all those upgrades you mentioned are going to be very expensive for not much of a power gain

 

One side note... many of us are multi 944 owners. I used to think that once you have a turbo you will never want to drive the NA again. But strangly, there is an attraction come back, at least for me. I've been getting my NA ready for winter duty, thats about the only way I can justify having 3 of these cars. And have been driving it a little before it goes back into DD status (yes Tifo, real men actually drive thier projects). The NA is a good driving car; lighter a whole lot easier to work on and if something should happen its not a great loss. I think pound for pound it might be a better value than the turbo.
I know, blasphemy... my 2 cents for the day...Bruce

 

My dad used to have a turbo for track duty, but this past DE i decided to track my S. I felt that the S was more tossible than the turbo was and just as quick as the turbo. Maybe that is just me but I think that you could easily make an S more peppie. I don't know about 220 or 230 at the wheels because of I think that jtsporsche had an S that he had worked alot on and only had like 200ish. I don't remember exactly though.

 

My S has a chip, exhaust, K&N filter, and an MSD blaster coil, I like what these have done together. Not a huge gain, but gave the car a little more attitude.

What made the car about 2x more fun was upgrading the suspension, do that in conjunction with engine performance upgrades and it will seem even better.

 

Russel's chip realy wakes the car up. I had a friend with an S and I drove it with and without the chip. It drove much better with the chip.

 

my S has 2.5 full stainless from cat to back...a hiflow cat and muffler....a k&N stock air filter (box modified some) and the MaxHP chipset.

stock is 188 hp...the chip is dyno'd for 5-8 RWHP gains...so say conservatively 10-15 HP at the motor. The K & N ads minimal, say 0, the 2.5 inch exhaust say another 10 HP at the motor...that's at the very least 208 or the same as an S2.

I noticed a huge difference in the peppiness of the engine after all this has been done...for a modest sum of @ $700.00 tops. That's including the muffler guy's fees for bending custom tube and making the new exhaust fit nice and tight.

There's no flat spot in the torque curve any more going up through the gears....and my gas mileage is still 30 plus mpg.

Russell (944SMax HP chip designer) mentioned that he could do me up a race chip that runs on 93...I'm still thinking about it.

Yes, you can sell and buy a turbo. We hear this all the time. Try something new and tinker, and enjoy!

Oh, and CHECK THE CAM TENSIONER ASAP.

 

I drive mine, its just that one shouldn't expect to have an old car as a daily driver and not have back up. That's all I am trying to say. That and these are not the most practical of cars. Meaning there is no back seat, and co-workers/clients don't like having to crawl in and out. And when something breaks, its not like you can just run up to the autozone/napa/whatever and buy a quick part over the counter most of the time.

 

Theres a shop near me that specializes in these cars. They built a 2.5l engine for an 84 NA and its nasty. Over 9000rpm and 250+whp. Runs on pump gas too. When asked if they would ever build another one, the answer was simply: no. The amount of time and money involved outweighed the benefits. Although, it sounds pretty nasty and it sure is one of a kind. Next they are doing itbs. Should be wicked.

 

What they did or is that a secret?

 

i think that might have been the carbureted one.

 

Supposedly there are also some exhaust headers (rsbarn.com) that will give you more power. I just don't know.

One thing to mention: $4500 is not a big budget. Porsche parts (especially for old cheap cars like the 944) are very expensive compared to US or Japanese car parts. If you do the rebuild yourself you are looking at a huge chunk of that budget already just in new valves!

Then your cams are $1000 and the aforementioned headers are $1200 or something like that. Bottom line is that $5000 in upgrades (over the engine rebuild) is possible, and RWHP gains might be disappointing by any measure, and or extremely disappointing given the money you spent. Or they may not. Maybe you can find out for us?

It's weird because if you drive a Karmann Ghia or a 63 Beetle or a MGB or a Porsche 912E or a 356 or a 914 or any number of funky old classic cars, it's "ok" to have a lower powered, but still fun, enjoyable, viseral experience in the car. It's acceptable to have lower power.

For some reason when people get in a 25 or 20 year old fairly "classic" 944 they think it needs to be faster, even though it's much quicker than any of the aforementioned sports cars and handles just as well or better and still provides a viseral driving experience. I don't know why this is, but I know that I am happy with my 944S and accept it for what it is and what it's not. I don't feel the need to drive any faster than I already can in a straight line.

My suggestion is to just get the car straight, get to know it, and enjoy it for what it is. Then decide if you really need to pay $$$$ for all that "extra".

 

Nope, not carbed. I dont know too many details about the car. I know they spent a lot of time balancing all of the engine components. I also know the balance shafts are still in it. I know they are using motronic as well.

Heres a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWppH...eature=related

 

good god that thing has a long gear lol

want.

 

Maybe you could go and investigate

What kind of lifters? What they did with oiling system?

 

Thanks for the reply guys.

I think I will keep this car and dump some money into it to see what happens. There are more efficient routes to more HP...for example buying a used Trans Am with a ls1 (owned a 94 with a lt1 and loved that car) but I'm wanting to try something different....plus not looking for all that much more power.

With this tank of gas I ran some fuel system cleaner through it and that made a noticeable difference right there. In the next few weeks I will be redoing the ignition system and putting in a new fuel and air filter to see how that helps. The car definitely has a slight miss...not enough to make it idle funny or anything but I can tell the power is kind of flat.

Thanks for the recommendations for the chip, that was one of my next questions. After the afore mentioned upgrades I will do a chip next. Then a muffler since this one sounds like it has a baffle coming loose (slightly rattly kazoo sound...I almost sound like a Honda )

Hopefully sometime this spring I will pull the motor and rebuild. First comes tuition costs, then wedding costs, then the rebuild..... my family/girlfriend would kill me if i reversed that order