hudsoncommodore

i have a question. with all the videos i see on youtube and elsewhere of new performance rebuilds of porsche 944 engines, has anyone put an actual step by step rebuild of this engine on paper, or in a book somewhere? i have decided to keep my original engine in my 944 and am looking for tips on a performance rebuild. any help appreciated. thanks, matt

V2Rocket

it depends on how much money you really want to put into the rebuild

are you going to tear the motor down completely? or just a head job?

if you tear it down fully and you have a good budget you can do all sorts of things, get high-compression (12.5:1 versus stock 9.5:1) )pistons made (http://www.racetep.com/jecustom.html#custopt), you can knife and balance your crank, you can get all those underdrive pulleys (not really worth it but if you really wanted to it might send another 2 or 3 hp to the wheels), get a cam, get a chip, get a MAF, do some head porting...

all in all youll have a very expensive engine that might make 200HP. and if you can do that wed all like to know how

hudsoncommodore

yes, i have a spare engine, and i am starting from the ground up. i see books on rebuiding the 911 engines for performance, but none for the 944 engine. thanks. how about any magazine articles from excellence or 911and porsche world?

Chwatson

I have only been a subscriber to Excellence for 2 or 3 years, but I have never seen an article on any kind of 944 (NA) motor build. Turbo, for that matter, as well. It just doesn't seem like their cup of tea. However, if you need to know 50 year old part numbers then the mag's quite helpful..... I still love it, though.

The consensus is that 944 motors simply cannot make large amounts of power.
But that doesn't prevent me from dreaming about the 2.7L ringer I'll build some day....

Yummybud924

well 911 engine is diff than a 944 engine. a normally aspirated 944 engine is not really ideal for performance build as it's only a 4 banger with no boost.

what is the point spending lots of money on your 944 engine and then getting smoked by a riced out honda prelude.

a performance build that includes supercharging would be cool but still you won't make crazy power.

these days hyundais come with 200 hp engines so getting 200 hp out of a 944 engine and spending a lot of money isn't really worth it imo.

J Silverman

John Milledge sells a book for building a 944 to SCCA IT specs including the motor build. His motors get you to ~185 bhp in IT trim. The rules for the build are pretty restrictive and you can only bump compression to 10.5:1, you must use a factory cam, and you cant really lighten anything or do much head work. With a new cam, some decent headwork and high compression I could see hitting 200bhp pretty easily but it would probably cost less to swap in a 3.0 and it would be less work.

V2Rocket

**** man Kia is going to come out with a new 2-door soon that looks like a new Civic but has a twin-turbo 300HP four banger...

Kurt R

Jason - do you have John's book or have you seen it? I've wondered - is it worth buying or not?

Yummybud924

lol @ 300hp kia. going to get smoked by a kia, now that will suck.

wonder how reliable a 300 hp twin turbo kia motor is going to be lol.

J Silverman

Dont own it, and Ive only seen one once, but didnt have a chance to look at it. Im also considering buying the car as Im in the process of building an ITS 924. I think one of the guys on itforums.com has one. When I go ahead with my motor build Ill probably get a copy of it as Im sure it will save some money and time in getting the right parts the first time, especially since Ive never built a motor before other than rebuilding old SBCs in shop class back in highschool.

J Silverman

I cant be the only one that sees the irony in a 944 owner poking at a car for being unreliable....

Andy1212

True, but what would you rather have sitting in your driveway, a porsche or a kia?

Yummybud924

is a 944 really "unrealiable"?

many 944s like mine are over 20 years old. how many 23 year old cars of other makes are more reliable than a 944? I drive my 23 year old 944 everyday and yes I do sometimes need to make expensive repairs but it hasn't left me stranded yet.

944 is expensive to maintain but I wouldn't say unreliable.

lets see how that kia or hyundai drives and looks like 30 years from now.

hudsoncommodore

i will agree with that. kia/hyundai, worst resale of any vehicles made because of their reliability. look it up. now where can i pick up this book?

J Silverman

Ill ask you the same question, is it really relilable? I consider a car to be reliable if it runs how it was designed to from the factory with simply doing the required maintenence, and that there is a reasonable life for replacing other components. As an example, I do not consider a car reliable if you need to keep an extra fuel pump relay in the glove box because the one thats in there is going to crap out eventually. I do not consider a car with an interference engine that needs timing belts every 30k miles reliable. I do not consider a car to be reliable if the easiest way to get the power steering system to stop leaking is to replace it with manual steering. Im not saying I dont enjoy my 924S, just that its not what Id consider reliable.

If you want to talk to JME and see if thi book is what you want here is a link to their site. http://www.jmengines.com/index.htm