Yummybud924

I just bought a 85.5 944 with 240,000 kms. owner claims new clutch one year ago. interior is very nice, new paint.

anyone else use their high milliage 944s as daily drivers with success? When should I expect the eingine to die? being close to 300k sounds scary.

I paid 4100 for it (cdn) it's still getting the repaint done(roof) and looks nice.

for maintenance I'm going to get the water pump/ timing belt/ belts done soon even though the owner claims they were done but didn't show me the receipt says he has it somwhere. Also oil cooler seals sound like a good idea.

What would be the best oil to use for this milliage, I think synthetic might be riskky as it might cause leaks. what would be the best brand of dino oil?


thanks! (I'll post pics next week when the car gets finished at the body shop)

apierce918

my car has 204k miles on it and i'de trust it anywhere, just deal with the rough idle for 10 seconds when its cold and its fine.

I use 20w50 Castrol GTX high mileage oil

Sysgen

Mine has 259Kms and it purs like a new car, I'd trust this thing for another 100K easy with some TLC.

Congrats on the new aquistion distant neihbor

Stéphane

George Boss

My 89 951 has 160 000 km's and aside from the roughish idle for the first 10 seconds like wizkid918, is as robust as ever. These engines were built to last, and are nearly bullet-proof. If you're not burning oil excessively, or have smoke billowing out the tail pipe, or have coolant mixing with oil, the car should be fine.
I've used Mobile 1 synthetic 15w50 and 5w50 since day 1. Never had a problem. Synthetic oil will not make the car leak but due to it's "slipperiness" (for lack of a better word), it will find it's way out of the engine via whatever seals are rotting/rotted, or past your rings if they're too worn out. This doesn't damage the car per se (if you don't forget to top up the oil in this event), but it does allow you to see if you're going to need to replace any seals or rings.
I know alot of water-bangers on castrol 20w50. They run fine. Porsche recommended this brand and viscosity when the cars were new. (If you want to know what other brands were recommended back in the 80's, lemee know. I have the list somewhere here). I chose the synthetic route because of it's superior lubricating properties, flow characteristics (anything below 10 degreed Celsius will thicken the 20w50 too much to provide adequate lubrication on start-up) and resistance to shearing (turbos are notoriously hot....a big hurdle for dino oils to overcome compared to synthetics).
If you go synthetic and don't discover leaks/mixing, it's more evidence of the health of your engine. If you stick with synthetic afterwards, I recommend the Mobile stuff. Wal-Mart has it cheap. Castrol has a synthetic 5w50 as well, but to get technical, its base is different chemically than the Mobil stuff, and the Mobile stuff is better.
I think an oil cooler is a great idea. You should be able to get a used 924 oil cooler to fit fine if your 85.5 is pre .5.
Congratulations on the car! Welcome to the Cult!

Scuba Steve

I have 150,000 miles on the clock now and the car runs like new. Just did a leak down test and got less than 3% on all cylinders, and the top of the engine was rebuilt less than 2 years ago (PO broke the timing belt when the idler roller failed). All new seals except for the rear main and oil pan and it doesn't leak any oil. The oil in there I'm pretty sure is 20W 50 but it's really hot here in central Texas this time of year.

These engines really were built to last - only the rubber stuff gave me any problems (leaks). Metal parts are still apparently in great shape.