pjburges

Ok ill throw in some personal experience I guess...

My car has a milled down head and euro pistons resulting in compression around 11.6-8:1. It also is lightened in the interior, and is wearing all fiberglass body panels. The car is also using a 924S trannsimisson for it's shoes.

Allllll of that, and my car can cosistently do 0-60 in 7.0 flat. Thats still just not very fast. If I were to guess my cars HP at the wheels (havent tested it) it would probably be in the low to mid 140's.

If there is a way to find more HP in the 944 N/A I think it will be through a radical change in the head and the intake design. I've got some ideas for better intake designs and a crazy old machinist that lives down the street, but as everyone points out, Ill probably switch to ITB's and gain very little except the experience in having done it. But then maybe my 944 can do 6.8 instead of 7.0 and then it all would be worth it! lol

82-T/A

Why a Civic? There are many MANY cooler cars to drop huge engines into and turbo charge. Why would you waste ANY money on a front wheel drive economy car?

For that kind of money, you could drop a 4.9 Cadillac V8 into the back of a Fiero, or turbo charge a Fiero, or any other number of better cars.

And at the end of the day, you're still driving around a teenager's car.


Todd,
2006 Pontiac Solstice
2004 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible (Wife's)
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX-P74
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1984 Porsche 944
1981 Pontiac Trans Am WS6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter

82-T/A

a 7 second 0-60 is not THAT bad. It's still quicker than the vast majority of the cars on the road. The way I see it, a cam is something that's easy to install. But if you really like your car, and you're going to do an engine rebuild ANYWAY, then why not go ahead and build it up. You're going to want to change out the bearings too, so I wonder if you could drop in a 2.7 crank and rods?


Todd,
2006 Pontiac Solstice
2004 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible (Wife's)
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX-P74
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1984 Porsche 944
1981 Pontiac Trans Am WS6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter

Reimu

Why not just be happy with it for a while? I mean the thing handles damn well, and looks badass for a 20 year old car. I plan on keeping mine for a couple of years or so, then selling it to my mom(who reeeeally wants it) and buy a turbo. Trying to get power out of a n/a 944 is like trying to squeeze juice out of a potato...

V2Rocket

The Russians have done it for 500 years or so...

ilikemy944

Think about that...
There is a point in there somewhere...

V2Rocket

Is there some problem with teenagers?

HughA44s

Now I need to test my theory on this subject. My theory is that anybody getting better power out of a 944 N/A motor will not admit to it because the only reason to spend any kind of money of these is to race them in classes that don't allow internal mods. Grated you won't get 200hp however ..........

Porschefile

I think everyone (speaking generally) really needs to ride in something a bit faster before they'll get the idea. Once you ride in something over say 250-300whp, you'll understand just how ungodly slow ~150fwhp really is. Most mid sized and larger family sedans in this day and age are 250-300fwhp. The biggest restriction with the 8v's is the head. You could spend thousands upon thousands of dollars building an n/a motor, building a solid lifter head, good port job, hot cam, etc etc rev the thing out a bit higher and theoretically come close to say 180-200whp. In the end......you will have spent thousands of $$$ on making a slow car less slow when you could have spent it on making a quick car decently fast (951 + bolt-ons or a turbo kit). I for one don't like being pulled by minivans!

V2Rocket

'file - can I have your 911's motor? I bet I could squeeze it into my 44....

Andy1212

A MAF and to remove the cat are the only engine mods i would consider for an NA.

ehall

A lot of what you listed works well on turbo cars but not so much, in terms of hp/$ for an NA.

pjburges

If a 944 is a teenagers car, that makes a 911 a rich ____'s car. There are many middle aged people that would love to own a well kept 944, even if many more people would desire a 911, and that's only because the 911 is the icon.

V2Rocket

There are guys in their 60s that almost live in their 944s on this list. It's not a teenager's car by any means; its a very enjoyable car that belongs to the person that owns and cares for it, regardless of age.

I guess you have to give it to Porsche for sucking every last drop of power out of the 8V motors...

gt37vgt

the money would be best spent on fibreglass panels that will reduce your weight buy maybe 12%
giving you like 12 % more power to weight it will turn stop better and use less gas if you have electric seats replace them with some cheap light auto shop ones also really resist breaking the engine open until the very end as the cost just blows as soon as the head leaves the block or block leaves car if you really feel the need to play motors start with airflow metre then exhaust then cam then stop