Legoland951

If you have to pay for parts and work on the 951 engine (change the clutch, pan gasket, rear balance shaft seal, etc), you wouldn't say these car are well engineered or good cars to own from the maintenance point of view. It takes Porsche engineers to screw up a nippondenso A/C system to make it problematic in the 944 so from the crap jap car point of view, Porsche engineering sucks let alone oil leaks or power steering leaks.

Predator

Legoland951.... I agree with you 100% on the STUPID Porsche "engineers" who were , susposedly, so far ahead of there times. Anyone who designs a car with a replaceacle part that required dismantling half the damn car to replace (ie clutch) are idots. When you must drop the entire rear suspension to remove the torque tube, well, thats just rediculous. I sometimes wonder if they ever had to actually work on the cars they designed? AND... the location of the heater control valve. Damn! A $.50 hose clamp fails, and coolant trickles down to the pilot bearing, washing out the lubricant, and, bamb...... you have a flywheel, clutch, torque tube to replace, Sheer stupidity!!!!!!!! Give me good ol' American common sense and ingenunity anytime over the European marketeers. I think their stuff has been very overated for a long, long time! German, Italian, French (especially the French) Their cars are over-priced, overated and mediocre in todays market. And don't get me started on the Japs!!!!

Its_Lobelt

Predator I like your conversion it looks sweet. If you dont mind me asking how much did you spend on it. I want to do the same to mine and I dont know the costs associated with this type of thing.

Porsche-O-Phile

With all due respect to ftanguay and his ardent defense of "keeping it Porsche", need I remind you that Porsche itself has had plenty of incestual relationships with other automobile manufacturers since the beginning? I'll bet dollars to donuts your car has some VW parts, some Audi parts in addition to the Porsche parts in it, and your balance shaft technology was designed by the Japanese! Porsche paid royalties for use of it!

Porsche DID (to their credit) employ some of the best engineering available at the time, but technology changes. You have cars out there now that are 20+ years old - what's wrong with taking 20+ years of knowledge of the 944, its limitations and capabilities and are infusing modern technologies and approaches to power generation and handling into the older chassis? A lot of the technology just wasn't around when these cars were made! What's wrong with someone "bastardizing" one of these cars if they want to and it makes it BETTER?!?! I think even Dr. A.G. Porsche would admit that "his" cars were meant to be tinkered with and improved.

Matt H

Give me good ol' American common sense and ingenunity anytime over the European marketeers.

Someone has never:
Changed 7/8 spark plugs on a Camaro
Changed a water pump on a quad-4
Changed the channel gasket on a 3.4L Venture (or any other car using that motor as the gasket lasts about 15 mins)
Changed a PLASTIC intake on a Ford (usually accompanied with new heads)

The list could go on for pages. In short ALL automotive engineers are dumb as a box of rocks and it is clear that they NEVER will have to work on their creations. If they did the bolts below the headers would not be covered by a heat sheild that requires midget hands and more universals than one can count.
__________________
Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote

Porsche-O-Phile

Ditto - I still think my 944 is WAY easier to work on than any of the American cars I've owned. . . And these don't rust.

Ever try to change the OIL PAN GASKET on a Chevy / GMC 4x4? It requires removing the freakin' engine or at least jacking it about 2' off the mounts. Brilliant design my ***!

Legoland951

I believe most engineers are "stupid" when it comes to designing cars as far as maintainance is concerned. Even the Japanese are getting "German" in their designs. I majored in mechanical engineering and after vector calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra, I still had no idea how to change spark plugs. I believe it should be made mandatory that all engineers have to dissamble and reassemble what they design at least 10 times (ie do 10 clutch jobs in a row for a turbo) before it goes into production. Ford is pretty stupid in lots of their designs from what I have seen compared to GM. At least GM used interchangeable parts from their 454, 350, 327, and most of the V6 when it comes to starters, transmissions, etc. Japanese had it right but are screwing it up with the later cars (lexus, infinity, and acura all alike). Eventually, they will be made so its impossible to work on them period. Sad but I don't see myself owning anything made after 1996 with the OBD II smog.....

