As most know I am diligently working on my 944 Spec car. I have been prepping to do the cage later in the month and of course the car decided to alter the plan.
During normal but aggressive street driving (not drag racing just running up the gears), the car made a loud rattle during acceleration. I thought a lifter went or the timing belt slipped, but then after some additional noises I started to think clutch.
I looked into the timing hole and could tell something was not right as something had decided to take a notch out of the cast timing tab. When looking down the hole and slowly turning the engine by hand I could see that the sprung tabs of the pressure plate (the ones around the perimeter holding the two halves of the PP together) had fractured and due to centrifugal force swung out on their rivets and began cutting the bellhousing and timing tab like a knife. Obviously I need to pull it apart.
What I dont like is the idea of putting in the same Sachs pressure plate that it seems we have to do per the rules. I am just lucky or is this an issue we have? I have never had another Porsche do this though I did have an BMW M3 do it once and it literally chopped the bell housing off the engine during a race!
I know we can overhaul the PPs, can we upgrade the spring straps?