I've been putting in some solid hours lately trying to get things back together in time for Quattrofest the first weekend in November. While it won't be anywhere near complete, I want to get the car out and give her a good shakedown day. I've made so many changes that I want to get a baseline for how things feel before I start tweaking suspension items over the winter.

For this installment I finally got my act together and reinstalled the cam housing. Keeping the lifters in place while you get things aligned is kind of a pain. Scuffed the fancy paint work just a touch getting things lined up, but still looks pretty nice. With the cam housing installed I could tackle my next dreaded job, installing and tensioning the belts. Given that it is my first time, and that improper tension will result in the motor self-destructing, I took my time to get everything right. The specialty tools I picked up from Bruce @ Arnnworx really make the job easier. Takes a little practice to get consistent readings with the tension gauges, but I think I managed to get things just about right. One thing is for sure though, there is not much room for error. The balance shaft belt is MAYBE 1/8" from the water pump roller... have to get things just right. Then I installed the power steering and alternator belts. With the belts in place I installed the distributor rotor and cap. To finish off my weekend in the engine bay, I installed a new radiator as well. Once I double check everything I'll be installing the fans and hoses. My fancy powdercoated fuel rail should be here this week, so I'll also be installing that with the cleaned injectors. After filling all the fluids, it will be time to fire her up!

As for the interior, things needed a little bit of work before I could consider it ready for final installation. First I test fit the Sparco sliders, only to confirm my suspicion that I would need to do a little mod work. For some reason Porsche left the center seat mounting hole undrilled in the 944, while clearing the hole in their other cars. A bit of careful drill work and I could access the final mounting point for the sliders. While I was in there I also drilled out a hole in the center tunnel for the center lap belt attachment points. Another Porsche oddity, this hole was originally provided in early 944's, but then later models had the seatbelt attaching to the seat frame itself and they did not cut out the hole. It's far safer to have seatbelts mounted through the body, so I'll be using this point to attach my harnesses in the near future. I have also finished the assembly of the sliders and seat brackets and attached them to the seats. I'll be installing the seats later this week once I get all the final details in place.

Speaking of interior details, I also finally got motivated to finish removing all the interior adhesives left over from the carpet and padding. It's some pretty nasty stuff, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to ever be removed. However copious amounts of Xylene and engine cleaner later I have a pretty damn clean car. Still a few more spots to clean up in the hatch but I've finished my work in the passenger area. For the time being I plan to reinstall the basic carpet sans padding - factory RS style. It's really pretty light, and will make things look a little more normal when I take the car for emission testing. Stay tuned, things are just getting exciting! I'll have more to post very soon... so close now... I can't wait to get things thing back in action!