924Board.org

[newbie]

Kind of hate to ask this as I may end up giving away something good that I may need...
EBay has a gent selling the following:

Do it yourself all 944 924s belt replacement!!!! Great new kit to save your 944 or 924s from valve destruction! Includes everything including a belt tensioning tool and instructions all on one handy kit. Includes: timing belt, balance shaft belt, timing belt tensioner, timing belt roller, balance belt tensioner, balance shaft roller, front sealing kit, alternator belt, tensioning tool, combo balance bolt sprocket wrench, and instructions. Do it once Then charge your friends to do it to their 944s.

This seems to fall under the "too good to be true" category. Anyone here have any experience with this kit or the all hallowed belt tensioning tool mentioned? Hard to picture that Porsche sells just the tool for $500 and here the whole shebang can be had for less than $300.
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"Those who fail to learn from history's lessons are doomed to repeat them."
< taken from Chinese court documents written approximately 5000 years ago! >

[gohim]

Glad you asked.

The guy is not selling you a kit with what you think you are getting.

You are not getting the Porsche P9201 belt tensioning tool. What is pictured is the Krikit. The Krikit sells for like $10-$15 at places like NAPA.

And you are not getting a brand new Porsche water pump worth $300. What you are getting is an aftermarket water pump made by LASCO, which may be worth $125 on a good day. The LASCO water pump is not anywhere near the same quality as the Porsche pump.

A good quality generic belt and roller kit is worth $125-$150.

Not as much of a bargain anymore is it?

[newbie]

Knew this was the place to ask. Thank Gohim, again. Hope my healthy scepticism showed. That and the fact I hadn't bid yet. I know from reading other posts here the Porsche tool is a Holy Grail of DIYer 924S/944 folk, is the Krikit worth even the $10 to $15 mentioned, or will it lead to poor results and early new belt failure? Is it better than tensioning "by hand"?

Oh, I should pick up my '88 924S this afternoon! Can't wait.
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"Those who fail to learn from history's lessons are doomed to repeat them."
< taken from Chinese court documents written approximately 5000 years ago! >

[gohim]

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TENSION BY HAND UNLESS YOU WANT TO REBUILD THE CYLINDER HEAD OR REPLACE THE ENGINE.

There has been an ongoing debate over how accurately the Krikit tool (or the other versions of this toold sold by other companies under other names actually work).

I think I you have done the procedure a number of times with the P9201 tool, have a good feel for the correct belt tension, and have had a chance to compare the KriKit tool directly against the P9201, you may be able to do an acceptable job.

Under any other conditions, I would say you would be playing with fire.

[Sleykin]

I have to agree with Gohim. I bought a similar kit on e-bay through AutoAtlanta and was verry displeased with what I got. It took months to get most of the stuff in the kit and when all was said and done they sent me the wrong pin wrench and none of the other wrenches they advertised. Two of the rolleres were the wrong flavor and I had to go purchase them seperately. The Kricket is usable but a real PITA to get where it needs to be. I left negative feed back over getting the wrong parts and terrible response to e-mails. The returned the favor and left me a negative fb for leaving them one.
In my case ... I paid $1800 for the car and the shop wanted $1500 to do the belts and pump. I did it myself and I think it is working out just fine. Unless you plan to run the motor close to redline for extended periods as in racing the tension on the belts is not as critical as a lot of folk would have you believe. The most common failure mode at high revs is for the balance shaft belt to flop into the timing belt and self destruct.
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Glenn Neff
Medford, OR
87' 924S

[newbie]

I WILL NOT attempt to hand tighten my belts. I will not try to save by using a Kritkit first off. I will either use a Porsche tool or have the shop do the job. I just picked the car up this afternoon and don't want to trash it already.
Good news, everything still looks great cosmetically out in broad daylight.

Bad news, to get it home I had to drive it 47 miles, and the temperature gauge climbed so fast up into the red that the trip had to be made in two stages. I did notice that it "cooled off" better at highway speeds and the fan only stayed on after shutdown if I left the key in the "ACC" position. more things to troubleshoot. Probably corrosion in the cooling system or a dead water pump. Any guesses?
_________________
"Those who fail to learn from history's lessons are doomed to repeat them."
< taken from Chinese court documents written approximately 5000 years ago! >

[gohim]

The water pump is driven off the back side of one of the timing belt.

Could be that what you have is a loose timing belt, so the water pump is not being driven properly.

The cooling fans should run at low speed with the coolant hot, and the ignition switch in the off postion. You could have a defective cooling fan resistor. The cooling fan resistor is located under the dashboard, up near the windshield, and supplies the cooling fans with reduced voltage (so they run at low speed) when the ignition is off. The cooling fan resistor is always "hot" since it is on a circuit that always receives power from the battery, through the fuse panel.

Loose belts are death because they when they get loose enough, they beat themselves to death against the backside of the timing belt cover and break causing the "big time" damage that you want to avoid.

Now that you got the car home, it's time to do what you gotta do to help ensure a longer life for the engine.