Hello Everyone,

I am interested in a porsche 944 83. its a pretty clean car however the owner states the timing belt jumped a tooth. he said it will idle however it runs very rough. I always thought if it jumped a tooth it was trash. is this owner correct or am i opening a can of worms.

 

You can be a tooth or two off and not have any valve damage, but I would verify how far off it is before buying.

 

any idea on how to check or verify this?

 

You'll have to remove the timing belt cover and check the alignment mark on the cam gear versus the indicatoron the engine to see if the timing is off. At TDC (Top Dead Center) on cylinder #1 the marks should be aligned.