Matt H

Ford is pretty stupid in lots of their designs.

2.5L Ranger oil pan gasket requries engine removal.
__________________
Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote

Porsche-O-Phile

That's a good idea but there's frankly (no pun) no incentive for manufacturers to make their cars easy to work on. Beyond someone possibly deciding to buy car brand "A" versus "B" because "A" is easier to work on, the manufacturer and dealerships don't care how easy the maintenance is. Actually most of the profit margins made by auto dealerships are on SERVICE, not sales anymore (this is according to the dealership's own design guidlines for several marques), so when you think about it, there's actually an incentive to make things even more labor intensive so they can justify the highest possible maintenance costs to the customer "down the road". Basically they're trying to strike an economic balance - finding the "sweet spot" that maximizes revenue and makes it more of a constant stream rather than a "one time" influx of cash with little or nothing for the next 10 years, but doesn't leave the customer so P.O.-ed that they end up jumping ship to another brand.

P944forScott

I am not saying this is true but I have heard that the chevy V8 weighs 150 lbs more that the 2.5 N/A engine...
Does anyone know if that is a fact?
If it is true I don't see how adding that much weight to the front end of a car "doesn't make that much of a diffence".

Matt H

Spark plug change on 3.0L Mitsu's requires removing the intake and is suggested by the manufacturer at 30K miles, though they use Nippendenso platinum plugs.
__________________
Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote

Bob Ward

Thanks for the kind words cheetah chrome!!

I think the Chevy V-8's are nice swaps but just wanted to be different!

I actually started with a early renegade Chevy V-6 kit.

Since I'm also into Buick GN's I figured what the heck. The V-6 being shorter jsut fits better to me. I attached a picture

I hope to bing the beast to 944fest as long as everyone is not put off by it!

My stupid body work has been real slow though. The IFC Carrera GT body kit has all kinds of things that have to be done to get everything to fit right.

Seems like everytime I take it apart it goes back differently!

Yes I do have lots of information on my site or send me email /PM's if you have more questions.

Joe Anstett

From what I hear, the 928 motor is even worse to maintain than the 944's. Makes sense, same motor just twice as many everything.

Other things being equal, I'd rather have an LT1 or LS1 under the hood. Especially every 30,000 miles or so.

Joe Anstett

Why? I have an LS1 in my Trans Am. I'll answer.



That was bone stock.
370 horsepower and 400 ft-lb torque at the flywheel out of the box.
Bulletproof.
Easy to fix if anything every goes wrong.
27 mpg on the highway, 20 mpg in my mostly city commute. My 4 cylinder 951 gets 20 mpg in the same commute.
And, oh yeah, NO TIMING BELT HASSLES.

So with gobs of reliable power and pretty good mileage, why do I care about the theoretical advantages of a DOHC design when I have the real world results? If I'm in an F-15 dogfighting a MiG-29, do I care that it uses vacuum tubes, or do I care about its performance?

See, the Mustang guys were always spouting off about the superior design of their SOHC and DOHC V8s and the antiquity of the LT1/LS1/LS2 pushrod designs. Then they shut up when they dyno less than 250 hp at the wheels.

Or let me put it this way -- the LS6 in the Z06 corvette, and the LS2 in the 05 Corvette, put out 400 hp. For the DOHC Ford V8 to get there, it required a blower.

The mistake you are making is that because the basic design of a pushrod engine predates OHC designs, that the design of pushrod engines is still stuck in the 1960s musclecar era. The basic design may be older but new technology has been applied to it (aluminum block, composite intake, et al).

There's a reason that Corvettes and Vipers are using pushrod designs instead of the in-vogue DOHC.

Joe Anstett

I've heard the Audi rings are stamped into the sheetmetal on every 924, 944, and 968. (The 924 was designed for Audi, and they still manufactured the 924 and the 944 for most of its life). Is this true? Does anybody have a pic?