Tref,
I subscribed to your way of thinking when I had the belts changed on my S2, about 3 years ago, just after I bought the car (yes, they need doing again soon.) I heard the various notes of caution on this forum (and others) and took it along to my indy to be done. I assumed that it really was different to doing the belts on any other car as it was a Porsche, therefore everything was done to a finer tolerance and you had to know what you were doing and you needed a special tool to test it otherwise the sky was garuanteed to cave in, besides which it is all working in a confined space yadda yadda yadda.
I took it back to the indy to be re-checked 1500 miles later. And watched him check the tensions. He didn't use a tool. Yes, the indie didn't use a tool. I queried this, and he said he was very surprised that I had even taken it to him for the work as it wasn't at all difficult and he knew I was well up to the job (I had previously chatted to him at length about changing cam belts on 928's - a very much more difficult task.) He tested the tension of the cam belt as you would on any other car (90degree turn on longest run with fingers), and showed me how tight (by feel) the balance belt should be.
Next time it is done, I will do it myself. I hear all you say, but it's just belts. Yes, they are important belts but they aren't difficult belts. I've changed cam belts on similar engines regularly since I was 17 (quite some time ago, thanks), and never had a problem.
I happen to think that there is a lot of 'black art' talked on forums like these. Jobs which are not too challenging have their difficulty significantly talked-up, both by people who have done it but mainly by those who haven't done it. And, before you know it, you have something approaching a complete myth about the difficulty of a job. It's not just belts; if you read some posts on here you'll believe that the brembo calipers used on S2's and turbos are near-impossible to refurbish if you have more than a nanometer or two of plate lift. Utter nonsense - that's a job that can be done by an enthusiastic amateur mechanic in an afternoon, if they have a half-decent workshop and a couple of neurones to rub together. Cutting-and-shutting the front struts to fit the Koni inserts is reputed to be a very difficult job - so difficult, in fact, that a well-known Porsche specialist makes a reasonable trade in doing this job for you if you want, and charging nearly three figures for the pleasure. However (funny to relate) when I tried it, I had two cut-and-shut struts with the inserts bolted in within an hour. Using nothing much more than a tape measure, a hacksaw and an electric drill. Ditto clutches - the prevailing mentality is that they are a HUGE job and you will be selling your kids and re-mortgaging your wife to pay for it to be done because of the size of the job. Again, not so; it's an easy job, and quite possible with no previous experience in a weekend if you have a competent friend to help.
They're cars. Just cars. They work like any other car. I have heard (that's to say read on a forum) about two or possibly three first-hand stories about cam belts letting go on 944's. I seem to recall that at least one of those involved a belt that hadn't been changed for 80k miles, and one in which the owner had heard 'funny noises' coming from the front of the engine for at least a thousand miles before it finally let go. 'Funny noises' that bore great resemblance to what I would call belt-slap. In both of these cases I found myself thinking the person was lucky to have got away with it for as long as he had.
This isn't a dig at you, more a dig at the mentality that often seems to develop on forums. If you don't know what you are doing, don't do it. But if you have a decent worksop, some good tools and the ability to think then don't be put off from jobs like this by nay-sayers on internet forums.
Just my $0.02's worth.
Oli.
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