2 weeks ago I purchased one of the cleanest 944's I have seen and it took all of my savings (I'm a starvingcollege student.) I test drove it really hard and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, besides little things that are easily fixable like brake pads, and power steering.

The morning after when the car is cold I turn it on, and I hear a light knocking, I get scared but after a minute the car warms up and the sound goes away, but the car hadplenty ofoil in it. I am real exited and I am on my way to wash it at my local car wash and at the light Ipush the car to see what itcan really do, andI feel like something is wrong but I had already arrived at the car wash and it starts to smoke like crazy. I look at the engine and there is a hole in my cam tower the size of ahalf dollar. People were telling me to move out of the way, so I see if I can turn it on, and it does! I slowly move it out of the way. I taped up the hole so no more oil would get on the exhaust, and I drove it home slowly, funny thing is that it drove home just fine without any problems, just plenty of smoke from the oil on the heads.
[/align][/align]After talking to a few mechanics, I realized that the only way I could afford to get this car back on the road would be to do it myself. Keep in mind I am not a mechanic and don't aspire to be one. From what I heard from "the professionals" was that I could get away with justreplacing the cam tower. [/align][/align]I already boughta usedcam tower, cam, and lifters. [/align][/align]I have taken off the old cam and lifters and I began putting on the new ones Iused the old lifters with the new cam. This is where I am stuck. I can'tmount the new cam on the rest of the engine, it seems that when I am trying to push one side in, the lifters on that side are out instead of in and won't let me mount it. I push one side in and the other side gets pushed out. SoI can't ever get both to go in. [/align][/align]I began working on the car before found this site which makes referrences to clarks site, and the only inconsistency I have found is thatI didn't do the TDC part. Is that what is causing all my problems?[/align][/align]Any help with this would be appreciated.[/align][/align]Malcolm,[/align]

 

Well, you are pushing against the valve springs on the head. First off, have you set the engine at TDC? Is your cam lined up with the cam mark on the housing? If you just bolt it down in any old order, you are going to bend all your valves. You will have to get the lifters setting on the valve springs, then start installing the allen bolts and slowly draw the cam housing against the head. Again, if you do not have everything lined up on TDC, you are going to cause massive damage.