr. Goodwench (GF) she should just put Penelope back in the garage and to start devising a plan to carry all of our gear in one car.

So what follows is a tutorial on what was done to replace the oil cooler seals on a 1985.5 944. It will be complete with photos (with circles and arrows, and a description on the back, of each 8-1/2 x 11 color glossy photograph).

Step 1: Gather the information. This consisted of going through the service manual and printing out (from CD) the relevant pages. Fortunately, the service manual does a fairly good job of describing this procedure. Also Clark's Garage has a good write-up on this. Next a visit to Pelican Parts' website to determine the appropriate parts and their respective quantities. One thing that I found interesting - the kit they sell with "everything needed" lists for about $30. I was able to order the seals individually for about $10 and still buy the alignment tool for another $20. The "everything" kit did not include the alignment tool. To me, it made much more sense to take a little more time and give up on the "convenience" of the kit.

Step 2: Order the parts. Spend some money.

Step 3: Start taking the car apart. As with most anything on 944s - it's generally easiest to disassemble the whole car until you are able to get to the part you are after. This is no exception. In the picture below, the first thing was to remove the power steering fluid reservoir. By placing the reservoir out of the way, access was provided to only slightly more than was available before. After that the oil filter was removed.
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Unread 07-09-2009, 02:01 PM   #2
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Oh - actually, the first thing removed was the overflow bottle. Then all of the coolant was drained from the radiator by removing the lower hose from the radiator. The coolant that drained out showed only a hint of oil on the surface. I was thinking to myself - I must have caught this just after it had happened. What great luck!

Oh wait - the first thing removed was the air cleaner box. That's always the first thing to go on any project. Even if all you're doing is changing a flat tire.

So now the air box is out, the overflow bottle is in Dr. Goodwench's basement under the pretense that it may get flushed out by the good Doctor (one day). Right - and the P/S thing is out of the way.
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Unread 07-09-2009, 02:10 PM   #3
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OK - so let's get back over to the side where the oil cooler lives. There's still a lot of stuff in the way. There are these pipes. Right, exhaust pipes. They must go. After messing around with every imaginable extension, universal and hinged ratchet - I come up with the best Rube Goldberg invention for the job. I can get all of the flange nuts loose with my contraption. Didn't even drop more than a couple in the pan of coolant waiting below, either. What skill.

So the exhaust headers are loose. There is still not enough room to get in and access the bolts holding the cooler housing in place. An immediate decision is made to go ahead and remove the entire exhaust system. This makes a lot of sense since we had already discussed the need for a replacement O2 sensor. And since a new, in the box, sensor came with the car when we (she) bought the car - we might just as well use that one.
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Unread 07-09-2009, 02:24 PM   #4
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Alright - now with a variation on the above Rube Goldberg, I am able to get the bolts out of the flanges on the header pipes to the rest of the exhaust system. What I just stated, and you just read about in only a few seconds, in reality took a couple of hours. Since I was working alone - while Dr. Goodwench was off playing with horses, or some such - I had to be on both the topside and underside of the car at the same time. This made for some rather creative ideas on holding wrenches and Rube Goldberg contraptions. Eventually, all bolts and nuts were out, and amazingly, I still didn't need to go to the hospital to have rust flakes removed from my eyes.

Hey look. There it is. That dirty black thing on the side of the block. That's the oil cooler housing. You know - right behind where the oil filter spins on. Oh - in the second picture. See that wide open space behind the crossmember? That's where the cooler needs to go so it can be removed clear of the car. It won't go up and it won't go forward. Oh - unless you want to take even more of the car apart first.
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Unread 07-09-2009, 02:27 PM   #5
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No reason to touch the headers to pull the oil cooler housing. Do everything from the bottom. Drop the power steering pump out of it's mount, disconnect the sway bar drop link on the passenger side, and it will come out the bottom without a problem. Accessing the bolts is no problem wither. You may have to flush the system many times to get all the residue out, so I would fill with water entirely the first couple times, get it up to operating temp and bled, then drain everything again (including the block), refill and repeat until it is all clear.
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Unread 07-09-2009, 02:34 PM   #6
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The four bolts holding the cooler housing to the block were comparatively easy to remove. The housing and cooler unit came out with little drama. It was obvious from the twisted rubber bits and funny blue gasket material randomly located within the housing, that there must have been something amiss.

