till_that_day

Hello all

I found an '88 NA that is pretty much all there and I'm getting it for a steal of $300.

The good: All the body panels are pretty much straight, all the glass is intact, has a decent set of Phone dials, and the timing belt shows no sign of shredding/ slipping. Has script door handles. Suspension appears to be sitting correctly. DME appears to have not been removed

The bad: was told to me the trans is bad, the interior is trashed, most of the engine externals are in boxes in the back of the car, the intake has been off for god knows how long, shift linkage is no where to be found. and the badges have all been removed... which brings me to my question...

There is no key, so I couldnt open the rear hatch to look for the code sticker. Will it clearly say if it is an "S" or not? What parts would be an upgrade for my '86 NA? And would it be worth the trouble to rebuild the engine for the 30some HP gain and drop it in mine?

Any wisdom would be helpful, as this is my first car I've ever purchased without the intention of making it run

Will post pics on friday when I pick it up.

V2Rocket

just by looking at the engine will tell you if its an S or not.

this is what an S (valvecover) looks like

till_that_day

thank you, that was easy enough.... It's not an S then..

P.S. If that's your car, Nice Work! Looks like a couple improvements have been made

V2Rocket

god i wish...

Mike C.

Seems like a good deal if you have the time/space/tools to part it out.

M758

88 is good car to part. It has the shorter 5th gear and 10.2:1 pistons 944 spec racers like.

Even if the gearbox is trashed the 5th gear pair is probably good. So they are probably worth $250 seperated from the bad gearbox.

till_that_day

picked up the car today. A couple surprises... most pleasant. The intake, fuel rail, injectors, throttle body, AFM, manual (in good shape), and Brand new inner/outer wheel bearings for all four corners in boxes in back. The dash and gauges are in good shape. The phone dials are almost perfect. And I got a clean title.

But

Turns out "bad trans" means NO TRANS! And as expected the seats/carpet are hit.

The car hasn't been registered since 2000. I grabbed ahold of the crank pulley and it turns over by hand with no clanks or creaks.

If anybody needs anything in particular feel free to PM me, It will be a week or so before I can really get to pulling the engine and dismantling things.... and get my membership too.

rgs944

The ECU and AFM are worth the purchase price so consider the rest of the car free. Nice find, glad a rennlist member found it.

ALFAPU

If you're interested, I've got all the parts you need to put this car back together.

bonus12

nice find...and these cars always look good no matter what shape they are in! i'll definitely be interested in some parts.

M758

don't crank that motor over any more. Pull the head and plan to pull the pistons out. since it has been sitting with no intake manifold it is probably you have dirt in the cylinders. Turning the engine over will cause that dirt to score the walls. Once that happens you lost major value in the thing.

black944 turbo

Man I love that colar. I wish you would save. That is a farely rare colar.

till_that_day

That was one thing I noticed, ALL the intake valves are closed. They had the 10 years of dust/debris sitting on top of them, so I airgunned them out before turning it over, and after 2/3 of a crank pulley turn none opened so I stopped. Now correct me if im wrong, but, these motors have hydraulic lifters dont they? Would it have to build up pressure before the lifters "pump up" and open the valves, or could they be fused shut?

And yes I plan on fully disassembling the engine and deciding if its worth a total rebuild. If so it's gonna be nice to have a dummy engine without much capital into it, being my first with a Porsche (my only build exp is with 350SB).

M758

If the valves are not moving it is a bad sign. It could be lifters, but pull the head to find out.