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944 Oil Pan Gasket Failure and Prevention
by Steve Grosekemper
Oil leak and Porsche. When these two words are used together most people think of air cooled cars. That old 356, 911, or 914, with a perpetual lubricant mist which seems to be doubling as an anti-corrosion coating (at least for the rear of the car!).
While it is true that these models have had a history of oil leaks, they are not alone. They have now been joined by their water-cooled brethren. 944s have had their share of oil leak problems--from leaking front engine seals to leaking cam housing gaskets. They are no different than other Porsche models considering that some oil leaks just happen, and others are preventable. This prevention is what we are after. Spend a little now to save a lot later.
Starting
with 944 Turbo models, Porsche discovered that
the exhaust manifold runs so close to the oil
pan gasket, that it can be severely heat damaged.
This heat will eventually destroy the gasket,
causing a huge oil leak. To prevent this from
happening, Porsche designed a small heat shield
to be bolted onto the engine block. These heat
shields soon appeared on other 944 models, as
time went on. After several updates, Porsche finally
decided on a very large heat shield for all mode
944s. This newest piece is about 4 times the size
of the original early turbo piece and does an
extraordinary job of protecting the oil pan gasket.
If your car has no heat shield or has an early
smaller piece installed, this update should be
moved to the top of your to do list.
The installation is as easy as 1-2-3, and is as follows:
1. With the car in the air, check the right rear corner of your oil pan. This is where the heat shield resides.
2. Remove the 6mm oil pan bolt at the right rear corner of the oil pan.
3. Hold the new heat shield in place and reinstall 6mm oil pan bolt, finger tight.
4. Install two 8mm bolts with lock washers through the top mounting holes. Now tighten all bolts.
NOTE: Very early 944s will have 10mm threaded mounting holes in the block instead of the standard 8mm holes. For these cars, simply drill out the heat shield mounting holes to accept the 10mm bolts, before installation.
PARTS LIST
944.101.033.04 $47.30
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