It took a few minutes to figure out how to get the cooler clear of the car. But since I already gave it away - I'll just mention it is best to have a helper for this step. Luckily, Dr. Goodwench was back from goofing off and was able to collect the cooler that I handed down to her in the opening mentioned in the above installment.

One full day's worth of work out of the way.
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Unread 07-09-2009, 02:41 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PorscheDoc View Post
No reason to touch the headers to pull the oil cooler housing. Do everything from the bottom. Drop the power steering pump out of it's mount, disconnect the sway bar drop link on the passenger side, and it will come out the bottom without a problem. Accessing the bolts is no problem wither. You may have to flush the system many times to get all the residue out, so I would fill with water entirely the first couple times, get it up to operating temp and bled, then drain everything again (including the block), refill and repeat until it is all clear.
Yes - I forgot to mention the P/S pump was removed and left hanging by its hoses. However, since we had other operations to take care of (O2 sensor and motor mounts) I opted to remove the entire exhaust system. I really didn't investigate too closely whether it was feasible to do this with the headers in place. It looked hopeless so I just kept taking more stuff off. Yes - accessing the cooler housing bolts from underneath is necessary regardless. I did find the two upper bolts were easily removed from above though.

I need to take a break. Will provide more as time allows....
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Unread 07-09-2009, 03:41 PM   #8
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For the love of god man - PLEASE change your fuel hoses! I don't want to hear about another one of our beloved cars going up in flames
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Unread 07-09-2009, 04:01 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CurtP View Post
For the love of god man - PLEASE change your fuel hoses! I don't want to hear about another one of our beloved cars going up in flames
Good advice. Got leads on reasonably priced options?
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Unread 07-09-2009, 08:28 PM   #10
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I bought mine from Rennbay. I ordered longer ones and rerouted mine so the transition is at the firewall instead of over the exhaust.

Click the image to open in full size.
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Unread 07-10-2009, 09:41 AM   #11
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Nice.

I'll have to take temperature readings of the two areas to see if your routing is better. My concern would be stagnant air in that location intensifying the heat-soak effect. May be the opposite though, as you are clear of the majority of the header pipes.
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Unread 07-10-2009, 12:30 PM   #12
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Great writeup and pics. This is on my to do list also.
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Unread 07-10-2009, 01:58 PM   #13
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Quote:
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Great writeup and pics. This is on my to do list also.
Thanks.

I'm not done yet.
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Unread 07-10-2009, 02:43 PM   #14
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OK - picking up where I left off...

A couple of other jobs were taken care of while we were "in there". New motor mounts were installed and while the exhaust system was out, a crack was welded up. The old O2 sensor needed to be heated up so it could be removed.

Back to the oil cooler:

After cleaning and inspecting the housing and the cooler (heat exchanger) unit, I installed the new seals on the inlet and outlet pipes of the cooler element. The old ones were, at one time, red. They were brittle and came off in pieces after being stabbed with a small screwdriver. The new seals are green (see photo). A few trial fittings of installing the cooler in the housing were conducted to get familiar with the various parts. The service manual states installing the plastic spacer between the cooler and the housing. After this, the height of the cooler relative to the housing is to be checked with a straight edge. With the plastic spacer in place, the cooler sits above the housing mounting face. I removed the plastic spacer and checked again. Now the cooler sat ever so slightly lower than the housing. The addition of one (0.5 mm) aluminum shim brought the two to the same level.

Photos:

Old and new gaskets.

Image showing aluminum shim (red line) and the plastic spacer (yellow line). The spacer is intended to make up for the gap between the housing and the cooler on vehicles from 87 onward. The yellow ring shows the boss located in my 85.5 housing. This boss makes the plastic spacer unnecessary. The straight edge check confirmed this.
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Unread 07-10-2009, 02:59 PM   #15
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After discovering I have several o-rings that were not used on my car (I needlessly bought parts for the 87-on) I set the parts out and compared with the drawings in the service manual. Shown in the first photo are (l to r) the new rubber ring that goes in the block, the cooler with one aluminum shim on the post and two new (green) oil seal rings, the "profile gasket with vulcanized seals", the cooler housing, the pressure relief valve cap, the alignment tool and finally, the spring and pressure relief plunger.

The other photo shows a straight edge placed along the side of the post and the housing mounting flange. There is one 0.5 mm aluminum shim in place to get alignment.
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