ttwirz

Wanted to get your thoughts on this. It's a black 1986 turbo 944. it has the leather seat option, sun roof, muted gold fucs. AC works. Inside is immaculate, some where on the side of the seats from getting in and out. 125,000 miles. dealer maintained only. the owner bought it in 87 with 10,000 miles on it. the belts need to be done. had an accident in 98 front end new intercooler and front clip. new clutch last year asking $6000. It does have two items to be fixed.

1) power assist on the brakes is not working. doesn't seam to be the master cylinder. I was able to drive it fine but the brakes were hard.
2) The dealer told him the blow off valve needs replacing. When hard on it in 2nd and 3rd, towards the top of the rpm range its like the motor just cuts out. it did this twice while I test drove it and it seamed to be an accurate assessment of the problem.

The owner was very forth giving of any issues and did not seam to be hiding anything. I think it looks to be a great buy and wanted your thoughts on it.

-T

MM951

"2) The dealer told him the blow off valve needs replacing. When hard on it in 2nd and 3rd, towards the top of the rpm range its like the motor just cuts out. it did this twice while I test drove it and it seamed to be an accurate assessment of the problem."

I dont think that would be the case. If a blow off valve isnt working or broken you will hear the "turkey gobble" when you left off the gas or shift. When my BOV needed adjusment it just wouldnt blow off completly and I got the gobble. The cut out..was it a fuel cut off?

MM951

Also- bov doesnt do ANYTHING until you let off the gas or shift. Unless its leaking. Actually now that I think about it, a leak could contribute to the problem

FSAEracer03

Describe this cut out... does it prevent you from getting past a certain rpm and feel like you are hitting a wall, or does it kinda die off and feel like the engine power got robbed totally? Before getting it, test drive it again and watch the boost gauge as it does this. If it goes up then drops off to 1 bar abs., he might have trying to say that the wastegate is shot. Like Mike said, the diverter valve isn't in use until you jump off the gas pedal.

For the brakes, check the black rubber line going to the brake booster. I doubt it's the case, but it could be inop due to that. I'm willing to bet though that the booster's diaphram is torn.

ttwirz

I didn't watch the boost gauge. It was like a soft wall, I did't jerk forward but it there was a definite cut of feeling. like some one flipped a switch. It didn't happen all the time. The dealer told him it was a $200 part and since he was selling it decided not to replace it. From what he explained on the brakes it sounded like it is probably the diaphram.

KLR

That's a $34 part and it takes about 15 minutes to fix. If it's original, it's certainly shot. However, that would not explain the behavior that you note. Typically, a vacuum leak would cause somewhat rough running and may prevent the car from achieving full boost (i.e., it'll only boost to 1.6 bar instead of 1.75 bar on the standard gauge). In any case, if the car still has its original vacuum lines, then there are probably plenty of other small, insideous vacuum leaks impairing performance somewhat. This is a $150 fix, all in, if you do it yourself.

I would say that your locus of risk on this car is in the crash repair. How is the quality of the repaint? Is the car straight (hint: are the tires wearing evenly)? Do you have pictures of the damage and the bills? It may be worth a $200 ppi to have this car checked out thoroughly. It sounds like it could be a nice car that just needs a couple of issues sorted. OTOH, if it's going to need a clutch soon, has some leaks, doesn't have excellent compression, etc., you might be headed for a tough time. It certainly sounds like you could use anything found as leverage to lower the price, given that the owner sounds somewhat clueless and clearly wants to be done with the car (i.e., has stopped repairing it).

ttwirz

I am going to see the car again tomorrow. I'm brining a friend who knows these cars. If nothing new is found I'm going to start with a 5000 offer and see where that gets me. I saw the repair bill and it was all cosmetic except for the intercooler. He's been driving it for the six years since and I had no indication of frame or alignment issues when I drove it. Foe sure with info received here I should be able to talk him down some.

ttwirz

I offered 5000 and the look on his face was not good. ended up settling on 5500 I pick it up tomorrow. I am now the proud owner of a 951 happy day. Thanks for your feed back. It was helpful in the negotiation.

FSAEracer03

Hey, sorry to go off topic, but I like the sound of your NA mods. Do you happen to have any dyno sheets for that beast? I'd love to see pics as well.

ttwirz

I can get some pics. I had it up and running with a 5 psi pulley. It ran awsome. Seat of the pants it definitely had more bottom end torque that the 951 I just bought. Once the turbo spools it may have a slight advantage. I had some problems getting A/F set right. I eventually blew the head gasket I gust got it all back together and I have a timing issue. I also put in an 8 psi pulley. No dyno sheets yet I need to get her up and running. The original motor was questionable and I think that helped the head gasket problem.